jonandhols's Full Review: Dell Axim X50v Pocket PC
I got my Dell Axim x50v over the holidays taking advantage of a great Dell was running at the time. I was considering this one and the loaded x30 and decided the extra screen resolution was worth the extra cost.
This pda is in many ways a mini pc. With real VGA enabled (via third party applications such as SEVGA or OzVGA) you can do almost all the basic office type tasks with it as well as enjoy it's capabilities with games, video and music. With the press of a user-defined button you can flip between portrait and landscape view (your choice which way the landscape displays) and this is great for web browsing where you can view websites at 640x480 (if you use the apps mentioned above) which is what web designers had been targeting the lowest common denominator regular pc screen size for many years.
All the included office applications work well and there are a growing number of third party programs that support the RealVGA screen resolution. Several community sites such as aximusers.com offer great support and how-tos for the novice and pros alike.
Prior to the update which Dell recently made available, there were a few quirks with regards to the Transcriber (handwriting recognition) and wireless issues. After the update, the handwriting recognition is pretty impressive and the wireless problems I had been having have cleared up. The wireless setup and configuration software is a little clunky but once you learn how to use it, the connectivity itself is great. I found disabling the power save setting on the WiFi ensured the best connections.
The other big draw for me was the inclusion of both SD and CF card support. One of the great aspects of this is the additional expandability it provides. Between the huge capacity that these cards now offer, the tiny little PDA can sport over 2Gbs of space. Also, supporting both formats allows for a wider compatibility with digital camera cards out there which is an added bonus.
I have used this PDA to watch video and it is amazing how well it handles that. I use Betaplayer which supports the new Intel graphics processor on the x50v and runs DivX compressed for PDA use very very well. Also, if you have a PVR that allows access to the recorded video (I use Snapstream's software on a mid-range pc which has an option to re-encode captured shows to PocktPC friendly WMV) you can record TV shows and take them with you wherever you want.
Overall, I love this little PDA and I think Dell has pulled together an amazing product for the price. For some, I think the need to combine a phone with a PDA might mean this isn't the ideal solution but other than that, I think this is the best bang for the buck available at the moment and well worth it's comparatively low price tag.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 485 Recommended for: Gadget Lovers - Trendy and Hip
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.