Dell is at it again. Their mode of operation is to take industry standard components, and slap them together and offer it for magnitudes less than their competitors. For most consumers, like myself, it's a great value proposition and makes 80% of the population happy. The only downside to Dell's approach is that they probably cut a corner here and corner there to keep their costs low. Even still, it's hard to understand how Dell can sell the unit for $265 after rebates, when HP/Compaq sells the comparable iPAQ 3950 or 3955 for $450 to $600.

There are a ton of industry reviews out there on the Axim X5 Advanced, so I'll concentrate here on what they don't cover. I'll start with the Bad then end with the Good.

===THE BAD===
CONSTRUCTION
The case is made out of a duller plastic than the iPAQ series, so it appears to be slightly less metallic looking. The biggest disappointment is in the construction of the main battery mechanism and backup battery door. They both look pretty flimsy. Mine haven't broken, but they look like they could use some careful handling. My first attempt to install the backup battery resulted in the tiny battery door flying across my desk. I thought I broke it! Fortunately, all was well.

CARRYING CASE
The included carrying case is absolutely ridiculous. I can't imagine that many people would use it with the dell. It couldn't find a home in most small pocketbooks, let alone anybody's pocket. HP/Compaq make a super slick translucent hard plastic case for their unit that barely adds any heft to the iPAQ.

To make a long story short, I'm quite happy for the moment to drag out my old leather Palm Pilot case to do protective duties. It's not as much protection as the Dell case, but it's highly portable.

STYLUS
This is my 5th organizer, so I can fairly say with some meaning that this is THE WORST stylus that I have ever used with an organizer. It's flat AND skinny AND slippery. All three make for horrible contraption. You can't hold it like a pen, because it slips out from your grasp. The only way to reliably use it is to grasp it between your thumb & forefinger, ignoring your middle finger. It's amazingly unnatural. I can't believe that Dell got something so simple so wrong.

To make matters worse, the stylus is keyed, so there are two orientations in which it can slip into its sheath. If you're not paying attention, you don't find out you've got it wrong until it's 95% of the way in. Then you've got to redo the whole thing. I know it sounds like nit-picking, but electronic organizers shouldn't be this frustrating to use. How hard would it have been for Dell to design a nice round grippable stylus? There simply isn't any excuse for doing the simple things wrong.

JOG DIAL
In concept the jog dial/selector is a good idea in an organizer. The scroll feature works great. However, the mechanical implementation of the selector (equivalent to the "Enter" key) function on the Axim however is quite poor. Activating it requires that the button be pressed so far down, that you either end up inadvertently scrolling, or not even activating the selection.

CRADLE
It's not entirely clear in Dell's literature, but the X5 Advance does come with a USB/charging cradle. And yes, like some reviewers have mentioned, it does light up with a neon blue Dell logo. Instead of a cool light, I prefer a cradle which doesn't decide that it wants to come with me every time I try to lift up my Axim. Why do I need two hands to extricate my organizer every time I want to leave my desk?

Further examination revealed that Dell used some common D-type connector for their cradle/Axim connector which has so much friction that the cradle can lift 3 pounds(!) when I lift the Axim (any more than that, and the cradle finally cries uncle)

INCLUDED SOFTWARE
Well it includes really two things that were useful to me, the PowerPoint presenter, and the picture viewer. Other than that, I'd be happy. Other PocketPC manufacturers add other software like Nevo Remote Control software to operate TV/VCR/Stereo, and software to communicate with Palm devices. But then again, you can always buy that if you need it, and Dell only charges $265 after rebate, so you've got lots of spare change to buy whatever you need.

SD & CF SLOTS
It's not SDIO, so you can't use any of the fancy 802.11 or Bluetooth SD cards now coming out. On the other hand, the Axim comes with a CF slot, so there's tons of solutions. The only thing to be careful about is that the CF slot is at the top of the Axim, right where the curved plastic arch extends. Doensn't sould like much, but it's enough to prevent use with some WLAN cards and some GPS cards, since they won't make a good connection into the CF slot.

3RD PARTY ACCESSORIES
Good Luck! You won't find much in the way of thumbpads, keyboards, GPS sleeves, slick custom cases, etc. However, I would imagine that this situation would change rapidly as Dell continues to find success dumping these units into the marketplace.

==THE GOOD==
MY THOUGHTS
It's cheap, it's reliable, and it's exactly the amount of money I wanted to spend. Organizers take a hell of a lot of abuse, and I can't bear the thought of dumping $600 into something that is a only a accidental drop away from breaking into a useless brick of plastic and circuitry. Palm, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, Dell....they will all break with a tabletop height drop onto concrete. LCD's and especially touchscreen LCD's are very delicate.

Even better, I can upgrade to the next version of Dell's handhelds when they come out in a year or so.

SIZE
Amongst the 400MHz X-Scale powered organizers out there it's only by a tiny amount, larger than the others. It probably feels larger because of the grippy sides, but that's a good thing in my book.

DISPLAY
I'd call it practically indistinguishable from the excellent iPAQ screens. It is however a 3.5" screen compared to 3.8" on the iPAQ....but hey remember, it's only $265.

==GOOD & BAD SUMMARY==
It's cheap and reliable, but it has some deficiencies. It's up to you to decide whether to spend the extra $200 for an iPAQ to address those matters. As for me, I'm happy as a lark. $265 is very disposable income, and $500 is not. For $200 , and I can live with the compromises and aggrevations in what is a servicable and functional unit.

It was really hard to decide upon a product rating. I wavered between 2 and 4, and finally decided on 3. 2 was too harsh, since it wasn't really below average given the low price. Above average was too generous given it's aggrevations, so 3-average seemed quite fair in the end.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 265