Windows Phone Thoughts: X50v on the Big Screen: Pc-Mobile's VGA Cable Adapter Reviewed

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Friday, September 2, 2005

X50v on the Big Screen: Pc-Mobile's VGA Cable Adapter Reviewed

Posted by Darius Wey in "HARDWARE" @ 11:00 AM


Revealing The Cable
The cable is delivered in a hard plastic box which gives it a bit of protection during delivery. Once opened, you'll notice the cable has three connectors, as seen in Figure 1. On one end, you have a female HD15 connector (1). On the other end, you have a connector which plugs into the X50v's primary port at the bottom (3). Finally, a power connector (2) which happens to be compatible with the X50v AC adapter, allows you to keep your unit charged while connected. The connectors themselves are made of a hard, durable plastic. Of all the Pocket PC cables I've owned, this is easily one of the sturdiest.

Most external displays have a female HD15 interface, meaning you will need a separate HD15 male-male cable to connect the X50v VGA cable with the external display. Pc-Mobile sells a portable version of this cable, although chances are you may already have one lying around from an old computer monitor. If you don't, they can also be bought at most electronic stores at a decent price.


Figure 1: The Pc-Mobile VGA Cable Adapter.

Mirror Mode
Mirror Mode on the X50v is the mothership of enabling and disabling display output from the device. Simultaneous running of internal and external displays can take a toll on performance, but more on that later. The most important thing to note is that the internal display can be turned off (simply by holding the power button and the record button together). This greatly frees up system resources, particularly when playing video files on the big screen.


Figure 2: Mirror Mode on the X50v.

Other applications can also take control of the 2700G (making the need for Mirror Mode redundant). An example is the ClearVue Suite, which is included in the Dell Presentation Bundle, but not the Pc-Mobile VGA Cable Adapter. I'll be discussing this a little later in the review.


Figure 3: Mirror Mode - Screen On.


Figure 4: Mirror Mode - Screen Off.

Portrait vs. Landscape
One thing you'll notice immediately is that the VGA cable works great in landscape mode as it's designed to fit most 4:3 and 16:9 screens. Portrait mode, on the other hand, leaves a little to be desired. In landscape mode, text may appear a little stretched on a 16:9 screen due to the 4:3 nature of the X50v, but it's not a huge dilemma. It's still very usable.


Figure 5: Internet Explorer Mobile - Portrait Mode.


Figure 6: Internet Explorer Mobile - Landscape Mode.

Initially, the picture juts out to the right a bit. A quick adjustment on the external display controls realigns the image with the edges of the display.

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