Setup

Setting up the Axim X50v presentation bundle is actually fairly easy. If you want, you don’t even have to install the software. All you need is a spare projector or monitor, your cable and the Axim X50v. With this you can mirror the screen of your Axim onto the monitor or projector.

The ClearVue software is optional and in some cases not very helpful. Installing the software is easy. Just click the setup icon and sync to your Axim.

Performance

Once the software is installed and the cable plugged in, you are ready to go. If all you want to do is show people what you see, you can easily enable mirroring from the settings window on your Axim X50v. You will quickly notice a severe reduction in the responsiveness on the Axim. Apparently the process of sending the video signal through the cable is very processor intensive. Once the mirroring is turned off the performance will return to normal.

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The software that comes with the presentation bundle is slightly different then the mirror mode. It is actually 5 pieces of software. One for PowerPoint, one for Excel, one for Word, one for Acrobat and one for images. Also, instead of showing everything that is on your screen, it only shows the document or presentation. This is nice because you are able to fit more on the screen then what you see on the Axim. You can also change the resolution that you want the external device to be set at. The three resolution options available are 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. Obviously the higher the resolution the more you can see on the external screen. The only piece of software that I found useful was the PowerPoint one. It was the only one that could get the full document to go on my screen. I was using a 17″ monitor and tried every resolution. The Word, Excel and Acrobat programs could never get the full document to fit on the external monitor. The performance drain is the same as the mirror mode. You will not be able to do anything else on your Axim until you turn off the software.

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One thing you will want to watch out for is the power drain. You can expect to drain your battery life much faster. The VGA cable does have a place to plug in a power cable and I highly recommend using it. Below is a chart comparing the battery times of the Axim with and without the mirror mode or ClearVue software enabled. Don’t forget to turn off the external video when you are done because it does not go off automatically. It will continue to drain your performance and your battery. It would be nice if the software and the mirror mode would turn off automatically when the cable was not plugged in.

Conclusion

Personally I don’t think the Axim X50v is quite ready for external video. The processor needs to be stronger or it just needs a better video chip. Either way the device becomes practically unusable. Forget about trying to play a game or watch a movie with this. For the mobile business man that refuses to carry a laptop this would be a suitable option. So far the Axim X50v is the only PDA I know of that offers this. For $79 it won’t kill you even if you just want to experiment.

Features

• Microsoft® Windows® Mobile 2003 Second Edition with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile
• Intel® XScale™ Processor at 624MHz
• Integrated CompactFlash® ROM and Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC Memory Card Slots (3.3v)
• Integrated Bluetooth™ Wireless Technology, Integrated 802.11b Wireless Technology
• 3.7″ VGA screen with 480×640 resolution
• Intel® 2700G multimedia accelerator with 16MB video memory

Setup

One of the most confusing parts of setting up the Axim X30 was the initial charge. There was a lot of confusion about how you charge the internal backup battery. The instructions that Dell provided were short and not very descriptive. In the end they didn’t need to be long but they should have explained what was going on. The Axim X50v eliminates this confusion by no longer requiring that you manually turn on the Axim during the first charge. Instead, when you first put in the battery it is suppose to come on by itself. This starts the internal batteries charging and when you place it on the cradle it will continue the charging and also charge the main battery. Dell recommends that you leave the Axim on the cradle for about 8 hours. This is to guarantee that all batteries are fully charged. You will notice that the charging light turns green after about 4 hours but you should leave it on to make sure it gets done properly. It sure would be nice if Dell found a way to send the Axim with fully charged batteries. This would save a lot of frustration from users because they want to use the Axim now and not wait for 8 hours. It would also prevent a lot of ruined batteries and confusion because of bad charges.

The next part of the setup can be done while the batteries are being charged, or you can wait until it is all done. When you turn on the Axim for the first time you are prompted to complete some simple training on usage and to align the screen to your stylus. It is fairly simple, but it would be nice to be able to skip the training since it is the same for all Axims, and unless this is your first Axim you have probably already done it several times. In fact every time you do a hard reboot you will have to do it all over again. By the way, a hard reboot also deletes everything on your Axim except what you have in the built-in storage or on a removable memory card.

