Philip Colmer
05-07-2004, 05:35 PM
<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/axim3i_front.jpg" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> Pocket PC<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <a href="http://www.dell.co.uk/">Dell UK</a> - may be available in some other regions<br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://commerce.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config/frameset.asp?c=4219&n=4262&b=46446&m=gbp&cu=uktra&l=en&s=uktra&store=uktra&sbc=ukdhsaxim3&v=d">Dell UK</a><br /><b>Price:</b> £288.58 incl. VAT & delivery<br /><b>Specifications:</b> Intel X-Scale processor 400MHz, Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003, Secure Digital/SDIO Now!/Multimedia card slot, integrated 802.11b and Bluetooth, 3.5" transflective QVGA LCD display (65K colours), 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM, USB dock and AC adapter.<br /><br /><b>Pros:</b><li> Integrated Bluetooth hardware;<br /><li> Excellent BT setup & management tools;<br /><li> Good list of supported BT functionality.<b>Cons:</b><ul><li> Not available globally.</ul><b>Summary:</b><br />Dell's Axim X3i now finally has Bluetooth integrated into the device, instead of needing an additional card that takes up the valuable SD slot. However, it isn't available worldwide, which is annoying US customers in particular as they still don't know when they will get it. That said, is it worth waiting for?<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>A Bit Of History</b></span><br />Towards the end of 2003, Dell started selling the Axim X3 and David Prahl has written <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,23019">an excellent review of the X3i</a> for this site. What surprised some people, particularly if they had been following sites like Pocket PC Thoughts & AximSite, was that the X3i came with integrated Wi-Fi but not Bluetooth. This was surprising because the manual submitted to the FCC for approval had documented the Bluetooth functionality and the antenna cover at the top of the device clearly had the BT logo on one end. Whatever Dell's reasons were, the X3i didn't have Bluetooth.<br /><br />Until now, that is. This review builds on the excellent existing review of the X3i and concentrates on the Bluetooth implementation, how it interoperates with the Wi-Fi functionality and what the impact is on battery life. I won't be going too far into the detail of what Bluetooth is or how it works. If you want some of the background information, you might find <a href="http://computer.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm">this explanatory article</a> helpful.<br /><br /><span><b>Getting Started With Bluetooth</b></span><br />The user interface for Bluetooth is largely split into two applications - Settings and Manager. Both of these are available from the Today screen. The Settings application is also accessible from the Connections screen of the Pocket PC operating system. Settings for Bluetooth are divided into a number of tabbed pages, the first of which specifies the profile you are using and whether or not Bluetooth is switched on, as can be seen in Figure 1.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-General.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 1: General settings for Bluetooth.</i><br /><br />Profiles, in the context of Bluetooth settings, allow you to create different configuration settings and then swap between them by picking the profile from the list. One drawback of the profile mechanism is that it doesn't include the accessibility settings shown in Figure 2. This may not be a particular problem but it does occur to me that, for example, you might be happier having your device more accessible in a trusted location such as your office than in, say, an airport lounge. That said, it is possible, as we will see later on, to "lock down" services so that authorisation and/or authentication (a.k.a. paired devices) can be required in order to use a service.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-Accessibility.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 2: Device identification & Bluetooth accessibility settings.</i><br /><br />Turning off the "Allow other devices to connect" option prevents any device - even a paired one - from connecting to your device. However, it does not prevent your device from making outgoing connections to other devices. In effect, then, this makes your device a Bluetooth client with no security risks at all from other people trying to connect to you. If you turn off this option, the discovery option becomes greyed out so that your device is totally invisible to other Bluetooth devices.<br /><br />Once you enable "Allow other devices to connect", you then get the choice of allowing all devices or only paired ones. I've mentioned paired devices a couple of times without explaining what they are. Pairing is essentially a process where a trusted connection is established between two devices. One device requests the pairing and specifies a passkey. The other device then alerts you that a pairing request has been made. If you accept it, you need to enter the same passkey. If you ignore the request, or if you enter the wrong passkey, the pairing process fails and the two devices will not be able to connect to each other. The pairing process establishes a secret key that is used in future connections to authenticate device identity and encrypt data.<br /><br />Once you've decided how accessible & visible you want your device to be, you may then want to think about which services your device is going to offer. It needs to be understood that the services you offer to other Bluetooth devices are not necessarily the same as the services you use on your Axim. The implementation on the X3 supports a broad set of services that other devices can connect to if they support the same feature. The full list includes:<li> File transfer;<br /><li> Information exchange (a.k.a. Business Card Exchange);<br /><li> Serial port;<br /><li> Personal network;<br /><li> Audio gateway.Each of these has a set of options within the Bluetooth Settings applications. All of them have the same four initial checkboxes - enable service, authorization required, authentication required, encryption required - as shown in Figure 3.