Sony CLIE PEG-NR70V Color 16MB PDA w/ Built-in Digital Camera (Sony-PEGNR70V)

Sony Clie PEG-NR70V Review

by Michael S. Lasky

- WHAT'S HOT: People who don't like using a stylus to enter data into a personal digital assistant will welcome Sony's innovative Clié PEG-NR70V with its firm, built-in keyboard and other push-the-envelope design touches. Much like the viewers on some camcorders, the screen can flip up and twist around 180 degrees. When the clamshell is open, you can hold it to view the screen while you're typing on the keyboard; or you can twist the screen around, close the unit, and write or tap on the screen just as you would with a conventional handheld. A camera contained inside a small cylinder at the hinge takes pretty good photographs at a resolution of 320 by 240 (a cheaper version, the PEG-NR70, doesn't include the camera). The screen in our test unit looked great in all lighting conditions; its software-based Graffiti area vanishes when you run Sony's included software, so you can scribble on the full screen. Continuing a Clié tradition, the PEG-NR70V's 320-by-480 screen has six times the resolution of the 160-by-160 display typical of most Palm-based PDAs.