This post was published 4 years 9 months 24 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.

• AvantGo, CityTime for Pocket PC by Code City (Trial)
• eWallet for Pocket PC by Ilium Software (Trial)
• TripTracker by Two Peaks (Trial)
• Pocket PC Games (Minesweeper, Reversi, or Hearts)
• Total Remote by Griffin, Inc (Trial)
• Scrabble by Handmark, Inc. (Trial)
• Monopoly by Handmark, Inc. (Trial)
• Hexacto’s Tennis Addict by Hexacto Inc. (Trial)
• Hexacto’s Full Hand Casino by Hexacto Inc. (Trial)
• ZIOGolf 2 by ZIO Interactive, Inc. (Trial)
• McAfee VirusScan PDA (Trial)
• Jeode™Java Virtual Machine (Trial)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader For Pocket PC
• Resco File Explorer for PocketPC by Resco (Trial)
• Resco Picture Viewer for PocketPC by Resco
• WordLogic Keyboard (English) by WordLogic (Trial)
• HandyZIP for Pocket PC by CNetX (Trial)
• Dell™ Axim™ X3 Self-Diagnostic Utility
• IA Presenter by IA Style, Inc.
• TinyStocks Stock Manager for Pocket PC by TinyStocks B.V. (Trial)
• Agenda Fusion for Pocket PC by Developer One, Inc. (Trial)
• ListPro for Pocket PC by Ilium Software (Trial)

Too many trial version in my opinion, but there are a few goodies that are free.

Starting it up !
If you are familiar with Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003, the initial startup is the same. Turn the unit on and follow the instructions on the screen to align the screen and set the time zone.

The unit comes installed with Windows Mobile 2003. I received an Axim X3 Advanced which comes with a 400mhz Intel PXA 263 Processor and 64mb SDRAM and 64mb Intel StrataFlash ROM. All the software you need to get started was preloaded and the unit was ready to go after the initial battery charge.

Specifications

Design

So-So Looks!
The design of the X3 is nothing spectacular. It is 2/3 the weight of the Dell Axim X5 and much thinner. Part of the lure and status of the X5 are its nice looks. You can spot an X5 from across the room. The X3 on the other hand, looks like any other Pocket PC. The X3 uses the same stylus as the X5. It is a nice metal stylus with a flattened shape. It is weird to hold at first, but very nice once you get used to it. The buttons are laid out well and even the D Pad is easy to operate. The D Pad may pose troubles for gamers using it constantly due to the small size. The record button and Wireless enable button are easy to engage and I have yet to hit either of them by mistake.

The cradle is nice looking and includes a back slot for a spare battery. It connects via USB connections. I am unsure at this time if it USB 2.0 compliant or not. I did not notice any difference in sync time versus my X5 though. ( Update : It is USB 1.0 )

How does it fit in my big hands?
One of the 1st things you notice after carrying around an X5 for so long is the weight. Even though it is only about 2/3 the weight of the X5, it feels like a sheet of paper in comparison.

The X3 fits perfectly in my hands and the jog dial and D Pad are a perfect swing of my thumb from each other. All the buttons are easy to access. The speaker is on the back of the unit on the lower left. With my grip there is no part of my hand covering the speaker. Even though the looks of the X3 do not stand out, it seems to be well engineered.

Features

Feature packed, but lacking dual expansion slots.
For the money, the X3 is full of features. The X3 has an SDIO SD Slot for exansion. It has separate buttons for Record, Wireless Power, Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, and Home that are programmable with the easy to map settings program. The X3 has a small directional d-pad with a separate center button. There is a jog dial next to the headphone jack that feels a ton more solid than the jog dial on the X5. The stereo headphone jack reproduces sounds nicely. The power button/LED has multiple color indications to indicate power conditions.

Windows Mobile 2003 and a little more.
Besides the Switcher Bar application and the Axim Self Diagnostics Program, there is very little difference in the software from other Pocket PCs. It seems the Ipaqs are coming bundled with more custom and bundled apps.