Design

Like the X5 before it, the X50 is the more stylish of the available Axims. It has more curves and colors in the case and because it is newer than the X30 it also has a better screen. Rather than the solid silver of the X30, the X50 is mostly black with a silver trim around the front edges. It also has a black rubbery material on the sides for better grip. The back of the X50 is hard plastic. All the different pieces fit together well and it looks good together.

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For the Axim X50 Dell removed the antenna that stuck out of the top of the X30. This makes it slightly shorter than the X30 with antenna. Because it has rounded corners and a soft rubbery material on the sides it is really comfortable to hold. The Lights that were in the antenna of the X30 are now located in the top right corner of the X50. It flashes green for WiFi, blue for Bluetooth and alternating for both.

The front of the X50, except for the colors, is laid out just like the X30. The power button is at the top and there is a microphone on the left side. The screen is below that and there are 4 buttons and a directional pad below that. The buttons below the screen are slightly smaller then the X30, people with fat fingers and gamers may have trouble with this, but You will eventually get used to it. The screen on the X50v is slightly larger than the other X50 models, the screen is also VGA with 640 x 480 resolution.

The left side is slightly different than the X30. The X30 has a jog dial and headphone jack. The X50 has neither of these. Instead, it has two buttons. By default the top one is for wireless and the bottom one is for sound recording. There is also a lock switch above those buttons which will lock all buttons and screen taps. The lock is great for when you are watching a movie or listening to music and you don’t want to accidentally push buttons. Above all these buttons is a lanyard loop. Since the X50 does not ship with a lanyard I cannot imagine that many people will actually buy one. Hanging this around a neck or wrist would not be comfortable because of its size.

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The right side, just like the X30, is completely bare because this is where the stylus slides into.

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The back is fairly plain; However, the X50 does have a redesigned battery compartment. On the X30 you use the Stylus to slide a lock that releases the battery. There was no need for a battery cover because the battery locked right into the Axim andbecause the batteries were a portion of the X30. This was especially nice for the extended batteries because you didn’t have to fight with multiple battery covers for different sized batteries. The X50 changed this by adding a battery cover. There is a small switch that locks the cover in place and it is big enough that you can use your finger to open it. Also the switch must be completely locked before the Axim X50 will turn on. I accidently only switched it half way and the cover locked but the Axim would not turn on. It took me a while but I finally figured it out. This is more conventional like a remote control and cordless phone. But what is one of the first things to break on those devices? The battery cover. I will watch this over time and see if this also fails like so many before it. On the bright side the batteries are smaller and they actually have more capacity. The smallest one is 1100mAh and the largest is 2200mAh. If you purchase a 2200 mAh battery it will come with a seperate battery cover so that it can fit. This is much more of a pain then it may seem. Now you not only have to find a case that will fit the larger battery but you also have to find one that will have a spot for the extra battery cover.

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The top also has some changes that should be noted. The top contains the headphone jack on the left side, a CompactFlash, SDIO slot and IR port in the middle and the stylus on the right.

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The only change in the bottom is that the connector has changed. Dell says that was necessary because they added an option to display the X50 screen on a regular monitor. You do need a special cable for this function which is part of Dell’s presentation bundle. This can be purchased separately for $79. I didn’t receive one, so I have don’t know how it works.

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The Stylus suffered some changes. The X30 has a skinny fish like stylus which in my opinion fit nicely in your hand and was comfortable. The new stylus is more conventional in that it is round and metal with a plastic tip and plastic end. Because it is round and slick metal it is also much harder to grip. I often found that if I did a lot of writing or my hands were a little slippery that it would slip out of my hand. It is also much harder it get this stylus out of its holding place. You may want to leave your finger nails a little longer for the purpose of getting the stylus out. If you are an old Axim user then the fish will be missed, but if you are used to using other PDA’s then this will be like what you are used to.

