Big review of Dell Axim X50v

Until recently, the main competitors in the VGA Pocket PC segment included HP, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Asus and, to an ever lesser extent, Toshiba, unfortunately. I have reviewed all their large-display products and I must say the vast majority of them are very good. I have finally been able to review the one that was missing in the “collection” thanks to a kind reader nickname beecher who lent me the device. Thanks a million, beecher:)

For some reason or other, Dell always introduces three models in each series of its Pocket PC devices. The models differ in capabilities, processor speed, memory size and supported communication channels. The X50 series adds another variable parameter, which is display resolution. Whereas Axim X50 and Axim X50 Wireless have a common 3.5-inch QVGA display with a resolution of 240x320 pixels, the Axim X50v comes with a full-fledged 480x640-pixel VGA display coupled with an excellent graphic processor Intel 2700G. Dell offers a comparison of the three models on its website. We shall concentrate on the most powerful one, Axim X50v.

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What is in the... plastic bag?

Why plastic bag? Try and guess:) When you buy such a device abroad, the original box will cost you up to 30 % of the price in VAT, so it pays to leave it somewhere... And it would be difficult to persuade customs officers that I only need to borrow the device. But back to the main topic. The box (well, the plastic bag) contains a quite common set of parts and accessories.

• Dell Axim X50v
• Replaceable battery
• Stylus
• USB cradle
• Power source with adapter for direct charging
• Case
• 2x CD-ROM
• User guide
• Quick start guide

The USB cradle is quite well designed; I like it best of all cradles ever shipped with Axims. There is no shining logo but a single LED indicator. The cradle combines silvery cast iron and black plastic and is more compact and elegant than the older glossy ones. The cradle is stable and does not slide on the desktop due to its relatively big weight and four rubber feet. There is a slot for charging a spare battery. The power cable with a USB connector is fixed to the cradle, unfortunately, which is less convenient than a detachable cable we can see in devices of other makes. On the other hand, the cable is extremely long – hardly anyone will find its 2 meters insufficient.

The AC adapter (5.4 V / 2.4 A) is tiny and won’t take up much space in the luggage on your travels. It comes with a detachable mains cord with 8-shaped connector and a fixed cable that connects to the cradle or device. It has been common lately that you need a special data connector adapter for direct charging.

The package also includes a case, its main advantage being the simple fact that it is included:) It is a strip of nylon or other synthetic fabric, padded inside and joined together on the sides with strips of elastic material. It does provide some protection for the device but there are few other materials that would feel worse to the touch than this. There is no belt clip or any other mechanism that would allow attaching the case somewhere. All in all, nothing exciting. The case provided with the X30 model was two classes better.

There are also two CD-ROMs. One of them contains a traditional suite of Microsoft applications, such as ActiveSync and Outlook, as well as third-party software. The other carries two bonus 3D applications. Beginners will surely appreciate a detailed user guide. A brief leaflet with basic information is there for a quick start.

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Design

Unlike, say, HP and its iPAQs, Dell does not stick to a single line of design in its Pocket PCs. The Axim X50 is quite different from the first series, the X5, as well as the following X3 (X30) series. Axim’s body is made of black plastic with silver buttons and a decorative frame on the front panel. Assembly is perfect, no leeway, no screeching of plastic parts. I like Axim very very much, perhaps best of all VGA pocket devices. Well, it is a matter of personal taste and maybe enchantment by something new. As far as size and weight are concerned, the X50v model is comparable with other VGA devices with a display diagonal smaller than 4 inches, such as LOOX 720 and Asus A730. Check a table below for exact dimensions.

