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Sony officially announced the new CLIE PEG-TG50 handheld this week in Japan. The company gave no indication of when the PDA might be available in the U.S.

The TG50 runs the Japanese edition of Palm OS 5 and doesn't have a clamshell design like Sony's other Palm OS 5 handhelds, the CLIE PEG-NZ90 and NX series, but it does have a flip cover for protection and a thumbboard (backlit for night usage). It has no graffiti area.

The PDA, which has a 200 MHz XScale processor, 16 MB of RAM and integrated Bluetooth (like the NZ90), measures 5.0 x 2.8 x .6 inches and weighs 6.5 ounces. It's a tenth of inch thinner with the flip cover open. Its square 320x320 pixel display supports 65,000 colors.

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 usally 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 will go on sale on March 15 in Japan for 39,800 Yen (equivalent to about $340).