Windows Phone Thoughts: The Dell Axim X51v: If it Were Software, It Would Be a Dot Release

Be sure to register in our forums! Share your opinions, help others, and enter our contests.


Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...

Android Thoughts

Loading feed...



Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Dell Axim X51v: If it Were Software, It Would Be a Dot Release

Posted by Jason Dunn in "HARDWARE" @ 01:30 AM


First Things First
Let's get this out in the open right away: the X51v offers no compelling reason for any X50v owner to upgrade. It's got the same CPU (Intel PXA270 at 624 mhz), same screen (640 x 480 VGA), same GPU (Intel 2700G), same slots (SD + CF), and same buttons. There's a reason they called it the X51 series and not the X55 or X60 series. This really is a "dot" release. It's the most incremental release of any Pocket PC that I've seen from any OEM, although HP was equally uninspiring back in the iPAQ 39xx days.

In some ways, that's a good thing for all the X50v owners out there; because Dell is offering a Windows Mobile 5 upgrade, you'll get practically everything that the X51v offers except for the extra Flash ROM. Dell has retained the same price point, so they don't really lose out either: people who were thinking about buying the X50v will now buy the X51v. Still, I'm left uninspired by the X51v, and as such this will be one of the shortest device reviews I've ever written because there's simply not that much to talk about from the hardware point of view. I should also note that Dell sent me a new ROM update tonight, which is supposed to improve (among other things) battery life, and thus some of the conclusions I've reached in using this device may not hold true when the final devices reach the hands of customers. The joy of reviewing non-production hardware!

So, What's Changed?
Let's talk about what's new and improved in the X51v. The biggest improvement is 256 MB of Flash ROM, and this is truly an excellent upgrade that Dell has made. Now that Windows Mobile 5 makes RAM purely for execution, this changes the way the memory game is played. No more fighting with the memory slider! On a freshly hard-reset X51v, there should be 64 MB of RAM available for program execution. At the moment, after a soft reset, my device is reporting there's 49.47 MB total program RAM, 16.82 MB is in use, and 32.65 MB is free. I'm a bit baffled as to why it's not reporting 64 MB - this may be a result of the new ROM update, or just bad user interface design on Microsoft's part.

Of the 256 MB of Flash ROM on the X51v, 190 MB is available to the end user. This is simply awesome. This will allow users to cram their Pocket PC full of applications without needing a storage card. Windows Mobile 5 takes up around 66 MB of ROM, which is a big jump from previous versions. There's a good reason for this, however: my understanding is that each application now has some "slack space" for updates. So if a Windows Media Player 10 Mobile upgrade comes out and the total ROM footprint is 100 KB bigger than before, just that app can be upgraded instead of having to re-flash the entire ROM image. This means that the easy Flash upgrades we were supposed to get years ago will finally become a reality - if the information I've been told proves to be accurate. Microsoft and its OEM partners have historically done very poorly at this however, so I'm not holding my breath.

Tags:

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...

Reviews & Articles

Loading feed...

News

Loading feed...