The Sony Clie PEG-NZ90 was a flagship handheld PDA announced by Sony in January 2003.[1] This model was feature-packed, further improving on the capabilities of the NX series models. Like its predecessors, this handheld had a vertical clamshell swivel-screen form factor, and was powered by a 200mhz Intel XScale CPU, running the Palm OS (version 5).
The main improvement to this model, were the addition of a Xenon camera flash, and a higher-resolution 2MP built-in CCD camera with both autofocus and a macro mode. This camera was state-of-the-art for the time; capable 2MP cameras with flash were not commonly seen in mobile devices until several years later, such as the Sony Ericsson K750 which was released in 2005.
The device was criticised for only featuring 16MB of storage, which was seen as poor value for the high retail price.
In Japan, the NZ90U model featured a contactless FeliCa card reader IC. This enabled users to check the balance on an Edy (prepaid-money) card, or a Japan Rail Pass (prepaid travel) card.[2]
Over time, a number of these devices have suffered from design defects. In particular, the Sony CCD used had a tendency to fail over time, due to humidity affecting down the bonding substrate used in the CCD assembly. This failure mode affected many other CCD-based products at the time, including the Clie NX80V PDA, as well as a number of Sony digital camera models.[3] [4] The LCD displays used on this model also had a tendency to be easily damaged.
Specifications from Palm Info Center.[5]
5.0
Sony CLIÉ UX Series - The successor to the NZ series.