Hi everyone!
First of all, I would like to say that this is a great site with lots of useful info, so thank you to the site Admins. I have recently purchased an Axim x50v, and I am very pleased with it; yes, I've read numerous posts on this site with people complaining about this and that, and I admit that it is far from flawless, but to each his own and it suits my needs very well.
I migrated straight from palm to the pocket pc with the x50v, so I will admit to having no basis for comparison to other pocket pcs. However, in the last year I have been through three Palms until I eventually got fed up with the crap they've been putting out, did some research and bought myself the axim. I was a Palm user for years now, and in the last year I have used the Sony TJ37, PalmOne Tungsten T5, and the Tapwave Zodiac 2. All quite a big disappointment. :throwcomp
It all started when my MD player broke so I was looking for an entertainment device. I was never sure about the ipod craze(I see the white earphones everywhere now, it has become a fashion icon more than a mp3 player), and I think people are being consumer sheep in going for the trend. 20gb would be great to have for storage, but then when are you really going to listen to that much music if the battery only last about 10-12 hours?
So i chose something that could do it all from the very beginning: the handheld device (first one was the sony peg tj33) -it organizes my life, it has ample storage, it not only plays mp3s but can also play movies, and on top of it all it allowed me to browse the web and check e-mail almost anywhere in the world. Pocket PCs were always too expensive so i went for palm, and it was great for a long time, until last year sony quit the pda market, and palmone's greed went to their heads so they lost all ingenuity and common sense. My opinion: palms are history if only pocket pcs were easier to sync with macs.
Finally only a few weeks ago I received my x50v. And I was pleasantly surprised as i paid the same price for it as for my Tungsten T5 only a few months earlier, and the axim was much more better looking and a much better performer.
As i took it out of the box, the first surprise was that it was very small; I imagined it to be a lot bigger and bulkier for some reason. I also think it is quite well designed and despite being plastic feel very sturdy(in comparison to the sony and the palmone.) Lots of people complain about the small buttons. The navigation pad is too small, and I occasionally hit the wrong direction; however, I cannot complain about the buttons, I have big hands, yet I do not have any problems with them. The 8 hour charge- :bang: . The charging time with new electronics is so frustrating: everything needs to be charged first, and you are left hovering around it until the time is up...
Once it's up and running I was very pleased with the clarity and the brightness of the screen, I was absolutely blown away by the VGA screen. I have read that apparently the hx4700 screen is even better, but even better than already excellent? Maybe but there is an old saying: better is the worst enemy of good.
The pocket pc is very easy to set up and customize. I especially like Activesync- it is the most flawless sync programme that I have come accross(against the palm hotsync, chapura and intellisync), I use outlook and it is so incredibly simple to keep all your records up-to-date. Although Agendus for palm was a little bit more elaborate and flexible, the pocket office makes up for the lack of extra features in simplicity. I do not understand why they have used USB 1 instead of 2, it takes ages to install new programs which is definitively a downfall.
I absolutely love the ability to multitask- it is such an ENORMOUS change from the palm. I never realized how useful multitasking can be on a handheld device- but being able to talk on messenger, entering someone's details in the address book, whilst browsing the web, and at the same time creating a playlist in the background is actually very useful and productive.
In terms of its primary function as an entertainment device- I'll have to give it 5* out of 5. :approve: I do however wish they would port PocketTunes Deluxe to the pocketpc, because at the moment I have not been able to find any music player that comes even close to being as good. Windows Media player 10-
all I can say is that it's a joke. Can you even turn the screen off??? I use PocketMusic currently, and at best it feels clumsy. On the plus side the clarity of the sound is great, wonderful compared to the palms (except the zodiac that had a built in yamaha sound processor), and the device can play the music very loudly, something the palms lacked. The dual expansion slots help greatly in this area- I have a 4gb CFII microdrive, along with a 1gb sd card, and that gives me ample storage for all my music and video. On to video: the first clip I played on the axim was a a 350mb episode of 24- day 4. I was absolutely blown away. I use betaplayer- :nw: no complaints there, it's great; hats off to the people who made it. Cnet said the x50v has "subpar video performance," i'm a little lost here- subpar to what? a 42 inch plasma? I got so fed up with having to spends hours converting video for the palm, in the end only to have really poor bitrates and resolutions; on the pocket pc its so simple, just drag and drop the file on to the sd! There isn't even a need to copy it to the storage, you can stream over wifi!
Games: i haven't yet come accross a handheld that is suitable for playing anything but puzzle games(except the zodiac of course, but the games library was nonexistent, and the graphics were very poor), but here I have come accross an old classic- Sim City 2000, and I'm hooked. I don't see why they don't port games such as theme hospital or rollercoaster tycoon to the PPC???
On to battery life, I have come accross numerous posts complaining about the battery life: I think expectations here are blown out of proportion. My personal opinion is that the battery life is splendid. Yes, it is not what I desire, but it is very good. The battery is user accesible- where were you on that one palm? My battery lasts me a day in which I will use wifi to check my mail, browse the web and chat on messenger; along with listen to a bit of music and watch an hour long video. I recharge overnight, and then in the morning its ready for another whole day. I bought two replacement batteries in case I need them for longer trips, they only set me back $50 for both. I did not notice much difference with the microdrive in use, the battery life is still very good. My palms lasted just as long usually, except they had lower resolution screens and slower processors.
I found Wireless connectivity to be very simple to use. The axim easily connects to my phone and to any wireless network. However, any advanced settings were quite confusing(this is a problem with windows), and the Dell wireless utility could be a lot better.
It would be nice if the pocket pc could be used as a usb pen drive such as the tungsten t5. Is it really so hard to do?
I have also read posts that the x50v is somewhat sluggish. The slow respose to screen taps can be frustrating sometimes, but then I am used to the Tungsten T5- and that was SLOW. I think the axim is reasonably quick. Even my desktop pc @3.4GHZ can at times slow down due to load, so I cannot complain about the Axim in the least.
Overall I think the Axim x50v is fantastic. The VGA screen is definitvely worth the extra money, especially if it used primarily for multimedia. The sound is crisp and clear. Wifi and bluetooth are also excellent: they do not drain the battery like in some other devices. The software library is very extensive. RIP Palm...
Here are some programs i think are essential if you are new to pocket pcs:
Betaplayer
SPB Pocket Plus- very pleased with this today plugin, not only does it add icons to the today screen along with a battery, memory and brigtness meter, but it also adds features to Internet Explorer which allows for multiple windows, etc.
Resco File Explorer- a lot better than the built in explorer, allows editing registry and ftp access as well as simple management of network shares
Avantgo- great on the palm, great on pocket pc- take news with you wherever you go
Skype for PPC- need I say more?
ozVGA- excellent for making full use of the resolution, especially great for browsing the web
This has turned out to be quite long, if you have made it this far without succumbing to the sweet call of slumber, please leave a comment...
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Axim x50v- not flawless but still subzero: a quest for the pda
to aximsite. That was a great post to start with :approve:
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