Why not switch to Dell Axim x50v?

[broadus]

I hate to admit it, but I'm being tempted to replace my TH55 with the Axim x50v, especially when Dell runs the extra coupon discount which brings it down to about $360 every once in a while (as in today).

The display is appealing, don't know about battery life, and FWIW, Dell hasn't jettisoned its PDAs. In addition, the TH55 is my first handheld, so I don't have a tremendous amount of software invested.

Still, I do like my TH55. The camera does come in handy occasionally. I like its size and its jog dial, which the Axim appears to have dropped.

Maybe I just need a little reconfirmation to keep the TH55. One thing in favor of switching is that I can probably sell my unit, UC55 cradle, Sena case, 256MB MS, MS reader, and software for what the Axim would cost. Then again, I would have to buy $100 worth of software to have the same capabilities were I to switch.

I can almost talk myself into going either way, but once my TH55 is gone, it's gone. A lot of folks seem to still want it, so that ought to tell me something.

Any help from you wise ones? Right now, I'm leaning toward staying with the TH55.

Thanks,
Bill

[Fishie_Flop]

I am one of the few here who likes PPCs and I would have to advice against the Dell.
Its a fast and incredible machine yes but its batterylife renders it nearly useless for me, especially if you come from a TH-55.
On average you get about the same batterylife you get from a TungstenE, around 2 houres.

[Wolfgard]

Based on my experience, don't ever buy devices with short battery life. Always look for those with more than 4 hours worth of power. There's not point in having a mobile device when you have to carry the charger everywhere you go. I had a Zire 72 that lasted only 2+ hours (I can drain it in just one lab session) and I sold it. Got myself a TH55 and never looked back since.

[Pdaman]

Based on my experience, don't ever buy devices with short battery life. Always look for those with more than 4 hours worth of power. There's not point in having a mobile device when you have to carry the charger everywhere you go. I had a Zire 72 that lasted only 2+ hours (I can drain it in just one lab session) and I sold it. Got myself a TH55 and never looked back since.
Yeah :rolleyes: I second that!

[tonyreynolds]

Okay, here's my opinion, from someone who uses both platforms:

Pocket PC's have a different way of doing things, especially entry of even small things in a schedule. It just seems to take more taps than with Palm OS.

The TH55 screen is 1/2 the resolution of the VGA Dell handheld, but that's not that big of a deal, because MICROSOFT HASN'T FULLY IMPLEMENTED VGA, and the viewing experience does NOT yield the greater screen real estate one would expect.

The battery life of ANY Pocket PC is ABYSSMAL compared to the TH55; they just don't compare. I can't travel ANYWHERE without the AC adapter for my Toshiba. The Dell will be NO BETTER. That VGA screen SUCKS power. I can easily travel for a three or four day weekend with my TH55 and NOT WORRY about power. (Okay, well I still worry, but I'm trying to learn not to... After all I've used an NZ90 for the last 1 1/2 years.)

There are some things the Pocket PC does better: Microsoft Office is one, Multimedia is another.

The Dell is a good product, but if I were you, I'd wait for the SECOND generation of VGA handhelds.

Tony

[Ion Control]

Why not? Because you'd be running a Windows OS, with all its inherent instabilities.

[Fishie_Flop]

PPCs these days are no more unstable then PalmOS and generally have better batterylife then most PalmOS machines out there.
Apart from the TH-55 I feel these days they are better value for money and often have longer batterylife and features(dual wireless for instance is fast becoming a standard) at same or lower pricepoints.

I have had both OSes and activesync as well as hotsync crap out on me on several occasions so instability is a non issue.
Both operating systems have their ups and downs and generally with both stability isseus stem from user inexperience or even outright faults to third party programs.
Both at their base are stable systems.

Battery life too, the PalmOS camp has the TH-55 and the PPC camp has the Ipaq rx3715.

