Axim X5 Specification Clarification

[Jason Dunn]

I've got some good news and some bad news: the good news is that I have confirmed with someone at Dell that the screen on both models of the Axim X5 is <b>back-lit transflective</b>. There was a lot of speculation going on about this, so I'm happy to report that the Axim X5 will have a screen hopefully as glorious as the Viewsonic V35. And at a $199 price point? Amazing!<br /><br />Now for the bad news: the SD slot is not SDIO compliant. My contact tells me this is because Dell didn't feel SDIO peripherals were common enough yet. I can see the logic in that - other than Bluetooth cards, what else is there? It doesn't bode well, however, for those of you wanting to buy a device and use it for at least a year - I expect to see SDIO 802.11b cards out in 2003, along with a Margi Presenter-to-Go VGA output card based on SDIO. However, remember that you have a CF Type II slot - I think it's a reasonable assumption on Dell's part that SD will be used for memory, and CF will be used for increased functionality.<br /><br />And to those calling this device "a brick", be fair in what you're comparing it to - it can ONLY be compared with other dual-slot devices like the e740, Loox, etc. To compare its size and weight with a single-slot device like the V35 is unrealistic.

[jpaq]

Yeah Jason!

You tell 'um!

[ThomasC22]

the good news is that I have confirmed with someone at Dell that the screen on both models of the Axim X5 is back-lit transflective. There was a lot of speculation going on about this, so I'm happy to report that the Axim X5 will have a screen hopefully as glorious as the Viewsonic V35. And at a $199 price point? Amazing!


I would like to apologize in advance for both the question I'm about to ask and the discussion that may ensue because of it...

That being said, I thought all Tranflective screens were backlit, aren't they?


Now for the bad news: the SD slot is not SDIO compliant. My contact tells me this is because Dell didn't feel SDIO peripherals were common enough yet. I can see the logic in that - other than Bluetooth cards, what else is there? It doesn't bode well, however, for those of you wanting to buy a device and use it for at least a year

I'm not sure it's all that bad. Yes, it would be nice with SDIO but with a CF slot I'm not sure it's all that bad either. Even though more SDIO devices will be out I doubt that there will be any functionality that you can get with an SD card that you can't get with a CF card. Further, I don't see SDIO peripherals (or memory for that matter) being as cheap as CF peripherals for some time to come.

And to those calling this device "a brick", be fair in what you're comparing it to - it can ONLY be compared with other dual-slot devices like the e740, Loox, etc. To compare it's size and weight with a single-slot device like the V35 is unrealistic.

THANK YOU!

[Jason Dunn]

I think I'm going to boycott the word "transflective" alltogether - it's misused far too often. From now on, there are only two types of screens in my world:

Back-lit and Side-lit.

:lol:

[huangzhinong]

SDIO, i think, at least in one year, is not very realistic for any PocketPC. Just thinking about all SD expansions(not memory) are more expensive than this PocketPc itself, let alone most of them are still in prototype.

So Lacking SDIO can't be a bad news.

The problem now is how much my jornada 565 will be ebayyed now? $99?

[Nutzer]

AHHHHH!!! THE DECISION IS KILLING ME! I CAN'T WORK! NEED TO DECIDE!

[R K]

I think I'm going to boycott the word "transflective" alltogether - it's misused far too often. From now on, there are only two types of screens in my world:

Back-lit and Side-lit.

:lol:

Wait a minute..... What about front-lit screens?

[PPCRules]

Now for the bad news: the SD slot is not SDIO compliant. My contact tells me this is because Dell didn't feel SDIO peripherals were common enough yet. I can see the logic in that - other than Bluetooth cards, what else is there? It doesn't bode well, however, for those of you wanting to buy a device and use it for at least a year
I'm not sure it's all that bad. Yes, it would be nice with SDIO but with a CF slot I'm not sure it's all that bad either. Even though more SDIO devices will be out I doubt that there will be any functionality that you can get with an SD card that you can't get with a CF card. Further, I don't see SDIO peripherals (or memory for that matter) being as cheap as CF peripherals for some time to come.

I think the main problem is the person with another device with only an SD slot who wants to buy an accessory. Can't buy one to use in both devices. Same for someone who wants to "go slim" down the road. They'll have to invest in a CF accessory now, which they know they won't be able to use on the next device.

