Don't drop your Axim

[+Faderaven]

If you call Dell for repairs...they'll tell you to buy a new one. Apparently they're not in the repair business...from reading Dell posts it seems they don't provide many spare parts so other places can make repairs either.

 

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore

[+Searching_ut]

Faderaven,

 

Have you got an Axim? I've been debating buying one. Reading the so called user reviews on Cnet, I've seen an awful lot of bad press. I've found it quite common for people on that site to write reviews on products they've never used however. I only know two people who have the units, and they both love them, but neither has dealt with customer service, and 2 people isn't much of a sample size.

 

Kind of a quandry. I've sworn off HP/Compac for life, and aren't much of a fan of toshiba anymore, but I'm looking to replace my old Palm.

 

As for replacement for the display, I'm not sure it would be cost effective if they're anything like laptops. Prior to buying my daughter a toshiba Laptop for christmas, I priced repairs on it. Looks like it would cost about the price of whole computer to get it replaced.

 

Thanks for any input

 

Jeff

[+Faderaven]

I'm not sure if that kind of flat out adulation is what you were looking for. Let me add some substance.

 

1) I have the plain jane battery. If I'm just reading text or cache pages I can easily get 4-6 hours out of it. I have a graphics intense game that seems to drain the battery faster though. I have yet to run the battery down.

 

2) I got the 300 mhz unit - that seems fast enough for all of the programs I use. The only lag I experience is when I load GPXVIEW...but I have 500 cache pages in the file - it's over 2 megs.

 

3) I sprang for the 128 meg storage card. I probably could have gone with a cheaper card I don't think I'll ever fill it.

 

4) The screen is easily readable outside. In my opinion the backlight is always needed for reading so it had better be durable.

 

5) It also doubles as an ebook. I wasn't aware you could use it for this. I really like this feature...if you like older books there's hundreds of free downloads. If you get a free dictionary you can highlight any word any look it up on the spot.

 

If you do get one don't get the fancy leather case. It comes with one I like much better. I wonder if I can return it?

 

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore

[+Searching_ut]

Thanks for the first hand info. Most of the complaints I found involved customer support, mostly regarding actually getting a unit delivered, so I decided to give it a try. I ordered the 400mhz version earlier today, and already have confirmation of the order, and they're showing everything I ordered shipped already as well except the cirgarette lighter adapter. I ordered a regular serial cable to go with it so I could connect my GPS via the null modem adapter I currently use with my Palm. This will give my old GIII+/Mighty mouse2 setup something new to do since I don't take it out to play much anymore.

 

Should you be so unlucky as to break the display, I found where you can get it replaced, but like I figured, it's not a whole lot cheaper than buying a new unit.

 

http://www.pocketpctechs.com/delx5rep.asp

 

Thanks again

 

Jeff

[+GOT GPS?]

When I looked at the Specifications of the Garmin iQue 3600 , it was only 5.2 ounces (161.7 g). I wonder if Garmin is going to have alot of broken units to fix, after they start selling??

 

Always different...Hit refresh

[+Rubberhead]

Dell Axim.

 

It is my understanding that Pocket PC 2002 can not take advantage of anything more than a 206 MHz processor so there should be no speed difference between the 300 and 400 MHz devices.

 

That being said, if you use the device for e-mail and calendar plus additional application, you might find the 32 Mega to be a bit restrictive.

 

An external storage card (either SD or CF for the Axim) will help with e-mail attachments, and program storage, but it does slow down the execution of programs resident on the card.

[+Searching_ut]

Got the new Axim today, been playing with it quite a bit. Getting it to connect to my GPS units was a problem for awhile. I had a null modem and gender adapters I'd use on my palm. On the Axim, it would lock the unit up initially. I learned you either have to have the program that uses the GPS running and looking for the GPS first, before you connect the gps, or you have to turn off the active sync program. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can shut off active sync completely, which makes the Axim somewhat difficult to use with a regular GPS receiver, at least as far as I can tell right now. It appears the serial cable has a USB to serial converter built into the cable which doesn't always see the GPS.

 

As for processor speed, I don't know if the 400 is faster or not. I've read several forums where it's been debated. If you look at the power save screen though, you will see it kick up to 400mhz and back down to 200mhz if you're running a program in the background. I haven't ever seen any benchmark programs for the PPC though so I don't know if it actually does anything when it runs at 400.

 

Once I get it figured out, it should give me one more reason to get really embarrased if I ever do get lost.

 

For what it's worth

 

Jeff

 

[This message was edited by Searching_ut on March 05, 2003 at 12:24 AM.]