We have wireless !
Press the Wireless on/off button and you’ll be surfing the Internet in no time. Click the screenshot for a quick and painless screenshot step by step to getting online. With the age of complete mobility coming, I believe Dell had to make a jump into a built in wireless option. I really love the hardware ability to switch the wireless on and off with one click. This feature makes it easy to save battery life when you do not need the wireless capability. On non WiFi models this button is mapped to Windows Media Player.

One of the advantages of not including the the CF slot on the Dell Axim X3 is that many users use CF Wifi cards. With the Built in Wifi option, for me there is no need for the CF slot anymore.(except the CF GPS card I rarely use). A little problem I have discovered with the built in WiFi is the antenna bubble flashes a blue light indicating data flow. This can be very annoying and distracting if you are lying in bed and it is dark. I can see it as a problem to user in class or a meeting too.

Check out your Dell Axim X3
Dell now has an included utility to test out your units performance and functionality, it is simply called Axim Self Diagnotics. This application allows you to monitor battery life, test your video rates, and you can verify the operation and mapping of all your X3’s buttons. It reports the firmware version, bios version, and OS version of your unit. The application also has a display to check all your hardware driver version.

Basically it is a small self check utility. You load the application up, and it runs itself for the most part. There are a couple spots where it requires your input. These inputs include the button utility, which shows a picture of the X3 on the screen and as you push each button a blue dot indicates it was pushed.

SDIO SD Slot makes SD more useful
SDIO, SDIO, and more SDIO…. This is a feature that many Axim Owners were dissapointed to be missing with the Axim X5.

What is SDIO?
SDIO stands for Secure Digital Input/Output. It makes your SD(secure digital) slot support peripherals. In a nutshell, the SD slot on a Dell Axim X5 can only use memory cards. The SDIO standard allows you to use SD WiFi cards, Bluetooth Cards and more.

Screen Brightness
While running some side by side tests with the X5, I noticed that the X3’s screen was much brighter than the X5. I did a hard reset and loaded the same utilities on each and set both of the units to max brightness. The photo below is an attempt to capture the difference.

SPB Benchmark Results
For the following tests I used a the Dell Axim X3 400mhz unit with an Intel PXA 263 and a Dell Axim X5 400mhz unit with an Intel PXA 255 processor. Both units were fully charged and hard reset. I installed only SPB Benchmark. I set both units to Maximum Performance. All memory and brightness settings were turned off so the unit would never dim or cutoff during testing.

Platform index reflects the overall performance of the operating system running on your Pocket PC. It mainly depends on performance of the operating system itself, performance of file manipulations and built-in applications such as Pocket Word or Poclet Internet Explorer.

Spb Benchmark index reflects the overall performance of your Pocket PC hardware. It depends on hardware design of the Pocket PC device, taking into account the performance of CPU, memory, file and video systems.

Platform index reflects the overall performance of the operating system running on your Pocket PC. It mainly depends on performance of the operating system itself, performance of file manipulations and built-in applications such as Pocket Word or Poclet Internet Explorer.

This index reflects the performance of your Pocket PC’s video subsystem.

File system index reflects the performance of the internal file system of your Pocket PC device. It is not affected by storage card speed or by total amount of memory installed on your device – only the speed of file manipulations is taken into account.

SPB Benchmark Side by Side Comparison

Battery Tests
The following test was performed with the Dell Axim X3 400mhz with integrated WiFi. The unit was fully charged and was hard reset prior to tests. The built in WiFi was not enabled during the tests. The only file I added was one MP3 file. All memory and brightness setting were turn off so the unit would never dim or cutoff during testing. I set the MP3 to play at 1/2 volume and the display was set to 100% brightness. I started the MP3 playing continously.

Considering the Full Brightness and continuous audio playback, this is fairly good. Unless you are addicted to Warfare, Inc like I am, you will not give it much work out in 8 hours.

