Words: Jason Round

Remember the Game Gear or the Lynx, or maybe the PSP for those new to us? Well, this offering from Sony is the same size, but it’s a full PC. In fact, it’s about twice as powerful as the PC sitting on my desk here, and it’s a tenth the size! It’s very, very super-spy, with fingerprint scanner, motion-capture cameras front and rear, Bluetooth, wireless and a full version of Windows XP Pro – not some watered-down tablet software. Like a Vegas casino, it’s also full of slots, with microphone jack, A/V out, USB 2.0, as well homes for the entire MemoryStick family, compact flash and so on through the Mediagate. For those tech savvy among you, it’s running a 1.2GHz Intel processor, 512MB DDR RAM and a 30GB internal hard-drive for all those, ah, ‘videos’.

Software inclusion is comprehensive enough, with everything you need to get up and running, including media players, capture software, browser – the usual suspects. Don’t be scared of dropping it either, ’cause Sony took care of that too with shock protection. The screen itself slides up to reveal a full keyboard, though it can be a touch fiddly to operate. The texter generation should, however, have no problems. The stylus is a little easier to get used to, and there’s a multi-pointer on the right if you want to get a little more ‘hands on’. With GPS and mobile-phone integration, this really would be an all-in-one unit, and hopefully Sony will adopt this and more down the track, but for now this is a pretty complex piece of machinery. Battery usage ain’t too bad, with our testing clocking about 2–3 hours from a charge, which is plenty of time to do your business.

If you’re looking to upgrade from a PDA, or are always on the go, and need something with a bit more functionality, this could well be your answer. Check out www.sony.com.au for more info.