[broadus]

Tony,

Thanks about the insight into the VGA capabilities of the Dell. Also, you and others are constantly reminding me of the battery difference. Maybe the grass isn't quite as green on the other side of the fence!

At any rate, my TH55 is starting to look better all the time, especially with the new Sena case wrapped around it.

Any additional insight is more than appreciated. Thanks to all who've responded.

Bill

[Fishie_Flop]

Microsoft has fully implemented VGA and they have done so in the same way PalmOne implemented it when they switched from 160by160 to 320by320.

Physical sizes of icons remained roughly the same size, just consist of more pixels so they look better.

If you dont like that there are WinMobile hacks that can use the old style fonts and icons so everything becomes real tiny and you can fit more stuff on the screen, kinda like the old Sony PalmOS machines where when you switched to high res everything became realy tiny.

[arizona cactus]

i'm a long time dual platform user.

i also have owned a x50v for about 3 months. I recently owned for about 6 months h4350 and mio 168. (i love my pda's but i tend to keep getting new things). i've had my nz90 for some time now, simply because i haven't been too impressed with recent palm os offerings. i did own a zodiac again for about 6 months in between.

but frankly, i have not had any more problems with active sync than i did with hot sync. same goes for soft resets, system problems, and etc. and i can get just about any software on both platforms.

but to get back, i love the x50v, there are plenty of 3rd party accessories for it, and the regular battery lasts around 3.5 hours. you can of course adjust the CPU speed and brightness, with the built in settings. i also bought a mugan power 2200 extended batter which is great.

[Fishie_Flop]

I agree mostly with Arizona cactus.

Stability is eaqual between both systems, Palkm only people seem to be stuck in the past when WinCE machines were cluncky, slow and unreliable, that hasnt been true for a long time now.

Disagree with him about the Axim x50v though.

A machine for me has to last a workday and the Axim does not do that, the grafics accelarator in it is not supported and for other entertainment options my Sigmarion3 is far superior, as a productivity tool as well I might add.

[broadus]

I agree mostly with Arizona cactus.

Stability is eaqual between both systems, Palkm only people seem to be stuck in the past when WinCE machines were cluncky, slow and unreliable, that hasnt been true for a long time now.

Disagree with him about the Axim x50v though.

A machine for me has to last a workday and the Axim does not do that, the grafics accelarator in it is not supported and for other entertainment options my Sigmarion3 is far superior, as a productivity tool as well I might add.

So do I understand that you think that my continuing with the TH55 would probably be the thing to do, especially because of the battery? For the money, it seems that the best I would do would be a lateral move if I went with a PPC, say an HP.

Thanks,
Bill

[depret]

tonyreynolds said:

"Pocket PC's have a different way of doing things, especially entry of even small things in a schedule. It just seems to take more taps than with Palm OS.

The TH55 screen is 1/2 the resolution of the VGA Dell handheld, but that's not that big of a deal, because MICROSOFT HASN'T FULLY IMPLEMENTED VGA, and the viewing experience does NOT yield the greater screen real estate one would expect.''

PDA Excel Comparison

Funny you should post this after I just compared my TH55 screen to the following units at CompUSA.

Thought it would be interesting to start a thread comparing applications on all units as the following table shows. This would be an independent non-platform bias comparison.

I would love to see all the common applications compared:
- NetFront/WebPro/PocketIE
- Excel
- Word
- Calandar
- eReader
- ...

We need to start a application list for member to contribute inputs and direct observations
.
PDA Comparison
Excel Sheet
Unit Row/Col Resolution
HP hx4705 15xi+ 640x480
HP rx3715 16xi+ 240x320
HPhx2415 16xi+ 240x320
TungstenT5 16xk 480x320
TungstenT3 18xk+ 480x320
Sony TH55 18xk+ 480x320

Note:
Zoom set to "small" on Palm
View set to "50%" on PPC

P.S. The Tungsten T5 feels nice in the hand. I loved the size of the Sony SJ 20/30 PDAs, so the HP rx3715 has a certain appeal also.

