[QYV]

Jason, thanks very much for the extensive testing/reporting! I have been waiting for this article since the launch of WM 2003 to see whether or not I could expect some nice speed gains with an Axim upgrade to 2003. While it's not apples to apples of course, your numbers give me a lot of hope - if Dell ever manages to ship the darn thing. :evil:

One thing to note about the much-maligned Xscale - in the "fixed" 255 form, it does seem to offer substantially more battery life than a 206MHz StrongARM. To me, performance that's almost identical with a big boost in battery life is a decent reason to upgrade. At the same time, of course, I suspect Intel could have done better, although we'll need comparisons of the new non-Intel ARM chips to support that claim.

[QYV]

Jason, thanks very much for the extensive testing/reporting! I have been waiting for this article since the launch of WM 2003 to see whether or not I could expect some nice speed gains with an Axim upgrade to 2003. While it's not apples to apples of course, your numbers give me a lot of hope - if Dell ever manages to ship the darn thing. :evil:

One thing to note about the much-maligned Xscale - in the "fixed" 255 form, it does seem to offer substantially more battery life than a 206MHz StrongARM. To me, performance that's almost identical with a big boost in battery life is a decent reason to upgrade. At the same time, of course, I suspect Intel could have done better, although we'll need comparisons of the new non-Intel ARM chips to support that claim.

[quickstrike]

I've read all about the good things about Windows Mobile 2003, but I have a concern. I was trying out games such as Turjah II, Motocross Stunt Racer, and Bust'em and have noticed slowdowns and slightly choppy sound on my iPAQ 1940. I went to CompUSA and tried playing those same games off my SD card and found that the Pocket PC 2002 devices played them all fine, but the ones with Windows Mobile 2003 had the same problem. Has anyone tried these games also on their WM2K3 device? My guess is that this may have some relation to the slowdown that Dell fixed.

[Abba Zabba]

Originally Posted by whydidnt

I guess the one thing that seems to hit me in the face is how much of a fraud the 400 Mhz X-Scale CPU is. It seems we would all be cruising along in the left lane if Intel had just decided to continue developing/improving the original StrongArm CPU's rather than forcing a new technology down our throats.

I thought that the new processor gives improved battery life. What would be a good test is to test the battery life of the 545x upgraded to PPC 2k3 compared to that of the 555x. I thought Jason that you were doing some sort of article about that a few months back? What ever happened to that :?:

[Marc Zimmermann]

Originally Posted by whydidnt

I guess the one thing that seems to hit me in the face is how much of a fraud the 400 Mhz X-Scale CPU is. It seems we would all be cruising along in the left lane if Intel had just decided to continue developing/improving the original StrongArm CPU's rather than forcing a new technology down our throats.

You should keep in mind that the XScale is not only about performance, it is also about power consumption.

[ErectionJackson]

Great work Jason, shows me that it is indeed a good move to upgrade my ancient (I bought it one year ago damnit! :twisted: ) 3870 But what I'm interested in is the stability of the 2003 OS compared to 2002. Do you notice less crashes and lock ups? Not that my 3870 crashes often, but since it's a big complaint from a lot of PPC users I was wondering if this has been improved as well

[ChuckyRose]

Well, I guess I don't feel so bad about sticking with my old iPaq 3600 series iPaq with the first Pocket PC OS (2000) I would have lost a lot a speed it looks like with the upgrade. Maybe this will convince me to get a new PDA. Hmm. So many choices!

[petvas]

Originally Posted by mhowie

This is what I am looking for as well... a comparison of the 3970 w/ WM2003 and the 2215!!!

Thanks,

Then you should read This

[petvas]

Originally Posted by ErectionJackson

Great work Jason, shows me that it is indeed a good move to upgrade my ancient (I bought it one year ago damnit! :twisted: ) 3870 But what I'm interested in is the stability of the 2003 OS compared to 2002. Do you notice less crashes and lock ups? Not that my 3870 crashes often, but since it's a big complaint from a lot of PPC users I was wondering if this has been improved as well

Windows Mobile 2003 is much more stable and reliable than Pocket PC 2002. I barely have to restart anymore using my H5555. I reboot only after switching batteries... 8)

[qmrq]

Originally Posted by JTWise

I too am very disappointed that PIE speeds have not improved. What good does it do to add a bunch of features to something that is so PAINFULLY slow :twak:

If you are trying to 'sync' pages from desktop for later viewing, you should check out iSilo. Much faster than IE.

[Chris Leckness]

Originally Posted by QYV

Jason, thanks very much for the extensive testing/reporting! I have been waiting for this article since the launch of WM 2003 to see whether or not I could expect some nice speed gains with an Axim upgrade to 2003. While it's not apples to apples of course, your numbers give me a lot of hope - if Dell ever manages to ship the darn thing.

Sorry to chime in, I normally only read here, but I wanted to offer up these results I have had with the Axims.

http://www.aximsite.com/reviews/results.html

Enjoy.