Pocket PC with VGA display	Dimensions (in / mm)	Weight (oz / g)
Dell Axim X50v	4.70 x 2.90 x 0.70 119 x 73 x 16.9	6.2 179
FSC Pocket LOOX 720	4.80 x 2.83 x 0.60 122 x 72 x 15	6.0 170
HP iPAQ hx4700	5.17 x 3.03 x .59 131 x 77 x 15	6.6 187
Asus MyPal A730	4.62 x 2.86 x 0.66 118 x 73 x 17	5.46 170
Toshiba e800	5.30 x 3.00 x 0.60 134 x 76 x 15	6.8 193

The front panel is dominated by an excellent 3.7-inch (93.9-millimetre) display. Above the display in the middle is the main switch which also functions as a status indicator (a transparent Axim emblem shines either green or orange like in other Dell models). To the left of it is a microphone. Another LED indicator is on the right to notify of wireless activity by green and blue light. Below the display is a usual combination of an oval joypad with a separate central button and four programmable buttons around (the joypad and buttons look the same as those in Axim X30). Each button can be assigned one action. A speaker is hidden behind the joypad, which reduces sound quality.

The back is quite uninspiring, with nothing but a sunken software reset button and battery compartment with a safety latch. Two small rubber knobs in the upper part prevent undesired slipping on the desktop.

The top side carries the usual elements, including two expansion slots (SD and CF), an infrared port, stereo 3.5-mm headphones output, and a stylus shaft. There is nothing on the bottom side but an extra wide data connector (unfortunately, it is not backwards compatible with previous models).

The right and left sides are very different. Whereas there is no control on the right, the left side hosts a few: two user-configurable buttons (one preset for sound recording, the other for wireless module activation/deactivation), a button and display lock, and an eye for a neckstrap for those who would like to wear the device hung on their neck like a mobile phone.

Dell brand fans will surely appreciate a neat theme for the Today screen.

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Parameters

The new Dell Axim X50v is undoubtedly one of the most powerful pocket devices today, so it will be a lot of praise in the next few lines yet not without some criticism:) The device is equipped with the same processor as the HP iPAQ hx4700, i.e. an Intel PXA270 processor running at 624 MHz. An applet in Settings makes it possible to easily slow down the processor clock to 520 or 208 MHz without a restart, or let the device adjust the frequency according to workload. This is especially welcome considered the battery performance is far from ideal. As far as memory is concerned, there is the same problem as in the HP iPAQ hx4700 – this Dell, too, has 128 MB of rewritable Intel StrataFlash ROM but only 64 MB of standard SDRAM. As usual, real values lower: after a hard reset, the user can access 46 MB of RAM and 91 MB of FlashROM as a safe storage. There is no point discussing the pros and cons over again, everything has been said in discussions about the iPAQ. One can live with it but will have to get used to saving everything to a memory card, because it takes just two games stored in the main memory and low memory-related problems will make you go crazy.

Axim’s display is just wonderful. It definitely attracts attention at first sight and is one of the best I have ever seen. I could not compare directly but is may be the same display that I admired in a recent review of Asus MyPal A730; at least the size is the same. It is a transflexive TFT display with a resolution of 480x640 pixels, 3.7-inch diagonal (93.9 millimetres), and supporting up to 65 thousand colours. It is smaller in size than that in the iPAQ but the difference is just millimetres. Brightness can be adjusted at nine levels separately for battery and mains operation. The first level is sufficient for most lighting conditions; the maximum brightness was unpleasant to look at. The display is perfectly readable in sunlight, even though the sun in December is one thing and in August quite anther. I have noticed that colours appear less rich than e.g. in LOOX, which may be because of the extreme brightness. The difference is not very big but noticeable. Black margin around the display is within acceptable limits. The touch-sensitive layer is a little tougher but not as much as to hinder user experience. Like all devices with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, this Dell, too, supports ClearType and easy screen rotation by 90 degrees as well as adjustment of the system font size.

Graphics deserves a chapter on its own. Even though this Dell is not the first Pocket PC device with a dedicated graphics chip, its performance especially in optimised 3D games is absolutely amazing. The Axim features a brand new Intel 2700G graphics chip witch own 16 MB of graphic memory and high performance in 3D applications, which may mean nothing to those uninformed. However, fans of fast graphics will rejoice because graphics performance is one of the weaknesses of new VGA devices. Whereas graphics chips have remained the same, they have to handle 4 times more work, which does affects performance. No need for concern in this new Dell though, as witnessed by two bonus 3D games optimised for this chip. More on that in the evaluation section but if graphics performance is a decisive factor for you, go for Dell.