As always, you need to weight what you need versus what each unit has to offer and make the best choice for YOU. Best of luck.

depret

[Wolfgard]

Microsoft has fully implemented VGA and they have done so in the same way PalmOne implemented it when they switched from 160by160 to 320by320.

Microsoft hasn't fully implemented VGA yet. Browsers and spreadsheets still can't be viewed in full ala on desktops (let's not talk about hacks here). We'll have to wait till Magneto is out later this year to see true VGA capabilities on PDAs.

About battery life, the rx3715 probably has the best battery life for a PPC. It's roughly about the same as the TH55 and is a good buy IMHO.

[TMann]

When talking about battery life, remember also that most PPC's have the advantage over Palm PDA's in that they typically have removable batteries. So if you're willing to purchase and carry an extra battery, you can get a lot more usage out of your PDA. I currently use up two standard batteries on my x50v over the course of a typical workday. This includes a healthy amount of Wi-Fi usage at the hospital where I work. I actually have a third battery as a back-up, but rarely need it.

It's unfortunate that very few PDA's, Palm or PPC, have the battery life of the TH55, or my Tungsten C. Hopefully, in a few years, battery technology will progress to the point that we can use a device with all of its functions for a few days at a time...

TMann

[Fishie_Flop]

Microsoft hasn't fully implemented VGA yet. Browsers and spreadsheets still can't be viewed in full ala on desktops (let's not talk about hacks here). We'll have to wait till Magneto is out later this year to see true VGA capabilities on PDAs.

About battery life, the rx3715 probably has the best battery life for a PPC. It's roughly about the same as the TH55 and is a good buy IMHO.

VGA is fully implemented on OS level since PPC 2K3 SE.
Before that it wasnt and the only VGA device back then(The Toshiba e800/805 had its own implementation nd even back then most programs were fully resolution aware).
And why cant we talk about hacks?
They arent even hacks, just freeware programs that open up settings that Microsoft deliberatly disabled from the devices to ensure compatibility with programs that are not VGA aware.

[broadus]

I appreciate all the foregoing discussion. I take it that the only reasons to switch to something like the Axim x50v would be (1) the Axim, or any comparably-priced PPC, is able to handle programs my TH55 cannot or (2) I'm aggravated enough with Sony's leaving the TH55 high and dry and am not impressed enough with the T5 that I would move on to PPC, or (3) I become convinced that Palm OS is tomorrow's Betamax. Of course, who can predict with certainty? Am I missing anything? BTW, there is no (4) I have money to burn!

I realize this is a TH55 forum, so I'm thankful this hasn't degenerated into a bash-PPC thread. At the end of the day, we want our PDAs to do what we need in an efficient way, regardless of OS.

Bill

[arizona cactus]

just to point out --
the x50v (and most higher end and VGA ppc's) have swappable batteries, and typically also seller higher capacity batteries (such as the mugan power 2200 i have for my x50v)
ideally, whatever pda you'd get would have a swappable battery

the x50v (and the other VGA ppc's) have both SD and CF. CF can be very useful.

the VGA screen (while not all programs may be optimized for the screen) is clearly brighter and clearer than my h4350 and mio 168 were and my nz90 is.

so although the x50v battery life is not great, a higher capacity battery is available, and it does offer a CF and better (and bigger) screen.

lastly, the x50v (and most of the other VGA ppc's) have both built in WIFI and BT, something you may find attractive.

but ultimately to each their own. and don't forget that you are also comparing and end of life pda (TG) with newer models.

[arizona cactus]

just one more thing (and i'm not trying to sway the vote, simply pointing out that there are pros and cons)

with the CF, I use :
- iTrek Xtrac 2.02 GPS CF
- 4 in 1 CF adapter (reads MS/MS Pro, SD, MMC) for picture viewing, transfer etc
- flycam 1.3mp with flash camera
- ethernet adapter
- (and what i use the most probably) -- hitachi 4gb microdrive (you can buy them for around $170) -- when used with beta player, movies are good to watch

generally, having a CF slot affords more (or cheaper) options than SDIO

food for thought.

