Rating: 
Summary: Great starter
Review: For the money, this is a great investment. It is simple to use.
Support from Sony is excellent! I didn't realize I had so many uses for one!
Rating: 
Summary: warning!
Review: After owning 3 Palms and one Pocket PC (... I kept dropping them), I bought but deeply regret buying a Clie. If you are a heavy user of "tasks" as I am, Clie's performance is so bad the PDA is unusable. When one makes any change in the task (...change date to "tomorrow"), there is about a 5 second delay. For all the Palms this was instantaneous. Change "priority"... same thing. Etc. This renders the Clie unusable.
I will not complain about the fact the machine just flat stopped working after a month of use because I sent it in and they fixed it for free and quickly. I pointed out the above problem but they did nothing.
This really disappointed me as I had previously thought well of Sony.
Rating: 
Summary: Little Things Count
Review: This being my fourth PDA, and being myself an unabashed technophile, let me say this is a fine piece of machinery. I have owned a Palm IIIe, a Visor Deluxe, a Palm m105, and now this, but believe me, I get my hands on every model I can. (I'm poorish, you see). In the passing time, I've learned a simple meter for evaluating a piece of digital equipment: It's in the details.If you are new to the PDA world, you want these details. I speak from experience. Like bateries that recharge, instead of disposable alkaline. Such a relief. Saves you money in the long run, plus you can hotsync more often. (Hotsyncing is a huge battery drain on less enlightened cradles). The backlight hi-res screen is also a delight. Try one. You won't ever go back. The black and whiteness is fine by me. Color still strikes me as gratuitous, too much money for too little gain. If you can't think of a really good reason for one, you don't need it. Seeing a backlit b and w screen will only confirm this. Finally, there is just a lot of fit and finish. You get the feel that this is a solid design statement, whereas even nice Palms like the Tungsten have this feeling like they might just fall apart if you look at it the wrong way. The Clie feels solid and looks great, which doesn't change anything (I've never had a PDA break on me). But it's one of those things that just makes me smile, and is indicative of the overall product. This is a solid buy, more PDA than most people need, well executed, and at a wonderful price. Buy it. p.s. This model works perfectly well with Mac OS X, if you are curious. If you have Palm Desktop 4 installed (and if you're running X, you must), you're all set.
Rating:
Summary: Almost great...
Review: ...except for: 1. Dim display whenever power-hogging (but nice) white backlight is off, much harder to read than other PDAs.
2. Lots of fluffy bimbo software that you'll probably never use but which you CANNOT remove: gMovie, Paint, etc. Yeah, RIGHT, as if anybody's really gonna do "multimedia" with such a tiny monochrome screen! Luckily, with 16MB of standard memory this isn't as big a problem as it is on the PEG-SL10.
3. Stylus feels a bit too thin; I preferred the nice solid one my old Handspring Visor had.
4. Unlike the Handspring, doesn't come with a docking cradle but instead you have to fiddle with 2 cords: 1 USB, 1 AC/adapter. That said, it's a very sharp high-res screen, twice the res of most Palms, but because it runs on the same processor the high res does slow things down a bit sometimes. Buy it, but if you're going to use it for business scheduling, I strongly recommend you buy Handango's excellent Datebook5 software, which was standard on the Handspring. The upside is, the Clie comes with Documents to Go so I guess that balances out. Overall not bad at all for the money. Will write again in a few months to comment on durability; this is only the 3rd week I've had it. So really, 3 1/2 stars so far.
Rating:
Summary: Good things come in small packages
Review: If you are using your PDA primarily for the basic organizing functions, to take Word/Excel/PDA files with you on the road, and some simple games, this is the PDA for you. It does not have color, but the screen on this Clie is wonderful - bright, good contrast, white backlight. The battery life is pretty good, up to 8 hours. I charge at home a few times per week and in the car sometimes and I never have a problem with batteries. The internal 16Mb of memory is plenty for most users. I splurged on a 128Mb memory stick (which does seem a bit more expensive than rival technologies) and that should keep me for a long while. I wish they had included a proper cradle (it comes with an ac-adapter and usb cable combined) and a good case (comes with a flimsy case worth a bunch of nothing). This unit is excellent value for money - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Good things come in small packages
Review: I got this unit as a replacement for an old Palm IIIxe that has seen its better days and I couldn't be happier. For the price there really is no competition out there. The screen is not color but it is bright with good contrast and it is very crisp and clear. I don't need the color anyway so for me this is a great screen. The 16Mb memory will be enough for most users, but I invested in a 128Mb MemoryStick and I don't foresee ever (!) running out of storage space :-) I do store a lot of Office files and PDFs which eats up a lot of space. This unit has a great build quality and the battery time is more than adequate for my use - I charge it every few days and that works fine. My only little gripes are that it does not include a cradle (only sync cable and ac adapter, but I'll probably splurge on a cradle as an option soon, and that the case they include is pretty pathetic. However, Sony does sell a really good case which I bought. I use my Clie for the basic organizer functions (Calendar, Datebook etc) and for working with Office documents (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) on the go (use Documents To Go) and for that this is a perfect unit - small but powerful. I also do some Database stuff with SmartList To Go. If you have similar needs - get this PDA! If you want color, watch movies, play games and play MP3s - look elsewhere!