The Dell is good at audio, too, although in this respect, it is not as impressive as in the graphics and display. It offers the usual combination of a loudspeaker, microphone and headphones output. Sound quality is good, the only weakness is limited options. Apart from volume setting, you can adjust only microphone sensitivity. Cool features, such as bass boost or even pseudo 3D sound are lacking. On the other hand, true audiophiles despise such features. The headphones output is standard 3.5-millimetre jack, so you can use virtually any headphones (such as quality Koss Porta Pro like me). I was quite satisfied with the device’s audio performance. There was virtually no noise, the sound was rich. The only drawback was that the maximum headphones volume was insufficient in a noisy environment. The loudspeaker is yet quieter although it performs well in other respects. Its location under the joypad is unfortunate because when you have your thumb on the joypad e.g. when playing games, the already soft sound is muted even more. The microphone is highly sensitive and can handle both direct dictation and conference talk. Its automatic adjustment is not perfect, though, so a close-range recording may be a little overcharged. Fortunately, the automatic adjustment can be deactivated:)

The new Axim offers a good choice of communication modules, starting with USB connection via the data connector on the bottom of the device. It does not support USB Host, which is seen as a major drawback by a growing group of users. Then there is a slow infra red port (115 kbps). I forgot to test its appliance-control capability but the presence of Total Remote software on the CD-ROM suggests it is there. Observations and comments welcome.

It has become quite boring to talk about Bluetooth:) The only piece of news for regular readers may be that Widcomm has been renamed to Broadcom, otherwise it is business as usual. I tested the Dell with a mobile phone and a BT dongle and everything worked well. Just out of curiosity did I try a BT headset from Jabra and – surprise, surprise – it worked, too. Sound quality is too poor for MP3 playback but it does work. The device supports the following services: file transfer, PIM information exchange, serial port, personal network server, dial-up server, and sound gate.

WiFi is more exciting. It supports normal as well as power-saving mode, offers concise data transfer statistics and is easy to manage using a supplied application. Windows Mobile 2003 SE makes it possible to use WEP, WPA and other undoubtedly wonderful features:) I have encountered problems with sensitivity, though. I could not measure it but I had problems connecting to a network in my office where I normally test devices. The Axim just would not detect a WLAN network when lying on the same desk in the same position as other devices... Nevertheless, in places with a strong signal it worked fine.

The battery is the greatest weakness of the otherwise excellent device. The mere fact that the battery’s capacity is just 1100 mAh brings about worries but the result of tests was worse than my expectations. It may be partly due to the intensively shining display (4 out of 5 tests are done with full backlight) but it cannot be the only reason. Buying an optional double-capacity battery is not an adequate solution. It is good that the Axim supports charging over USB, yet this is not ideal either – the battery recharges only when the device is off...

Here are the tests (the Axim was running at full speed at 624 MHz). In the first test that simulated common operation, the Axim lasted for 2 hours and 37 minutes (compare with 4 hours and 33 minutes achieved by the best performing VGA Pocket PC, iPAQ hx4700). In an MP3 test with deactivated display the Axim lasted for 5 hours and 3 minutes (iPAQ 15 hours), video playback 2 hours 30 minutes (iPAQ 4 hours 24 minutes), Bluetooth test 3 hours and 10 minutes (iPAQ 4 hours 50 minutes), and WiFi test 2 hours 9 minutes (iPAQ 3 hours). It is nothing Dell could boast of but reducing the backlight intensity and processor speed can improve battery performance by tens of percent...

