MSMobiles.com posted some exlcusive information over the upcoming announcement of Windows Mobile 5. Also, I posted a review of the Axim X5-Advanced PDA at our friends at TuxTops.com, a PDA that can be found in very good prices lately on the web and can be a good first-PDA purchase.
Windows Mobile 5 Info; Dell Axim X5-Advanced Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’m a little curious why that Axim X5 review is here… It’s a review of a used/clearance/whatever PDA from 2002 which is quite a few generations out of date. It mentions an illegal upgrade procedure. It is from TuxTops.com, but it doesn’t mention Linux at all. It gives an 80% rating, but absolutely no empirical data. It also features grammar and spelling errors throughout (what is a craddle?). Oookay…
The article on Windows Mobile 5 is rather questionable, too. The developer information is mildly interesting, but the rest of it just seems sort of… odd… Furthermore, they don’t mention any source anywhere. Not even a reference to one. So they could be making it all up, as far as we know. I also have some questions about their VS2005 assertion. They [the authors] don’t seem to take into account the “Express” products that are supposed to be part of the VS2005 lineup. Do those count as Visual Studio 2005 for the purposes of the SDK?
All in all, a rather uninformative and oddly-chosen pair of articles. If you needed some PDA articles, pdastreet.com has plenty of them. For example, I found http://www.pocketpccity.com/articles/2005/5/2005-5-5-Tiger-Bites-In… to be an interesting read, particularly since I have The Missing Sync working fine with 10.4 and my Sony Clie. But whatever. You’re the editor.
> It’s a review of a used/clearance/whatever PDA from 2002 which is quite a few generations out of date.
If you read the article in its entirety, you will see that this PDA is really powerful even for today’s standards. It can be a great office and multimedia device for less money.
>It mentions an illegal upgrade procedure.
Yes. Mentioning is not illegal, hosting is. Dell has been irresponsible about this upgrade too (they pulled the upgrade leaving many X5 users unsupported).
>It is from TuxTops.com, but it doesn’t mention Linux at all.
Tuxtops is a mobile site, inclining more to Linux, but it’s not linux-only.
> It gives an 80% rating, but absolutely no empirical data.
The review speaks for itself for the good and bad parts of this PDA purchase.
>It also features grammar and spelling errors throughout
So what? You do understand what I try to say, and that’s what’s important. You are more than welcome to do a “view source” to the article, fix the english, send me a fixed version, and I will update it at tuxtops.
Thought the X5 had built in wireless, at least one selling as new for about $200 claims to have it. Shouldn’t need the Sandisk that didn’t work. I’m still mad at Dell and refuse to buy anything Dell but it sounds like a good model. The CF and multimedia slot are good for camera people.
No, you are mistaken, there is no wifi or bluetooth on the X5. You need to use a flash card for these.
I don’t think any of the X5’s had built-in wireless. The next generation PDA’s from Dell did however. The inclusion of both SD & CF slots makes adding wireless an easy choice by eliminating the compromize between extra memory and wireless.
Many things still need to improve in windows mobile 5
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=266874&st=0
Once there is better Linux support for this Axim X5 I might take it serious and consider buying one.
I just did some benchmarks playing divx with a pretty good quality movie at 320×240 (exact resolution, no scaling). The PDA dropped no frames at all, and by my estimation, you would need a bit less than 512 MB SD/CF card to rip a 120 minutes movie into DivX at that resolution (and even better filesize rate if the movie is widescreen).
BetaPlayer is not the fastest player in the world (Windows Media Player was twice faster running a high-res .wmv starwars trailer from the CF disk), but if your PDA is QVGA and you have optimized your ripped movie for that resolution, BetaPlayer handles it with ease and it makes such a PDA a great video companion. For the rest of the features, and for just $180+tax, it’s a really good purchase IMHO.
I guess its a good deal if you like a pda with a bad case, mushy buttons, pathetic jogwheel and a mediocre screen.. I used to own one.. Two in fact. Both sucked
I suppose its a YMMV scenario..
Sure the case that is shipped with the Axim X5 isn’t as functional as it should be, the fact remains…you’re getting a high powered PDA at a very good price. Use the extra cash to buy a fancy case.
While the buttons are considered “mushy” they are more than adequate for what I need it for. Even playing PocketNester (NES Emulator), I have no troubles at all using the D-pad and buttons as a controller.
I’ve never heard any complaints regarding the screen. When placed side-by-side w/ other PDA’s, it is noticeable that the Axim screen isn’t quite as bright or sharp, however the few music videos i’ve played on mine looked great.
I’m not talking about the slip case, I meant the actual devices casing… but never mind.
The case is a bit bulky, but considering that it was created in 2002, it’s pretty good. The fact remains that it’s a very fast PDA (400 Mhz, even today there are not many new PDAs running at that speed), it has 64 MBs of RAM, and it can play multimedia files very well. For $179 plus a $30 512MB SD card plus a $32 WiFi CF card (or $45 for Bluetooth CF), this can be a multimedia powerhouse, plus a PDA! The price is right, the PDA is powerful, I don’t think anyone would be unhappy with this purchase.
Dell seems to say it does have wireless.
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/handhelds?c=u…
OK, they got me on that. Add on cards.
Axim X50 != Axim X5
The X5 was the first gen Axims…the X50’s are the latest (i think). Every Axim model since the X5 did have at least one version with integrated wireiess.