Last, but certainly not least, the docking cradle has changed considerably. No longer to you get a bright, shiny and in my opinion, gaudy looking cradle. The new cradle is much smaller and cleaner looking. The design is fairly flat and black. In fact it is completely black except for the dell logo, which does not light up, the single led light for the spare battery charge status and the bottom which is silver like the logo. The place for charging the X50 is no longer a slot that you slide it into. Instead it is a small connector, which sticks out a little, that you slide the X50 onto. Because of the change in battery style, a change in the spare battery charger is also required. Now it is a depression that the spare battery rests in. I personally think it looks better than the old cradle and it fits in well with any environment.

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Performance

Performance is important in any computing device and the Axim X50v is no stranger to performance. The X50v has the same processor that the Axim X30 high has. Like the X30 the X50 has the ability to scale the speed of the processor so you can save battery life. The X50v is also graced with a separate graphics processor to power the 640 x 480 VGA screen. None of the other X50 models have the graphics processor or the VGA screen.

Adjusting the processor speed can help save battery power or make sure you have all the necessary processor power you need for your programs. Under the power settings you have several options that allow you to change the processor speeds. You can choose from Maximum Performance, Normal, Power-Saving and Auto. The Axim X30 does not have the Normal setting. For power users you will want to set you processor to Maximum Performance. This will use up the most battery power, but you will not notice any performance delays and your programs will be given all the speed they need to run. If you set the processor to auto then the processor will slow down when it is not being used and will have to speed up when you start a program or access the device. You will notice that the Axim X50s lowest speed is lower then the X30, the X30 could only go down to 208 MHz and the X50 can go down to 104 MHz. Because of the lower speed and the speed changes you will notice some delays in accessing menus and starting programs when you have it set to auto. It would be really nice if you could specify a minimum speed with the auto setting. This would still save some battery power by letting the processor slow down but allow you to get better performance by letting you choose the minimum speed.

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You will notice the scores on some of the graphic speed tests are a little off. It seems that the software I used, SPB benchmarks, is having a little trouble with the graphics processor. Hopefully they will come out with a patch so I can retest and give you some good results. There are some other processor and memory scores on the Axim X50 that are slower than the X30. I cannot explain this but if there is a new version of the testing software and the results change I will update them.

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All models of the Axim X50 come with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. This is the latest and greatest version of the operating system. The Axim X30 also has the same operating system so there is nothing new, except the X50 also has Windows Media Player 10 and other fixes that were released. This version of Windows does support the VGA screen which offers up to 4 times the resolution of previous screens. Unfortunately the operating system does not support the 640 x 480 resolution that the screen does, so every thing looks clearer, but it is all the same size as before. You will notice several quirky things about the operating system, for example if you choose to take Activesync off of the start menu, then when you go to Home on the start menu, Activesync is a broken link. Also you can only have 3 alarms. These kinds of things are not mission critical, but they can be annoying.

The displays on the lower two models of the X50 are just like the X30. The X50v on the other hand offers a VGA screen with resolution of up to 640 x 480. You can definitely see an increase in the resolution because the colors and text are clearer. You cannot take advantage of the 640 x 480 resolution because the operating system does not support it, so you are still stuck at 320 x 240. If you are able to take an uncompressed screen shot, like what I have, you will be able to see the great difference in the resolution.

In order to power this new fancy screen and all the programs that may take advantage of the higher resolution, the X50v uses Intel’s 2700G ‘Marathon’ mobile graphics chip. The 2700G is like a laptop graphics process because all the features are shrunk down to a single chip. The features that are in the chip are 16 MB of video memory, 2D and 3D acceleration, video decoding, and automatic power-saving features.

The Axim X50 ships with all the same programs as the X30 except that the X50v comes with two games that are suppose to show off the graphic abilities of the X50v and graphic processor. Enigmo is a 3D puzzle game, but you only have 2D controls so you can slide around on the screen, but you cannot rotate. Stuntcar Extreme does a much better job displaying the 3D capabilities of the X50v. As its name suggests, it is a racing game where you do jumps and other stunts. It is fun, and offers two modes of viewing while racing. You can race with an outside the car perspective or an inside the car perspective.

