A great first time pocket PC (Dell Axim X51v)

Member Name: razza321

Product:	Dell Axim X51v
Date:	24/01/09 (38 review reads)
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Advantages: Office, Entertainment, POWER!

Disadvantages: Aesthetics, Wireless syncing

This was my first pocket pc, having shifted from Palm, and I instantly saw the familiar Microsoft features. The pocket office suite is very easy to sync with desktop office suites, and in my opinion is significantly nicer than Documents to Go. Coupled with a wireless keyboard, the Axim becomes a very powerful office companion, though that is not a slur on its pre-installed input methods, with its handwriting recogniser being able to cope with my overly cursive handwriting.

Possessing wifi was a major upside, and I was even able to pair it with the highly troublesome Wanadoo livebox, providing rapid internet access. The inbuilt software is adequate, though it is advisable to utilise a program such as TCMP for media duties, as the mobile Windows Player is woefully restricted. I was slightly dissapointed at the poor buffering capabilities of axim when playing films streamed off the home network, but that was never one of my prime intentions.

My axim came with 2 spare, higher capacity batteries, and whilst much larger than the standard battery, if you are not looking for extreme portability it is definetely worth a look at.

The device can be somewhat tempermental at times, but that may be due to my tendency to overuse the onboard RAM, running at times 15 programs - which is probably not advisable.

My one dissapointment is the inability to sync through Wifi using activesync - but that was Microsoft's attempt to secure a potential security weak point, rather than a failure on Dell's part, and can easily be rectified by programs such as Total Commander.

Overall, as an office companion and entertainment device it has superceded my expectations signifcantly, and whilst not as aesthetically pleasing as my Palm T5, the fact that I was able to play a port of Quake, made it all good :D.

Summary: A worthy replacement of any PDA, even for Palm lovers

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