Sony Clie PEG-NX80V (Silver) Handheld

A BIG MISS I JUST REALIZED TODAY-IT DOES NOT PLAY WMA FILES. THIS WILL BE A PROBLEM IF YOU INTEND, LIKE I DO, TO BUY MUSIC ONLINE. MUSIC IS OFFERED IN WMA FORMAT AND THE AUDIO PLAYER ONLY HANDLES MP3S. I DONT KNOW WHAT SONY HAS IN MIND TO SOLVE THIS, EVEN THE AUDIO SOLD ON SONY MUSIC WEB SITE IS IN WMA AND INCOMPATIBLE WITH CLIES. UNBELIEVABLE MISS IF YOU LOVE MUSIC.

I insist, after playing with ipaqs, palms, jornadas, etc. there is nothing better.


Sony Clie PEG-NX80V   October 9, 2003
35 out of 36 found this review helpful

Just thought I'd take a few minutes to express the joy in my recent purchase (NX80). My experience in handhelds dates back to the early Palm days, switched to PPC in 2001, but now I'm back to Palm and have found the perfect handheld for my welcoming back.
I'm sure by now you've seen all the specs this PEO has to offer, so I want beat that drum. What I will do though is tell you that this by far is the best PEO on the street right now, I even rate it higher than the UX-50, which is getting not very good reviews.
The NX80 came out around June / July time frame, just shortly after the NX73 and just before the UX-50. Sony took the request of it's users and put it all in the NX80, most notabley was the addition of the CF slot, which by the way is absent from the UX-50.
The NX80 feels very solid in the hands and I love the jog dial and the back button. Because of these two features, you can literally use one hand to navigate your way around, it works fabously with Avantgo.
I know you've read all about the memory and the way it's distributed, leaving the user with just under 16 meg, but I use a 256mb memory stick for anything I add, for example; I have almost 5 meg of Avantgo info on the card and will soon be adding family photos and more. Point is, it's not on the handheld and the precious memory is there for common functions such as To dos, address, memos and the many Sony apps that come with it. The PPC I had previous was the IPAQ 3835, loved it, but got really tired of the resets and hangups, and most of all the having to click and click and click to do what fewer clicks achieve with Palm OS.
The keyboard lights up as stated and the pictures the 1.3 megapixel camera takes are more than satisfactory. You say wireless not built in, I say, how often do you use wireless, if plenty, then look elsewhere, if here and there then this PEO is for you, buy the wireless card (under $125 at mysony) and pop it in your CF slot that some other handhelds don't have and you have wireless.
Battery life is not a problem for me thus far, I'v e always been the sync every day type, so mine gets a charge daily, but I did test it for a few days and the battery life doesn't drop dramatically like some reviews I've read states, even using the camera the drop isn't dramatic.
The display is awesome, I have my setting at the very lowest brightness and if you didn't know it, you'd think it was set to med or high, it looks that good. Now that I'm using the Sony application launcher, I can't do without it.
Yes you can take your word, excel and even ppt presentations with you on this beauty, and when you're in that meeting, it'll certainly turn heads. The cradle is terrific, you just lay the NX80 in it, no pushing, and you just lift it off when you're ready to transport. Oh yeah, you can hotsync with the PEO off, couldn't do this with PPC. There's alot of grumbling about the stylus, small and lightweight. Well I felt that way initally, remember I went from IPAQ 3835 (heavier stylus)to NX80, so I too thought it was flimsy and lightweight, but after using it, it's just as comfortable, actually moreso that the bigger one I've used before.
Overall, you want be disappointed with this PEO, go to cliesource.com and brighthand.com for reviews and user reviews. Go to local electronic stores and hold it in your hands and you'll be heading to the checkout area. Sony pumps products out really fast, which is why this particular model isn't getting the hype, but you find a user of this PEO and I'm willing to go out on a limb and say they're very happy with it, I am. Now go get yours!


A fantastic high end PDA   August 24, 2003
Mark Johnson (Melbourne, Australia)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful

I have had several PDAs, from early Casios to the fantastic Psion 5mx and Palm Vx. I looked for a long time to find my next, and I based it on the following critera:

1) It wasn't Microsoft - I have heard too many stories of strange behaviour, particularly in synching as well as the ever faithful "just reboot" to solve problems. Palm OS or Symbian were the only two I was interested in.
2) I don't want a phone. I have a nice small Nokia, I don't need to carry around a large PDA just to make calls
3) I wanted some nice features like MP3 playback, colour screen, etc.

Based on these criteria I looked mainly at the Palm Tungsten T2 and the Sony Clies.