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Expandability

As far as expandability is concerned, the new Dell compares to other VGA Pocket PC. Two expansion slots (Compact Flash type II and SDIO slot) can handle both memory and I/O cards. I tried an IBM Microdrive, HP SD digital camera and a few memory cards, and everything worked perfectly. There are some problems handling the cards – the CF slot does not have an eject mechanism and the SD slot is sunken quite deep, so if you have short fingernails, you will have to manipulate with the SD card using the stylus. Connecting over Bluetooth was a doddle; I tried a mobile phone, computer, handsfree headset as well as another Pocket PC and encountered no problems whatsoever. As I wrote above, the Axim does not support USB host, unfortunately. On the other hand, it makes it possible to connect an external monitor over a special cable connecting to the data connector. By the way, the data connector – by contrast with common practice, Dell used a new connector in this model, so it is impossible to use accessories from older models. Sigh...

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Software

Besides the operating system, which is Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Premium, there are several additional applications either preloaded in the device or included in the bonus CD-ROMs. I have mentioned some of them (mainly applets and software to manage wireless modules) and am going to introduce the rest now. Let’s start with Home, a simple utility for fast launching of applications. It makes it possible to divide applications into several categories and then filter them. Nothing revolutionary...

All high-end devices such as this come with a data backup utility preloaded in the ROM to help protect against loss of data. The one in the Axim is called simply Data Backup. It is not as sophisticated as that in, say, iPAQ, but serves its purpose well. You can backup either all or selected data and choose target location for the backup file.

The last bonus application included in the ROM has been present in Axims for a long time – it is a utility called Switcher Bar. It is located somewhat unexpectedly in the Settings instead of Programs. After launching, it sits in the upper bar and makes it possible to manage running tasks and switch to a selected Settings applet. It is a very useful and indispensable utility in a device with just 64 MB of RAM.

Well, there is yet another application called Odyssey Client in the ROM but I could not figure out what to do with it. It has something to do with WiFi but what exactly is a mystery. According to some references in the Internet, it should improve data transfer security so that it is safe to connect e.g. to a corporate network over WiFi but this is my guess. If you know more, please send some information to the discussion.

As I wrote above, the package includes two CD-ROMs. One of them contains usual Microsoft applications, such as Outlook and ActiveSync as well as tons of demoversions and a few full applications. One of them is Dell Axim X50 Self-Diagnostic Utility, which makes it possible to test Axim’s hardware.

All users will appreciate an OEM version of excellent image viewer and MPEG player from Resco, Resco Picture Viewer. It offers countless features, supports numerous file formats, provides tools for basic editing; simply a perfect replacement for the default Pictures application from Microsoft.

It is possible that there is another full version among several dozen demos that I did not find. The list of applications is hard to orientate in as it mixes up demos and full versions without a line of explanation...

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Pricing

You can buy the most powerful Axim on-line for $425 USD. However, it is sold in the Czech Republic for some 150 dollars more, which is one of the reasons why it is unlikely to find many users there. Pity...

[POLL]

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Benchmarks & Tests

I could keep the device for a relatively short time, so my experience is no as extensive as I wished it to be. The device’s design is one of the most elegant of all Pocket PCs I have reviewed. Its rounded lower corners provide for a sure and comfortable grip. The higher than average weight should not therefore pose a problem to an ordinary user. Controls are fine; the Axim can handle a simultaneous press of 3 buttons, which is indispensable in action games. Button spacing is optimum for my fingers. The only substantial criticism concerns the buttons on the left side. They are located exactly where I naturally put my fingers when taking the device, so I often accidentally activated WiFi or sound recording. This is perhaps only my problem but I would welcome if they were placed a few centimetres higher.

The device’s performance can be described in one word – excellent. The fastest processor available and a super fast graphics chip is an exciting combination not only for passionate gamers but for all those who expect more from a multimedia device than a photo of their wife on the Today screen background. The huge power is most apparent in applications optimised for the graphics chip. The package includes two 3D games which are both worth trying, out of curiosity if nothing else. They are no gems but good for the device to demonstrate its power – how fast things move. And things move very fast, I must say.

Naturally, I tried other games, too. At the moment, there are only two games for the VGA resolution (Acky's XP Breakout and Meteor). They both work perfectly. In particular, XP Breakout with multi-layer all-screen scrolling, dynamic music and lots of effects lets the Axim show what it can do.

