Urgent - Sony PEG-TH55 - Opinions/Price?

[Tempest]

I'd value your opinions on the Sony PEG-TH55

Our local store has one reduced to clear at £199 and was wondering if it's worth it ?

I'm not sure as I could get a PocketPC for around this price.

May I have any opinions, and what you think about the price ?

Cheers

[ulkesh]

Brilliant OS, brilliant handheld. Good price too.

What kind of things do you want it for?

[Way_2_FAT]

If you want all the multimedia gimmicks, like those low resolution trashy camera phones that doesn't even allow video calls (despite years of hype :nuts: ) then a high powered Dell PPC would be the obvious choice as you can run much more multimedia apps with it.

The TH55 on the otherhand is more of a "serious" PDA and the battery life is miles ahead of any current generation PPC/Palm PDA device, with built in WIFI/BT internet access and a add-on GPS module available, for £200 it's a bargain!

[Tempest]

Storing Names/Addresses/Phone Numbers.
Running E-Wallet to store all my secret stuff.

Making the odd note or something.

I don't need spreadsheet/database type stuff.

I know it's overkill...........

I would like it to sync to outlook correctly.
But my P900 was a mess regarding doing that and this is the same company.

Wondering if a real palm would be a safer bet.

But if it's a BARGAIN I may be tempted.

What CAN you do with it ?

[Tempest]

Whats this about BT Internet ?

[Way_2_FAT]

I don't have a TH55 but I do have a clie TJ37 which has everything the TH55 has but minus the microphone, bluetooth, and of course the batery life of my unit sucks bigtime in comparision, my unit does have a more powerful CPU but that's meaningless if the battery dies within no time while playing divx/xvid re-encoded movies and South Park episodes... :nuts:

Edit: BT as in Bluetooth, you can use it to transfer files, access the internet or connect wirelessly with a GPS module that supports BT.

[Repo]

If you want all the multimedia gimmicks, like those low resolution trashy camera phones that doesn't even allow video calls (despite years of hype :nuts: ) then a high powered Dell PPC would be the obvious choice as you can run much more multimedia apps with it.

The TH55 on the otherhand is more of a "serious" PDA and the battery life is miles ahead of any current generation PPC/Palm PDA device, with built in WIFI/BT internet access and a add-on GPS module available, for £200 it's a bargain!
A PPC PDA can do anything a PalmOS PDA can do so that's rather an irrelevant statement ... especailly seeing as the TH55 does have a camera built in :cuckoo:

The long battery life sounds interesting too - however no one has any particular advantage in battery technology so the only way of acheiving long battery life is by doing so at the expense of performance...

After considering that Sony are pulling out of the PDA market, I'd still get a PPC PDA. The Dell X30i are great all-rounders & at very competitive prices for what you get. Some of the new HP's are tiny if you're looking for small size. The screen on the Toshiba E800 is beautiful as it's 3.8" rather than 3.5".

:)

[Way_2_FAT]

A PPC PDA can do anything a PalmOS PDA can do so that's rather an irrelevant statement ... especailly seeing as the TH55 does have a camera built in :cuckoo:

The long battery life sounds interesting too - however no one has any particular advantage in battery technology so the only way of acheiving long battery life is by doing so at the expense of performance...

After considering that Sony are pulling out of the PDA market, I'd still get a PPC PDA. The Dell X30i are great all-rounders & at very competitive prices for what you get. Some of the new HP's are tiny if you're looking for small size. The screen on the Toshiba E800 is beautiful as it's 3.8" rather than 3.5".

:)

Yes it does but the camera is miles better than any of those found on a phone even if it's gimmick, and no I don't use that trashy low res camera over my 3MP one. ;)

The TH55 is designed for long battery life, the 123MHz Sony RISC chip is more than quick enough for the kind of apps we run, it can auto scale down to a mere 8MHz for less demanding applications like note taking, I'd prefer a tablet pc with a much bigger screen for multimedia applications but for our requirements we just can't afford the battery to die out only after a few hours of use. :doh:

Like I said, PPC better for multimedia, palm based device for the more serious apps.

