Sony Clie PEG-TH55

Sony has been using 320 x 480 screens on its clamshell Clies for some time, but there's no tiny keyboard on its new PEG-TH55. With this svelte black model, the screen fills the whole of the case's front, with the four application buttons relegated to the bottom edge.

The jog wheel has moved too. The top edge of the case's rear may seem like an odd place to put it, but since that's where the forefinger falls when the TH55 is held in your left hand, it works pretty well. The new button and wheel placements also mean it can be used without lifting the smoked plastic screen protector.

The back of the TH55 is also home to the lens for the built-in digital camera. Its 640 x 480 images are fine for the odd snapshot and email, and the latter task is made easier by the built-in Bluetooth and 802.11b (a dual-wireless feature found in the European and Japanese models).

Sony's Handheld Engine processor appears in the TH55. It varies its speed according to need and, while some applications can be sluggish, the processor stretches out the battery to a working day of constant use. There's a dedicated DSP too, which means the TH55 works as well as any Flash-based mp3 player. The graphics accelerator chip can display video from a card in the Memory Stick Pro slot at 320 x 240 with 30 frames per second.

While you can watch video in landscape mode, the TH55 only supports portrait for other applications, but the new Sony Organizer makes up for this. This is a revamped multimedia version of the standard Palm applications and supports embedded images, sounds and on-screen doodles. There's a slew of other utilities too, making this one of the best-equipped PDAs we've ever seen.

Contact: Sony 020 7365 2934
www.sonystyle.co.uk

Specifications:

• Palm OS 5.2
• Sony Handheld Engine 8
• 123MHz
• 32MB of Ram
• 32MB of Rom
• 320 x 480 screen
• Memory Stick Pro slot
• Infra-red, Bluetooth, 802.11b, 3.5mm audio
• 176g
• 105 x 89 x 18mm (h x w x d)