Well, I've had the X3i for a few days now, and I've been able to test it out. I guess this is really a few complaints and a little bit of a review, as I've "upgraded" from an iPaq 1940, and I'm not sure that I'm happy with what I did yet.
* First things first, the wifi range is OK, but definitely not as good as a laptop, but I'm sure that's for power consumption reasons. I've had no problems at all with it (aside from some minor issues with PocketWiNc but those are only in that program). What I'd like to be able to do with the Dell WLAN Utility is disable it and use PocketWiNc in its place, but of course there seems to be absolutely no such way of doing that. Nothing on Google or here regarding that.
* Secondly, the sound configuration provided by Dell is extremely sub-par. HP provides very nice configuration software on their PPC's. You can set headphone volume independant of the speaker volume, etc. In PocketMusic on the iPaq, using the volume slider, I could turn the volume so low I could barely hear it, and on the Dell, its loud at the very last setting before it completely mutes itself. I'll tell you its a good thing my earbuds have a separate volume control on them. Also, between songs in PocketMusic on the Dell, you hear some quiet (but loud enough to notice them) weird tones that aren't part of the song. The same thing happens if you turn the volume all the way down to 0, you can hear it then. The MP3's are clean, and that sound never appeared on the iPaq at all. I'll write that off on probably crappy audio hardware, as Dell is quite known for using the crappiest, cheapest available crap to build their stuff at such low prices.
I used to sell computers and we would compete with Dell on a regular basis b/c customers would come in with Dell flyers and say "I want this computer for the same price as Dell" and we'd spec it out, and it'd be usually $200 more, and we'd have to explain to them that that's before shipping, etc, etc, and they're using bottom of the barrel parts and their service sucks the big one (for computers anyways) and ours was top notch and they'd still walk away disgusted over $125 difference and then come crying to us to fix their Dell when it broke!
And I digress...
* Thirdly, although the Dell performs quicker than my previous PPC (which was 266MHz), I've noticed that the HP is a HELL OF A LOT more stable. What I mean is that the Dell hangs a LOT when it's not set on Max Performance mode. I use XCPUScalar, which theoretically should help it out, but still the same crap. If I want any kind of battery life, I need to have it not on Max Performance mode. I have all my software installed in RAM (8mb program storage mem free, 20mb running mem free), some Pocket Streets maps in the ROM, and MP3's and misc crap on the SD card, but no programs. When I click the Start Menu in any mode other than Max Perf. it seems like it takes forever to load it up. There's usually nothing running at this time, sometimes wifi's on, sometimes it's off... it's unpredictable and really annoying. This thing's supposed to be fast, that's what all the reviews said about it, so how bout that speed?
Also, when I have a program open, say PocketMusic, it sometimes stops responding to my taps, but keeps playing music, and eventually (I forget how long) it "wakes up" and starts listening to me again.
* Some of the things I actually like about it are the nice cradle. Its sleek, cool looking, sturdy, and does it's job quite well. My only gripe is that the Dell turns itself on in the cradle sometimes (after I've synced and shut it off), which is annoying, because I want it to stay off so it charges faster. Also, the travel charger clip that plugs into the bottom of it much more sturdy than the iPaq's, which you could blow on and it would fall out. The Dell has a nice solid feel to it as well, it doesn't feel cheap and like it'd smash into a million little pieces if you accidentally dropped it like some of the other PPC's I've looked at. It's also very light, equally light as my iPaq 1940, if not a bit lighter (well that's how it felt to me). It's a bit larger, but that doesn't bother me, as long as it's not an absolute monster like those Sony Clié's with the flip up screens and cameras built in!
What I was really looking for in my newest PPC was not style or anything like that. I was looking for wifi, a nice bright non-yellow screen, a non crappy flimsy half plastic stylus (like the iPaq 1940 ones that break too easily), a bit more speed & storage space, and not too expensive, all of which I'm happy to say that I've received. What I didn't expect was crappy audio, and occasional unpredictable (and, dare I say, unwarranted?) slow responsiveness. Am I alone on this one, or is this a common thing? I'd like to know without having to learn Hindi, Punjabi or Tamil so I can properly converse with any Indian TS worker I may happen to get on the other end of the phone.
I like the Dell, I just dislike this behaviour a lot more than I like the other things. I would have gotten the iPaq 4150, except I can't afford that at the moment.
I guess that's a rather long winded version of what I think of this machine and some of my griping and complaining thrown in for kicks, sorry if I bore you to death by making you read it!
