TechnoFile (^) Quick takes on technology trends
Sony Clie PEG-VZ
Quick Start
S
ay sayonara to the stodgy personal digital
assistants of yesterday, and get an eyeful of
the handheld that entertains even as it helps
you tame your day. Not just another sexy siren in
the Clie harem, Sony’s PEG-VZ90 handheld repre-
sents a much-needed rethinking of the PDA.
Transfer a movie onto your CompactFlash card,
and pop it into the Clie for a painless afternoon
in the cubicle. Its roomy 3.8-inch display rivals
the screen real estate of today’s portable media
players, but the underlying technology instantly
shames the competition. Sony is ditching a tradi-
tional TFT (thin film transistor) display in favor of
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology,
which dishes out razor-sharp images at a 1,000:
contrast ratio, resulting in richer blacks and bet-
ter overall color fidelity that you can see in broad
daylight. And OLED displays don’t require back-
lighting, so the PEG-VZ90 consumes a fraction
of the power required by crusty old TFT screens.
Sony estimates four to 12 hours of continuous
video playback on the PEG-VZ90, depending on
the brightness setting.
When the boss shows up, simply slide the
screen upwards and you’ll look hyper-productive
poking at the Palm-based PDA with a 123MHz
ARM processor, 192MB of RAM, and embedded
Wi-Fi (can you say “streaming media”?).
Sony bailed from the handheld
market here in the US, so,
tragically, the Clie is avail-
able only in Japan for
the time being. But if you
thought PDAs were dying
or dead—and we’re certainly
guilty of entertaining the
notion—think again. The Clie
PEG-VZ90 indicates that the
age of the handheld may have
only just begun. Now if only it
had an integrated phone...
4.375”
3.
”
NOVEMBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 19
With a mind-
blowing 1,000:
contrast ratio
and a wider color
gamut than
traditional
displays, you
may find yourself
opting for the
small screen on
your next
movie date.
dariusz
(Dariusz)
#1