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Review of the new Dell Axim X50s
bargainPDA writes "We have posted an in depth review of the new Dell Axim X50 line which includes three PDAs. The high end X50v features a 3.7" VGA display, CF and SD slots and dual wireless. Dell has done well to beat HP at almost every level and looks good considering palmOne's Tungsten T5 snafus. "
I'd rather buy a Compaq iPaq.
Everyone I know who has one of these Dell turds is bitter, angry and late for their appointments.
$30 Off All Plans: Use code TRIPLESAWBUCK
Now I have to maintain another battery set and drain the PDA battery much faster just to connect an external bluetooth GPS receiver to the X50.
But can it run Linux.
I figured I might as well get that out of the way.
I'm reading the article and my eyes hurt already and we havent moved on from the appearance of the damn thing!
In case you can't be bothered to read the first 50% of the review - its kinda shiny, and a bit curvier than the old one. Hmmmmm curvy shiny things...
The tests leave no doubt that the sharper screen and faster processor on the X50v can eat into its battery life. However, I also ran another test, this time optimistically, designed to find out what the maximum battery life of the X50v is. I turned the screen to the minimum level of brightness--which is actually still quite bright--and left the processor mostly idle, as it would be for simple tasks like reading, typing, and PIM.
X50v maximum life: Approximately 8 hours, 30 minutes
My first "modern" PDA was a Palm III, it had 4 weeks autonomy, 2 when playing SimCity in Black and White.
I really loved it but it eventually fell one time too much.
I also had a Zaurus SL5500 which autonomy was even more pathetic than its sluggishness.
Now, all the other PDA I saw hardly have more than a working day autonomy, I think this is not good as this does not even make these suitable for camping or for long travels...
Besides the Tungsten C, I am not sure I want a PDA. But it only caus' it's got a keyboard and wifi.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
How does this compare to the Pocket Loox 720?
As usual, the PPC reviewer completely fails to listen to a recording of silence for the presence of buzz from backlight ballasts to near to the microphone leads. WHY???
It's still seems better than any PDA on the market. The most important feature to me is that it take standard batteries (it takes AAA's). I have 2 sets of NiMH ones and a set of alkalines as spares. One set of rechargables is always charging, the other is in the PDA. When the set in the PDA dies, I use the alkalines as a backup until I get home and swap the ones from the charge into the PDA. I'm still getting 3-4 weeks on a charge.
I had a Treo 90 for the colour screen but the internal Li-Ion battery wouldn't last through a 4-hour flight as an ebook. If I forget to charge it one night, it's useless the next day.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Anyway why are we seeing more and more of these posts here?
Yet nobody mentioned the Fujitsu Siemens Loox 720?
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
They cant even touch the Zaurus yet.
Nice to see they copied the dual SD/CF slot from sharp on that one.
but the newer lines that will hit america that are already outselling HP and sony in japan (c760,c860) make the newest from Dell and HP look like utter crap.
If you want a fully functional PDA under Linux then the sad fact is you have to stick with the most popular brand and model for the most part. It takes time to experiment and reverse engineer code to discover how the hardware works in these things then sort out drivers.
The more developers that own a device the more likely you are to get a decent Linux port.
I have an Axim X30. I carry it around all the time, and use it fairly frequently. One of the main things I use it for is an MP3 (wma really) player. As a music player it does a pretty good job- in fact, I put the iPod skin on top of Windows Media Player, and it works just fine when using my thumbs to navigate through songs, etc.
Of course, it can do more than just play music- I can surf the web, get e-mail, etc. etc. I've noticed that more and more restaurants offer free wireless internet access, and I use this about 1-2 times a week to check my e-mail. Just to make sure that taking a long lunch will be okay, and there are no emergencies dragging me back to the office. (or better yet, I won't get caught taking a long lunch...because replying to an e-mail is just like saying "I'm back in my office")
I even have some pictures stored on it, and if I really wanted to, I could put on some video.
So my question/comment is this- if Microsoft makes a product like this (the software) then why the heck would we want to buy their over-sized lesser-functioning media players?
I don't have one of their new media players- but as far as I know, the functions are:
- plays music
- plays video
Well, their PocketPCs can already do that. And now with the VGA PPC, the video can look pretty damn good. With a PocketaPC I can play a game, or use Excel, or whatever while I listen to music. I keep my contacts, appointments, etc.
So why not just sell a Pocket PC with a different marketing twist- aimed as a media player, that also does other crap?