And to those calling this device "a brick", be fair in what you're comparing it to - it can ONLY be compared with other dual-slot devices like the e740, Loox, etc. To compare it's size and weight with a single-slot device like the V35 is unrealistic.
Looking at the back of it, you have the CF slot, coin cell and removeable battery that are making it this thickness (which by my standards is not that thick anyway). All things the thin devices don't have (or need). Take out first two, remove the extra packaging of the removable battery (and yes, shift the headphone jack someplace) and you have a thin device that has everything the other thin devices have (SD only, internal battery). So you're paying in thickness for the things we all want.
I think this is where the $150 unit will come from.

[Paragon]

I for one see NO problem with the SD not being IO. When you have a Cf slot on board as well that is IO, I can't see much need for having two IO slots. I've been told that to add IO capabilities to an SD slot costs about $30.00. If you are selling a device for $200.00 that is a very significant cost that really isn't needed. No brainer decision there I think.

Backlit screen I'm sold I want one. Wait no at that price I'll take 2-3 YE HA!

Dave

[mookie123]

By the time any decent SD/IO peripheral comes out. Dell will make Axim X6 for $150 or $99.

big deal. just replace the whole thing, and toss the Axim on ebay for $20 bucks.

[jpaq]

Dave,

How much is enough, buddy. How much is enough? What are you going to do with the PDA you have now?

Kidding!
Just practicing for my son to be. Wife's pregnant with our first.

So, I put my Maestro on E-Bay. How much should I get for it? I don't know. I'd like to get $280 from someone that doesn't know better than the $329 at CompUsa. It's in perfect shape.

Anyway, I'm with you, Dave. I'll be on the phone with my Dell rep on the 18th (if I've sold the Maestro) placing that order.....

[Ed Hansberry]

I think I'm going to boycott the word "transflective" alltogether - it's misused far too often. From now on, there are only two types of screens in my world:

Back-lit and Side-lit.

:lol:
And of course the Zire, which is Un-lit. :lol:

[Paragon]

Dave,

How much is enough, buddy. How much is enough? What are you going to do with the PDA you have now?

Kidding!
Just practicing for my son to be. Wife's pregnant with our first.

So, I put my Maestro on E-Bay. How much should I get for it? I don't know. I'd like to get $280 from someone that doesn't know better than the $329 at CompUsa. It's in perfect shape.

Anyway, I'm with you, Dave. I'll be on the phone with my Dell rep on the 18th (if I've sold the Maestro) placing that order.....

You touched on it. Your wife is expecting your first.... I have four kids. I told the two oldest they would get a Pocket PC if they made the honor roll this year.......Man I've been praying for these price drops to come along.

I think I would be afraid to let them setup their own PPC website though. :wink:

Dave

BTW, Congrats

[st63z]

Oh sweet merciful...

And I agree, shorter and easier to just say backlit (you can even say backlit transflective if it'll make you happy) :)

One thing, is this Dell direct only? Texans have to pay sales tax, boo hoo! :(

[st63z]

P.S. It's pretty standard fare when you have a SIDE SD slot, it won't be SDIO. Makes sense too, physically, if you think about it...

[heyday]

SWEET!

Who cares about the SD slot... CF card devices are way cheaper anyways at the moment and there are way more of them....

heyday

[Paul]

How about having dual CF slots built in? :wink:

[vetteguy]

Is it really fair to call dual-slot devices "bricks"? I have a Toshiba Genio e550G, and it is anything but a brick.

[jpaq]

Dave,

Thanks for the Congrats.

Here's a new question for everyone. OK Two.

1. Does Dell plan an expansion path? Sleeves, Sleds, whatever?

2. How do the CF and SD slots work? It appears as if the SD has a "dummy" card, but is the CF a "dummy" card or a flip up cover on the CF. Why do I ask? Well, when I had a CF card in my Jornada 56x the card was exposed and the unit looked somewhat unfinished. With the Casio bricks I had, the CF was covered, and the Maestro I have now has the CF covered. And that is covered with a CF card installed. Granted, those CF cards that stick out would not be covered, but you all get my point.

[st63z]

Man check out Bush's live presidential news conference. GWBush, Michael Dell, Texans rule! Can't believe it, Republican domination across the board...

[heyday]

Dave,

Thanks for the Congrats.

Here's a new question for everyone. OK Two.

