Customer Reviews

Dell Axim X51v - Handheld - Windows Mobile 5.0 - 3.7" color TFT ( 480 x 640 ) - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Before I go on you MUST perform the activesync fix which is detailed at the aximforum website, once that fix is done the dissapearing CF card, the white screen of death, battery drain, random restarts all go away. And Rom A06 was shipped with mine.

Im floored at how powerful these PDAs have become. I have been using it for 2 weeks now, and today in this simple one day it made my entire investment worth it. Im a high level analyst at my company and today we had our offsite meeting, I was the junior member there everybody else was either manager, controller or a director.

Half way through the PPT the laptop crashed, we spent 20 minutes fiddling with it and finally realized it was jsut kaput. The IT guy on site said he would run to the office to bring another laptop but it would take 90 minutes, I said hang on.

I used my Axim 51V to log onto the hotels wireless internet asked our secretarhy at work to email us the presentation, then used my VGA cable to hook it up to the projector set it at 1024x768 and started up the presentation and we were good to go. The exceutives and managers were COMPLETELY floored, Im sure I just sold 5 axims for dell but also secured myself a solid bonus come March!

I whole heartedly endorse this item, not only does it more then suffice as a day planner its multimedia capabilities are mind blowing.


Updated 2/21/2006

Still no problems as of yet and all the major negative comments I have seen are simply because they have not taken my advice above and done the fix. It is PARAMOUNT that you do the activesync fix. I have an SD card and a 4GB Microdrive in my axim, which I forgot in our Montreal office, it took me almost 10 days to get it back but when I did it still had 90% charge and I used it there so I know it was not at 100% when I left.

PS the boxwave crystal lcd protector with 99% transperency is a great addition.

------- UPDATED 3/29/2006 --------

Still going strong no problems what so ever, but I must emphasize PLEASE do your research there is so much that can be done with this. Dont let it just be a place to store phone numbers and an occasional appointment.

It is my 5 AM alarm clock, as soon as I wake up the screen shows me a 5 day weather forecast the top 5 international news stories 5 local news stories, and my appointments/meetings for the day. It sure beats the 20-30 minutes I'd lose every morning trying to read the paper, watch the weather channel, then the local news, and update my franklin planner.

I have to say that this is a truly usable PDA finally. Before WM5, the risk of data loss is totally rediculous and unworthy. Now with WM5, the ROM works as a harddrive and whala, no more data loss.

However, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you update and fix the MS activesync problem before you can enjoy the solid-build X51. it is still unbelivable for me that Dell and Microsoft failed to fix this problem before shipping x51/x51v out to customers. The ROM update is not necessary. Simple set activesync to be manually lauched instead of the default automatic update. All the problems with battery drain, CF card missing and white screen of death just disappeared. With my casual use, a fully charged battery lasts over a week. I use it as my digital diary, calculator, game console, dictionary, media/file portable storage, and lot more. Absolute worth every penny of it. However, one flaw is that the bluetooth stack does not work with wireless headphones (any tips?). Otherwise, it can also be dubbed as a wireless phone/MP3 player.

I owened this unit for almost a year and now I regret I did not choose the wifi and vga version (x51v). I only had to replace the battery last month after almost one year of use, which maybe due to my constant recharge eveytime I sync with my PC. Now I am thinking about getting the extra wifi card so I can use it as a wifi phone with Skype. Better yet, now there are third-party larger capacity batteries available and I found one 1800 mah battery that can fit with Dell's leather case. Perfect!

Overall this is a perfect unit, and I would recommend everyone to get x51v instead of x51. The extra money is definitely worth it.

Update:
I called Dell today and just realized that the battery is still under waranty, but they want me to return the old one. So remeber to keep the bad battery otherwise you might need to pay for it! Another annoyance was that it kept warning me that the battery latch was open and the pda needs to be turned off to keep data safe. I found a fix on Aximsite. Just put a tiny drop of nail polish to the small button on the left hole for the pins on the battery cover. This will increase the thickness of the button and kept it firmly pushed down by the cover pins.

First thing you'll notice about this excellent PDA is the brilliant screen. The resolution is 640x480 and it looks spectacular. Movies and games look absolutely great and text is very easy to read. The system itself is very fast, (other than boot up after a soft reset, which takes 10-20 seconds) and the Windows Mobile 5.0 is a welcome addition. No longer do you have to worry about losing your data because the battery died.
It has both a Compact Flash and SD slot for expanded memory. Dell includes a host of software on the system as well as more on the included discs. Everything you need from word processing to powerpoint, even 3D games is included, (not all software is free, some is trial). And speaking of 3D capabilities, the X51v is no slouch. The 624 MHz version plays anything you throw at it. Quake Mobile runs perfectly on this machine and looks fantastic doing it. The overall 3D capabilities are just outstanding.
The design and feel are great and the buttons on the side are well placed. There is a voice record button as well as as a wireless access button. The directional pad on the unit could be a tad more intuitive, but the only need for that is games. The unit is solidly built and feels that way.
Overall I think the X51v is a very capable machine and quite possibly the best PDA on the market.

