Rating: 
Summary: good product, atrocious service
Review: I find the product to be what it purports to be. And it has excellent battery life. But one thing overrules my good opinion of the product: very bad service. I guess Dell has an arrangement with people who speak with significant accents. That is fine. But when I have difficulty understanding what they are saying, I expect they would bear with me and see things through.Twice they hung up on me for asking to " please repeat that more slowly." I suspect they are tired of hearing that. But accents can be difficult to handle. Also, unlike service for their computers, the help has often been out and out wrong.I have no problem with people who have accents ( to many of us ); my folks are immigrants.That is not the issue. Service and politeness are issues. Dell has a serious service problem. So much so that I like the product but couldn't possibly recommend it. Too bad. I wish Dell would remedy this problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Great stuff!
Review: I bought the Axim at an absolutely bargain price and, having never owned a PDA before, thought I could always sell it for at least what I paid if I didn't like it. A couple of days later I knew that wasn't going to happen!
It is really a great unit. It is a tad bulky, but I didn't want a tiny PPC and, being a woman, I do not need to stuff it into my shirt pocket anyway.
The screen is fantastic, very clear with rich colours and has adjustable brigtness settings. Even for someone with a so/so eyesight like myself, reading documents does not present a problem. You can also switch the screen off while keeping the Axim running - eg for listening to music.
The stylus is a bit strange to start off with, but you get used to it. Handwriting recognition was a bit frustrating for me at first (once again, I've never used a PDA before), but with a bit of practice its turning into a handy tool (figuring out how the transcriber works was a great help too!)
The inbuilt software is a bit lackluster, but after installing Pocket Informant, MS Reader and a couple of other add-ons, the Axim does just about everything with gusto! Now I can listen to my favourite music (Windows Media Player 9 has an inbuilt feature to compress music for your PPC and it still sounds great!), read the latest newspaper (by synchronising pocket favourites), read a book, edit documents, play games and organise my day/week/month at any time.
The expansion capabilities of this thing are great with both SD and CF slots, the speed is good (saving documents sometimes takes a couple of seconds, but you can't expect P4 performance!). And with optional keyboards, wireless networks, CF PDA cameras, GPS etc the Axim can be useful in just about any circumstance.
Oh, and the battery life is just great, you really don't need a backup!
In summary - great unit and a great value for money (even if you pay full price)
Rating:
Summary: It works as hard as I do.
Review: I am a Nursing Supervisor in Hospital and must keep a large and varied amount of information at my fingertips. The Dell provides plenty of built-in memory to hold the programs I need, such as "drug-guide", and "Nurses toolbox". Plus I have a medical dictionary and a standard dictionary. I Have many more programs that all work together to help me do a timely and accurate job.
Bye the way, we have only Dell products in our home, because compared to the other brands of computers we've used, our Dell desktop and notebook are three years old and essentially trouble free. Our Hospital is outfitted completely with Dell as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Affordable PocketPC; Dell has fixed WM2003 slowdown
Review: Before you buy the Dell Axim PocketPC, be sure to ask the seller what operating system it runs and what ROM version it has. Avoid getting one that runs Windows Mobile 2003 OS and has a ROM version of A04, which, according to many users including myself, is a defective configuration that causes tremendous slowdown. If you get one with WM2003, be sure it has a ROM version of A05, which is the fix Dell provided in Sept '03 to eliminate the slowdown. If you still want to buy a WM2003 A04 unit, be sure to contact Dell to send you a ROM update to A05 on CD (you can only get this update from the CD, and not via download). Dell also automatically sends this CD update to those who bought an A04 unit. So, ask your seller if he or she already got this CD from Dell. Of course, you can always order a new Axim directly from Dell, because as of now, Dell is only shipping the fixed, WM2003 A05 units. After updating to A05 ROM, everything runs faster on the Axim. Programs like MS Reader and certain games like Hexacto's Bounty Hunter Pinball, which ran very sluggishly with A04 ROM, are much faster and much more usable. Browsing in File Explorer and contact list also no longer takes an eternity. PocketPCs have become increasingly versatile the last few years. They are no longer just electronic address and appointment books, but devices that can run a variety of add-on software -- book readers, music players, video players, networking utilities, web browsers, GPS viewers, database viewers, etc. Their biggest advantage AND disadvantage, however, is their small size. Although much easier to carry than laptop PCs, their small screen size sometimes makes it difficult to view or to key in material. The miniature batteries that they use also are unable to generate long-lasting power. The Dell Axim PocketPC, which has one of the better battery packs, only can offer about 8 hours of continuous use. It uses significantly more power while running Wi-Fi or multimedia applications. It also uses a little bit of power while turned off in order to retain memory content. If the power runs out, all your data will be lost. One inconvenience in WM2003 is that, to check battery status, you have to tap the screen a few times to go into the Power Settings screen. Some third-party utilities show you an on-screen battery indicator. You can also use the Dell "Switcher Bar" utility, pre-installed on the Axim, to quickly switch to the Power Settings screen. The Dell Axim 400 MHz PocketPC and the cheaper, earlier 200 MHz model are the only