Up until a few days ago I had a Garmin Ique M3 Pocket PC. I lost it when my daughter left the garage open and it and some other stuff was stolen out of my truck. I used the Ique M3 for GPS, as my MP3 player, for contacts, excel for tracking gas mileage. I also occasionally used it for wireless, but the sdio card I got stopped working.

The dilemma was to replace it with another M3 Ique or try for an upgrade. After days of research I narrowed my choice down between the Dell Axim 51V and the HP Ipaq 2495. Both are similar units. The HP's advantage is longer battery life and a more rugged case, while the 51V has the VGA and higher resolution and a Little more memory. At least thats my conclusion from the research I have done.

Reading all the reviews was confusing on the 51V. Either people love it or they think its a piece of crap that doesn't work. The Axim is the one I have decided to go with along with the Dell GPS kit based on the current deal on the web site. My concern is amount of reviewers who gave it a 1 and said it was crap. Some of them seem to be operating system issues.

My questions is have they fixed any of these issues, or is the luck of the draw if the unit you get is buggy?

I have had my Axim x51v for about 9 months now. I have never had any problem with it. I believe most of the problems are coming from people installing non-WM5 compatiable software. If you install software that is WM5 compatiable, everything will be fine.

I have x51v with Holux 236 BT GPS receiver and TomTom 5. It is working wonderfully. I would highly recommend x51v.

Romer - Congratulations on your first post

It's my impression that the x51v with the A12 rom upgade works fine.

Welcome to the AximSite - I'm sure you'll enjoy -



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I've had mine for 8 weeks.
One factory defaults reset after installing some buggy stuff,
like referenced in an earlier post.
(I only learn the hard way)

Anyway I wonder how I got along without it.
My buddy has an Ipaq
What I do like about it -
he has to swipe his thumb across it to authenticate himself.

I'd sure hate to lose my Axim and have it used against me...

Thanks Guys. I have learned these forums are the best way to find out things.

I am a big Toyota guy and am a Moderator on IH8MUD.com, which is for Toyota off road type vehicles. This has saved my butt a few times.

I also belong to RV.net because I was buying an off-road camper earlier this year and found great information on the campers and generators.

I see this site as a big plus in the Dell Axim column.

Just for grin's if you don't know what an off-road camper is:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=85585

It's one with a bigger frame, shocks and bigger tires. I actually drove from Denver to Rapid City and back in one day because the dealer there had a great price on a 2005.

Romer, welcome to Aximsite where you'll get totally unbiased opinions about PDAs .
I've been using the Dell GPS systems for ~1.5 years now and I'm pretty happy with them. I've got both the Bluetooth and cabled GPS recievers and they perform reasonably well. The Dell software is a rebranded version of iGuidance with Navteq maps. I've used this GPS system for plenty of camping trips and discovered that the maps do a decent job with forest roads and other small roads you wouldn't expect to be on there. You just have to zoom in pretty close to see them.
Don't miss the GPS forum:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=34
JakeRich is the guru there.
The off-road camper looks awesome! How does it handle?
BTW, also a Toyota owner. 2003 Tacoma extcab 4x4, V6, TRD
mm

 

Thanks for the info.

I made the plunge and bought the 51V with a 2nd battery and Rhino case for a total of $404 based on atip from this site in the small business section from Dell. Now I will be spending some time in the GPS Section

congrat! you will not regret, you will love it!

There is an article in the Toronto Star today (11-Sept) by Robert Cribb... Doesn't seem like he likes the device afterall. I think he needs to come over to this site to get some of the tweaks (or perhaps he is reviewing x51v as regular folks whom, unfortunately, will take any system as is and expecting everything works right out of the box). I think he should give Palm LifeDrive a try when it was first introduced!

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...st969907620768

my name spells DELL AXiM X51v, all you need to do a head-stand, or flip your PDA upside down!

that's just it--it takes tweaks and a bit of a learning curve to make the axim reach its potential in daily use. it can be awesome, but you have to invest a fair bit into learning it. thank goodness for this site. here we learn about the good software that makes the ppc a real asset.