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The handheld market changes so quickly that it is often hard to define what constitutes a low, mid and high-end product. In terms of the Palm OS, palmOne's year old Zire 71 and Sony's new Clie PEG-TJ27 and PEG-TJ37 do a good job of defining the middle with simple yet sleek designs and good features for a price tag of between $200 and $300.

The $200 TJ27, tested here, and the $300 TJ37 run on a 200 MHz Motorola i.MXL dragonball ARM processor and Palm OS 5.2 (now known as Garnet). They both have 32MB of RAM with only 23MB of RAM available to the users. This is the minimum amount of memory we like to see in a PDA. The Zire 71, for example, only has 16MB of RAM in comparison. As with all PDAs today, the two new Clies in the TJ series have a slot for memory and peripheral expansion. The two handhelds, not surprisingly, stick to Sony's Memory Stick format, supporting both standard and Memory Stick Pro cards. These cards currently go as high as 1GB in capacity with higher capacities expected in the future.

With the TJ27, however, you won't need the extra storage capacity for audio files, including MP3s, as the handheld doesn't support any series audio functions. That's a shame, as one would have expected at least the ability to play and listen to music via headphones for $200. The TJ37 does include more multimedia features, however, including audio. And the Zire 71 has an excellent array of audio and visual features. This handheld is currently listed on palmOne's website as being only $50 more than the TJ27 at $250. There is also a rebate that brings the price down another $50, making it cost the same to buy a Zire 71 as a TJ27.

What you will need the extra storage for on the TJ27 is pictures, as this handheld and the TJ37 both include an easy to use 310,000 pixel resolution digital camera on the back of the unit. Just press a button on the lower right hand side of the device to bring up the camera application. To take a picture, slide open the shutter cover and press the same button. The display serves as the viewfinder. It is quite simple.