1. Does Dell plan an expansion path? Sleeves, Sleds, whatever?



Yea... its called ... buy a new Dell PDA every 6 months... ! :lol:

[Newsboy]

So, I put my Maestro on E-Bay. How much should I get for it? I don't know. I'd like to get $280 from someone that doesn't know better than the $329 at CompUsa. It's in perfect shape.



I thought about selling the Maestro, but after seeing that univeral remote kit that is coming out soon, I think I'm going to have myself a new remote for my Home Theater system instead. ;)

I stopped giving my handheld devices away this year. And I'm trying to get several of them back now. I've a bit of a "museum" downstairs. HP 100LX, 95XL OmniGo, 200LX, PalmPilot, Palm III, Compaq C140, Casio EM-500...and it looks like the Maestro is going to get added!

[jpaq]

By the way....

Since I'm sitting here doing all of this posting and podering Pocket PC things.....Anyone have any idea where I can make a decent living doing all of this posting and pondering Pocket PC things? I mean a job that doesn't have all of this annoying IT Management responsibility outside of doing all of this posting and podering Pocket PC things.

How about IT Director or CTO of a Pocket PC centric company?

Gotta go. Gotta look for another job!

[Newsboy]

Dave,

Thanks for the Congrats.

Here's a new question for everyone. OK Two.

1. Does Dell plan an expansion path? Sleeves, Sleds, whatever?



Yea... its called ... buy a new Dell PDA every 6 months... ! :lol:

Don't joke, that might be cheaper than Compaq's upgrade path of buying new sleds! Have you see the prices on those things???

[jpaq]

I'd keep my Maestro but I'm a parent to be gotta keep all the scratch I can.

Anyway, I heard the Dell was supposed to come with Remote software.

[jlp]

I think I'm going to boycott the word "transflective" alltogether - it's misused far too often. From now on, there are only two types of screens in my world:

Back-lit and Side-lit.

:lol:

Wait a minute..... What about front-lit screens?

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

The same way it would be very hard to put the tube on the front of it either ;)

Before you jump and call me names, I have to precise that the main difference between the technologies resides in the fact that the light is reflected off the front of the screen or reflected on the back of the screen and goes thru the dots, but either way the light source is always placed on the side.

[Ed Hansberry]

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

There is no way the screen on my laptop is side lit.

[jpaq]

PILE ON JLP!!!!!

No more Transflective, Reflective, Assflective talk!

Is it like the Compaq Transflective?

Apparantly Jason has confirmed that it is.

DONE!

:P

[jmulder]

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

There is no way the screen on my laptop is side lit.

..or my CRT, for that matter. :wink:

-Jim

[khpchan]

Please forgive me for my limited knowledge.

So in what ways does the Dell's screen is better than the others (i.e. Toshiba)? I don't know anything about transflective or reflective or trans-reflective and etc.

Can anyone just explain on that? 8O

[Newsboy]

PILE ON JLP!!!!!

:P

Reminded me of Mel Brooks' "History of the world":

"Rook jump the queen!

"Knight jump the queen!

"Everybody jump the queen!

"It's good to be the king!"

[nwarren]

I can't resist adding in on the Dell PDA discussion :). My company signed an NDA for a recent presentation, but the powerpoint presentation details have been published word for word on a couple of web sites now and Dell reps seem to pretty free with the info, so I can't see a few words from me making much difference.

We were told that the prices will be $299 and $249, with a $50 rebate on the lower end model taking it to $199.

The spec slides contain a minor mistake (but one that proves they're directly from the presentation!) in that there's actually only one LED, the back-lit power LED.

Q4/03 will see new models with other integrated features, in the meantime there's enough spec here to allow add-in BT and WLAN, GPS etc. I don't believe there are currently any plans to offer sleeves, but there is already a reasonable list of accessories, and the product manager was really keen to hear requirements for improvements, new features and accessories.

These are Dell's first models to market. Dell's philosophy is to supply products where there's amargin to be made when selling at below standard prices - this they will do with these models. They aren't aiming these at consumers, these are business products and will sell in the 100k numbers. Corporates will buy these in their droves because they're cheap but offer all the functionality needed in the enterprise, with the backup of Dell's brand.

Oh, and these prices includes 1 years next day advance exchange - 2/3 yr upsells will be available - how amazing is that!!

[mookie123]

Can anybody confirm this? Axim is using 300mhz and 400mhz StrongARM instead of Xscale.

I thought there is no such thing as 300/400mhz SA?

[DSAINMON]

Can anybody confirm this? Axim is using 300mhz and 400mhz StrongARM instead of Xscale.

