Which PPC is better?

[jayson]

Which Pockt PC do you think is better??

The Dell Axim X51v

OR

The HP Ipaq 4700 series

[pocketpcadmirer]

If I hadnt been to Aximsite.com, I would have said X51V, but, now I will go with hx4700. HP has announced to provide WM5 upgrade in coming month of May. Hope this is error-free release of WM5

Sunny

[Sven Johannsen]

Not sure I would agree. I can't say for sure how much the X51v was re-worked for the WM5 OS, but it certainly is more than just an X50v with WM5 on it. That is obvious from the significantly greater number of problems with the upgraded X50vs than with the X51vs with the OS on it natively.

Dell has always, and this time is no exception, been very proactive in realeasing updates for their devices. This is not true right now for the upgraded X50s, but is for the the X51s.

While the 4700 is good hardware, it is old hardware and you would be dealing with an upgraded device. We do have some fairly decent history on HP providing updates, but not for models that have been provided OS updates. The upgrade to the 4700 might be as problematic as the X50 one, and it is hard to say what HP will do.

I would opt for a device that comes with WM5 on it Out-Of-The-Box, if WM5 was important to me.

[Menneisyys]

I say let's wait some weeks to see how cool the hx4700 WM5 implementation is. If it's better than that of the x51v, then, go for the iPAQ. The iPAQ has a really superior screen and, if you don't need the additional 128M ROM, the D-pad (as opposed to the touchpad) and the 2700g/VGA out in the x51v, it may be a better choice.

[applejosh]

Is the hx4700 discontinued? The only references I saw on the HP site were for refurb's (and I can't find those right now). Seems kind of strange to leave a VGA hole in the lineup if this is indeed the case.

[Darius Wey]

Is the hx4700 discontinued? The only references I saw on the HP site were for refurb's (and I can't find those right now). Seems kind of strange to leave a VGA hole in the lineup if this is indeed the case.

The general consensus is that it has been discontinued. Though, rumour is, an updated hx4700 with Windows Mobile 5.0 will be released - that is, something like what the X51/X51v was to the X50/X50v.

[Patrick Y.]

See http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46498

BTW, Aximsite is down due to site upgrade for a while. However, you still can find the petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Axim06/petition.html

So far, 1368 users (and growing) has signed the petition within the last two days it was posted on Aximsite.

I recommend Acer n311 if you can get one.

[pocketpcadmirer]

I say let's wait some weeks to see how cool the hx4700 WM5 implementation is. If it's better than that of the x51v, then, go for the iPAQ. The iPAQ has a really superior screen and, if you don't need the additional 128M ROM, the D-pad (as opposed to the touchpad) and the 2700g/VGA out in the x51v, it may be a better choice.

Yes, I hope that HP has taken its time to endow hx4700 owners with quality release of WM5

Sunny

[Nurhisham Hussein]

...quality release of WM5...

Isn't that an oxymoron? :lol:

[Darius Wey]

Isn't that an oxymoron? :lol:

Now, now, no need to generalise. ;) The implementation of Windows Mobile 5.0 on a lot of today's devices has actually been quite well done.

[Menneisyys]

...quality release of WM5...

Isn't that an oxymoron? :lol:

Yup, Darius is right - for example, the HTC Wizard/Qtek implementation of WM5 is very good and stable. The x51v A06 implementation is not as good but still passable.

[Patrick Y.]

Yup, Darius is right - for example, the HTC Wizard/Qtek implementation of WM5 is very good and stable. The x51v A06 implementation is not as good but still passable.

More reason to hate dell. :devilboy: I really hope that the petition will make them pay more attention to customers.

[pocketpcadmirer]

Yes, Darius is right,but, whenever I think about WM5, the petition by X51V and X50V owners comes to mind 8O

Sunny

[OSUKid7]

I've seen both sides of this debate, and it's a close call. If I had to chose though, I'd stick with my Axim X51v.

Hardware first - I definitely perfer the d-pad to the touchpad. The touchpad was interesting at first, but I really didn't end up using it nearly as much, just because it was so responsive, and terrible in games. The placement of the speaker and microphone are better on the iPAQ, imo. It's not a big deal, but for those who would ever want to use the PDA for a pseudo-phone (with VoIP), the layout of the iPAQ makes much more sense. The Axim has a larger usable ROM, so of course that's a plus. Screen size, well, you win some, you lose some. I had always gone for a very large screen size, as I wanted as much screen real estate as possible. The switch to my Axim was a step down, well, from 4" to 3.7", but I do like that the device is smaller, and easier to carry in my pocket.

Software - WM5 is very nice... when it works. I've run in to more problems with ActiveSync in the last month and a half than I ever did before, with previous versions of WM and ActiveSync. These problems could be attributed to trying to keep two WM5 devices (PPC and Smartphone) in sync, but I still shouldn't have to put up with the recurring problems. The iPAQ Wireless utility is worlds better than the Dell wireless software. Sure, I ran into some problems with WiFi on my iPAQ, but it's always a strugle to get wireless to work on my Axim at my college. Granted it's a pretty sophisticated authentication setup (shared public certificate plus PEAP domain authentication), but I usually have to re-enter my password, and even then I regularly have problems, and have to cycle the WLAN off/on to get things working. Then there's Bluetooth... Dell really let us down on the Bluetooth stack. I guess I rushed into the purchase of my Axim, but I didn't realize that there was no headset profile. I can't say I used it overly much on my iPAQ, but it was nice to experiment with it in Skype. Hopefully we'll get that back in a future upgrade.

So it's a close call, and I think you'll be happy either way. Both are very usable devices, it just comes down to the few differences. I'm glad I switched to the Axim, but if I were forced to go back to the iPAQ, it wouldn't be a big problem.