I'm going to start this review out by explaining what a Sony Clie is for those of you who have never tried one.  Sony takes the Palm Operating system and then tweaks it for their own hardware, that's why you find things on a Clie you won't find on a Palm.  Once you use a Clie, it's hard not to pick up another brand of PDA and start searching for the jog dial.  The jog dial lets you scroll pages with your thumb, which gives an easy one hand operation when reading the news.  Another thing that Sony has lead the pack with is it's 320x320 Hi Resolution display.  Palm recently followed suit with a 320x320 display on the new Tungsten T Handheld (see Related Reviews).  These are a few of the differences that garners strong Clie loyalty.

Now with that being said, let's talk about Sony's newest entry, the Sony PEG-NX70V.  This is a truly unique piece of equipment based on the current NR70 devices.  If you haven't seen all the marketing hype, then you've missed the screen that rotates 180 degrees so that you can keep open when using the easy-to-use built-in keyboard, or close to make the PDA more compact when the keyboard isn't being used.  The screen is 320x320 Hi Resolution color, until you close the grafitti area, making the screen 320x480.  Oh, Palm users, did I forget to mention the other neat new Clie innovation?  That's right, the grafitti area is software, not hardware, so you can close it when not in use.  I told you Clie's were cool.

In the hinge of the clamshell design is a digital camera that can take pictures at a 640X480 resolution. With this camera you can also shoot mpeg-4 video.   Below that is a microphone so that you can record sounds or that brief thought that you don't want to forget.  This is truly a multimedia powerhouse with a "real" speaker versus the old Palm PDA speakers.  You can even get an optional cradle speaker to make your PDA a truly portable sound system.   The NX70V also comes standard with an MP3 player, headphones, and a remote so you can take your music anywhere.  Also the video playback is great on this PDA, you've not seen anything until you've seen streaming media in Hi Resolution. 

This model comes with built-in WiFi capabilities, although you'll need to shell out $150 for the Sony WiFi card.  This wireless ability will make this Clie a great choice for home and work environment alike. 

The NX70V comes with an enhanced software package, including a truly revolutionary new launcher.  In UI mode the left side of the screen has icons of your 12 favorite programs, while the right side has a list of all of your programs.  This is one of the best looking launchers I've seen on any PDA.