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Sony's first foray into handhelds since the demise of the Clie line is now available. You can order the VAIO UX Micro PC, neither a PDA nor a UMPC, through the electronic giant's commerce site or by phone. PDAStreet checked SonyStyle and saw the pre-order designation had been removed. Whereupon we called its 800 number to discover the pocket-sized PC (not a Pocket PC) arrived yesterday and could, when ordered, make it into a user's hand in a week or less, depending on the shipping method chosen.

The VAIO UX Micro PC is a full-fledged PC like OQO's Model 01+ that runs on Windows XP platform and not Windows Mobile. It has a retractable QWERTY thumb-keyboard, and is a bit larger than a typical handheld, but much smaller than the new ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) tablets introduced to great fanfare - but mostly lukewarm reviews - by Microsoft and its hardware partners.(Could Redmond's Orgami campaign have backfired, creating too much hype for the first-generation products?)

At $1,800, Sony's new VAIO is, like the OQO, a lot more expensive than the UMPCs, which range in price from $500 to $1,100 or so. The first UMPC to ship in the U.S., the Samsung Q1, sells for $1,099 (the high range) and - just last week - received expanded distribution. Originally available only online at BestBuy and CDW, it is now sold in all Fry's Electronics stores and soon BestBuy locations in Texas; not exactly a ringing retail endorsement.

Sony's VAIO measures 5.91 x 3.74 x 1.27 inches and weighs 1.2 pounds. By comparison, the OQO's Model 01+'s dimensions are a little smaller at 4.9 x 3.4 x 0.9 inches and lighter at 14 ounces. The VAIO runs on a 1.20 GHz Low Voltage CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 30 GB hard disk drive, a graphics accelerator with 128MB of VRAM, and lithium-ion battery for 2.5 to 4.5 hours of power, according to Sony.

(A new VAIO UX Micro PC will go on sale next week in Sony’s native Japan that replaces the 30 GB hard disk drive with 16 GB of faster (booting 3 to 6 times more quickly), lighter (dropping 28 grams), more silent and less power-hungry (an improvement of 13 percent) flash memory. The new VAIO UX90 will cost the equivalent of about $345 more than the current model in that country. Even so, it'll sell for 209,800 Yen ($1,803), about what the 30 GB magnetic-storage model goes for in this country.)

The VAIO about to ship here also features a 4.5-inch wide SVGA touch screen (1024 x 600 pixels) that slides up to expose the integrated keyboard. Sony says its XBRITE LCD technology delivers a clean, crisp viewing surface. Like with the OQO, there's a stylus for pen input.

While the UX Micro PC integrates an Ethernet port, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, what really sets it apart from the Model 01+ is built-in Wide Area Network access to Cingular's national EDGE network. EDGE is a 2.5G cellular technology that delivers data transfer speeds of 70 to 135 kbps. Sony says its SmartWi technology enables you to toggle between wireless WAN, WLAN Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for accessing Internet and e-mail.

The VAIO UX Micro PC model also incorporates two built-in cameras: a VGA in front for video conferencing and a 1.3 megapixel type located on the back for taking photos. A VGA adapter is included to connect the PC to a projector. There's also a built-in microphone and jack, headphone jack, speakers and a Memory Stick slot.

An integrated biometrics fingerprint sensor makes it so you don't have to remember passwords, while incorporated G-Sensor shock protection protects the unit's hard drive from data loss should it be dropped.

A docking station with three 2.0 USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, iLink IEEE-1394 interface and an AV output comes with the UX Micro PC. This enables you to connect to peripherals like a full-sized keyboard, display and speakers.