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All of the X50s have 64MB of SDRAM for loading your own programs and also for programs to run. The higher two models also have 128MB of ROM where the operating system is stored, and you also get about 100MB of that in built-in storage. The extra memory is very nice and helpful for loading programs and stuff. I personally would leave the RAM just for running programs and use the built-in storage for loading your programs. You will notice that graphic intensive programs like Stuntcar Extreme need a lot of memory to run and you may frequently need to close out of other programs to free up enough memory for them to run. Another 32 or 64 MB of RAM would really have helped to alleviate this problem.

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Wireless on the X50 is great, just like the X30 before it. Wireless is easy to setup and has great range and speed. I was hoping that X50s would be equipped with 802.11g, but they opted for 802.11b just like the Axim X30. For my network I had to use the Odyssey client to connect, but once I set it up I have not had any problems.

Audio on the X50 is handled by an internal speaker. There is no specific speaker hole for the sound to escape from, instead it seems to emanate from the all the cracks and crevasses. For simple game sounds this is more than adequate. For music and voice recording though, you will probably want to use headphones to get more clarity and block out other sounds that may make it hard to hear. The headphone jack can serve another purpose. It also can take a headset/microphone plug. This could be used by voice command programs and even VOIP (Voice Over IP) communications. The X50s built-in microphone is also great for picking up all sorts of sounds and voices.

Battery life on the X50v is slightly less than the X30, but that could easily be explained by the extra graphics processor and the bigger, brighter and higher resolution screen. I would highly recommend that you buy another battery. The battery tests that I ran were all performed on the 1100 mAh and the 2200 mAh batteries.

Support

Like all Dell products you can purchase whatever support you would like. The default warranty is 1 year limited warranty, 1 year technical support, 1 year Advance Exchange, but can be increased to 3 year limited warranty, 3 year Advance Exchange with lifetime technical support.

Conclusion

Dell has certainly found a great balance of power usage and performance with Axim. The power requirements have increased, but so has the battery capacity. The X50v is a bit expensive; at $450 it is almost as expensive as a cheap desktop. But you will note that the smaller you go the more expensive the equipment gets. You can of course wait a little while until the price drops, or you can look for coupons or discounts for your purchase. If you really sit down and just think of all the great things you get, you will realize that it is well worth the price. Besides these devices are not cheap to make. I recommend this to anyone looking for a high-end PDA, whether you need it for the graphics capabilities or anything else you will not be disappointed. Make sure you look at the other Axims because you may find that you don’t need all of the features on the X50v or even the X50 and you can save a lot of money by buying an X30 instead.

Features

• Equipped with Microsoft^® Windows^® Mobile 2003 Second Edition operating system and familiar applications like Word and Excel
• Powered by the NEW Intel^® XScale^™ Processors at 624MHz with WMMX
• Brilliant 3.5″ color TFT display for indoor and outdoor viewing
• Navigation button and scroll dial for easy access to information
• Packed with 64MB SDRAM and 64MB Intel StrataFlash^® ROM
• Integrated 802.11b WiFi and Bluetooth wireless technologies
• Integrated Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC card slot provides flexible expansion
• Removable Primary Battery with optional High Capacity Battery
• Built-in microphone and speaker for easy recording on the go
• Light and thin, sleek and stylish design

In The Box

If you order the Axim X30 without any other options you will get basically the same items with whatever package you choose. There are only two differences in the packages. The first difference is the Axim itself. Depending on what you order you will get either a 312 MHz or 624 MHz. You can also choose to have wireless capabilities. The second difference is if you choose one of the 312MHz configurations, you will receive a sync cable instead of a cradle. In the box you will get the Dell Axim X30, a 950 mAh Battery, an AC Adapter, Charger Adapter, Axim X30 PocketPC 2003 Companion CD including Microsoft^® Outlook ^® and Microsoft^® ActiveSync^® 3.7.1, Axim X30 User’s Guide, Axim X30 Quick Start Poster, Slip case, Stylus and USB Cradle or USB Travel Sync Cable (depending on your order).