While my PPC is not as nice of a media player as an iPod- it is a better media player than 80% of the dedicated devices I've seen. But you you add in e-mail, this devices zooms to the top of the 'useful crap in my pocket' category.
No reason to lie.
reviewers should really mention one thing "why should/shouldn't I go out and buy this to replace my current PDA." Now I'm not the type of person that will do that even if they do tell me. I'll replace my PDA when it stops working, until then I've got a great PDA. But let's say someone did destroy it tomorrow, I'd be looking at this review and go "nice price tag, what's so good about it that I'd want this one as opposed to another version of my recently-destroyed model? I see no extra features at all, let alone a killer feature. I do see a decrease in battery life, yet this is a good buy? Is this reviewer on crack or on the take?"
[/rant]
With so many positive PDA reviews being posted here I'd like, just once, to see a review that says why it's so much better. All I see "this is as good as all the current PDAs, but it's new so therefore it must be a good buy."
The problem is that a device that fails after just two-hundred working days isn't very useful, even if the battery is easily replaced.
See my journal, I write things there
I've got a Sony TH55 myself, but I'm pretty unenthusiastic about it.
Can it be so hard to build a device that fully implements vCal? Stuff like tentative appointments, categories, etc. Why has syncing data hardly improved since the first Palm Pilot?
Seriously, the Psions were better at calendaring than most of the new PDAs!
How you might ask? Something is portable when I can:
I consider my Zire 31 the better of the devices. I have an expansion slot, it is as small or smaller than the first palmtop I owned, I can go up to a week without needing a charge given normal usage and if (when) I break it, I need to spend only another $149USD to replace it. These new palmtops are just smaller laptops, not more advanced palmtops.
Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
At the company I work for; we are about to buy several of the X50v's for inventory control. We are going to purchase compact flash barcode scanners for them and have everything uploaded via wireless. Overall, much cheaper than many scanners, Intermec or Telxon, and seem to look a bit nicer than the HP Ipaqs in my opinion, even though I have an HP Ipaq.
Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Never drink & derive.
I'm a Palm guy, mainly out of utility. I got a Palm III when they first came out mainly to replace the cheap 256k organizer I had (which was a gift) and also with the hopes that I could code for the thing. I had it for 6 years. It was insanely useful for reading and held most of my info. I had realized though that it was an organizer first, and a computer second. While I did finally upgade to a TT (mainly for size) I'm still only using the thing for the PIM functionality. That what I've liked about the PalmOS... it's kept that focus. Now with the advent of VGA, WiFi, and hard drives. What you have is *NOT* a PDA, it's a PC. A laptop really (with the battery life of one to boot) It's time to commit to the OS wars in the "PDA" space. Dell is in the perfect position to make a device that has the choice of PPC, PalmOS(Cobalt that is) and yes, even Linux. As a hardware vendor they owe it to themselves. I would buy one of these today... if it had Cobalt or Linux on it. (mainly do to legacy apps I need) I know people that say the same about a T3 running PPC. I say it's time for choice. The Dell's and PalmOne's of the world have nothing to lose but sales!
I'm not just a drooling consumer, I expect to be able to write code for any computing device I buy. The question, "Does it run free software?" is not a joke, it's important to me. If it isn't important to Slashdot editors, I respectfully suggest that Slashdot's byline be changed. "News for Consumers. Stuff for yuppies." would seem to be more accurate than what it currently says.
I must say that I'm not at all thrilled with Windows Media Player 10. For one thing, I find it's interface unpleasent. For another, it has a downright aggrivating habit when listening to music with the screen turned off. Every time you pause the music, the screen turns on. And it doesn't turn off when you unpause the music. It just stays on. I assume that this was done to prevent people from accidently leaving the machine on and paused with the screen off, but they way it was handled is just idiotic, forcing you to check the screen every time you pause. Microsoft should be slapped.
Oddly enough, that's how I feel about them in general.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Running Linux on a device like this would be nice. But with the latest Palm Tungsten T|5 disappointment, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a future for porting Palm OS (preferably Cobalt) to some of the newer PPC devices. Then we could get the simplicity of PalmOS, but the competitive range of hardware available for PPC.
I use a Palm Tunsten E which I find far more reliable then any Windows based palmtop. I just wish Palm had better hardware features. The T5 was such a disapointment without WiFi.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
The handhelds made by Symbol are palm compatible, with barcode scanners built in, and you can drop them, drench them, and really beat the crap out of them...
for one source, see http://www.ptshome.com/palmbarcodescanners.shtml buying top of the line for inventory is nuts, buying ruggedized items is smarter.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Steve Jobs really pissed me off when he canceled the Newton, to this day it has the best handheld UI bar none. I think it could have been huge (no pun intended) if it had survived long enough to add smaller and larger formfactors, color, wireless.
