Cons: size, quirks, Windows Mobile 2003SE use of VGA screen, battery life, slower than specs indicate
The Bottom Line: Although a large and somewhat bulky unit, it is certainly versatile and powerful. It is certainly one PDA that should stay on your short list.
I haven't visited Pocket PCs in quite some time... nearly two years now. I still have an Audiovox Maestro which is really a mildly stripped down version of the old Toshiba e570. I sold my Dell Axim X5 Advanced since I moved back to a Medicine Fellowship. Heck, up to this point in time, I was more reliant on my PalmOne PDAs... The Tungsten C is still the unit I carry around the most. However, several programs have caught my attention. In particular was Up To Date, a medical program available for Pocket PCs and not for Palm OS PDAs. I wasn't fond of other options like emedicine's PDA solutions. On top of that, many of my favorite Palm OS programs were becoming available or have been available on the Pocket PC platform like epocrates and 5 minute medical series. It was time for me to revisit the Pocket PC lineups again.
Originally, I was going to purchase the HP HX4700/4705/4715 iPAQ but the price of $600-650 for the unit was too much for a platform I wasn't sure I'd stick with. Months later, Dell announced the Axim X50v line... and I wondered when Dell would start the price war. Dell offered a huge deal... 30% off the Dell Axim if purchased with a 2-year warranty and an extra battery. The full price of the Axim X50v without extras is normally $499. To get a little extra discount you can read my epinion The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth!
The Short Take
Overall, the Dell X50v is a solid high end handheld that costs much less than the competition (HX4700 series at $650!). Offering a 3.7 inch VGA screen, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, dual card slots for expansion, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the faster processor for PDAs with a graphics accelerator with dedicated 16MB of memory, the X50v is a steal at under $400! The option of getting the bigger 2200 mAh battery can help one of the weak points of the X50v... the battery life.
The standard battery is a a sore point with the X50v... 2 hours if you're pushing the X50v hard. The X50v is a bit on the large side (not like the PDAs of long) but not a major factor here. The quirks of the Pocket PC system that I've experienced can be annoying (like the X50v not recognizing my SD and Compact Flash cards...).
Overall, this is a solid handheld and deserves to be on your short list.
Pros
3.7 inch VGA screen, Built-in Wi-Fi, Built-In Bluetooth, 624MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, 16MB graphic accelerator, SD and CF card slots, removable battery, stylish, price!
Cons
Weak battery life even with the extended battery, size is a bit big but that's a minor issue, Windows Mobile 2003 SE isn't quite optimized for a VGA screen, some Windows Mobile quirks, the specs indicate a faster PDA than the reality
The Basics
Probably the most stylish PDA dell has produced so far, the silver and black casing looks professional and hip for a PDA. In reality, the Axim X50v is a bit thicker than say the Tungsten T5. The X50v has dimensions of 4.7 x 2.9 x 0.7 inches with a weight of 6.2 oz. Compare that to the T5 which has dimensions of 4.76 x 3.08 x 0.61 inches and a weight of 5.1 oz. So size really isn't much of a factor. Like most PDAs, the X50v has the 5-way navigator with 2 application buttons on each side of the navigator (4 total). The fours buttons are preset to Calendar, Contacts, Messaging, and Dell Home but you can reassign the buttons to other applications/functions. Above the screen is the central power button, an LED on the top right that signals use of the Wi-Fi (green) or Bluetooth (blue), and the microphone on the top left. Note that the LED also lights up with alarms and also indicates the charge status. The left side of the X50v has an eyelet for a strap and three more buttons. One of the buttons is a lock/hold switch that turns off the buttons and the touchscreen... great for MP3 playback or preventing the unit from turning on in your pocket. The other two buttons are preprogrammed to wireless on/off and voice record, but you can change the functions of these two buttons. The top of the X50v holds the SD card slot, the CF card slot, the infrared port, the 3.5 mm headphone jack, and the opening to the stylus silo. The bottom of the unit has only the cradle connector. Note that the unit has rubberized sides to help with gripping the handheld.
I bought the RhinoSkin hard case which is actually a nice fit and allows the option for a belt clip attachment. It does add a bit of bulk to the X50v however.
Inner Workings
The X50v has the most powerful processor available for a PDA at this time... the Intel XScale 624MHz processor. Note that the Dell X50v is not the only PDA to use this processor... there are a good number of Pocket PCs using it. The X50v also has a Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator with 16MB of video memory to help manage the VGA screen and other multimedia functions. You get a decent 64MB of RAM and a nice 128MB of ROM. About 60MB of RAM is available and 85MB of ROM is user available. Note that the ROM doesn't erase if you completely drain the battery... but I haven't tested that.
Performance
In a word... uneven. The X50v works well enough with basic applications and the specialized software that Dell ships to show off the 3D graphics of the X50v. However on most programs, it seemed slower than my friends X30 models and even other X50 models. I wonder how much of a toll the VGA screen takes on the X50v and whether the graphics accelerator is even being used with many of the current Pocket PC software. Running Windows Media Player 10 in the background for MP3s while working with Pocket Word caused hiccups in the MP3 playback or slow down in the Word application. Overall, almost everything I ran took either a little bit longer to a lot longer than the same or similar program running on non-VGA Pocket PCs running processors running at 400MHz or faster. I'm not sure what the problem is but either the VGA screen seems to be the most likely culprit... I'm not sure that the 16MB multimedia accelerator is helping at all... or if it is being used properly. The one thing I can remark is that every program looks great.