IR Port
With many owners of the X5 coming away disappointed with the IR range, I decided to give the X3 a whirl. I tried using PDA Win on my X5 a long time ago and had to get my lazy tail off the couch just to change the channel. Since the specs for the X3 show the same driver for the IR port as the X5, I was skepitical, but I tried it anyhow. After setting up my TV in the software, I tried to turn the channel from my couch. Success! So I got up and keeping the line of site to the TV’s IR, I walk as far as I could from the TV without hitting a wall. 19.5 feet later I changed the channel on the X3 and the TV’s chanel changed. I went a step furthur and set up my entire entertainment center on my new Axim. I am happy with the range. Built in WiFi Performance
Like I mentioned earlier, I had great success getting the WiFi to see my WAP. I was online in less than 5 minutes. I live in a 2200 square foot brick house. I have surfed Aximsite and PocketPCthoughts.com from all reaches of my house. I invited a friend over last Saturday and he was amazed. I had strong signal levels all throughout my backyard too. Tonight I enabled the WiFi and walked 4 houses down the street before I lost my signal for good. In the car I made a post from more than a tenth of a mile from my house. In my outside testing, I did not find any other wireless access points on my entire street.

Value
The X3 was not the low end Pocket PC that many websites and publications hyped up and speculated, rather it is still dollar for dollar one of the best Pocket PC devices on the market today. Many are also speculating that the X5 will drop like a rock in price, but I fear that is wrong also. The X5 currently retails $325 (Advanced) and $199 (Basic) without discounts. I am not saying that these prices will not change, but since the X5 will continue to be produced and sold, I don’t think Dell will be pushing them off the shelves by lowering the price.

The X3 will be sold in 3 flavors and prices are very similar to the X5.

• Dell Axim X3 Basic ( 300mhz 32ram/32rom) – $229.00
• Dell Axim X3 Advanced ( 400mhz 64ram/64rom) – $329.00
• Dell Axim X3 Advanced with WiFi ( 400mhz 64ram/64rom) – $379.00

The built in WiFi model’s price seems high compared to the X5, but look at it in comparison to other models currently available with built in WiFi. There are several additional features that the X3 does not have that some of the other models do, but still the prices are superior.

	Manufacturer / Model	Price
	Dell Axim X3 Advanced w/ WiFi	$379.00
	Hewlett Packard h4150 (Just released) This unit is the closest comparison to the X3	$459.00
	Hewlett Packard h5455	$699.95
	Hewlett Packard h5550	$699.99
	Hewlett Packard h5555	$649.99
	Toshiba e750	$599.95
	Toshiba e740	$459.95
There are a few overseas models that I did not include.

Overall Dell is still cutting the competition down on pricing. The X3 is just as good of a value as its brother, the X5. Losing the CF slot but adding built in WiFi and an SDIO SD slot makes up for the differences. If you had to purchase the Dell Axim X5 Advanced and then add WiFi CF card (currently $65 for the Dell Truemobile as an accessory with the Axim X5), it would make the regular price for an X5 Advanced with WiFi to be $390.

Conclusion
I must say that overall, I am impressed. Dell set out to fill all the holes that the X5 left open and still undercut the competition and I believe they have done so. Despite a little bias towards Dell, I made all efforts to provide a fair and accurate review of the Dell Axim X3. Dell will probaly bring thousands more users into the Pocket PC arena with this addition.

With built in WiFi at $70+ less than than the competition, SDIO, and a small form factor, I can highly recommend this unit. If you cannot live without the CF slot, this is not for you. I think Dell has made some big steps in the right direction again. Now if they would come out with a Pocket PC Phone with all the same features that this unit has, I would do public cartwheels.

Pros:

• Small Size
• Integrated WiFi
• User replaceable battery
• SDIO compatable SD slot
• Bright Screen
• Windows Mobile 2003

Cons:

• Lack of a CF Slot
• Lower capacity battery than the X5
• Ordinary design
• No cradle for basic model

Tags: Mobilitysite Reviews, PocketPC

Chris Leckness (3532 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.

Related Posts

• RIP – Dell Axim
• Score A Dell Axim X51v 624MHz At A 25% Discount!
• Dell Axim in the Work Force
• AxDroid – Android on a Dell Axim x51v
• Windows Mobile 6 on your Dell Axim – UPDATE