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Building upon previous generations of the CLIE PDA family, the new CLIE PEG-NR70 and PEG-NR70V have hit upon a formula for PDA acceptance in the consumer market...Entertainment. Doing what Sony does best, the new CLIEs include fun features such as MP3 player, digital camera and remote audio/video controller. It has a unique flexible LCD screen that can be twisted into different postions for your convenience. And like the RIM Blackberry devices it includes a keypad so that entering data doesn't diminish screen size.

The PEG-NR70/NR70V continues CLIE's association with Motorola and Palm. It runs on a 66MHz Dragonball processor and PalmOS v4.1 operating system. The 66Mhz CPU seems somewhat underpowered compared to other PDAs but it makes up for this in battery life. The only difference between the two CLIE PDAs is that the NR70V includes a digital camera while the NR70 does not (NR70 can use digital camera memory stick add-on).

Both CLIEs have standard features that include MP3 player, Audio/Video remote controller, built-in keyboard and a 320 x 480 pixel TFT LCD display with 65,536 colors. Standard communications include USB and infrared. The Infrared port is used with the A/V remote control software to control entertainment devices like DVD players, TVs, VCRs and audio recievers. Sierra Wireless also offers CDPD wireless capabilities with its Wireless Modem Adapter and AirCard 300 PC card (Sony offers CPDP service called Mylo).

The CLIEs contain a memory stick expansion card slot for add-on cards such as memory and digital cameras. Unfortunately the memory stick doesn't offer the variety of cards or memory capacity that a CompactFlash expansion slot does. Along with the standard lithium-ion polymer battery there are two addition power options; a battery adapter with standard AA batteries and a car battery adapter.

The PDAs include standard handheld functionality such as:

Calender
Address Book
Mail
Calculator

The new CLIEs continues Sony's pattern of transforming the device from a PDA into a entertainment device. The average consumer will understand the features and will be able to use the device more often to complement their daily lives. It boils down to features that the average consumer would want to use. Look for more multimedia, games and smartphone features in future generations.

Both the PEG-NR70 and the PEG-NR70V are available. The PEG-NR70 is listed at $499.99 and the NR70V is $599.99.

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Sony CLIE PEG-NR70/NR70V