Sony Clié PEG-NZ90 16MB RAM / Palm OS 5.0 / 2MP Camera Sony ( 18 February, 2003 ) Electronics Our Price : £ 499.00 Prices subject to change. This item is not in stock or has been discontinued.

Is it worth it?

I have bought numerous PDAs over the years. The latest being the Sony NZ-90. Compared to other PDAs, Sony have tried to cram as much technology into one unit for your hand. What can it not do? The list is endless. The downside is the NZ-90 is bulky, heavy (it will not fit in your shirt pocket and look awkard in your trouser pocket), short battery life if you use the camera functions, limited memory, difficult to attach to the stand after use and its expensive. However, it has one of the best screens I have ever seen on a PDA. The in-built cameras flash function on the cammera is useful and powerful. Finally if you are looking for the ultimate PDA with all the latest functions including Wi-Fi (optional extra), then buy the NZ-90. Yet if you want a PDA thats slim, light, easy to use, cheaper, a great screen and without all the latest functions then I would recommend the SONY NZ-70 or a COMPAQ iPAQ.

Blows me away

As a Mac user I have always used a Palm device as a PDA (notably the VX) which I was happy with, until Bluetooth! I have a Bluetooth phone, and other from the headset device thingy, I didnt get much use out of the technology.Then I bought the 17inch G4 powerbook (which is the hingepin to my on-the-road-setup and has Bluetooth built in!) I understood the capability of this technology. I then started looking for a PDA that could be my phone-PDA-Internet access etc etc (of course now known as a smart phone) and after reading countless T3 write ups on all the devices I had a serious look at the Clie range. This machine is everything that I wanted. It wirelessly Syncs to my Laptop, my phone and my iPod, and with the new iSync software it means all my computers, wether at work or home, are completely in sync. I even use the camera (something I never thought I would use). The dictaphone is very handy as is the Mp3 player. Just brilliant! simple as that. Oh, and by the way, the weight and size dont bother me at all. Buy this if you are serious about being able to communicate away from a computer. It will be a while before I think about changing! 5 Stars. EK

Rather disappointing!

I was looking for a replacement for my aging Pocket PC (Cassiopeia E-105) which I used primarily for storing and viewing images and small video-clips. I was also keen to find a PDA which had a ‘decent’ built-in camera (I could have purchased the ‘add-on’ camera for the Casio or bought one of several PDA’s that had a camera built-in but, up until the NZ90 came along, these were little more than gimmicks (poor resolution and no flash unit for example). With the arrival of the Sony Clie N90Z I ‘thought’ I had found my ideal replacement. However … Whilst the Z90Z is a very impressive machine it suffers from a variety of problems. First of all, the lack of internal memory (a mere 16Mb (as opposed to the ‘aging’ Casio’s 32Mb!) and the somewhat ‘unintuitive’ nature of the Palm OS and PC software caused several problems (with new software ‘filling up’ the memory and no ‘obvious’ way to install to the Memory Stick in some cases). Secondly, the unit comes with a CompactFlash slot which I had hoped to would allow me to use my ‘existing’ CF cards (I purchased several for both the Casio and my Olympus C5050Z Digital Camera). Unfortunately, the slot will NOT work with anything other than the Wireless LAN card (which does not interest me). Thirdly, the annoyingly awkward ‘USB cradle’ and Clie design has caused endless problems… 1. Half the time, the Clie doesn’t ‘sit’ properly in the cradle and so, subsequently, you remove it from the cradle when you need it only to find that it hasn’t been charging. 2. The badly designed stylus/slot means that, half the time, the stylus ends up on the floor when your using the unit in the cradle and thanks to that 2. after just a mere two weeks of use, the stylus has broke in two! Fourthly, as mentioned in the previous review, the battery life is, to be frank, quite APPALLING and, more often than not, when I DO wish to use the camera, I cannot (due to lack of memory) and when I do view the pictures I have taken/transferred (using the software that came with the Clie) it takes FOREVER (unlike the ‘aging’ Casio). FINALLY, after all this, I read somewhere that the majority of Palm OS PDA’s come with Documents to Go (which was another primary requirement for me as I often need to work on Word, PowerPoint, Excel files, etc.,). NOT SO when it comes to the Z90Z. For the price, I think this is totally unreasonable and is why, despite the ‘good parts’ (great screen, ‘sexy’ look, ‘decent (2MP) camera, etc.,) I rate the whole ‘package’ so poorly.