The Screen
VGA screen... for a PDA, it can mean a great deal. I don't think I saw any program that didn't look great on the VGA screen. Colour accurracy was excellent and the screen is quite bright even at the lowest settings. At the highest backlight setting, I could light three steps on my staircase to clearly identify the loops of wool... and that's with the X50v held at hip level while I'm standing straight up! The vast improvement in viewing photos from my Canon PowerShot S70 and Digital Rebel over my AudioVox Maestro was stunning... although the time to display them on the screen was a bit sluggish. Thumbnail photos looked as good as full screen photos on the AudioVox Maestro. The games Dell provided with the X50v show off the clear and crisp graphics displayed on the VGA screen. I will also say that not every program takes advantage of the VGA capabilities of the X50v... case in point is Internet Explorer which displayed everything beautifully but only showed a little bit more of the page than the QVGA screens. On the other hand, the fact that some programs didn't switch the display into a VGA display didn't force you to strain your eyes while using the X50v. There is a program called SE_VGA that forces everything into VGA mode... but I rather wait for Microsoft to integrate VGA modes into Windows Mobile more seamlessly.
VGA is a 640x480 pixel screen. QVGA is a 320x240 pixel screen. The more pixels the clearer the picture or the more data you can potentially display on the PDA.
Battery Life
One of the worse aspects of this unit is the horrible battery life. Pushing the X50v got me 2 to 2 1/2 hours of battery life with the standard 1100MAh lithium-ion battery. By pushing the handheld, I mean that I ran Windows Media in the background playing MP3s while performing other tasks... usually games. The 2200MAh battery got me 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours from a full charge. On pure MP3 playback at the lowest screen settings with lock switch on, the 1100MAh battery lasted 4 1/2 to 5 hours (also setting PDA to the optimal battery settings as well). I haven't tried the same test with the 2200MAh extended battery yet.
Note that I had a Secure Digital card and a Compact Flash card inserted into the X50v.
Dual Card Slots
It is nice to have both a Compact Flash slot and a Secure Digital Card/MultiMedia Card Slot (SD is SDIO Now! compatible... that's a good thing for expansion cards!). You can add outrageous amounts of storage onto the X50v. I added a 2GB CF card and a 1GB High Speed SD card. The X50v accesses both rather quickly and shows no problems when the battery has a good amount of power on it. However, there are some odd quirks I experienced. When you run the battery down, the X50v tends to "lose" one of the expansion cards... often the SD card will disappear from the handheld. On rare occassions, both the CF and the SD card will disappear. This often happens when you turn on the handheld with a run down battery. The problem is easy enough to correct... you have to take out the disconnected card and reinsert it. This is not a problem strictly with the X50v... I've had it often with the AudioVox Maestro and the older Axim X5 advanced. It is an annoying quirk however.
Wi-Fi?
It is there and fairly easy to set up with the setup programs on the X50v. I was able to access the internet with the X50v throughout my apartment and it seemed only slightly slower than my Tungsten C in loading up the same web sites. I loaded up sites like epinions.com, ebates.com, techbargains.com, webmail.juno.com, www.hotmail.com, and various yahoo pages. The speed of the Wi-Fi connection seemed a bit slower than my PalmOne Tungsten C but not by much.
Bluetooth
It connected to my HP inkjet printer. It seemed to transfer info quickly and simply. I'm not much of a bluetooth user... so I can't add much here.
MultiMedia?
If you're running one application at a time, there were rarely any hiccups with Windows Media Player 10. MP3 playback is quite clear and volume through the headphone jack is more than adequate. Movie playback was sluggish through Windows Media Player 10... but this may be due to the poor implementation of the 16MB multimedia accelerator in Pocket PC 2003SE. You still have good functionality with the voice recorder. The X50v is rather weak on multitasking however... running MP3s in the background really slowed up the system. Running any of the Dell included games with Pocket Word in the background was a disaster... the framerates on the game made the game unplayable most of the time. My feeling is that the VGA screen eats up most of the processor performance despite the high powered graphics accelerator (which brings the question of whether the accelerator is being used at all to help with the graphical workload!).
Applications that I tried with the X50v
The majority of applications I used will focus on medical applications. Epocrates being a major one for me. This ran smoothly and looked great on the X50v but the multicheck searches were notably faster on my Tungsten C. It was not faster than epocrates on my AudioVox Maestro unit. UptoDate was a bit faster on the X50v over my AudioVox Maestro (there is no Palm OS version of UptoDate... sigh). 5 minute medicine consult and 5 minute ID consult were only slightly faster on the X50v put the few pictures looked great on the X50v over the AudioVox Mastro. The Tungsten C performed faster than the X50v in 5 minute medical consult and 5 minute ID consult. Vindigo performed significantly faster on the Tungsten C although the X50v was much clearer on the screen.
Sadly enough, I still think that third party solutions for accessing Word and Excel files are preferred and more versatile than the current incarnations of Pocket Word and Excel. Heck the current Windows Mobile 2003SE doesn't even deal with PowerPoint files without a third party solution!
What Comes in the Box?
You get an USB cradle (that has an extra charge slot for additional batteries), the power cable, an adapter to charge the X50v without the cradle, a manual and CD-Roms. Oh yeah, you get a cheap case with it too.
Need extras?
The things you want to consider are the 2200MAh extended battery (but it makes the handheld significantly thicker), a case (the RhinoCase doesn't work with the extended battery however!), and a large SD or CF card.... you normally don't need both. Headphones would help too if you don't have a pair yet.
Last word?
A solid Pocket PC PDA at a reasonable price for the power and flexibility. However, non-VGA (QVGA) equipped Pocket PCs often perform faster and multitask better in terms of speed. Graphically, the X50v blows away any QVGA equipped Pocket PC. It becomes a toss up on what is more important to you in a Pocket PC... Note that software updates could potentially increase the performance of the X50v significantly!
More Reviews
You can check my epinions profile page for additional reviews I've written in various Palm OS PDAs and a few older Pocket PC models.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 470.40 Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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