Dell Axim X5 400 MHz Pocket PC

To start out, the Dell Axim X 5 is fantastic! 90% of the negative reviews for it have to be from people who shouldn’t have gotten a pocket pc in the first place. I ordered my X5 on a Thursday, and received it the following Tuesday with regular ground shipping. After charging it for the required four hours before turning it on, I had it up and running and synced with my desktop without any problems. I’ve been using it for a week now and am loving it.
The display is bright and easy to read, the battery life is everything it’s supposed to be and I’ve been perfectly happy with the included software. I’m actually writing this review on my X5 using pocket word!
The touchscreen feels sturdy, yet requires only a gentle tap to make an entry. I find the screen easy to look at, and usually keep the brightness level set at 50%. In direct sunlight the colors on the screen do appear washed out though.
I can’t say whether or not Dell customer service is any good or not, but then I don’t know that I’ve ever had a good experience with any companies customer service. I was impressed with how quickly I received my ppc, and how quick and easy it was to start working with it.
I’ve run several high-end multimedia programs on it without any hitches, and highly recommend downloading the free divxmvp program for running videos.
In CNET’s review, they complained about the protector case which comes with it being too large to fit in your pocket. The thing is, it’s not made to be put in your pocket while in the case, it’s a hip case with a sturdy, removable belt clip that holds my Axim securely and protects it from even moderate bumps, as I’m an engineer who has to do a lot of climbing in and around a lot of equipment.
The X5′s shape makes it a pleasure to hold, being slightly tapered at the bottom makes it feel more natural in my hand than a unit which is completely squared off. The rubber grips along the sides of the unit makes it feel very secure while holding it.
On the downside though, I can say that the X5′s navigator button is mushy as others have reported, making it nearly useless for gaming. The sound quality from the single speaker on the face of the unit is only adequate, but what can you expect from a mono speaker? The unit does include a standard 1/4 inch stereo headphone jack which provides excellent sound even with a pair of cheap headphones.
The record button on the left side of the Axim is very tiny, and has to be pushed in with the corner of my thumbnail, which is very hard to do, especially while moving or driving. I suppose on the plus side it does make it virtually impossible to accidentally press the record button.
I’ve found it a little difficult to slip the unit into the syncing/charging cradle, the receptacle on the bottom of the unit doesn’t quite line up as well as it should with it’s male counterpart in the cradle, making me nervous that I could accidentally damage it.
The included documentation, while adequate does seem sparse, mostly consisting of warnings about what not to do with the unit. More tips about what could be done with it would have been nice.
Overall though, the X5 is a great value for the price, which was $269 including shipping and handling direct from Dell. I wouldn’t get rid of it for anything and can’t wait to start getting some of the great accessories available for it. I highly recommend this pocket-pc to anyone in search of powerful windows computing in a compact package.

Compaq iPAQ 3650 Color Pocket PC

I got an iPAQ about 3 weeks ago. So far I’m very impressed with it, and starting to replace the 2″ thick “Brain book” I was carrying with me. The unit’s capabilites are very impressive — I use it for

- Schedule planner (synch with home and work)

- Read email, including Word and Excel attachments

- Address/ contacts data

- Notes (including free hand simple drawings)

- Business applications (mainly spreadsheet)

- MP3 player

- Personal pictures (JPGs) although this is a small screen

- Ebook reader using Project Gutenberg text files.

I have not owned a PDA before, and was not impressed by friends’ Palms since they appeared to be just electronic address and calendars. This is *quite* a bit more…

Good Points -

- Excellent screen — very bright and colorful (although other people have reported dust under the screen, I have not found any)

- Word and Excel. In my professional life I live on these. I have several self written Excel spreadsheet on the iPAQ which aid me greatly in daily working enviroments. And it’s really impressive to see a client’s reaction when I pull out the iPAQ and do a company valuation or financial model spreadsheet on my PDA. These are “Pocket” versions of Word and Excel, so they don’t have the full features of the desktop versions, but for something I can put in my shirt pocket and take with me, they are quite functional.

- Ezpandability. I picked up the Compact Flash sleeve and now have a machine with essentially 100 MB RAM, using a 64 MB CF card. Using a spare card I can swap out 64 MB of data at a time — mp3s for music or data for work. This has replaced me carrying a 100 MB zip disk around.

- Power. I’ve run test MPEG video clips on this in full color and sound. 200 MHz is more than my last generation desktop’s processor power.

