Ok, I’ll fess up.

I bought a Sony NR70V and had buyer's remorse. Some of my friends had new iPaqs with nice bright screens, so I was curious...

hpshopping.com had a bunch of discounts and rebates and special offers on their new iPaqs (with a 30-day money back) and Amazon was out oof stock, so I ordered one up to try it out and to compare it to my NR70V. I spent a week with the top of the line PocketPC iPaq 3795, and it a tough decision between that unit and the top of the line PalmOS Sony Clie NR70V.

But after agonizing over the choice for a week and doing a side-by-side, I’m sending the iPaq back, with some reservations. Here is my checklist.

Screen: The screens are both excellent. The Sony has a definite edge in sharpness and overall quality, but the iPaq is more colorful and brighter. The edge goes to Sony because for reading small text, the Sony wins. Sony 340x480, iPaq 340x240. It does make a difference.

Form factor: The Sony is nice and slim, but about an inch too long to be comfortable in a shirt pocket. The clamshell is also awkward, and I almost never use the keyboard. On the plus side, the flip screen protects it, nice solid metal case. The iPaq is also slim, but wait.

It’s rounded and feels “slippery.” Add the standard plastic screen protector case which is REQUIRED to protect the screen, it gets fatter. Add anything else (like an adapter for Compact Flash, or wireless) and it’s as thick as paperback book and HEAVY. Edge to Sony.

Apps: Apps for both were ok. I found that unlike PalmOS apps, most PocketPC apps cost money, not as big of a shareware community around PocketPC. Some PocketPC apps I liked better than Palm, some Palm apps I liked better than PocketPC.

Text and email and spreadsheets were all the same, but again, edge to Sony because the fonts looked better. Some points to the iPaq, because you can always get rid of the keyboard for more screen real estate, only some PlamOS apps support this on the Sony (we have to wait for Palm OS 5 from Sony before we can do this.)

Toys: Sony has the camera. Nice, but not great. iPaq was simply stellar with MP3 playback with a MUCH better internal speaker, and was great with video. But I found a lot of PalmOS shareware video players that also kicked butt. I wish the Sony had a decent built in speaker, because it has a great MP3 player, but you need to use headphones or external speakers to listen to music. The iPaq you can hear across the room with zero distortion - very nice.

The iPaq has built in BlueTooth. What they don’t tell you is that you need a BlueTooth receiver, and those get pricey. It should have had built in Wi-Fi instead (like the new Toshiba does), especially at this price. You can add wireless to the iPaq, but hold onto your wallet – at least $400 more. And more bulky add-on adaptors.

Sony has not announced any wireless add-on plans for the Clie, but a BlueTooth Memory Stick is available overseas and wireless is rumored.

Sync: It was nice that PocketPC autosyncs, PalmOS you have to force Hot Sync. Transferring files was easier with the PocketPC OS. But again, big plus for Sony since I all need was a hot sync/charging cable, the iPaq uses a very bulky cradle with a ton of wires (I suppose there is an aftermarket one like the Sony has.) Again, what do I want to lug around? If I want cables and bulk, I may as well use my notebook.

Memory: The Clie has 16 megs internal and I added a 128 meg Memory Stick. BIG plus – you can run some apps off the stick – nice! The iPaq has 48 megs in ROM, 64 in RAM, and you can add more with a Smart Media card.

Edge to Sony again. It has less internal memory, but PalmOS apps are also MUCH smaller than their PocketPC counterparts, so you can run more apps with less memory. I was surprised at how quickly I ran into memory issues on the iPaq.

Neither PDA wins points for the memory form factor.

One other point. In two weeks, the Sony locked up once. The iPaq froze three times in two days, not a good sign.

All things being considered, and after testing several apps for both platforms (including mapping, games, multimedia, presentation programs, web browsing/clipping, email, etc.) the two units were similar and neck and neck.

I waffled between the two for three days, but the verdict is in.

Sony wins.

Bottom line is that the iPaq costs $300 more than the top end Sony. It also quickly tops $1,000 when you add wireless and other features.

This is bad enough, but the form factor is a killer. The iPaq is simply too bulky even in a standard configuration – I don’t want to carry a paperback book from meeting to meeting - I want something that fits in my shirt or pants pocket.

I’ll keep an eye on the iPaq line, but for now the Sony and PalmOS still offer the best bang for the tech buck.

To win me back, the next iPaq MUST have: 340x480, built in Wi-Fi, better form factor/screen protection, $200 off the price. Toshiba is knocking on HP's door with a unit that does offer all of this.

Then I’d look at it again. But I expect that by the time we see this unit, Sony will have PalmOS 5 support, a better built in camera, and Wi-Fi as well!

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 749