Edit: typos! :brickwall

[Repo]

Like I said, PPC better for multimedia, palm based device for the more serious apps.

Edit: typos! :brickwal

So what serious applications can a Palm run that a PPC can't?

EDIT: And BTW, Dells & most other PPC's don't have camera's built in at all. Looks like it's the TH55 that's made for "trashy apps" and not the other way around? ;)

[Tempest]

Hang on there lads.... I didn't mean to start a war.

The Sony I looked at looks THE BIZ as far as palms go.
I guess I'm thinking at £200 even though it is undeniably cheap for this model, it's in the range of a pocket pc (palms always used to be cheap and simple which was their beauty) I guess I'm thinking it's overkill for a palm.

I'd like to see photo's taken by one of these though.

I was dissapointed to read it comes with no docking cradle, as that was always something I consider a must have these days.

[Way_2_FAT]

So what serious applications can a Palm run that a PPC can't?

EDIT: And BTW, Dells & most other PPC's don't have camera's built in at all. Looks like it's the TH55 that's made for "trashy apps" and not the other way around? ;)

I was referring to gimmicks such as those on mobile phones (i.e camera phones) as useless features, you'll find I did say the PPC is more capable than palm devices espeically when it comes to multimedia apps but the newest power draining Intel mobile processors with all flashy extra's are no more than gimmicks when all you need is something to input and edit data, but the point was battery life, it helps if you actually read my posts. :p

I've gone through two Ipaqs and a Toshiba PPC in the last 2 years and and I find my clie more useful for viewing/editing spreadsheets and databases in places where the laptop is too bulky to carry use, the buzz of viewing slightly higher resolution xvid clips on a 400MHz Ipaq soon wears off pretty quickly when you see one of those portable tablet devices with much better screens compared to my tiny POS PDA's screen :( , and yes I want one!

:D

[Tempest]

Oh dear.......

I wish I could buy an Update to my Ye'Olde Palm IIIxe but in colour and hi res.

Just a shame that I now have (again) TWO places to store all my contacts.
My Palm desktop software - AND - My Outlook Contacts.
I would ideally just use ONE place, which I guess is why I'm looking towards a Pocket PC type of device. I Just don't really need it to do all it can.

Thing is (as I said) It used to be easy. If you wanted something basic, fast and cheap you got a palm. If you wanted to be flash, have colour, play MP3's etc you got as pocket PC. It's all gone fuzzy now.

[Repo]

I was referring to gimmicks such as those on mobile phones (i.e camera phones) as useless features, you'll find I did say the PPC is more capable than palm devices espeically when it comes to multimedia apps but the newest power draining Intel mobile processors with all flashy extra's are no more than gimmicks when all you need is something to input and edit data, but the point was battery life, it helps if you actually read my posts. :p
You said Palms were for more serious apps and that's complete carp. Saying now your were just talking about battery life is a cop out which illustrates that you were, in fact, talking complete carp ;) As I said before longer battery life is acheived only by reducing performance and when you're using apps which are processor intensive (i.e. GPS routing) then you certainly need the performance. PPC's can run anything a Palm can and vice versa - there's really no difference.

I was dissapointed to read it comes with no docking cradle, as that was always something I consider a must have these days.I've found the cradles to be pretty much essential - better to have your PDA sat in a cradle rather than buried under all the stuff on your desk

[Way_2_FAT]

You said Palms were for more serious apps and that's complete carp. Saying now your were just talking about battery life is a cop out which illustrates that you were, in fact, talking complete carp ;) As I said before longer battery life is acheived only by reducing performance and when you're using apps which are processor intensive (i.e. GPS routing) then you certainly need the performance. PPC's can run anything a Palm can and vice versa - there's really no difference.

I've found the cradles to be pretty much essential - better to have your PDA sat in a cradle rather than buried under all the stuff on your desk

It helps if you've actually used one, I have one linked up to a Garmin GPS receiver with mapping software and it's more than quick enough to run, this ain't a PPC vs palm shootout, a PDA device that is only gonna last a few hours on the road ain't gonna be of much use for many that doesn't have access to a power outlet every so often, it helps if you understand what user requirements mean! :wave:

[Tempest]

Although I'm trying to stay out of the line of fire re this one right now...!

