Sony has officially announced their new Clie. The new line is the NX series, and it is made up of two models. The NX70V and the NX60. I will describe them real quick, but if you check PalmInfoCenter.com or Cliesource.com you can learn anything you want to know about these two units.
The NX series is based on the current NR series Clie. They have the radical clamshell design that has drawn so much attention recently. The unit is made up of two parts, the screen and the keyboard.. The screen can be flipped up, leaving the thumb keyboard below the screen, or you can twist the screen 180 degrees and fold the screen back down. This leaves the screen on outside of the unit, for use in tablet mode. Enough about the idea of the case, which you really have to see pictures of to fully understand. Lets get on to the specs of the new NX series models.
One of the biggest things about the NX series is that it is Sony’s first PalmOS 5 model. The NX runs PalmOS 5 on a 200mhz ARM chip. The unit has a 16 Meg ROM and 16 Meg of RAM. The NX70V has built in voice recording and a 640×480 digital camera. The camera can take shots with 2x digital zoom, and record MPEG4 video straight to the Memory Stick. The NX60 does not have the camera. As with all Sony handhelds, both units have a Memory Stick slot. One thing that sets this model apart, however, is a compact flash card slot on the back of the unit. Sony says that this slot will only accept certain Sony cards, such as their WiFi card, and will not use regular memory cards. Many believe that Sony is trying to keep people using their MS format, and also hope that the crippled slot can be made to use memory cards with a software hack. Both units have built in MP3 playback. Like the NR.. these units also have a 320×460 screen with virtual graffiti area.
The thing I am most weary about with this device is the battery life. Sony estimates that the unit can get 5 hours of life with the backlight off. Some people have reported that they have had hands on experience with the units, and only get about 2 hours of use with the backlight on. This is horrible. I could never use one. In the time I have been in drafting class as I write this, my unit would already be half dead for the day. Also, these units are very large, the compact flash slot extends from the back of the unit. As Sony’s first try at PalmOS5 there are bound to be glitches in the OS that will be fixed in later models. I am going to wait.
One interesting thing… it seems that Sony may be releasing the NX series in the US and Japan at the same time. Before, new units were offered in Japan before they hit the States, but this release may represent a welcome change to Sony’s habits.