Most *stable* Pocket PC device and "reviews"?

To the point:

Which Pocket PC 2002 device has been determined to be *most* stable?

I ask this because it seems that everywhere I go, in my neverending search on deciding which ppc2002 device to purchase (might now be an Axim), the same crap is being said. Nearly every review states, "there is no perfect Pocket PC".

Granted; regarding perfection in terms of the "feature set". But even given as much features as the new 5450, it seems that all of the devices suffer from various hardware/software crashes. Nearly just as many reviews stated "soft reset" and worse, "hard reset". Oh ya! I definately want *that* paper weight in my pocket. Its a rare case for a palm user to have to "reset".

While the PPC2002 devices, as matured as they've gotten, still seem to lack such stability. The blame is not entirely Microsoft's fault, as it is the OEM's applied adoption of (what I believe) very poor quality with integrating the hardware, and proper testing. Specs. mean nothing if the shiny unit can't pull it off. What good is WiFi or Bluetooth if it hangs the machine or stops working for no reason? What good is accelerated graphics chips if they mess up the Win32 API and your apps don't look or act the same? What good is any hardware which can't recover from the Suspend mode? It seems that reliability has been sacrificed by adding a greater feature set. I still search for a review that states how stable and rock solid a device is. A device where *all its features work* flawlessly. (or atleast 95% of them).

IMHO I think more reviews of devices should *test* the units more thoroughly and push it till it breaks. See what kind of beating this thing can withstand. Make it scientific and accurate, as opposed to "here's a review of a day in my life with so-and-so model device". If people are expected to store their life on these things, it better be reliable.

I has been a short while since Dell through open the doors to its Axim models; but I figure there has to be enough info and experience on it now from the PPC community to judge its worthiness in comparison to the other 2002 devices.

So I ask the owners of their Axim's, "how stable is this thing"? How hard have you pushed it and have it survive before you had to hit the big'o *reset*? I'm especially interested in how it handles the CF and SD peripherals, since that seems to be where most other devices freak out. They can't seem to play nice with other hardware (let alone software).

Opinions? B)

[Mike C]

I don't have any peripherals yet, but so far the only thing that crashes my Axim is the media players ... trying to load a large file that also needs processing. It's understandable given the limited memory it has to work with.

[Osiris]

The Axim is completely stable. I've never had a problem with it, even with huge files.

HOWEVER...the operating system isn't too stable, especially if you start tweaking it. Graphical glitches, memory faults, you name it. But if you leave the thing alone and don't load something like Pocket Facelift into it, it's 100% reliable. I've never had my Axim hicup during normal use, using the standard OS.

[Mizar]

My Ax has been rock-solid, too. I've been forced to soft-reset three times, always after doing stupid things like messing too much with network settings, or trying to load very large spreadsheets or map files (though I can load files much larger than most PalmOS devices have RAM).

No stability complaints here...

-Bill

[Quinn]

I've never had any problem with mine either. The only hard reset I had was an inadvertant one when changing out the battery.

Quinn

[royboy81]

So what does it take... all of 8-10 seconds to reboot! Wow! Any soft resets I do have all to do with some piece of 3rd part s/w or by messing with settings. I don't see what the deal is with stability. I have never lost anything, most of the info is fairly static and on my laptop in Outlook. Stability seems to be a factor more with the OS than the hardware. Make your own assessment...

[mesa]

I've owned other units such as the PSION, HP548/HP568 and the Axim is bar far the best overall unit. The best buy and features. Like the comments above, don't download these stupid little $12 programs and you'll never run into these nasty little glitches. I use mine for work on the field for troubleshooting our devices via RS232. works the beans, because of this little device, I leave the laptop at home......

[NMkiD]

Reliability is directly related to what you install into the device, pretty much any device at that. These units are all about the same, the only thing you might have to worry about reliability wise is the operating system, and whta you load onto it. As far as hardware goes its great. I have a CF and SD card in (cheap ones) and I have never had any problems with performance, battery life, etc. Also for me a big factor was the price to feature ratio, which the Axim wins hands down over any other pocket pc out there today.

Also soft resets are not something that anyone should worry about having to do, whether its 3 times a day or 3 times a month it dosent matter, it dosent do anything to your data and it takes only a few seconds to restart, everything is still intact so this really should play no part in someones decision to buy a pocket pc, bresides some people do soft resets 2 times a day while others maybe don't hardly ever do it, and its also probably directly related to the programs you've installed, so posting whether or not you soft reset isn't really necessary IMHO.

later.