I'd have to agree, regardless of ANYTHING else. Battery life is the No.1 most important thing for a PDA.

No matter how good it is, even if it's got a 3D holographic screen and male massage ports attached. If it's run out of power it's just so much junk.

My Old Palm IIIxe which I put new AAA batteries in quite a few days ago is still showing 100% battery life. :)

I'd like to know how long the sony lasts only using it for a few mins a week.

[Way_2_FAT]

http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42896

[Tempest]

http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42896

They are getting a bit anal towards the end of the thread, but it's certainly VERY Impressive reading for the battery life. No-one can deny that.

Do you still use the PALM desktop software for the Sony's, or is there some Sony software, or does it sync to outlook direct or what ?

[Repo]

it helps if you understand what user requirements mean! :wave:
I understand exactly what user requirements are. Shame you don't ;)

And nothing you have said so far proves that what you said here is mostly rubbish:
If you want all the multimedia gimmicks, like those low resolution trashy camera phones that doesn't even allow video calls (despite years of hype :nuts: ) then a high powered Dell PPC would be the obvious choice as you can run much more multimedia apps with it.

The TH55 on the otherhand is more of a "serious" PDA and the battery life is miles ahead of any current generation PPC/Palm PDA device, with built in WIFI/BT internet access and a add-on GPS module available, for £200 it's a bargain!
In fact your link between PPC based PDA's and "trashy camera phones" is complete garbage.

As I've said before, battery life is a trade off against performance or battery weight. Simple really. If you want longer battery life you either reduce the performance of the PDA or increase the capacity and therefore physical size of the battery. The TH55 isn't more of a "serious PDA" than a PPC is, it just has longer battery life at the cost of performance.

In fact most "serious apps" require serious power, which as the TH55 obviously lacks this processing power, this means therefore that it must be less suitable for serious apps.

Actually, the fact that you have now polarised your entire argument to just that of battery life shows that your intial statement and various others you have made as being untrue and spurious.

The only thing you have said so far that is true is that some users require PDA's which last a long time between charges. However to say that this applies to all users is patently untrue, a lot of users quite happily trade off battery life in favour or having their applications run at a speed which they prefer. That's why organisations such as HP, Dell, Toshiba etc keep producing PDA's with more processing power. Because people want them. The reason why these then sell by the lorry load is because they fulfil user requirements.

In fact it's funny how Sony's sales of PDA's fell by 45% last year... so much in fact that they've decided to pull out of making PDA's for every market except the Japanse one altogether - guess they don't understand user requirements quite as much as you think they do ;)

[Tempest]

I'm keeping well out of this :)

But Repo. We all know that CPU power/speed etc etc is what sells a product to a punter. As punters we really don't have any choice these days as the industry thinks it knows what we want.

Like the joke with Laptops these days and battery life.
I'd guess that are many people out there who would be quite happy with a laptop with less power (less flasky) but laster more than 2 or 4 hours on a full battery charge.

It's just a shame that no-one seems to be catering for these people anymore.

Making less flash products, but ones that just do the job some people need (some typing, a bit of internet etc) and stay alive all day.

I'm not saying we should not have the flash products. It's just a shame we are all being driven down the same route with amost no choice anymore.

[Way_2_FAT]

Ouch :lol:, FYI I'm not an employee of either Sony or palmsource, my recommendations was based on what he said he was gonna use it for, your clearly missing the point here, no one here is denying that PPC is the more powerful format, but based on his needs all the flashy whistle and bells (hence the camera phone example) would be nothing more than gimmicks for someone who doesn't really need it!

The "serious apps" I'm talking about is those geared more towards the business users (what palm is mainly aimed at) and it doesn't require a 400MHz chip to run, of course the PPC can easily run those but IMO the palm devices are better suited for that.

You either misunderstood what I'm trying to get at here, or you're a scouser with that natural grudge against me... :D