two PocketPCs Dell has made, but they have surged in popularity because of their low prices. The Axim 400MHz has an admittedly "bare" configuration out of the box. It does not come with Wi-Fi nor Bluetooth connectivity, and includes only a few full-version software titles: Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, MS Reader, Internet Explorer, Pocket MSN, Windows Media 9, a terminal service client, a picture viewer, and a few simple games. The Dell Axim runs on a rechargeable and detachable main and backup batteries. The included cradle is able to simultaneously recharge the Axim and another battery (if you ever decide to buy another battery pack). You can also recharge the Axim with the included DC power cable. The cradle is also used for transferring and/or synchronizing data between the Axim and your desktop PC. You need to install the provided ActiveSync 3.7 and Outlook 2002. ActiveSync 3.7 is required for WM2003, and it can be downloaded on the Microsoft web site. It allows you to view the content inside the Axim in an Explorer view, lets you drag and drop files to or from it, and lets you synchronize content between Outlook and the PocketPC. Outlook 2002, the desktop personal organizer software, is a commercial product and cannot be downloaded on the web. And it needs to be activated to be used, and cannot be re-activated on the same PC without contacting Microsoft. If you buy the Axim from a seller, make sure he or she hasn't already activated it. The Dell Axim is rather heftly. It weighs about 7 ounces, and almost 3/4 inch thick. So it may be difficult to put it in your shirt pocket or in your trousers. Regarding the brightness of the Axim's color screen, in an office with strong fluorescent light sources, it is barely adequate, in my opinion, even at the highest brightness setting. Under direct sunlight, it is nearly impossible to see. If you use the Axim outdoors a lot, this may be a problem. The screen looks best under incandescent lights or low-light conditions. (Those who have used old Palm devices with monochrome displays will find this amusing: monochrome displays look best under bright lights and worst in low-light conditions, and color displays are just the reverse.) To make data entry easier, the Axim includes hand-writing recognition ability and Graffiti recognition for former Palm users. You can also use the on-screen qwerty-style keyboard. A stylus is also included. If you use the stylus to poke and scratch on the screen a lot, consider getting a screen protector. The screen is a vital and fragile part of the Axim or any PocketPC and is prone to damage. You can buy professionally-made screen protectors, or you can make your own like I do -- I use an Avery transparent laminate and slide it into the little openings at the edges of the screen. The Axim has a built-in clock and alarm, but one annoyance is that the alarm doesn't always ring, even after the A05 ROM fix. This is reportedly a bug in WM2003 (i.e. a Microsoft problem). However, I found a freeware alarm called "StopTime" that does the job nicely.
Rating: 
Summary: Axim crashes
Review: I recently bought an Axim after reading the reviews here at Amazon. However, these reviewers all appear to have purchased their Axims prior to mid-June of this year, when Dell began shipping the device with the new operating system, Windows Mobile 2003. Dell now has MAJOR problems with the product--it is extremely slow, they have halted new shipments while they try to develop a patch, and there are multiple irate customers posting messages on Dell's "community forum" message board. For the short time that I had my Axim, I found it extremely frustrating to use due to its slowness, and my e-mail exchanges with Dell's technical support did nothing to reassure me as to an eventual solution to the problem. My Axim is now en route back to Dell for a refund, and I'm using my old Handspring Visor again with no problems.
Rating:
Summary: very good value
Review: this is my first PPC... i think it is great for the price i paid... i get many features that other pdas dont offer for the same price. It comes with both a secureDigital slot and a CompactFlash2 slot. It seems pretty fast, i can watch fullscreen music videos on it at respectable framerates (hint: ignore the recommended PPC settings of wmencoder9 and do a custom dualpass encoding in WMV7 format at about 150kbps to get the best framerate/quality possible. the recommended PPC profile lags too much.) My only complaint is the screen, which is not the brightest i have seen but its very clear. also, the battery life is excellent! ive run it for hours upon hours without running out of juice.
Rating:
Summary: Excelent Product
Review: The Axim X5 is great, the colors and definition of the screen are amazing and the battery life is very good. If I could change something I'd make it a little thinner, it's a little big compared to other PDAs I've seen/used, but the price, features and quality of it make up for that. I'm very happy with it!. Dude, get a Dell ;).
Rating:
Summary: This is an awesome Handheld
Review: I am only 13, but I love this product. There is plenty of space. With the compact flash II and the SD card slots i can put my pictures from my digital camera on the device. I read reviews saying how thick this thing is, but it really isnt bad. The chrome cradle looks awesome on my desk. This is an awesome product. It is worth over $500 for $300. I have no complaints about this product. With Dell, how could you go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Little PDA in Texas
Review: Pros: Powerful versatile and affordable and as expected from DELL, great customer support.
Cons: A little bulky but still small enough to fit in your pocket.
So, why is the AXIM better than the others...dude, it's a DELL.
Rating:
Summary: So Much Power for such a small machine!
Review: This is a fabulous Pocket PC! It has brilliant color and sound and is like havin my laptop in my hand. For someone who travels a great deal, this a the perfect way to keep up with everything from schedules, to emails and the latest read! I love this little machine and would never go back to the Palm again!
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