Rating:
Summary: Good PDA for the price
Review: When I first decided to look for a PDA, my main goals weren't a big, flashy device with a full-color display and tons of built-in accessories - if you're looking for these, then the SJ-20 probably isn't for you. However, it excels in my main areas of usability - portability, ease of use, long runtime on battery, clear screen, and wide range of programs. The clie's high-resolution screen is crisp, excellent, and very readable in the sun or a brightly-lit indoor room, and the backlight allows for hours of productivity even during power outages, something that can come in handy during the winter months. It's also incredibly light (lighter than the hard case for my sunglasses), and fits more nicely into your hand, in my opinion, than palm-brand organizers. Overall, if you're looking for a good PIM with excellent runtime, readability in any conditions, greater productivity capabilities and expansion, and a built-in battery so you don't have to keep buying AAs, then this is the device for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent basic PDA
Review: I finally decided to replace my beat-up Daytimer with a PDA. I'm very happy with the CLIE. The back-lit screen is easy to read, the battery life is excellent, and the PalmOS apps are easy to learn. I was relieved to see that the basic apps for calendar, address book, etc., are all PalmOS standard apps so my data will be portable to my next PDA, even if it's not a Sony. The SJ-20 doesn't have a headphone jack, vibrating alarm, or built-in camera, but for[$$$] (or less), it's a great little tool. Acrobat Reader for PalmOS v2.0 runs fine on the SJ-20, so I can review PDF documents on the road. Nice! Complaints: nothing serious. The power button is a recessed a bit too far, and the Clie comes with some useless Sony software that seems to be un-removable (why would I want to play movies on a 360x360 monochrome screen?) But these are minor gripes. Another reviewer mentioned the Clie documentation was poor. Actually, there is a decent user's manual in PDF format on the installation CD but you have to dig for it. Click the "Manuals" link on the installation screen and double-click a PDF file.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful PDA
Review: A great combination of price, size, and functionality. Small enough to slide into a pants pocket, high-resolution monochrome display is crystal-clear, all the functionality you need is included or readily available. (For all you Quicken users, Pocket Quicken is great as an alternative to a wallet full of receipts!) My PocketPC will be consigned to a dresser drawer.
Despite the 5-star rating, nothing is perfect. Memory is not a problem yet (fully loaded up I still have 10mb free for data, not counting memory stick expansion room) but the Sony multimedia software is only minimally useful on a PDA with monochrome display; I wish I could remove it (or better yet, I wish I had sprung for the color display!) The buttons a are a tad small for my big clumsy fingers. I could have done with a nicer selection of included software; most of the included software is trial versions only, and I dropped over half the price of the PDA licensing things I decided I could not live without. Still, near perfect and highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Another great Sony unit
Review: The SJ20 is possibly the best monochrome Palm PDA on the market. There are several features that add to its appeal over the previous Sony PEG models and the comparable Palm units. First is the form factor. The SJ's are 3/4 inch shorter than even the PEG T615C and T655C units, although slightly thicker, but they now fit nicely in a front shirt pocket--the first PDA to really accomplish this. The Palm Tungsten is also an alternative in this regard, having almost the same dimensions, but it's more than twice the cost of this unit, having color and built-in Blue Tooth wireless connectivity technology. But the SJ30 is noticeable smaller than the Palm Vx in length, although it's slightly thicker. The 320 x 320 resolution, although not color, is 4 times that of the typical Palm Platform. A minor but significant point, Sony fixed the miniscule and hard to use buttons on the previous PEG models. The new rocker switches are much more fuctional. As far as the battery goes, the Palms are said to have slightly more battery life than the Sonys, but I haven't tested this myself. Much of this is no doubt due to many of the Sonys having MP3 capability. The jog-wheel, which the Palm PDA's lack, make the Sony PEG units almost completely capable of one-handed operation. I hope the American Association of Disabled Persons is listening and endorses this great Sony product! Sony has become the leader in innovation in the Palm PDA world, although Palm still dominates the market. Although I've owned several different Palm platforms, I believe the SJ20 edges out the comparable Palm models in this particular category.
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