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-AudioGateway.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 3: Configuring a service.</i><br /><br />The first checkbox - enable service - does just that. This allows you to turn off the services that you really do not want to offer over Bluetooth. The second option - authorization required - gives you a fine level of control over just what connections you will allow to your device. With this option selected, any attempt to connect to that particular service will result in an authorisation request screen being displayed, as shown in Figure 4. This screen, though, is one of the few places where the Bluetooth implementation departs from user-friendly terms and falls into using techie-style terms like "OBEX".<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTAuthorisation.GIF" /><br /><i>Figure 4: Authorisation request for a specific service.</i><br /><br />The last two checkboxes shown in Figure 3 both relate to paired devices. If the authentication checkbox is ticked, a remote device must be paired in order to use that service. A further option is then to encrypt the connection.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br />Each of the services will now be looked at in more detail.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-FileTransfer.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 5: Specifying the shared folder for the File Transfer service.</i><br /><br />The File Transfer service allows a remote device to read from and write to a specified folder and sub-folders. As can be seen in Figure 5, the only setting you can change is the location of the shared folder. This is a very simple yet powerful service and access to this service should be carefully controlled :!: <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-InformationExchange.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 6: Specifying the business card for the Information Exchange service.</i><br /><br />With the Information Exchange service, the sole option is to specify which Pocket Outlook contact is to be used as your business card. Clicking on the card with a V in it allows you to pick the required contact or to cancel your choice and select no card, as shown in Figure 6. Clicking on the person icon creates a new contact to allow you to enter the required details. I'll be looking at the business card exchange process in more detail later on.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTSettings-SerialPort.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 7: Serial Port service information.</i><br /><br />With the Serial Port service, other than the general service options, there isn't anything to set. The information shown in Figure 7 is read-only but, nevertheless, is very important information. For example, if you are using a Bluetooth GPS unit and the software needs to be told the port number for the serial port, you will need the outbound port number which, on this device, is number seven.<br /><br />The last two services, Personal Network Server and Audio Gateway, don't have any additional configuration options, nor do they have any additional information on their screens. The services are either on or off.<br /><br /><span><b>Using Bluetooth</b></span><br />So, you've configured the Bluetooth services that your Axim is going to offer to other devices, but what about getting your Axim to communicate with services offered by other devices? Enter the Bluetooth Manager. From this application, you can establish pairings with other devices, see what connections are active and set up shortcuts for connections to other devices on specific services. This last option is dealt with through the Bluetooth Connection Wizard - a service-based connection process that starts off with the list show in Figure 8.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTManager-ConnectionWizard.gif" /> <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTManager-ConnectionWizard2.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 8: The Bluetooth Connection Wizard.</i><br /><br />For each of the different services, the wizard takes you through the steps required in order to make the connection a success. For example, if you want to connect to the Internet via a phone, the first thing you do is tell the wizard which model of mobile phone you've got. If you've got an Ericsson R520, T39, T68 or T68i, you're in luck - the wizard will then give you precise instructions on how to set your phone up ready to be paired with your Axim. If not, well, the wizard still has reasonable instructions to help you get your mobile ready.<br /><br />The ActiveSync connection is another delightful example of how the wizard works, as you can see in the following few screenshots:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTActiveSync1.GIF" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTActiveSync2.GIF" /> <br /> <br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTActiveSync3.GIF" /> <br /> <br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTActiveSync4.GIF" /> <br /><i>Figure 9: Setting up ActiveSync.</i><br /><PAGEBREAK><br />Following this process creates a connection shortcut, which can be seen in Figure 10. So long as you follow the instructions, you will have ActiveSync working over Bluetooth without any problems - it certainly worked the first time for me! The principle difference between using ActiveSync over Bluetooth and over USB is that in the case of Bluetooth, you have to initiate the synchronisation <b>from the device</b>. To do this on the Axim, you tap and hold on the ActiveSync shortcut and then choose the Connect option. If you look closely, you'll see that the ActiveSync shortcut is shown in green - this indicates that the shortcut is an active connection.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTManager-Shortcuts.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 10: Bluetooth shortcuts.</i><br /><br />The other connections work in a very similar manner - follow some instructions, find a suitable device, make the connection. The wizard really does make light work of getting your Axim to talk to other BT devices.