- Excellent handwriting recognition without needing to learn a new language. Still not as easy as just writing and took me a day to get used to, but for taking meeting notes etc it is very good.

- Versatility. Excel, word, email, mp3, games, ebooks, voice recorder, jpg viewer — I’m very impressed to get this in one device. Some of the wireless connectivity options through the expansion sleeves (CF or PCMIA wireless modem and through the installed Internet Explorer) look very impressive, although I have not tried them yet.

Could be Improved — Most of these are quibbles or personal preference…

- Connectivity. I use the provided USB cradle at home and aserial cable at work. I had to buy the serial cable for the workmachine (no USB port) and I think Compaq should have provided it.Autosynch works pretty well, but I have had some duplicate meetingsshow up on my schedule. Part of that I think, it that I am learningto use it, and switching between Outlook at home and MS Exchange atwork. Other people have reported connectivity problems that I havenot encountered.

- Battery. The unit has an internal wired inbattery which is rechargable from either the cradle or an externalpower adapter. I would have preferred a replaceable (and rechargable)battery just in case. I get from 4-6 hours of standard usage out ofthe battery now.

- Software availability. There are severalhundreds of programs availabe and more being added each week — but Iwould like to see more available including standard business products.In particular, I am *VERY* surprized there isn’t a pocket version ofPowerpoint — although I understand one is near release.

-Earphone volume is loud with earbuds, so I run it at near minimumvolume.

- Case or cover for the iPAQ. Compaq provides a smallsimple case, and aftermarket vendors have others available. I’m usinga surplus HP65 calculator case which works very well. I would havepreferred a snazzy case from Compaq to show off the machine — butthat is my personal preference.

All in all, I am *very* impressedwith this machine. There are things that could be better, but overallit is very good. People who have seen this being used by myself droolover it…

Palm TX Handheld

This is, quite simply, the best gadget I have ever owned, and a miracle of technology. Who needs a laptop, an ipod, and a PSP when you can do it all with one device??
NOW WAIT – Before you think I’m just advertising for Palm or something, let me tell you this: After I bought the thing, I got so frustrated I almost returned it. Strange things would happen: programs would be corrupted, icons would disappear, and it would constantly go into an infinite reset loop, which is a common complaint around here. After checking with Palm, and searching around, the consensus seemed to be that it was a software conflict (Unlike most older Palms, the TX uses non-volatile memory, so info is not lost if the unit loses all power. But the creates conflicts with some older software). But I didn’t think it could be a software conflict, because the problems happened even when I wasn’t using any software.

Finally, I found a website that saved my sanity. It has a list of software which conflicts with the TX (something Palm should have put out). Previously, I put the link in my review, but Amazon erased it. I guess I’m not allowed to put hyperlinks here. Anyway, do a web search, it is worth it. In my case, it turned out the problem was my AOL palm software. Incredibly, AOL worked fine but was causing conflicts with everything else, even when I wasn’t using it! I deleted the AOL and everything has been just fine ever since!

Some comparisons:
I am currently in Iraq and wanted a portable device to keep me entertained. I almost bought a PSP, but I’m glad I didn’t. Yes, the TX costs $100 more, but it is still cheaper in the long run because many great games for the Palm are free, and even the ones you pay for don’t cost as much as PSP games. Some of my friends who got PSPs are jealous of my TX, since it is far more versatile, smaller, batteries last just as long, I can wirelessly surf the web, and it also has a bright beautiful screen. But unlike a gaming unit, I can also do office work on it.
I also considered the Lifedrive, but it is more bulky than the TX. Plus, with 4gb and higher SD cards now becoming available, the extra memory on the Lifedrive is not quite so much of an advantage anymore. The only real thing the Lifedrive has over the TX is the voice recorder, something I had no use for myself.

Some essential software that’s free:
TCPMP (The core pocket media player) will play movies much better than the Media player included with the bundled software. To use it, you will need software to convert your DVDs. If you google, you will find dozens out there, but VEMode is the best of the free ones. If you pay a little, you will find ones that are better at copying encrypted DVDs, and some other tasks.

Blackborder by Canuck – This simply puts a 2 pixel black border around the screen (as opposed to the default white border). Suprisingly, this small change greatly improves the look of the screen and makes the colors stand out better.

FileZ – A file management program, that works like windows explorer. It is much better at managing files than the file manager built into the Palm. Its absolutely necessary for seeing everything on your memory card.