The Axim was also the best of the reviewed VGA devices at running games designed for QVGA devices. GTS Racing Challenge was so fast that it was almost unplayable... Optimised for 400-MHz processors, maybe:) Another 3D game, Anthelion, was playable without any problems. The same applies to Snails, although its AI is a burden for the processor rather than the graphics system. Next were two scrolling games: shooter Z-Raid was virtually seamless and perfectly playable; GangstaRace likewise scrolled smooth and fast. I tried several others, some would not run but most of them worked.

Video playback is absolutely amazing! Well, I mean DivX movies for BetaPlayer. Its latest version supports a codec optimised for Intel 2700G, which affects the result. Never before have I seen such a smooth movie on a PDA! It made no difference that it was not optimised for pocket computers but a common trailer for I, Robot. On the other hand, Windows Media Player, although having reached version 10, continues to perform badly. It is possible that WMP10 has compatibility problems with a video file encoded in the WMP9 format but the result is that a growing number of users are switching to BetaPlayer. I have mentioned MP3 playback above, no need to elaborate further.

I have mentioned everything else, no point in repeating myself.

Finally, some exact figures. I use Spb Benchmark for a complete performance test. Having reviewed several new Pocket PC, I can compare them. If you are interested in detailed results, the complete .XML file is available for download here :: Dell Axim X50v (2003 SE, 624MHz) [3KB] . To compare with other devices, copy the contents of the file to this form and click on Add device.

ROM version of the tested device :: A01 (10130400)

NB :: Spb Benchmark does not take 3D graphics into account, please bear this in mind when comparing with competing devices.

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Detailed evaluation

The Axim is another device to which I applied a more detailed and stricter evaluation system. This is because the rating of most devices I have reviewed lately ranged from 90 to 95 percent and it was difficult to tell which device is better (I tried to avoid a 100-percent rating). Another reason is that this new system is more transparent... That is why the final rating is NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. 90 percent now and 90 percent before are completely incomparable figures.

A few words to explain the new system: Type can be Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone edition, or Smartphone. Class means the target group, which is key for understanding the other categories. Number of points in the other categories are relative with regard to the class. For instance, a device with a VGA display, two expansion slots, BT and WiFi modules in the high-end category will receive nine points for a certain weight, whereas a device in the “entry” class with a QVGA display, one slot and no radio module will receive three points for the same weight. The date is also important – if I am rating a 1.3-Mpix integrated camera today, it will receive 10 points because there is nothing better available. Half a year later, when 2-Mpix integrated cameras will become available, this one would receive fewer points.

If you would like to comment on the evaluation, please join the discussion. I am not doing for my own pleasure but to make choosing a new device easier for you. If you think it is a wrong idea, just let me know:)

Rating
Name:	Dell Axim X50v
Type:	Pocket PC
Class:	High-end
Date:	January 17, 2005
Design, user friendliness
Design:	9,5
Dimensions:	9
Weight:	7
Buttons, user comfort:	7
Assembly quality:	9
Performance, memory
Processor:	10
Free RAM:	5
Free ROM:	10
Display
Dimensions:	10
Size:	8
Quality (indoors):	9,5
Quality (outdoors):	8
Backlight:	10
Touch layer:	8
Audio
Microphone:	8
Loudspeaker:	8
Headphones output:	9
Communication
USB:	8
Infra:	8
Bluetooth:	9
WiFi:	7
Battery, power settings
Features:	4
Battery life:	4
Expandability
General:	9
Software
System, settings:	6
Bonus apps in ROM:	4
Bonus apps on CD:	4
Accessories
Quantity:	7
Quality:	8
Other
Overall impression:	9
Manufacturer's support:	6
Price/performance ratio	6
Total
Dell Axim X50v	7,62 out of 10

Notes :: Rating on the scale from 1 to 10. The higher the figure, the closer to the ideal. If a device receives 10 points for "Design", it means it is beauty from heaven. On the other hand, if it receives 10 points for “Weight”, it means it is extremely light.

That’s all. Have a nice working week:)

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