Viewsonic V.35 vs. Dell Axim X5

[Kirkaiya]

Originally Posted by Rirath

I'm just amazed there's anything to debate. The single advantage I can find the V35 has is it's size. Maybe the looks, but that's certainly a matter of taste. Personally, I much prefer the look of the Dell. Why people are willing to pay more, get much less, and be proud of the looks of the device of all things I'll never understand. If I ever start considering style over huge spec differences, something is very very wrong.

As someone who carries his PocketPC around with him nearly always, I can give you some insight into this. I use my iPaq (or did... broken touchscreen in September, ahhhh) for both business and personal stuff.

When I'm at a client-site, I have meetings with various client-people, meetings with vendors, other contractors, etc, often in different buildings, or in different places in a building.

My iPaq, for all that I loved it, was really heavier and thicker than I thought was comfortable for a shirt-pocket or jacket-pocket (to be fair, it was slightly smaller than my previous PDA, a Casio E-11).

One reason I was always tempted to give it up for a Palm Vx, which my wife uses, was that I can *feel* an iPaq, even in my inside-coat-pocket. With her Palm Vx, you could barely tell it was there.

So - for me, going from a 6.2 (or 6.5?) ounce device to one 50% lighter (4.2 Oz), and substantially thinner, it a huge motivation to change. If I was tempted to change from a PPC to a *PALM* just to get the form-factor I wanted, you can imagine how easy a leap it is for me to choose 1 PPC over another.

And... I honestly don't see that much difference in the specs - basically, the Dell has a slightly faster processor (400 vs 300), and a CF slot. That's it. I believe, as eWeek says here, "HP officials said the trend is toward more SDIO functionality in the coming year, with the technology eventually overtaking the popular CF.".

At Comdex, SyChip is showing off their new SDIO WLAN (802.11b) card....

For me, and a lot of other users, we don't need dual slots - if you do, great, get a Dell dude, but if not, and if processor speeds on your handheld are not vital discriminators, then I think the Viewsonic has the specs that matter: It's svelte, and light. And THIN THIN THIN - which for many people is actually important.

We all have our needs and prefs, and for me, form-factor is a big issue.

So, I hope that explains why some of us feel the V35 is, for us, a superior product.

[Kirkaiya]

Originally Posted by Rirath

I'm just amazed there's anything to debate. The single advantage I can find the V35 has is it's size. Maybe the looks, but that's certainly a matter of taste. Personally, I much prefer the look of the Dell. Why people are willing to pay more, get much less, and be proud of the looks of the device of all things I'll never understand. If I ever start considering style over huge spec differences, something is very very wrong.

As someone who carries his PocketPC around with him nearly always, I can give you some insight into this. I use my iPaq (or did... broken touchscreen in September, ahhhh) for both business and personal stuff.

When I'm at a client-site, I have meetings with various client-people, meetings with vendors, other contractors, etc, often in different buildings, or in different places in a building.

My iPaq, for all that I loved it, was really heavier and thicker than I thought was comfortable for a shirt-pocket or jacket-pocket (to be fair, it was slightly smaller than my previous PDA, a Casio E-11).

One reason I was always tempted to give it up for a Palm Vx, which my wife uses, was that I can *feel* an iPaq, even in my inside-coat-pocket. With her Palm Vx, you could barely tell it was there.

So - for me, going from a 6.2 (or 6.5?) ounce device to one 50% lighter (4.2 Oz), and substantially thinner, it a huge motivation to change. If I was tempted to change from a PPC to a *PALM* just to get the form-factor I wanted, you can imagine how easy a leap it is for me to choose 1 PPC over another.

And... I honestly don't see that much difference in the specs - basically, the Dell has a slightly faster processor (400 vs 300), and a CF slot. That's it. I believe, as eWeek says here, "HP officials said the trend is toward more SDIO functionality in the coming year, with the technology eventually overtaking the popular CF.".

At Comdex, SyChip is showing off their new SDIO WLAN (802.11b) card....

For me, and a lot of other users, we don't need dual slots - if you do, great, get a Dell dude, but if not, and if processor speeds on your handheld are not vital discriminators, then I think the Viewsonic has the specs that matter: It's svelte, and light. And THIN THIN THIN - which for many people is actually important.

We all have our needs and prefs, and for me, form-factor is a big issue.

So, I hope that explains why some of us feel the V35 is, for us, a superior product.

[AlanNewman]

Thank you for your imput.

[johpe@bredband.net]

Both Axim and V35 are good PDAs. I will however not buy a PDA until I've seen convincing reviews so that all the good and bad is out in the open. Only one review so far of the V35, and it points to a strange issue with performance, seems that it has poor performance (or the reviewer did something strange), read the review yourselves:

http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/viewsonic_V35.htm

Very odd performance numbers, wouldn't you say? What could be the cause of this? Note that the Toshiba e330 with the same CPU (XScale @ 300MHz) outperforms the V35 every time. Very strange!

[AlanNewman]

JP Thanks for your feedback. I am still going to wait until both units hit the market before I make my decision. I will do my homework first, so I don't get stuck with a bad unit. I hope both of these unit come out soon. I don't think it is likely that either one or the other will be out before Xmas, this year.

[aerin44]

I am very seriously considering a viewsonic as my first PDA. However, how would I go about connecting to my T68i phone? The phone has bluetooth, but I am not sure if there is a SD bluetooth card that will work with the viewsonic. Actually I would prefer to use a cable and keep the SD slot for storage. Is there an available cable? Thanks.

[Mystery905]

Originally Posted by johpe@bredband.net

Both Axim and V35 are good PDAs. I will however not buy a PDA until I've seen convincing reviews so that all the good and bad is out in the open. Only one review so far of the V35, and it points to a strange issue with performance, seems that it has poor performance (or the reviewer did something strange), read the review yourselves:

http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/viewsonic_V35.htm

Very odd performance numbers, wouldn't you say? What could be the cause of this? Note that the Toshiba e330 with the same CPU (XScale @ 300MHz) outperforms the V35 every time. Very strange!

I ran the same benchmarks on my V35, but put it in 'high performance' mode instead of 'automatic', and got results comaparable to the 300 Mhz e330.