I seriously doubt he foresaw the whole pda/phone thing, like the P800, Treo, E680, etc. But, I think he has a point when he talks about how the stuff we need to do with an organizer (todos, events, calendaring, contacts) can be done in a phone.
I think the main problem with that though is changing wireless standards, frequencies, etc, which require software radios.
I started on a Palm, and quickly noticed I mainly used it to play games. So I upgraded through the years and realized the only reason I needed a faster pda was for playing games so now I have a x30 that plays SNES and Gameboy Advance games at 30fps with no problem.
The X50 is great, but my main problem is the lack of buttons: the x30 has a total of 7 buttons along the bottom along with the directional control (the regular 4 for apps, another on each side for recorder and wireless, then another in the middle of the directional control). Coming from a iPaq I can tell you these extra buttons make a huge difference, especially when you fire up SNES games where the original controller had 4 buttons on the right side so the games expect you to easily press the buttons quickly.
They took the extra buttons off the X50v so the x30 remains the best pocket pc out there for playing games at the moment.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I'm not surprised, really. There aren't enough of us to make a difference.
Even so, here's what I want out of a PDA, and the Axim comes close, but not close enough.
1) Wifi support, including WPA, and ideally, some VPN software. I move between multiple wireless networks, some more secure than others. WEP and WPA support are a must.
2) Multitasking. I'm a Palm user, but I'd love to leave programs running in the background properly. (IM programs can do this, IRC and SSH programs cannot. There's a good reason for that, however.)
3) 80x24 terminal emulation. I don't really care about the resolution, as long as I can read a full terminal's worth of information.
4) An input system that allows, minimally, Control and Escape in addition to keyboard input.
5) Enough battery power to get me through the day, and possibly halfway into the next day. I'm okay with charging my battery daily, as long as I can get to the end of the day in the first place.
6) Applications! SSH is key here. An X server wouldn't be bad either, as I sometimes need to manage some LDAP directories, and I'm a little faster flipping through a handful of nodes in a GUI. Toss in a *good* pressure-sensitive touchscreen, a simple painting app, a good diagramming tool, and a decent notepad, and some kind of handwriting recognition. Hell, make the system fast enough, and I won't even *care* about handwriting, so long as I can read what I write.
Ideally, what I want needs to function similarly to a paper memo pad, as well as a wireless SSH device, and a built in video camera would be nice. I can't imagine how I got by without a camera on hand at all times. It's great for grabbing data when I have no time to write it down. Voice memos are similarly important. Syncing via bluetooth would be nice, but not crucial. Persistent data access is a must, so add a flash backup system if needed.
Give me about 256 MB of space to work in, and I'll generally be fine. It's not for watching DVDs, it's not my MP3 jukebox, it's a tool. I use it to gain access to data, much of which won't be stored locally anyway. Just leave me space for my notes and thoughts, and everything else can get pulled from the WLAN as needed.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
I'd love to see one of these with an onboard 40gb HD so that I could upload and preview my photos with it on the road, AND have the features of a PDA in one unit (eg, IR for controlling my camera), wifi, etc. My ideal features set would be:
VGA screen
40gb HD
wifi
IR
Compactflash slot
10 hrs of batter life
GSM would be good too
priced at about $600-$800
Your post is a hell of a lot better if I read it out loud like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.
WORST. NEWS SITE. EVER!!!
This space for rent.
Why is it that Dell is not offering USB host with thier PDAs. It would be great to attach a mass storage device to the pda on the road. Mostly for pics, video and audio. :(
I'm waiting for Dell to make an Axim like the little NEC palm top - with a keyboard and it opens up "Wide Screen" like. Then I'd buy one. Linux, yes, you can run Linux on them. I put Linux on my iPaq.
MadOgre.com
The Tungsten T5 almost made me sell my current Tungsten T, just because it's so damn near perfection.
The only thing missing in it is wifi and that can be added. Yes, it should have been in there, but the T5 is still damn desirable. Drool-inducingly so.
On the Dell what you need is a change of OS. And no, Linux isn't good enough yet, even though it's getting there.
In the end I sold my iPaq because the OS made it an extremely poor PIM and the same was valid for it with Linux installed on it.
Besides that it was also too much hassle to get it to sync with OS X.
Well, that explains my sig.