[Fishie_Flop]

Yeah, currently all VGA PPCs are dual slot SD,MMC/CF, while most of them are dual wireless to boot.

CF is cheaper and faster then SD and A LOT cheaper and faster then Memory sticks and as the poster above pointed out convertor CF cards exist that allow you to use MS cards as memory so you can just unplug the MS from a Sony Digicam, pop it in there and read it, even VGA movies shot with cybershot cameras can be played with freeware software for PPC like that.

It hurts me to say this but at the moment for functionality PalmOS does no longer compare and they need to act fast before they lose the mindshare they have left.

[lkj56]

I own both x50v and TH55 at this time. The x50v was provided to me for free from work. The Palm device were not used at work becasue or IT department have not certify them yet. I am a Palm owner since the original Pilot before they were bought by US Robotic. The global find feature on the Palm is what get me hooked in the 1st place. I never have to think where I should jot down something. I know I will always find it easily with the "Find" feature. I had various free Window CE devices over the years, but none of them can get close to the snappiness, and the weight and size of the Palm platform until recently. I think x50v is almost there (give and take). Probably some other reacent models from HP.

Now here is why I get back to to use my TH55 as the primary PDA. The accessories and software that I got to complement my TH55: Batery Adapter PEGA-BC10, enable me to catch up a few hours of the Tonight Show on the plane or to read while I leasen to music via pTune. I also own the PEGA-VR100. This is like a mini TIVO to me. I don't know how I could do the same with PPC.

The ease of getting video and music into the TH55 is just so easy. May be I am just ignorant in the PPC word. I would appreciate if someone can shead some light in getting video easily on to my x50v. I had to do so many time consuming step to get vedio into the PPC. Once you can get a movie into the PPC it's very good becaue you can have it at 640 and 30fps. My interest is mainly news and talk shows; so @ 320 and 15fps (HQ) mode in the VR100 is just optimum for me. It is easy to set the recording time from the Clie and then just stick the MS to the VR100 to record. The ease of use is just superb. If I whant to get DVD into the MS, I can just hook up DVD player to the vedio-in (I have a filter in between for copy guarded material). It does have a limitation of 2 hours max per vedio file. 512MB can get 2hrs at HQ mode.

The screen of TH55 just beat the x50v out of sight. On the 1st glance the x50v is very vibrant. It was just all brightness and no color fidelity. A pleasing photo or video on the TH55 will just look dull and lifeless on the x50v. If you only read info/news via the Avantgo x50v is very nice becasue of the font and resolution. Now that I have Landscape and Font for OS5, it is ALMOSTas good as x50v. Yes, x50v is still better because it is more snappy at over 600MHz processor speed. I now downgraded my Avantgo back to version 5.5 to gain back the snappiness at the "home" page. (at the expense the Landscape won't function with this version.) One thing bad about the PPC is that it won't remember where I was when I leave Avantgo if I switch application in the middle of reading a story; it will only bring me back to the home page in Avantgo.

For music, TH55 is now jsut as good as PPC thanks to PTune's WMA plugin. Just easier to encode with Windows Media Player to WMA. I just don't have good experince with MP3 encoding. Someone might like to speak up on this one.

Wifi detection on x50v is easier to use. No experince with Bluetooth.

Loading web page with IE on the x50v is faster. Using Netfont on the TH55 along with Landscape is more usable.

With TheGo, the buttons are now perfect for me. One handed operation on the TH55 is much better.

TH55 is the best optimized PDA that I'd ever used. I only wish that the processor speed could be boosted to 400+ on demand and the speaker could be louder with my VR100 recording.

[gailus]

Okay, here's my opinion, from someone who uses both platforms:



There are some things the Pocket PC does better: Microsoft Office is one, Multimedia is another.