Setup

Before you begin you will want to make sure you get this device setup properly. The main thing is to get the batteries charged correctly. You will notice a little yellow sticker on the pouch that the Axim X30 comes in that says you need to turn on the device while charging the first time. This is done to charge the internal battery, which acts like a backup battery in case the main battery dies or is removed. At first I was confused as to what this means. If I turn it on while it is charging, do I leave it on or turn it back off? Do I wait until the main battery is charged first, or do I turn it on as soon as I plug it in? I really didn’t want to ruin the battery so I had to do some research on the subject. Trust me there is a lot of confusion; however, it’s not that bad and you don’t really have to worry. You can turn it on anytime during the first charge and you can leave it on or turn it off. I choose to turn mine off so that the main battery would charge faster. I also put a second battery that Dell sent me in the spare battery slot on the cradle. While charging the batteries, the battery in the Axim will have its charge status displayed as a green or orange light in the power button of the Axim. The spare battery has a separate light that is also green for charged and orange for charging, but this light is in the cradle. Dell suggests that you charge for a full 8 hours before you use the Axim, but I noticed that the 950 mAh battery took about 3 hours to charge before the light turned green and the 1800 mAh battery took about 4 1/2 hours to charge. I still left the Axim in for the full 8 hours just in case the internal battery took longer. I also noticed that the spare battery charger only gets about 97%-98% before it goes green. The slot is also very loose, if you wiggle the battery while it is charging, then you can get it to change colors.

Once it is charged and you have installed the Active Sync software, you are ready to go. You can install more programs and games or just use the ones Dell preloaded. It is highly recommended that you keep the Axim on the cradle or plugged in when you are not using it. This makes sure you do not completely drain the battery. Draining the Lithium-Ion battery to empty will damage them and shorten their life. You will also notice that the 1800 mAh battery is about a quarter of an inch thicker than the 900 mAh battery that comes with the Axim. This could be a problem for people because it will make the Axim thicker, and it will not fit in your case anymore. Make sure your case supports the thicker battery before you by one. The case that Dell sends with the device has elastic sides so it can stretch to fit the extra thickness.

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Software

What good is a PDA that doesn’t have any software? Well have no fear, the Axim comes with enough software to keep you busy for quite a while. To start with you get Microsoft ^® Windows^® Mobile 2003 Second Edition as the operating system. This gives you access to tons of programs and unmatched compatibility with other windows programs and data. Since Windows is by far the most popular operating system for computers, it only makes sense to get a PDA that uses the same operating system. Included in the operating system are several basic Windows applications including: Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Voice Recorder, Notes, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player 9, Calculator, Pictures, Jawbreaker, Solitaire, Inbox, File Explorer, MSN Messenger, terminal Services Client, VPN Client, Infrared Beaming, Clock, Align Screen, memory, Volume control, Landscape mode and WPA.

I would like to point out a couple of little features that I liked the most. Windows Mobile operating system allows for two view modes, portrait and landscape. These two modes when you use them correctly, can help to make up for the obviously small screen on all PDAs. The portrait mode is great for all around use and gives you a standard PDA look and feel. For programs like Excel, and some games, when you need to see more width you can switch to Landscape and it will flip the screen 90 degrees. This makes the screen wider and gives you more room to work. In addition to the two view modes, Windows Mobile supports a basic theme system. You are able to change the today screen to have a picture of your choosing as the background for the today and the start menu. This gives you just one more way to customize your Axim and make it your own.

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Another nice feature of Windows Mobile is the multiple ways of entering in data. Windows Supports four ways to write text that will go in your application. The first way is the Block Recognizer: this is your standard Graffiti style of writing and you get a box at the bottom of the screen for writing letter and numbers. The second way is the onscreen keyboard, this is for those that don’t want to deal with Graffiti or if you have a symbol that is not recognized. The third way is the Letter Recognizer: this is like Graffiti, except it looks for english letters. The fourth and best way is the Transcriber: this is your handwriting recognizer. You can write anywere on the screen and in full sentences and the operating system will translate it to text. It is not 100% perfect, but it sure saves time when you are writing a lot of text.

