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Sony officially announced its two latest handhelds in the U.S. this week, the CLIE PEG-TG50 and the CLIE PEG-SJ22. Both devices made their debut in Asia last week.

CLIE PEG-TG50

The TG50 runs Palm OS 5 but doesn't have a clamshell design like Sony's other Palm OS 5 handhelds, the CLIE PEG-NZ90 and NX series. The unit does have a flip cover for protection and a thumb keyboard (backlit for night usage). Its square 320x320 pixel display supports 65,000 colors. It has no graffiti area. So if you want to use virtual graffiti on this handheld, it'll take up half the screen.

The PDA has a 200 MHz XScale processor, making it one of the fasted Palm OS handhelds, 16 MB of RAM and integrated Bluetooth (like the NZ90). It measures 5.0 x 2.8 x .6 inches and weighs 6.5 ounces. The TG50 is a tenth of inch thinner with the flip cover open.

Other features include the standard application buttons and a multifunction rocker that's a step up from the one found in the CLIE PEG-T665c. Two extra buttons on either side of the application keys replace the silkscreen functions usually found in most Palm OS devices' graffiti areas. It also has a scroll wheel, voice recorder, Flash player, back button, mp3 player and the same Sony CLIE Launcher that first appeared in the NX70v.

Its Memory Stick slot supports the upcoming Memory Stick Pro cards. A new remote control feature allows users to control Bluetooth-enabled Sony cameras, such as the DSC-FX77 Cyber-shot digital camera, and camcorders, like the DCR-TRV80 Handycam.

The TG50 costs $400 and should hit stores later this month. Sony is taking pre-orders on its website. The units cost and set of features put it in line with Palm's Tungsten T, offering that PDA some stiff competition. Both devices feature Bluetooth and 16MB of RAM, but the TG50 is a little longer (when the Tungsten T is fully expanded), has a faster processor and a keyboard. In addition, it has a native mp3 player.

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