This post was published 3 years 4 months 22 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.

One of my favorite PDAs of all time was the Sony Clie UX50. It was one of the last PDAs that they made, and in my opinion, one of the best. It had a folding clamshell design and featured an integrated QWERTY keyboard. It also had both WiFi and Bluetooth integrated into it. The display was a gorgeous 320×480. The only drawback to was an anemic battery, but Sony did provide an external clip-on one that more than doubled  the life. Unfortunately, it also doubled the size.

Sony left the PDA market a couple of years ago looking for greener pastures, amid claims that they just couldn’t make money in this modality. But on the horizon, in fact possibly in your local high tech toy store, is their new MicroPC that brings back haunting memories of the old UX50 PDA.

The device is dubbed the Vaio UX. It comes with 512mb of ram and a 30gb hard drive. It features an Intel Core Solo Processor U1400 (1.2ghz) running Windows XP Professional (NOT XP Tablet!) on a 4.5 inch diagonal screen. Integrated WiFi/Bluetooth, two built-in cameras, MP3/video playback – all standard features. This is a lot of power into such a small device. I keep getting flashbacks to the Clie UX50 as I read the official Sony site and other reviews of this product. The projected cost is steep, but on the same level as a laptop, which this could easily replace. I can only hope that someday I will be able to get one of these. Father’s Day has passed, but I do have a birthday coming up!

Richard Cunningham (82 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook