Dell Axim X3i

When Dell launched the first Axim they launched Competition with a capital C in the PDA world. I was still snugly ensconced in my iPAQ world, knowing that the iPAQ remained the King of the Hill. “They must have built the Axim down to a price,” I thought, “by having lower specs and leaving out quality.”

Boy, was I wrong.

The new Axim X3 is easily one of the better designed units around and the review unit came even with a spare battery. So, come along and see what Dell devised for us and discover that the X3 can easily hold its own against the other brands whilst not costing you the earth.

First things first: looks.

Like on a first date, looks are important.

Good looks certainly help in the overcrowded field of PDAs trying to get our attention.

The Axim X3i is gun-metal silver with black edging and the WiFi edition comes with a distinct black protrusion on the top. Could be a built-in GPS or phone antenna or “just” a WiFi antenna with a flashing blue light… and it looks impressive.

But wait till you’ve seen the cradle: a solid piece of modern industrial art, black with a translucent front and when you plug it in the DELL name lights up in soft blue from somewhere deep down there. It also shows an amber light when the second battery is charging. There also room for the expanded battery (1800mAh vs the standard 950mAh). It may well be worth your while purchasing that extra battery as the price is just a fraction under AUD20 and AUD30 for the double-capacity battery.

Full marks for design!

Let’s do a quick walkaround of the unit.

Next to the WiFi antenna we find the high power infra-red port and the SDIO slot. The stylus is like the common slide-out ones that most PDAs seem to have these days (less prone to ejection problems) and is designed rather elegantly but too light-weight for my liking. I prefer a more solid, non-slip stylus.

On the left, to my great joy, I discovered a jog wheel, like the Toshibas have! Ideal for reading ebooks and if you like to listen to music, plug in your headphone in the port above the jog wheel. And what is really handy: you can dim the backlight by pressing the jog wheel and the up/down function of the navigation pad together. I’d often wished for a hardware implementation that went beyond the simple backlight off switch when you hold the power button for a few secs.

The screen display, by the way, is slightly brighter than that of the iPAQ 2210 which also has an excellent screen.

The four hardware buttons and the navigation pad are joined by the recording button on the left and the WiFi On/Off switch on the right. In standard models without the WiFi option this button engages the Windows Media Player.

The power button is also indicative of a good design: it’s backlit (amber when charging, green when fully charged, flashing amber when power gets low and flashing green when it wants to relay a notification.)

On the bottom a simple serial port à la iPAQ but look at the nicely designed connectors!

It also includes a similar dongle that the iPAQs come with.

At the back are the speaker and the reset hole (where have we seen that before?). Mmmm…keeps the front nice and clean but is that really the best place for them?

The batteries are cleverly designed so that there’s no hinge or door needed. They come with that shiny metallic-looking “door” glued on.

Finally, the X3 comes complete with a good manual, CD, QuickStart guide and a decent leathery case that can be clipped to a belt or shirt pocket.

As for dimensions: it’s a fraction longer than the iPAQ 2210 (mainly due to the protruding WiFi antenna) but also a bit thinner. To be more precise: 117 (add 5 mm for the antenna) x 76 x 14.8mm and weighing in at just 138 gms.

Keep in mind, Dell sells the X3 in three different configurations.

The cheapest one, selling for just USD229 (AUD449), has a 300 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM, and 32 MB of ROM. This model has only 2.8 MB of free flash memory, and comes with a USB sync cable.

The second model has a 400 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, 64 MB ROM, and retails for USD329 (AUD599). It has 34.8 MB of the ROM available to the user, and it comes with a USB cradle.

 
The third model, the X3i, which we are reviewing today, also has the 400 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, 64 MB ROM, plus the built-in 802.11b WiFi wireless networking, retailing for USD379 (AUD699).

For a detailed look at Dell's range click here.

Bluetooth

The WiFi antenna has both the WiFi and the Bluetooth symbol on it. Even the manual has a short paragraph on Bluetooth but the connection apps are missing. My conclusion is that BT and WiFi together will be incorporated in a future model.

WiFi

This is functionality that’s been taken up big in the United States but WiFi hot spots are still few and far between in this island continent of ours. Certainly a regional town as Albany where we live would not have any access points, confirmed by searching www.wi-fihotspotlist.com. They only list 1 for Perth and a couple of dozen for Sydney. Using www.jiwire.com we can see a few more locations in Perth and over 70 in Sydney (however, often one location has multiple providers, jacking up the number of hotspots listed artificially).

We still have a way to go as far as coverage and thus the usefulness of a WiFi model really depends on your location or if you’re on the road a lot.

Dell included a WiFi sniffer/network analysis program with signal strength, signal quality, networks available, SSIDs, in short: all you would need to access the Net.

From some US reviews we get the impression that the WiFi function is very well implemented on this model.

On the Companion CD you will find loads of interesting software. Most of them are just trial programs, but still it gives new users a feel of what their new device is capable of.

Here is a list of the full programs:

• Pocket PC Games (Minesweeper, Reversi, or Hearts)

• Resco Picture Viewer for PocketPC by Resco (see our recent review)

• Adobe Acrobat Reader For Pocket PC

• IA Presenter by IA Style, Inc.

• Dell Axim X3 Self-Diagnostic Utility

• AvantGo, CityTime for Pocket PC by Code City

• eWallet for Pocket PC by Ilium Software

• TripTracker by Two Peaks

• Total Remote by Griffin, Inc

• Scrabble by Handmark, Inc.

• Monopoly by Handmark, Inc.

• Hexacto's Tennis Addict.

• Hexacto's Full Hand Casino

• ZIOGolf 2 by ZIO Interactive, Inc.

• McAfee VirusScan PDA

• JeodeJava Virtual Machine

• Resco File Explorer for PocketPC (see our previous review)

• WordLogic Keyboard (English)

• HandyZIP for Pocket PC by CNetX

• TinyStocks Stock Manager for Pocket PC

• Agenda Fusion for Pocket PC by Developer One, Inc

• ListPro for Pocket PC by Ilium Software

Curiously, the Axim Self Diagnostics was the one utility I did not manage to install but since everything was working perfectly, I didn’t mind so much…

Dell-specific software include the Task Switcher (much like iTask) and of course the WiFi applets. The rest is all standard WM2003.

The standard battery (950mAH) is very lightweight and quite adequate for the job of powering the unit from anywhere between 3 to 5 hours. There are so many variables in battery usage (WiFi on or off, screen brightness high, medium or off, etc) that any battery test may not match what you would normally do with your PDA.

I ran the standard Spb Benchmark test with the following results: a decent 3:25 hours.

I was a bit apprehensive about endurance as I saw the battery meter going down by the minute as soon as I picked it up from the cradle but later on the rate stabilised and the final few percentage points took ages… This is better than the other way around, fortunately!

Have a look at the graph.

As usual, we used Spb Benchmark software for our testing.

Would it surprise you that in the comparison testing this inexpensive PocketPC even beats the iPAQ 2210 in the graphics department?  It certainly is in front of its older sibling, the Axim X5, in most areas. We also compared it with the IPAQ 2210, which is our main test platform, and the first successful PocketPC, the iPAQ 3600. This is the standard against which all other PPCs are measured and which has been assigned an index of 1000.

Here are the results (a higher Index number is better!)

By the way, don’t take these numbers as gospel because they vary according to how many programs are loaded on the machine and probably a whole lot of other factors too.

I have seen one other comparison chart with even more flattering indices for the Axim X3, so these figures can be even better!

DELL Axim X3i

Spb Benchmark Indices

Table of results

Things I like about the Axim X3:

• Excellent design

• Inexpensive spare batteries

• Brightness control through hardware buttons

• Tops in graphics engine performance

• jog wheel

• great value for money

Things I’d like to see in the next model up:

• CF card slot

• Bluetooth

Conclusion

Reviewing the Axim X3 has turned this somewhat jaded journalist into a Dell fan.

That’s no mean feat.

I realise that most purchases are compromises and even money can’t always buy the “perfect” PDA. For me, in day-to-day use, particularly when flying in our company aircraft, it’s essential to have that CF slot for digital charts and Bluetooth for GPS navigation. But if you can live without those two features, you’d do yourself a big service to have a good look at the Axim X3 series. If you do a lot of ebook reading, like I do, this lightweight (but not in features) unit might just be the perfect companion for you. And if you travel a lot you’d appreciate the WiFi capabilities in this particular model.

You can purchase this model direct from Dell by clicking here.

For the least expensive X3 click this link

And for the X3 without WiFi check here.

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