Folks,
I won't dwell too much into the good things about the X50V: Small, VGA screen, well built, fast CPU, double slots, good price ... and many people have commented on Yahoo.com and Shoppping.com, et al. People should read its specs, and understand that the X50V is a highend PDA.
While it is a highend PDA with all the bells and whistles, there are some issues that I had to deal with, and still unresolved as of 1/28/05.
*** This issuehas been fixed as of 2/1/05. Please refer to method below ***
WI-FI
======
I thought it was easy to link up to my existing Linksys BEFW11S4 Router. It was a nightmare. I could see the link from the X50V to the router established, but I could not go onto the Internet. Called up Dell's tech support for PDA. Got placed into the queue for 1/2 hr. Explained the problem. The supporter said she needed to transfer me to wireless department. Then I found myself in another queue for about 20 minutes. Hung up.
Logged into www.dellsupport.com, under Wireless support. Waited for about 5 minutes, which wasn't bad. The supporter sent me a link to Dell's support page. The page explained I needed to power up, plug in the Wireless adapter, dah dee dah ... I don't have a wireless adapter to plug! I requested my script to be sent to the department's general manager. I requested the GM's name and phone number, so I could convey my problem of support to him. My request was refused. Disconnected.
Thirty minutes later, a supporter called my home. It was 9PM. This person seemed very knowledgable. We went through the debug process, from the PDA to the Charter modem, to the Linksys wireless router. He asked me for the model of the Linksys router. Checked the version of the Lynksys router. Went to the Lynksys website and downloaded the latest firmware, wrote the firmware into the router. Writing took 5 minutes, and completed 27% ... and updater froze. It gave an error of communication with the router. We realized it was the firmware for another router. Downloaded the correct firmware, updated the router ... but the updater could not write into the Linksys BEFW11S4. Checked my X50V, and the "linksys" network icon disappeared!. So we declared the BEFW11S4 dead. The suppporter realized the problem, gave me a $75 coupon for another router. By that time, it was already 10:15PM.
Interestingly, I had the Ipaq hx4700, and it had no problem linking up to the BEFW11S4, and I could surf the web just fine --- without all this messy support.
*** Update 2/1/05 ***
To fix WI-FI connectivity to the Internet, I performed the hard reset. This hard reset fixed the Internet access via WiFi, as correctly recommended by Dell support. I no longer have this problem. The X50V however lost all its memory content that I installed, such as Contacts, software, et al, but those was backed up before the hard reset. This hard reset is STRONGLY recommended as the 1st step out of the box!
To perform the hard reset, please follow Dell's instructions. I did the following steps:
Turn on power. Let it Windows stablize.
While pressing the Power button, press the reset button at the same time. The reset button is at the back of the unit.
A message pops up asking whether or not to hard-reset.
Follow the screen instruction to complete the hard-reset.
2D GRAPHICS
=============
I am using the X50V with the Dell Navigation software (i believe, it's the Navteq). Navteq is a great map. No complaint here. I pointed at the map with the stylus, dragged the map ... wait for 3 seconds later, the map would reposition and refreshed!. Fine. What I don't like about it is, it takes that 3 seconds to refresh the map?!@ This task should not take more than 1 second.
I did some research into the Dell Axim X50V benchmark available on the web. It appears the 2D graphics performance is worse than other units with integrated graphics inside the general purpose CPU, because of the inherent architecture of the X50V. The CPU takes more time to transfer 2D graphics data from the CPU to a dedicated 2D/3D 2700G graphics chip. This is explained on the X50V review here: http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20041231/axim_x50v-09.html#2d_graphics
It takes about 3 seconds for the X50V to complete the 2D benchmark test!!! This test result is consistent with what I am reporting.
I do think there is a flaw within the X50V design itself, in that it takes too much time to offload graphics tasks to the 2700G processor. This path should be minimized in time to something like less than 0.5 second. I am confident this poor 2D graphics has nothing to do with my unit alone.
Hopefully, Dell could improve this 2D response time quickly by way of a patch.
*** Update as of 2/1/05 ***
After performing the hard reset as stated above, this 2D graphic seemed a little better. The same 2D graphics grab-and-move now took about 1 seconds to complete. This was a big improvement.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 450 Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
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