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In addition to the operating system you get a plethora of business applications and software, including several games. Dell loads several programs in the ROM, these include: File Store (nonvolatile file storage in flash ROM), Backup (utility for Backup/Restore to Memory Card), Switcher (access and launch programs easily), Power Status, Brightness, Microphone Gain Control, Version Display, Dell WLAN utility (with optional wireless model) and Funk Odyssey Client (LEAP support).

There is also a CD that comes with the Axim X30 that has a lot of extra software. Some of the software is full version including: Microsoft Active Sync 3.7.1, Outlook 2002, Resco Picture Viewer and Dell Diagnostic Utility. There are also several trial versions of software including: Agenda Fusion, CityTime, eWallet, Full Hand Casino, Griffin Technology Total Remote, Handmark Monopoly, Handmark Scrabble, Handy Zip, ListPro, McAfee VirusScan PDA, Resco File Explorer, Tennis Addict, Trip Tracker, Links Pocket PC, Pocket SlideShow, Cash Organizer 2003 Deluxe, Battery Pack 2004 and Calligrapher.

Design

The design of this Axim X30 is fairly plain. I actually really like the look of the Axim X30. I am not one for fancy designs, strange shapes and lots of colors. As long as it fits in my hand and it is comfortable, then I am happy. I suppose that if Dell were interested in attracting the younger new age crowd, then they could adopt snap-on color covers or change the shape of the Axim X30. I suppose though, that Dell is looking for the more conservative business user with this design.

One of the things that I, and others, noticed as soon as we picked up the Axim, was that is was light. Compared to other PDAs of the same style, it is quite a bit lighter. For example the HP iPAQ h4355 with WiFi weighs 5.8 oz. and the Axim X30 with WiFi weighs 4.9 oz. This Axim X30 is very comfortable and easy to hold.

The only design piece that I don’t like about the Axim X30 is the Wireless/Bluetooth antenna that sticks out of the top. If there were some way to get rid of it, or squish it inside of the Axim X30, then it would make the Axim look better.

Hardware

To start with, all the Axim X30 models feature the Intel^® XScale^™ Processor with WMMX. The Axim X30 I was sent, has the 624 MHz XScale PXA270. All the hardware that I list and talk about is related to the Axim X30 that I have, which is the 624 MHz version.

In addition to an extremely fast PDA processor, you get 64MB SDRAM and 64MB of Intel StrataFlash^® ROM memory. The ROM memory is off limits to the user, but the SDRAM is where you store and run your programs. You are able to select how the memory is divided. I recommend that if you like to run big programs, or you like to run many programs at the same time, then you give more memory to programs and less to storage. If you only run one program at a time and you need more storage, then you can give more to storage. If you have a large memory card, then you don’t have to worry because you can install all your programs to the card and then give all the memory to running the programs. Dell also gives you an additional 30 MB of built-in storage. I never saw this mentioned in the specs on the Dell website and it is not a card, so I don’t know where it comes from, but it is helpful for installing larger programs. I asked Dell about the 30 MB of built-in storage and they said it is extra ROM that is not used by the programs.

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You also get integrated 802.11b & Bluetooth^™ which adds the ability to connect to other devices such as GPS and storage for the Axim X30s. A 3.5 inch TFT Color 16-bit, Touch Sensitive, Transflective LCD screen which displays at 240 x 320 resolution at 65,536 colors (QVGA) offers clarity that is better than any PDA that I have ever seen.

