big_redfox

My x50v is SOLD! 1/4/07


Don't get me wrong, I love my x50v, especially with A02 ROM. But what I dislike is the sudden slown down due to compaction and the 10-15 sec wait after power up. Any app is slower when launching the very first time but much faster later (probably due to caching). So I said to myself I need a x51v!

Another worry I have is that I think Dell will never roll out another update for x50v anymore. It costs Dell money and do not bring in any revenue. I think what Dell is doing is to get x50v to a state where it functions normally. All the new features with MS AKU will go into x51v.

So I checked around and found x51v is not on sale at all. There was a big sale of x51v for $233 around 11/23. A lot of people bought it and then resell them on line for a profit. It seems that things are not doing too good for them as the price for sealed box is now $300 in Bay Area via Craigslist.

So I decided to dive in. Got one brand new sealed x51v with a used 1GB SD card for $300. Just came back from Reno on 20 hrs of Black Jack and did not lose a penny, I considered this a gift from Silver Legacy Casino!

I am trying to sell my x50v for $250 clean after a hard reset. If any of you want to buy, I will even lower the price a little more. My x50v is in mine condition. The only usage I have is checking stock quote in the morning while in bed.

With both x50v and x51v in hand, I decided to do some comparison. I kind of regret a little bit as x51v is not much faster than x50v at all. Here is the detail:

(1) Slowdown during operation

X50v has a 10-15 sec slowdown at initial power up and once a while during operation. Initial launching of third party apps, such as opera, is also slow.

X51v is much snappy due to the type of flash memory it has. There is still a few sec of slow down at power up, but the experience is much more pleasant. Slowdown after power up is virtually non-existent.

(2) Experience on normal usage

I do not feel any difference on performance between x50v and x51v, except when there is compaction running once a while on x50v. Both OS are using WM5 AKU 2.3.1 so the features are the same.

(3) Those Today plug-ins are still slow even on x51v

I tried SPB and iLaunch. iLaunch makes both PDA very slow. SPB is a little better. I found that the battery bar would still be there even if you turn off SPB in Today's menu (a very nice feature!). Anybody have any suggestion on fancy Today plug-in and still not slowing down the PDA?

(4) SD Card write speed is improved

I use SKTool to do benchmark on SD Card read/write with same SD card on X50v and X51v. I found write speed is improved quite a bit on x51v, while read speed is reduced. This is probably due to the fact that x50v is made for PPC2003 and the OS is not expected to write a lot of data to SD Card.

(5) Craftsmanship is reduced on x51v

I bought my x50v during first 6 month of product introduction and the PDA is perfect on craftsmanship. The x51v I just got, althought still very nice, has a few very small annoying defects: (1) battery door is looser than what I have expected; (2) one side of the power button is a little higher than the other; (3) touch screen feel is uneven. I have to push a little harder in the middle of the screen. It feels there is a gap between the touch screen and the LCD.

I probably will call up Dell to get a replacement due to the touch screen problem.

Over all, I feel that x50v is not too much behind than x51v at this point. Of course the future is unknown. I am sure Dell will support X51v in the future but it is a different story for x50v.

Happy New Year!

rohanch

I don't think the touchscreen issue is a "problem" so a replacement probably won't help. All newer hardware revisions of the x51v are like that, apparently. Mine definitely is anyway. I heard on here somewhere that it's slightly more accurate than the harder-glass-like touchscreen of previous versions.

Frenchy

Moved to classified

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Frenchy