Here is why I bought the Clie NX80:

1) Engineering - this is one sweet package. As soon as you hold it, you will know what I mean. The buttons are all good and in logical positions, it feels tough and durable and it looks fantastic.
2) Features - well beyond my requirements, this unit delivered a fantastic large screen which is amazing, keyboard input as well as 2 types of graffiti (Decuma is great), camera and voice recorder.
3) The Flip screen - this is a fantastic feature. By flipping and swiveling, you get the benefits of a secure package (when closed), keyboard and screen as a clam or a large screen when flipped around and folded back. To me, this means that using the keyboard is easy in open mode, I can read eBooks in bed with the flip around mode and the rest of the time I don't have to worry that something is going to scratch that gorgeous screen.

I am a technology nut, and I love my gadgets. This is probably the best all round gadget I have ever bought. The longer I own it, the more I like it. Better still, it actually helps me do work as well!

Don't be fooled - it is expensive and is not a small, light unit, but it certainly exceeds all my expectations for what I need.

Some people have complained about battery life - I don't know why. It seems to last through a lot of use. I read my eBooks at least a couple hours a day, book appointments and enter tasks. It lasts at least a few days of serious use and at least a week of more limited use.

The camera was one feature I thought would be a waste. Having said that, I am glad that the NX80 is the only model on sale in Australia (the NX73 didn't make it out). The 1.3 megapixel camera takes pretty good photos and I have surprised myself how much I have already used it in meetings to print whiteboards. Get some good electronic whiteboard software and you have an electronic whiteboard whereever you go!

Finally, I have to say that the Clie application manager is much nicer than the Palm OS one. I bought SilverScreen for the Palm to make it nicer, with the Clie I can't see that happening. It works really well with the scroll button and I find I can swith applications much better than on the Palm - particularly to applications that aren't coded to the 4 buttons.

Overall, a very impressive unit that I am recommending to everyone I meet.


Scratchy Screen   February 11, 2004
22 out of 26 found this review helpful

I agree with all the good reviews of this product but I have to give a word of warning. I've owned many different PDAs since my first Palm Pilot IIIe to my last Clie PEG-SJ20 (before this PEG-NX80).
I loved this PDA from the start (for all the reasons that others have written about here). Learning the Graffiti2 was annoying but I got used to it pretty quick. I see no real improvement and if I could've installed Graffiti1 on it I would have.

I'm a heavy Graffiti user (I never use the keyboard, and I can wrtite faster on my PDA than I can using pen and paper.

Here's my Major Gripe: With only ONE Week's use,(with the Clie's own Stylus, the Graffiti area of the screen got scratched very badly. Bad enough that I could feel the stylus bump and skip over the scratches! The Graffiti could no longer recognize my input!

I searched the web and found several posts from people with this same problem.
I called Sony and they blew me off. They said that it was a "hardware issue" and there was nothing they would do about it. The basically didn't care and told me I should've used a Screen Protector! I had used my Clie PEG-SJ20 for about 2 years without any screen protectors or anything and it NEVER got one tiny scratch.

I had to go out and buy a Screen Protector (which I HATE to use). With the new Screen Protector it now recognises my input, but I can STILL feel the bumps across the scratches and it reads wrong every now and again. It's not smooth like before eother.

BTW, I made 100% sure that the tip of the Stylus didn't have any points, spikes or imperfections it.

So if you buy one of these, put the Screen Protector on it BEFORE you get your stylus anywhere near the thing!

Oh, and Sony's Help Desk... Sucks.


Sony Clie PEG-NV80V 4.5 stars   December 1, 2003
Tony Cooper (Fort Wayne, IN United States)
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

I would give it 4.5 if I could, but since I can't I'll go with 5. This is my 8th PDA in not quite as many years, this is the 3rd Palm platform (Palm, Handspring and now Sony). I've also have 1 CE and 4 Pocket PC; the last 4 were all HP or HP/Compaq products. This being said, I've had a wide variety of product experience and I'm very impressed with this product.
The Clie interface is an improvement over the Palm interface and once it's customized, it flows even better than the Pocket PC platform. I no longer see the hour glass. Remember the hour glass? It's the MS you have to wait symbol. Compared to a Pocket PC 2002 400mhz product, this machine screams. I do miss the MS interface for my Outlook, the Palm OS isn't quite as functional; but I'm willing to give up a little for the rest of the available features. Everything has worked great, including the Sony Wireless LAN modem; only a couple of minutes and I was browsing the net and sending Email. I wish the camera were a bit higher quality, well I could've spent the money on the 90 but didn't see the need. I love the rotating display, you may say why would I need it; but it has come in very handy and couldn't imagine picking up another product without it. The keyboard has also been a very nice surprise, my only complaint is that there is only one shift key.
All in all, this is a top notch piece of equipment and works as billed. If you're looking for a Palm platform product, you can't miss with this product.