Dell Axim X5 (400MHz) Gets CNET Editors Choice

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2709830-404-20636982.html?tag=dir">http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2709830-404-20636982.html?tag=dir</a><br /><br />I am more and more pumped about these Dell Pocket PCs the more I hear about them. I still haven't seen one though. The kiosk at Opry Mills in Nashville had them in boxes locked under the counter and were going to be put on display earlier this week, but I'll be darned if I am going shopping for <b><i>anything</i></b> after Thanksgiving. If I can't get it online, someone is getting cash for Christmas. :D <br /><br />"Dell cooks up a recipe for success with a feature-rich product that sells for less than its competitors.<br /><br /><i>The good:</i> Inexpensive; packed with features; outstanding battery life; snazzy cradle includes extra battery charger; removable battery.<br /><br /><i>The bad:</i> Fairly bulky." There is more at the CNET site. They have some pretty attractive 128MB SD prices in the Accessories section. And to think I paid $115 back in February for mine. :(

[bdeli]

The battery seems to be impressive:

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Using Microsoft Media Player with the screen set to halfway bright, the X5 played MP3s for 6 hours, 22 minutes before the music cut off. However, the battery still had 16 percent of its charge left, and even though the unit could no longer play tunes, the battery lasted another hour before shutting down. The total battery life added up to be only about 40 minutes shy of Dell's rated time.
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And i can hardly get 5-6hrs on my iPAQ with a CF+ expansion sleeve!

[Kati Compton]

The battery seems to be impressive:

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Using Microsoft Media Player with the screen set to halfway bright, the X5 played MP3s for 6 hours, 22 minutes before the music cut off. However, the battery still had 16 percent of its charge left, and even though the unit could no longer play tunes, the battery lasted another hour before shutting down. The total battery life added up to be only about 40 minutes shy of Dell's rated time.
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And i can hardly get 5-6hrs on my iPAQ with a CF+ expansion sleeve!

Since when I'm listening to mp3's I plan to freqently turn OFF the screen, I can only think that the battery life would be even longer for my main mp3 use... Decoding & playing mp3's has to be a power hog, so I would also expect a longer battery life when not hitting the processor and audio so hard...

[Janak Parekh]

Since when I'm listening to mp3's I plan to freqently turn OFF the screen, I can only think that the battery life would be even longer for my main mp3 use... Decoding & playing mp3's has to be a power hog, so I would also expect a longer battery life when not hitting the processor and audio so hard...
Actually, the display is by far the most power-consuming. If one gets as much as 6+ hours with the backlight on, I'd expect 10+ hours easy. More if you use a CPU-efficient MP3 player (iPlay, political considerations notwithstanding, uses ~ 10% of the CPU for MP3's on a 206MHz StrongArm, 20% for Ogg's). My iPaq 3870, from a Microdrive (but with in-memory caching via iPlay), takes maybe 8-9% of battery per hour--I'd expect maybe 6-7% per hour from SD.

--bdj

[CTSLICK]

...removable battery.

Homer Simpson says.....mmmmm.....replaceable battery

[QYV]

One thing I haven't seen in a review yet is how the Axim does at gaming. I'm a pretty cheap guy myself :oops: and am looking at the 300MHz version, but I wonder how it does for games, which is a huge factor for me. I've heard so many bad things about the (faster) 400MHz X-scale that I wonder if the 300MHz is going to feel worse than my iPAQ's 206MHz StrongARM. I'm also curious if multiple hardware buttons can be pressed simultaneously (a must for proper emulation of consoles like Pocket NES) and if the directional pad is eight way, not just four way.

Anybody had their hands on a unit long enough to verify these things, or seen a review that mentions these aspects?

[enemy2k2]

One thing I haven't seen in a review yet is how the Axim does at gaming. I'm a pretty cheap guy myself :oops: and am looking at the 300MHz version, but I wonder how it does for games, which is a huge factor for me. I've heard so many bad things about the (faster) 400MHz X-scale that I wonder if the 300MHz is going to feel worse than my iPAQ's 206MHz StrongARM. I'm also curious if multiple hardware buttons can be pressed simultaneously (a must for proper emulation of consoles like Pocket NES) and if the directional pad is eight way, not just four way.

Anybody had their hands on a unit long enough to verify these things, or seen a review that mentions these aspects?

Apparently one poster has tested it for games at a kiosk and the buttons are excellent for gaming, full functionality! I am in the same boat as you in regards to being frugal, I've actually ordered the 300Mhz version hoping it won't be so bad. One of my main uses of the unit will be to try out and hopefully play with the various emulators available for PPC, I can only keep my fingers crossed.

http://www.ppcsg.com/pages.php?page=Toshiba+e330

There's a comparison there of similar units with the three different main versions of processors.

I'm betting that under ppc2k2 that there won't be very much variance at all in performance from one another. The next release of the OS may be a different story all together however :?

Curious as to your thoughts... thanks :)

[Rirath]

One thing I haven't seen in a review yet is how the Axim does at gaming

Read this (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5043) from the Dell section in the forums. It'll answer most of your questions posted about gaming on the Axim.

I've heard so many bad things about the (faster) 400MHz X-scale that I wonder if the 300MHz is going to feel worse than my iPAQ's 206MHz StrongARM

The 400mhz aren't bad processors like they're made out to be. They do quite a great job I hear in most every app, losing by a few fps at most. On apps that are able to take advantage of the Xscale, like PocketTV, they perform wonderfully. Still, you can't really expect to get a 300mhz processor and not have it perform under the 400mhz of the same make.

