Customer Reviews
Good PDA - shame about the connectivity 
2004-06-30
I have used PDAs for a few years, starting with a basic Palm 100. I received my Sony Clie as a gift for Christmas 2002. During the first year, the cable started to fail to charge up the device and I sent it away to the Sony workshop. It was fixed on the second attempt under warranty (apparently it needed welding and I was not impressed with the service). However, the same fault has recurred and I gave up and bought another PDA, chancing another Sony with a 2-year guarantee. Guess what? The new cable charges up the old PDA no problem. Also, I wonder if anyone else has a problem with displaying pictures from a Sony memory stick - my PDA shows a pixillated mess!
faulty cord? 
2004-02-18
I love my Clie, but I had exactly the same problems with the power hovering around 50% to 60% after leaving it to charge overnight.
Turns out it's not the battery (at least, not for my machine), it's the Sony cable. I got a new USB cable from someone on eBay, and it fixed all of my battery woes. The new cable fits tightly into the connector, and now the Clie takes a full charge again.
Great product, but the battery may do it in... 2004-01-24
I really enjoy my clie. I use it everyday, all of the time. I have had it for a little over a year now. The great display is what really got me at first, the visibility is great even in daylight. I have used this product for everything and have stored about 15 third party software programs on it already. Although, it is a very slow to open the ones saved on the memory stick. Also, my battery quit working on me about a month ago. It would say it had 50% memory and go to 100% and back down to 20%, and was jumping around everywhere before it wouldn't turn on again. I was unable to use it and was trying to get some customer support (which was impossible) they wanted me to send it in for a diagnostic test; which would be $25 whether or not they could fix it, $75 for labor for anything, and they wouldn't even tell me what the possible price was for a new battery. No one knew anything (I talked to 5 different people), so I just figured it would be the same price or cheaper to get a new one. I had begun looking for a new PDA after my clie wouldn't power on for the past two weeks (even when plugged into the charger), and just when I was about to purchase another one I tried it and all of the sudden it started working again. So weird. I back it up all of the time now, expecting for the battery to fail. Other than the issue with the battery and slow processor this would be a five star.
good looking ... but bad quality 2003-11-26
You should assume the battery is the last to give up on a PDA, right? NO! My SJ30 works in just over 1 year, and the battery has some problem. Initially, it seems it can never charged up, always stuck with 70%, then 50%. Well, one day it gives 100% again. So I keep on using it until suddenly it collapse without any warning. Strange thing is, even with power plug in, the Clie can't be turned on! Either the cable connection is not right or the battery has charging problem. However, the light is on showing power IS pluged in!
I heard about same bad story about the touch screen on another one year old clie.
What the heck is happening to Sony?!
Easy to Use 
2003-06-15
I had purchased the HP Ipaq and returned it as it was difficult to read. The Sony is much easier to see and very easy to use. Also, I prefer the Palm Operating System.
Sony SJ30 PDA 2008-03-17
I can't remember when I bought this PDA. I have had it a long time. It has served me well. I used the Documents to Go program extensively while I was still working which helped me a great deal. Also being able to sync with Outlook has been a plus. The cover is getting bit ragged now, but the PDA just keeps on chugging. I also have an HP Pocket PC but I find that the Sony SJ30 does more for me.
Not what I expected from Sony. 
2006-10-31
I have tried and tried...I must be the king of resets. The unit flashes fatal exception during many works uses, always unexpectedly. I used e-support and found that they need support as well. No answers, no fixes, they think only inside the box. They kept on suggesting service, but at [...] to just take a look. In this disposable world, what's the sense?
I wish I had the answer as it is a nice unit...would be a lot nicer if it worked. I will be morw critical of Sony products in the future.
If anyone ou there in cyberspace has ideas on this badboy, [...]
Thanks
I like it... 2006-02-14
Hey ppl
What worries me is that I am not able to find many accessories and applications on the web. Other than that the display is so cool, the features are lovely, the size is superb. I wish they had a tv remote control software builtin into this thing and I am also not able to find a third party remote control software. CLIE SJ30 is pretty neat and works quite fast. The other limitation I hate about this is that the max external memory that goes into this piece is 128. It should have been a little more, atleast 512. I wonder why don't they have bluetooth builtin into this thing. MP3 player is not there which is ok if you are an iPod fan. Weight is nice and the form factor is not bad at all.
Surprised 2006-02-06
I purchased a refurbished clie PEG-SJ30 and the keyboard was not working. A month and a half later after different instructions from three different service technicians at SONY, I am still waiting for my Clie to be repaired and returned to me. I would advise you to be cautious before purchasing refurbished products.
Scott Erdman
A good product with a few grievances 2004-09-22
I own this PDA and love it. I work as a nurse and this PDA allows me to carry several reference books and nursing "tools" even without an extra memory chip. I also have several games for downtime fun. The screen is capable of displaying high quality graphics. However, sometimes the super sharp graphic version of a game/program might run slower than I would like. The personal organization software that comes with the unit is my favorite part of the whole deal. It turned my laptop into my personal organizer and you can download your whole schedule to your PDA for later reference. Most software runs without problems on the unit. I've only had difficulty with some of the oldest palm programs (most of which you would not want to use anyhow). Once you are ready to expand your memory you can use Sony's generic memory chips....up to 128 megs I believe. So long as Sony keeps using those for their cameras and other products those chips will remain available.
The battery lasts a good long time. Long enough to use the unit productively without the worry of running out of batteries halfway through the day. You may run out if you play games a lot on the unit. The good news is the unit charges quite quickly (especially if you buy a better cradle than what comes with the unit). So, its managable if you have some place to charge the PDA if you are a big game player.
There are two downsides to this product. The biggest is that Sony had abandoned the PDA market. This means that sooner or later it might become difficult to find spare parts and software upgrades to keep up with newer operating systems. Currently they do not offer hardware support from Sony's stores. You'll have to order everything online/over the phone. There is some consolation because the unit can use palm software, so you will be able to get new software (just not sony specific programs/upgrades). The second problem is that the cradle that comes with the unit is downright lousy. The cradle is easy to lose and easy to break. The good news is there is a wide variety of people who make much better charging/linking cables than what comes with this PDA. I'm so happy with my new cradle (not made by Sony) that I would suggest you purchase another cradle when you buy the unit. The cradles sell quite cheaply.