I thought there is no such thing as 300/400mhz SA?

Where'd you hear that? To my knowledge there is no 300 or 400MHz strongARM prcessor. But isn't it that the xscale processors are based on the ARM architecture? maybe there was some confusion.

It has to be Xscale.

[Jonathon Watkins]

BACKLIT! :P Great - now to work out how to get one in the UK. :D

Thanks for the info Jason - 8)

[Merlion]

Regarding the 'brick' comments, the Asim X5's dimensions are 5.0" x 3.2" x 0.7", compared to the naked 5.3" x 3.3" x 0.62" iPaq. Comparing like devices, the iPaq is a brick compared to other single-slot devices, & the iPaq+sleeve (even a Silver Slider 3) is a boulder compared to other dual-slot devices. [I mentioned the iPaqs coz they're the premier PPCs.] However, the iPaq does have a higher-capacity bty that gave it a longer life, & there're many who complained of the short bty lives of the other devices. So there's a trade-off there.
But then again, according to the press release, the new Dells have a 1440 mAh bty & a (I supposed optional) 3400 mAh bty. That means that for their size, they managed to squeeze in a bty with a higher capacity than the 1400 mAh bty of the iPaqs. Not too bad!

[Merlion]

Can anybody confirm this? Axim is using 300mhz and 400mhz StrongARM instead of Xscale.

I thought there is no such thing as 300/400mhz SA?

Where'd you hear that? To my knowledge there is no 300 or 400MHz strongARM prcessor. But isn't it that the xscale processors are based on the ARM architecture? maybe there was some confusion.

It has to be Xscale.

You can call the X-Scale a StrongARM (or ARM) processor. 'X-Scale' is just a name given to version 5 of the StrongARM processor family. (The 206MHz StrongArm is version 4.) It's like after the 80486, Intel gave the name 'Pentium' to their next class (80586) of their X86 processor family.

[binoj]

Hi,

Which Graphics processor does AIM use?
How much video Ram does it come with?

As u know, Toshiba e 740 comes with a ATI graphics chip and 384 kb v ram.

I am about to go in for a PPC and the choice is AXIM v/s e 740 with a price difference of 100$ between them

Binoj

[WindWalker]

I have to admit, I find it astounding that you can call a device which precious few of us have seen physically a "brick," especially in light of the side by side measurement comparisons between it and a naked iPaq...isn't there time anymore for peope to actually see the thing before condemning it to death?

[shockidelica]

Wait a minute..... What about front-lit screens?
Isn't that what those little snake lights for the Game Boy do?

[mscdex]

Dave,

Thanks for the Congrats.

Here's a new question for everyone. OK Two.

1. Does Dell plan an expansion path? Sleeves, Sleds, whatever?



Yea... its called ... buy a new Dell PDA every 6 months... ! :lol:

Well yeah, with Dell's already cheap price for a brand new unit, and then there's always the assurance that they will drop the price even more. So, technically you really COULD afford to buy a new one every 6 months. ;)

[jlp]

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

There is no way the screen on my laptop is side lit.

Well that's partly true, in fact notebook screens are usually bottom lit, while some MIGHT be top lit.

[Ed Hansberry]

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

There is no way the screen on my laptop is side lit.

Well that's partly true, in fact notebook screens are usually bottom lit, while some MIGHT be top lit.
They are backlit. that is the only way to get the even distribution. Sme goes for 40" flat panel TVs and 18" flat panel LCD monitors and 3.5" transfelctive screens. Backlit. See http://h20022.www2.hp.com/busprod/pocketpc/faq_h1910/?lsidebarLayId=858#display

[jlp]

Sorry to burst your bubble but ALL screens are side lit!!! i.e. the light source is located on the side of the screen never on the back.

There is no way the screen on my laptop is side lit.

Well that's partly true, in fact notebook screens are usually bottom lit, while some MIGHT be top lit.
They are backlit. that is the only way to get the even distribution. Sme goes for 40" flat panel TVs and 18" flat panel LCD monitors and 3.5" transfelctive screens. Backlit. See http://h20022.www2.hp.com/busprod/pocketpc/faq_h1910/?lsidebarLayId=858#display

Come on, Ed this is a simple sketch, not a technical cut-out of an actual product.

Wanna bet the light source is located on the side and not the back? It's only reflected in the back, but the light source is on the side!!!