Customer Reviews
Great PDA 
2004-03-11
For a starter, like I was, this PDA was great. You may even love it if you're a professional and looking for a cheap PDA that will do what you want. This PDA was excellent to me until after about a year of drops, tears, breaks, crashes, and so on, the battery finally gave out and won't hold a charge very long at all.
My PDA overwent so much wear and tear since I took it to my school and my peers wanted to touch it and would drop it. Supprisingly, it held up to all of it very well.
The only problems I have with it are that the screen collects dust and fingerprints rather easily. I never bothered wasting money on screen protectors though. It also has a small crack on it, but it was probably from someone getting mad at it and slamming the stylus into it's screen.
The casing held up very well for me. Infact, it's still holding what it should. It's 16MB memory is good enough for anyone wanting just games and scheduling apps. It's screen is crystal clear and is actually extremely good for it's price.
In conclusion, if you're a student starting out wanting a PDA, or just a small business guy needing something to schedule, or maybe a gamer that doesn't care much about color display, then this PDA is for you. It's 16MB is good enough. Those other reviewers who talk about the screen giving in and stuff, they are mistaken. My PDA has probably undergone the most stressful year and it's still working perfect except the fact that's it's battery won't hold a charge very long, which I'm sure can be replaced...
Great PDA!!! 2004-03-09
This is the best grayscale PDA ever made! It's fast enough for me, I don't care about waiting 10 seconds for a search. It's high-res screen is amazing. It's great to view pictures on, even if they are in BW but look fantastic when they are sized correctly. One of the bundled programs, gmovie, is totally useless. When you transfer an .avi file it changes it into 60x120 resolution and then dislays it in low-res. That, alas, is the main problem with the sj20. Very few developers make FREE programs for it's high-res screen, oh it'll run low-res apps fine but they seem blocky after you go from a high-res app to a low-res app. Palm OS 4.1 didn't take high-res into consideration either, so if you want to be able to recognize your icons you better set them to "small." I don't know what other people have done to their SJ20s but I have dropped mine a couple times and it still works great. I don't know why some people were complaining about the graffiti pad, it's better than on the Zire even if it can't compare to Graffiti 2 found on OS5 devices. The reason I gave it 4 stars is because the battery is erratic. I run no programs that make it turn itself on and I have even left it out of it's case but it seems to use more battery when it is off than when it is on.
The bottom line: If you want to save 20 bucks from an SJ22 then buy it. As long as you remember to plug it in every couple of days (I forget sometimes) this si a fantastic PDA and hands down the best grayscale one.
Very good and practical organizer 2004-01-20
The CLIE works great but the software for Sync misses some items at times. Apart from the software, it's a very handy compact and easy to use organizer
Another Cracked Screen 
2003-12-01
Great basic PDA except for one thing, the screen cracked with very little contact, and it no longer works. I have seen this same comment from many others as well. Sony service is non-existant. Be prepared to baby this thing if you buy it.
New to PDA's-the SJ20 is a great product. No regrets. 
2003-10-27
I am new to using a PDA and did not do much research into what to get. I know of Sony's reputation, the salesperson gave me the facts and in the end I do not regret getting it. It is a lovely product and works well. There are lots of free software available for download and I am always doing just that. Have tried many and they all work well on the SJ20, what I don't like I just uninstall. Even my wife had got the bug with it, I am always asking her if I can have it back to do my work. I am even thinking I will get another for her to use.
Superb res, reliable and versatile 2005-08-05
I bought mine refurb and after 2-yrs I'm still in love with my SJ20. Although it sometimes fails and auto resets, of all of my gadgets it's by far my best companion at the point I depend on it. Sony's decision of quittin' the PDA business was annoying, I have to say, but my loyalty to Clié remains intact, so whenever somebody asks me for a recommendation on PDAs I always suggest Sony Clié. Right now I'm looking for an upgrade, which shall be a TJ27 (the one that comes with built-in camera), and my beloved SJ20 will remain close to me in my fianceé's hands.
Nice unit but poor battery 2004-12-10
I picked this unit up for my son 2 years ago, he enjoyed it a great deal, until the battery would no longer hold a charge. That happened about a year after he got it. I was just looking into getting a new battery for it so he could use it again and went to a battery store. They checked and an aftermarket replacement cost $49+ plus $5 S&H so I'm still in search mode on that.
This is the worst PDA I have owned 
2004-12-09
DON'T believe the hype. I am pretty techno-savy and this unit did not do what it claims to do. The hot-synch did not work properly, the battery had below average life, difficult to reset, poor help files. Oh, did I mention, Sony never sent me the rebate they promised.
Economy & Power 2004-11-15
This is an attractive, compact, useful, easy to use, durable PDA. I had been using a Palm III and really enjoyed the high resolution of the Clie's 320 x 320 screen. Using the backlight drains the battery fairly quickly, but it's necessary for ease of reading, unless you are in an ideal lighting environment. After about 14 months of use, the battery stopped holding a charge as well as it was supposed to, and needs to be recharged about every two days. One of the few design flaws is an adapter required for either recharging or hot syncing. If you recharge in one location, and hot sync in another, you need to keep carrying the adapter around with you. My rebate came in the form of a free leather carrying case. It was so small that it's an ordeal to get the PDA in or out of the case, rendering the case virtually useless. However the protective flap works well and has an attractively accented logo. The jog dial is great for one-handed navigation. The "back" button is handily located on the side, but does not work in many applications, and just returns to the desktop. The search function became unreliable in later months, generating frequent fatal errors. The geek squad "fixed" this with a hard reset, but once data was restored via hot sync, the same problem immediately reocurred. Despite these shortcomings, this is a great organizational tool at a modest price.
Very solid PDA 2004-09-12
This little PDA does not have a color screen, does not play mp3s, and will not cook your food for you or drive you to work. As something to store information in, it's great though. It has 16mb of storage, which is enough to hold plenty of images and documents, and with the backlit high-resolution screen, you will see them clearly. The battery lasts quite a while because you are not wasting power on a color screen, too. This PDA is rather unique in that I know of no other one that has a backlit high-resolution grayscale screen. Those things make it the best among low-cost PDAs. Too bad you have to buy it used now. It's also stylishly designed, which helps if you feel sort of silly or geeky whipping out a PDA.