There are also buttons galore. You get 4 programmable buttons which by default are set to launch the Calendar, Contacts, Inbox and Home. A 5-way Navigation button sits between the 4 programmable buttons and can be used to move around the programs. There is a scroll button on the side which tabs through icons or scroll pages, and can be pressed to select. On both sides of the Axim X30, by the programmable buttons are two buttons. The one on the left is set to activate the voice recorder. The recorder uses a built in microphone which is located at the top of the Axim X30 to the left of the power button. The longer you hold down this button, the more it records. You can adjust the quality of the recorded audio to 8.0, 11.025, 22.05 and 44.1KHz. The button on the right of the programmable buttons turns on and off the WiFi and bluetooth. Both are turned on and off at the same time using this button. The power button at the top of the Axim X30 is obviously used to turn the Axim X30 on and off. The power button is also used to indicate the charge status by displaying an orange color when charging and a green color when charged. It also flashes orange to indicate an event, usually that your battery is low and needs to be changed.

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At the top of the Axim X30 in addition to the wireless antenna there is a Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC Memory Card Slot (3.3v) and a standard v1.2 (115 kbps) Infrared Port.

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All the audio for the Axim X30 is controlled by an Audio Controller AC-97 Codec Chip; WM9705 Sound Chip. The Axim X30 supports 16-bit stereo and sample rates of 8.0, 11.025, 22.05 and 44.1KHz. There is also support for Full Duplex Record and Playback. All sound recording is handled with the Integrated Microphone, and playback can be sent to the built in Speaker or headphones by using the headphone jack on the side of the X30. The built-in speaker is not all that great, it does a decent job of playing back voice that you have recorded, but does not do very well with music. I recommend that if you are listening to MP3′s or watching video then you should use headphones.

Performance

Battery power is probably one of the most important things about a PDA. If the battery does not last from place to place, then it doesn’t do you any good. Dell sent me both a 950 mAh Lithium-Ion and a 1800 mAh Lithium-Ion battery. I ran a few tests on the batteries. In doing the tests I turned up the processor to full and turned off the power saving features. I did this to test the shortest time, so when you use the Axim you will usually get better times. Here are the results:

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Now that I have shown you the shortest times you can expect while using the Axim X30, you should do your best to keep the power saving features turned on. One of the most important things that you can do is keep the processor running low. You can either set it to the minimum or set it to auto. If you keep it on minimum it runs at 208 Mhz and you could suffer from some performance issues. Setting the processor to auto will give you better performance by allowing the Axim to adjust the speed as it needs, but it will reduce the battery life. I keep mine on auto. You can also turn off the Infrared Port so that it is not always looking for a connection. You can turn down the brightness of the screen, and turn on auto dimming and auto off if you don’t use the Axim after a certain time. While using the 802.11 WiFi you can turn off the Bluetooth separately.

During the streaming video testing, I noticed that I got disconnected about every 5 minutes. You do not notice this so much when you surf the web, because it usually reconnects and continues to load the page. The longest that my video stayed connected was about 23 minutes, and that seemed like a fluke because everything else was so much shorter. I cannot completely blame the Axim because I was using a WiFi network at a local college and it may have been that the network was unstable.

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Since this is the first Pocket PC with a 624 Mhz processor, there is not much to compare it to. So, I picked the fastest PDAs and tested those. As you can tell from the charts the Axim X30 is fast. This speed is very noticeable when you are running video, games and other CPU intensive applications.

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I do have to mention that I found one problem with the sensitivity of the screen. It is a very small difference and you can only notice it if you press very softly. If you go to notes and you start to draw, you will notice that as you get close to the left edge the drawing stops. On my Axim it happened about a quarter of an inch away from the edge. If I press harder, then it starts drawing again. If you are heavy-handed, then you will probably not notice this since you will already be pressing hard enough. I am not sure if this can be fixed with a firmware release, but lets hope Dell fixes it soon.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with this PDA. Dell has once again made a very solid computing device, and at the same time they have kept the price down so that it is affordable to everyone. Despite the few minor flaws that I found, including the spare battery charger being loose and not charging completely, and the screen edges not being as sensitive as the middle, this is still a good and highly recommended device. If you don’t need a fast processor, and you only need it if you are playing games or crunching big numbers, then you can save quite a bit and get a lower version. If you don’t need wireless, then you can go even lower. Even at its lowest the Axim X30 is still a great PDA and will serve to meet your needs.