December 2003 - Dell gave existing Pocket PC manufacturers a scare - and Pocket PC users hope for truly lower Pocket PC prices - when the Axim X5 Pocket PCs were announced at Comdex 2002. A 300MHz XScale Pocket PC with a transreflective TFT screen, CompactFlash and Secure Digital slots, all for under $200?

Competing Pocket PC manufacturers were wishing (and hoping) the quality of the Axim would be as low as its price; they were wrong. And, while other Pocket PC manufacturers have released lower-priced models to compete with Dell, none quite have the Axim's vast usability.

Overview

The Axim X5, which comes in two varieties, an "Entry" 300MHz and an "Advanced" 400MHz version, is an excellent Pocket PC all around. We tested the Axim Entry, the 300MHz version. The general features of the Axim Entry include a 300MHz Intel XScale processor, 32MB of RAM (used for storing settings and additional programs/files), a 32MB ROM, a 16-bit color transreflective TFT screen, a Secure Digital (SD) memory slot, a CompactFlash II slot, a removable Lithium-Ion battery, a replaceable backup battery, an infrared port, and a headset jack. The Axim Entry ships with a USB sync cable and a small black carrying case.

The Axim Advanced differs from the Axim Entry in that it has a 400MHz XScale processor, 64MB of RAM, a 48MB ROM, and comes with a USB Cradle.

Setup & Overview

In the box is the Axim Pocket PC, a Lithium-Ion battery, a small CR3032 backup battery, a USB Sync cable, a black case, an AC adapter, an installation CD-ROM, and literature on the unit (the Axim Advanced ships with a USB Cradle with an additional battery charging bay, but Dell has elected to ship the Axim Entry with a USB cable only). Setup is painless. You just pop in the primary battery, install the backup battery, and power on the unit. You are taken through the customary setup procedure and - boom - done. Of course, before using your Axim - or any other Pocket PC - you should let it charge for a few hours; the Dell literature recommends four hours for the Axim prior to use.

The first thing about the Axim that strikes you when you use it is how good it feels in your hand. It's well designed to form to your hand and to be used with only one hand. The unit also feels sturdy, quite a difference from some Pocket PCs which feel somewhat loose in their construction. The Axim is solid. Some have opined that the Axim is too thick, but side-to-side comparisons with other popular Pocket PCs, like the iPAQ 3900, the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone, and others, show the difference in thickness to be negligible. The Axim is noticeably thicker than the Toshiba e330 and the iPAQ 1910, but other than that, it's par for the course, and in any case, it feels great in the hand.
On the sides of the unit are black rubber grips, into which slots, buttons, and jogs are set. Even the reset button lies hidden beneath the grips. One feature of the Axim that is sometimes complained about is possibly its most convenient feature; this is its unusual jog-wheel. The jog-wheel, or "scroll dial" as Dell calls it, allows you to move up and down on a page or within a menu, and select menu items, all while holding the unit with one hand - there's nothing new there - but, the Axim's jog-wheel is in more of a toggle-form, with a small nib sticking out to give your thumb or index finger better traction when scrolling. This is in contrast to other Pocket PCs' jog-wheels which are more like a volume dial on a walkman. It's a very nice feature.

On the front of the unit are four "hardware buttons" that activate linked software on the unit. The customary contacts, calendar, and e-mail buttons appear, but the Axim also features a button that is preprogrammed to activate Dell's Home utility, which will be discussed later. The function of each of these buttons can be changed if the user wishes. The speaker is also situated on the lower part of the Axim's face. This speaker, as with most other Pocket PCs, leaves much to be desired; but the shortcomings of the speaker are more than made up for by the onboard sound quality when you have headphones or earbuds plugged into the unit. If you want to listen to MP3 or WMA audio files, the Axim's sound is excellent - as good as any currently available on a PDA. The "Navigator Button" is large and very easy to use. Whether used for gameplay or scrolling, it's easy to move, comfortable, and large enough to make navigation and selection effortless.

The Axim's screen is beautiful. The screen is of the new transreflective variety, sometimes called transflective, which takes the best aspects of reflective and transmissive LCDs, respectively, and merges them for a truly new standard in handheld display. Blacks look black, not washed-out gray, and pictures appear crisp and clear. The Axim's transreflective screen isn't nearly as bright as those of a few other Pocket PCs, namely the iPAQ 3900 and 5400 series units, but it's useable and clear. Even at low backlight levels, it's quite readable in any light. And, of course, the screen's reflective properties make it perfectly viewable in sunlight.

The expansion capabilities of the Axim are among the best available today. Both Axim models have a CompactFlash Type II slot and an SD/MMC slot onboard - no expansion packs, no extra bulk. And while the SD slot is not compatible with SDIO peripherals, one can always use CompactFlash peripherals (which are more abundant and less expensive - at least for now) while saving the SD slot for memory expansion. Though Dell made up for the lack of SDIO with its inclusion of a CompactFlash slot, SDIO would have taken the unit that next step to total expansion perfection.

Performance

You can set the Axim's speed to two levels of performance. This can be done manually, or you can select "Auto" within the XScale utility, allowing the XScale's speed to be stepped up for more demanding tasks or stepped down to save power when speed and performance are not key. In "Power Save" mode (which steps the processor down to 200MHz) the unit is still quite responsive to commands for most tasks: menus and applications open quickly. In "Normal" mode (which steps the processor up to 300MHz) there is a slight increase in menu and application speed, and multiple programs run better than at "Power Save" mode.

Because the Axim Entry only has 32MB of RAM, an expansion card is needed if you plan to install many programs or add video or music (The Axim Advanced as 64MB of RAM). Expansion card folders are added in File Explorer as "SD Card" and "CF Card" which is great if you're using both at the same time. Data transfer times were standard, with large files moving from RAM to storage card and from storage card to RAM about as quickly as would be expected.

Battery life is a definite plus with the Axim. Using the iPAQ 5450 and Axim for the same period of time, the Axim drops to 78% power while the iPAQ drops to 64%. With WMAs playing and the backlight off, the Axim played for over six hours. Of course, keeping the backlight down and the processor set to "Power Save" can increase the battery life of the Axim. And, since the Axim's battery is removable, if the included battery begins to hold less of a charge a year or two down the road, you can easily replace it.

The IR port on the Axim is not powerful enough to be used as a remote control, even though many remote control software titles will run on the Axim. The effective distance for the IR port is about three to four feet, so don't plan on any across-the-room "remotecontrolling," but if the Axim is otherwise for you, there are alternatives that will work with any Pocket PC.

Software

The Axim ships with Microsoft's EUU3 updated Pocket PC 2002 Operating System featuring all of the standard applications, but Dell has added a few software selections and tweaks to give you a more unique experience. The Home utility provides you with an icon-based launchpad for all of the applications on the unit. You can create and name customized launch menus, add new application shortcuts, and more. The Home utility can also be launched from its own button on the front of the Axim.

A sub-tab of the Power control utility lets you set the XScale's speed, the details of which were mentioned previously. This is a useful feature left off of some competitors' XScale Pocket PCs.

Perhaps the best software add-on from Dell is the Switcher Bar. Much like the task switcher tools from older Windows CE 2.0 Palm-size PCs, the Switcher Bar resides on the top toolbar to the right of the Start icon. With it, you can quickly switch between running applications, terminate selected programs, or terminate all running programs with a single click. It also gives you one-click access to the screen's brightness settings, and gives you a link to power settings.