In general it should still perform at the 200mhz ARM level, but I suspect the Xscale enhanced software will run slightly slower on the 300 vs the 400. We'll have to wait for more info. Personally, if I had my choice between a 400mhz Xscale Axim and a 206mhz StrongARM Axim, I'd take the Xscale. It's not so much that the Xscale is slow, more that the reviewers are being a little simple minded and setting themselves up for letdown by playing the numbers game.

Enemy2k2, great link.

[Master O'Mayhem]

nice device but it is U G L Y. i like the look of the 1910 myself

[Xyress]

Ed - I got to try out the Axim at Green Hills ... you should check it out if you get a chance. It completely sold me when I was able to play with it for about 5 minutes.

QYV - the buttons work great ... they even feel good when you press them. Full diagonal+A+B simultaneous support. The only downside is the close proximity of the D-pad to the "B" button ... this could present a problem if you have large fingers.

As for the speed ... it was perfect with Super Mario 3 (with sound), but it was also the 400mhz version. However, I did notice that about 12 apps were open after playing for a bit, so I'm betting that the 300Mhz will be just fine for Nintendo games.

[Merlion]

The Axim has the highest capacity built-in battery of ALL PPCs, including up-and-coming ones like the new iPaq 5450. So where battery life is concern, you can't ask for much better. :) What's more, its battery is user-replaceable & you could also use the optional high-capacity battery.

I'm really rooting for the Axim & I'm really glad it won CNet's Editors Choice. The main reason is that I hoped it manages to capture a huge portion of the market & so drives the prices of ALL PPCs down. :) I think it might have already driven down the price of the iPaq H5450. :)

[Newsboy]

They have some pretty attractive 128MB SD prices in the Accessories section. And to think I paid $115 back in February for mine. :(

Just checked, and a 256 mb SD card is running $73 (after $30 rebate), shipped free, at Buy.com.

Now if my Kodak MC3 only took SD instead of CF cards.

[mscdex]

I would buy one of these new axims to replace my ipaq 3635, but i was hoping to see some sort of pcmcia capabilities for it before i switched. the only CF card I own is a 128mb cf card, and that was for my e-100 :P , but as of now all my peripherals for my ipaq are pcmcia, i like pcmcia over cf because of the significant price difference in peripherals, and the fact that i can make dual use of it in my laptop as well.

another thing: anyone know if the axim is in stores like compusa, best buy, officemax, etc. ?

[Kati Compton]

another thing: anyone know if the axim is in stores like compusa, best buy, officemax, etc. ?

Not yet, and to be honest, I would be surprised if it is sold in stores. Dell has been traditional direct sales. Of course, I think I read that they'll be selling PCs at Costco, so maybe they'll sell the Axims there as well.

[mscdex]

Oh well, too bad there isn't a CostCo around here. :(

[njb42]

Surprise, Dell has opened a kiosk at the King of Prussia Court. They had an Axim, a bunch of laptops and one or two desktops, but no stock onsite. They were just taking orders for direct shipment. (BTW, the salesdroid told me that this is an experiment for Dell; if it goes well, they'll consider opening retail stores.)

Anyway, the Axim looks great. A lot of people have been saying it's a "brick" based on nothing more than a few photos. I can tell you it's not. It's thicker than my iPAQs, but it feels the same size in the hand, or maybe a little smaller, and it seems to be lighter weight as well.

Some quick impressions:

* I liked the feel of it in my hand. It's comfortable to hold and very "grippy". I didn't worry I might drop it as I do with my iPAQs. It seemed to have rubber or plastic strips on the sides like my Jornada did to enhance "grippability".

* The screen was nice and bright, although maybe not as bright as a 3975, and seemed a bit small.

* There was very little software preinstalled, just a program launcher and a few custom applets in Settings.

* Speed seemed very responsive. Obviously I didn't have the ability to run any benchmarks standing there in the mall.

* The Dell logo on the docking station glows blue when you plug the Axim in. (Great, just what I need, another gadget that glows blue. I already have to hide my Ericsson T68 in a drawer so the blue LED doesn't keep me up at night.)

All in all, it looks very capable. I was thinking of getting a 5450 but I might just buy a Dell instead, since I already have CompactFlash cards for both Bluetooth and WiFi, and I don't really need biometric security. And at the Dell's price point, it's pretty hard to resist.

So based on a short inspection, I'd give it two thumbs up. :way to go:

[Kati Compton]

So based on a short inspection, I'd give it two thumbs up. :way to go:

Great! Where's the other thumb? :P :)

[Kirkaiya]

... {excerpted} ... i like pcmcia over cf because of the significant price difference in peripherals, and the fact that i can make dual use of it in my laptop as well.


I make dual-use of my acceossories also, and they're all CF format. If none of your CF accessories came with a PCMCIA adapter, I think they're about $12 or so at CompUSA.

I have a Socket CF phone-card (connects to my Cellphone for 14.4 Kbps, on Sprint.. now with Sprint Vision, i suppose i could upgrade), and a Symbol CF Wireless LAN card (802.11b), and of course, CF flashram cards.

I use them all on my iPaq, and also my laptop (in fact, the Symbol card is in my laptop right now). I just leave the adapter in 1 of my laptop's 2 PCMCIA slots, so I just treat it as a "CF" slot, really.

Granted, the CF stuff is a little more than PCMCIA, but my iPaq w/CF sleeve is big enough, I hate the PC card sleeve for normal use. (now that my touchscreen cracked, I am getting a Viewsonic.. so I have to find an SD->CF adapter or something, so that I can swap the ram-cards around... hmmmm