The Sony Clie NX80V may be considered a full featured Palm Operating System 5 PDA, elegant and fast enough for most people. What it apparently lacks according to the techno geeks is sufficient memory for any kind of serious use. A major letdown seems to be the lack of wireless options. What it does have is a whole load of applications that are quite useful. The NX80V combines Sony design components and Palm structuring for simplicity.
Let us review the features of this gadget to see where in this age of super technology it really fits. You have a 200 MHZ CPU, well now! Then there’s the 1.3 mega pixels camera (CDD) with “Capture Light”. The unit’s resolution stands at 1280 x 960. The neutral density filter is built into it and allows you to make adjustments for photography in sunlight conditions.
Some of the other features of the Sony Clie NX80V include the MPEG 4 video recording and playback capabilities and a color (TFT) display for high resolution. The screen has swiveling ability as well. The camera is equipped with slots for memory sticks and CompactFlash; it also accepts Sony LAN cards (wireless). The keyboard is an inbuilt QQERTY and is backlit for easy use. Audio input is easily managed with the inbuilt voice recorder and recording sensitivity adjustments.
The Sony Clie NX80V has an MP3 player in built in the gadget and you can use headphones and a remote control to operate it. Applications provided feature a global alarm clock, CLIE mail and several other easy to use, handy programs. These programs are preloaded in the ROM memory. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML and PDF files can be viewed through special software provided. The battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion model (polymer) that stays powered up for as much as 14 days.
The camera is a great feature on the Sony Clie NX80V. Lots of fun to be had using it! Located in the hinge of the gadget it swivels letting you capture images from the front or back of the PDA. A button to the left of the lens allows you to turn on the capture light and it stays on until you turn it off. While the light can brighten a dim room from a distance of upto 12 feet, it will not take good pictures in a dark room – it just isn’t powerful enough.
The digital 3X is controlled by yet another button and the integrated filter cuts light in very bright settings like full sunlight. You will find the camera easy to use and a real joy to take pictures with. Your pictures need barely a second to get recorded. Video recording resolution is 160 x 112, rather low and the playback of 320 x 240 is possible.
The camera offers 1.3 megapixel resolution and once an image is captured, it can be displayed on the PDA itself. Sony offers photo editor software which is limited but still useful. Images can be transferred from phone to PC for detailed editing and for printing.
To summarize the Sony Clie NX80V is a sleekly designed gadget with some excellent features and applications, not to mention a really great camera. The downside of course is the lack of Bluetooth capability and the heftiness of the unit.