I have had my Axim x51v for about three months. I purchased it from Dell for $480 with aluminum hardcase, extra 1100mAh battery, and auto power cord.

Strengths: Just about everything. The processor is absolutely incredible. I heard (unconfirmed) that the Intel 624 MHz PXA270 is faster than a 2GHz Pentium 3! It sure seems like it. This PDA blazes through movies, photos, games, word processing, and anything else I can throw at it.
The other definite high point for this PDA is the screen. Once you see a VGA screen like this, you will be astounded at the difference it can make over a QVGA screen. I have to get about 4 inches from the screen to even see the pixels. The screen is crystal clear.
The battery life is phenomenal, even with the standard low capacity battery. Playing a movie at full brightness and full volume will last about 2 hours, extended to about 4.5 hours on low brightness and headphones. Turned off with a 1GB SD card drains the battery about 2% per day.
WiFi is amazing. It connects consistently and is moderately easy to set up. Once connected, it keeps the signal well and is, while not fast, reasonable for speed
Just about everything on this PDA is almost perfect.

Weaknesses: Not enough programs to start with, Windows Media Player 10 (Download TCPMP, it's way better)

Problems: Don't use Odyssey Client, it makes the PDA start up really slow. Also, in ActiveSync, On the PDA, select Menu, Add Server Source. On all of the screens, put random characters in each field, and deselect any check boxes that tell it what to synchronize. Then go to menu, schedule and select manual for both. Then go to menu, options, and delete the entry that you just added (the one that has no boxes under it checked) and delete it. It fixes a myriad of problems and makes the PDA run faster, and it still syncs automatically in the cradle.

Conclusion: An awesome PDA that does just about everything. Combine it with a BT keyboard and perhaps even a BT mouse, and you have an unbeatable combination of power and portability. Everything works extremely well.

I bought this mainly to access internet when traveling. I have never crashed and have access to all my favorite websites. The calendar and task functions are great. I use a 512mb SD card. The original battery was more than sufficient, but I bought a 2200mah battery which lasts for days. I have no complaints.

I use my Dell Axim X51v almost exclusively for GPS and some internet. I use it with the TomTom Navigator 5 software and a third party bluetooth GPS locator. The screen is perfect for GPS. This makes more sense to me than buying a GPS-only device.

I also use it with my Motorola V551 bluetooth cell phone to get internet access and real-time traffic updated for my GPS maps through Cingular at $20 per month.

There are so many possiblities with this device. And, it is very fast.

The only downside I can think of is that the original battery only last a few hours per charge.

I recently purchased this PDA directly from Dell after reading reviews and spending hours comparing different types of PDA's on the market. Most of the reviews I read were positive with a few negative. Regardless, I decided that the Axim was the most powerful, had more options, and was what I wanted. The screen clarity is amazing. I haven't had the battery problems some other owners have had. I charged mine for 8+ hours when it arrived as recommended by Dell. The internal WiFi is excellent, but I suggest purchasing the WiFi companion software. The range is great for picking up WiFi access points.
Pro's: Great features, packed with almost anything you can think of. You can even buy the GPS accessory and turn it into a Vehicle GPS. Great sound and recording quality with the microphone. Excellent screen resolution. Comes with Word and Excel, which is nice to have on the go.

Cons: Expensive, battery charges relatively quickly, but doesn't last as long as other PDA's. It does however have options within the OS to increase battery life, and I recommend the travel charger so it can be charged in the car.

I use this PDA to do real marketing and presentations works, and it is fantastic!
Just drag & drop yours documents ( .doc, .xls, .ppt ) and they are inside the PDA in seconds!
Use the VGA cable and project yours documents with easy!
Also use it to see my prefs photos and movies!
Love to play my MP3 music!

Love it!

This PDA appears to be a quality piece of hardware but the software has bugs that you have to figure out on your own, through aximsite.com. I spent a lot of time "fixing" a brand new, expensive piece of equipment and at this point I'm majorly annoyed. The two "fixes" include disabling the automatic activesync that comes installed on the device and installing a program called memmaid that cleans up a notification from Odyessy Client that seriously delays start up. If you buy the Axim, fix the bugs immediately and you will probably be happy. But, don't look to Dell for help.

Gave this to my daughter for Xmas help organize her life. We (she, me, Dell) could not get it to sync with her Sony laptop. I took it over as I have a Dell computer and thought there would be less hardware issues. Worked great for about a week, then decided not to sync. After 4 hours on the phone with Dell and "We'll call you in a week to see if you have had any luck" I finally got it to work- for another week! This is the routine. Will work for about a week and then go out to lunch. Getting it back to sync is a trial and error process involving, soft reset, hard reset, uninstalling reinstalling software, etc. usually multiple times. So far I've spent about 8 hours on the phone with Dell support, loaded 3 different Activesync versions, all multiple times, have completely reset the Axim about 20 times (if you chose the wrong settings it will duplicate everything in your Outlook file-that was fun!). Everytime I'm ready to give up and literaly throw it away it decides to work- for a week! What a headache.