Sony's new mylo personal communication device is a PDA for the younger crowd. Aimed at people in their late teens and early 20s, the sleek and sexy mylo is less about getting work done and more about playing multimedia and staying in touch with your friends.

The mylo isn't a cell phone, although it does feature integrated 802.11b Wi-Fi and Skype to let you make internet phone calls. At its heart, it's a communicator, as it features Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger clients and lets you access e-mail from these two companies as well. The What's Up feature is basically a contact list that lets you know when your friends are online in these chat clients.

The face of the mylo features a 2-2/5-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 320X240. This sharp display renders excellent video playback, although it is a bit small for casual viewing. The bottom has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that makes it easy to type text messages and e-mails. The mylo even offers a Text Input Assist mode that automatically completes words and offers suggestions, further speeding up your typing. However, the keyboard lacks a backlight, which makes typing in the dark a problem.

In addition to MPEG4 video, the mylo can handle MP3 and WMA audio files. There's an image viewer built into the PDA as well, letting you show off your JPEG pictures. The mylo has 1GB of internal Flash memory, so there is a decent amount of starting storage space, and you can add more by inserting Memory Stick PRO Duo cards into the memory card slot.

The tiny mylo is about half the size of Sony's PlayStation Portable, and it is available in black or white. The battery life is impressive, although it depends heavily on your usage habits. You get around 3.5 hours of talk time over Skype before needing a recharge, but the life jumps to 8 hours if you're just watching video. As a simple music player, the battery will last up to 45 hours.

The Sony mylo retails for $350, a hefty price for a communication and multimedia PDA. However, if you hang out in an environment that's covered by free Wi-Fi, you don't have to worry about monthly access fees with the hip mylo.


Pros:  Integrated Wi-Fi, lots of communication clients, sharp screen
Cons:  Proprietary expansion memory, no keyboard backlight, expensive

Warranty
1 year