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTFileBrowse.GIF" /> <br /><i>Figure 11: Browsing files over a Bluetooth connection.</i><br /><br />Figure 11 shows the Bluetooth file browsing process from the viewpoint of the Pocket PC. This particular screenshot shows the files being exported by my laptop. As you can see, you can receive a file or delete it, send a file or create a folder. One thing to note about transferring files in this manner is that because you aren't using ActiveSync, the normal file conversion process is bypassed.<br /><br />The headset connection worked, whereby a headset replaces the speaker & microphone on the Pocket PC, but it does need to be remembered that Bluetooth currently only supports a mono device and doesn't have enough bandwidth to make even the mono stream sound that brilliant.<br /><br />The creation of the Bluetooth personal network connection worked … in that both my laptop and my Axim have IP addresses, and they could ping each other (with an average round trip time of 53ms). However, I couldn't get the Axim's file explorer to browse my laptop via that network connection. There is very little documentation about the personal network service so I'm not really sure how this is supposed to be used between, say, a Pocket PC and a Windows XP laptop.<br /><br />Business Card Exchange gives you the option of sending a business card, exchanging business cards or requesting a business card, as shown in Figure 12. The first two options are only available if you have either selected or entered your business card details in the Information Exchange service screen. Tapping either of the options brings up the Bluetooth Browser, as shown in Figure 13. The user interface on this screen is a bit confusing, though, compared with the other Wizard screens. Here, you have to select the one or more recipients and then click on the OK button at the top of the screen.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTBusinessCardExchange.GIF" /> <br /><i>Figure 12: Business card exchange options.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTBrowser.GIF" /> <br /><i>Figure 13: Browsing available devices.</i><br /><br />I did hit some problems using this feature, but only with devices that had previously been paired with my Axim and had, during the process of testing, been subsequently unpaired. When I used this feature with a mobile phone that hadn't seen my device before, I successfully sent & received contact information.<br /><br />The final wizard option - explore a Bluetooth device - allows you to select a specific device, see what services are being offered by that device and then create a shortcut to that device for the selected services.<br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Wi-Fi & Bluetooth Together</b></span><br />In addition to the normal four hardware buttons on the front of the device, Dell provides two additional buttons at the edge of the case. The left-hand button controls the recording option whilst the right-hand button controls the wireless functionality. This is a very simple toggle operation - pressing it once turns all of the wireless functionality on and pressing it again turns it all off.<br /><br />In addition to the hardware button, there are software methods of controlling the radios. For example, if you have both wireless features turned on, tapping on the connectivity icon at the top of the display produces a balloon like the one shown in Figure 14. Tapping on the "Turn on flight mode" option causes the Wi-Fi radio to be turned off - presumably a reference to the fact that you are not permitted to use Wi-Fi on an airplane. Hmm … I'm sure that at least one airline was thinking of using Wi-Fi to provide Internet access to economy class …<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BTFlightMode.GIF" /><br /><i>Figure 14: Flight mode option.</i><br /><br />Similarly it is possible to turn Bluetooth off from the Today screen whilst leaving Wi-Fi enabled. In fact, of the two technologies, Bluetooth is easier to turn on and off. For example, if you press the Wireless button so that both are disabled, it is still possible to turn Bluetooth back on from within the software. However, it doesn't seem to be possible to do this for Wi-Fi. This is unfortunate as it means that the only way to get Wi-Fi turned on is to press the Wireless button … which may actually turn everything off to begin with, if it is in the wrong state.<br /><br /><span><b>Battery Life</b></span><br />I thought it would be interesting to see what the impact is of using the two wireless options on battery life. I carried out four tests to see how the battery percentage decreased over time. All tests were conducted with maximum backlight and no user activity. Timings were collected using Spb Benchmark. The results are as follows:<li> No wireless - 4 hours, 15 minutes, 43 seconds;<br /><li> Wi-Fi enabled - 4 hours, 13 minutes, 12 seconds;<br /><li> Bluetooth & Wi-Fi enabled - 4 hours, 4 minutes, 57 seconds;<br /><li> Bluetooth enabled - 3 hours, 55 minutes, 53 seconds.You are probably wondering why using Bluetooth appears to place such a high drain on the battery and that it appears to last longer if you are using Wi-Fi on its own. The test results are, unfortunately, slightly misleading because they don't make it clear that when the battery life gets down to about 20%, the Axim turns the Wi-Fi radio off, thus saving battery power. This doesn't happen with Bluetooth - it is kept on until the battery runs down. The other thing that needs to be remembered is that although the radio hardware was on, and therefore drawing power, the Axim wasn't being used during these tests. These are, therefore, likely to be top-end figures.<br /><br /><span><b>Conclusions</b></span><br />It is a shame that Dell, for whatever reason, was not in a position to include integrated Bluetooth when the X3i was first released. It is clear from using this model that the integration works very well and the Widcomm software provides a well tested and well established set of functionality. The wizard interface makes it very easy to establish connections with other devices. If you are looking for a Pocket PC that has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in one package, you should definitely have this device on your list for consideration.