Tony

I disagree the compatibility with Excel and Word is poor on Pocket PC compare to Palm with Document to go.

[broadus]

ikj56,

Thank you for your insight. The head-to-head comparison between the two units is especially helpful in that you have a good amount of experience with both. As of now, I can't think of a good reason to switch to the Axim or even to an HP, though I am opened to being convinced.

Bill

[wontolla]

I'll stick to my TH-55 cause the PPC multi tasking eats too much hardware. I don't like the PPC I've used and don't use Windows, only for playing, so it feels strange to have a windows powered PDA, I don't know it the PPC programs works with Linux.

[Fishie_Flop]

Yeah, in your situation, id wait to see what spring and WinMobile 2k5 brings.

[lkj56]

broadus,

You are welcome. Glad ot have a little contribution here. I learned a lot from this forum. PDA life won't be as good without a informative forum.

Actually what was amazing to me was that I was compairing TH55, year-old technology, to the new kid on the block and still look sharp.

[blck1jack]

You have to be kidding me! The TH smokes almost any machine at multimedia! I like to see any Pocket PC play continous music for 24 hrs. on a SINGLE CHARGE. The TH can also play movies for a good 4+ hrs on a single charge. I can watch the entire Lord of the Rings Return of the King Extended Edition on ONE CHARGE. As for office apps the TH comes with docs to go for FREE. The TH kicks the ppc *** at PIM! CLIE ORGANIZER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You want to talk VGA, you can't even see the quality difference, your eye can't precieve it therefore it is a waste of time because it does not display more info. Wait you want to talk software compatability, compared with 5,000 software titles for ppc, palm os is pushing 25,000 titles. Bluetooth AND Wfi in a slick package for usually less then that ppc. Go with the TH.

[Spiral]

just some notes...

The X50v can get around 6+ hrs of video playback. Because it only needs to run at like 208 mhz while the graphics processor.

The X50v's screen is quite nice. When I saw it I could clearly see the difference in the pixel density/size compared to my T3. At first glance I thought the screen was glossy paper as a mock-up. But it was actually the real thing. Btw, the color fidelity of the X50v is high, but some people have felt it looks blown out in comparison to the hx4700, which has one of the best pda screens.

[blck1jack]

Sorry I think I got my figures wrong, here they are from http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/sony-th55-en.shtml



Off-line work
The TH55 is equipped with the non-replaceable Li-Ion battery. Our tests revealed that the handheld can provide 17 hours 15 minutes (including 30 minutes browsing the Internet via Wi-Fi and 40 minutes of Flash cartoons at the maximum backlight) in the mp3-mode before the charger level drops to 15%. A fantastic performance indeed! The company claims 24 hours 30 minutes of continuous work in the mp3-mode (the screen and buttons blocked). Real battery performance almost equals that suggested by the manufacturer. In the video mode (full screen, the maximum backlight) the battery lasted 4 hours 20 minutes with 20% charger level remaining, that exceeds planned figures by 20 minutes. Then the device worked for another couple of hours as organizer. The time declared for the video mode with the minimum backlight amounts to 7 hours 30 minutes, however we assume it can be even higher. As for other PDA modes see the list below:
Mp3 with the screen switched on – 7 hours;
Dictaphone recording to Memory Stick (the screen and buttons blocked) – 19.5 hours;
Dictaphone recording to Memory Stick (the screen and buttons unblocked, default backlight) – 6 hours;
Continuous work with Wi-Fi (the minimum backlight) – 14 hours!!
Continuous work with Wi-Fi (the maximum backlight) – 5.5 hours;
30 minutes everyday as organizer (backlight on) – 15 days;
30 minutes everyday as organizer (default backlight) – 9 days.
Sony TH55 enjoys the longest battery life for color screen PDA outpacing the recent leader Asus A620. We mean only standard batteries. Well, our respect to engineers from Sony. Such outstanding off-line performance is achieved also with the help of the processor developed by Sony.

[Fishie_Flop]

You have to be kidding me! The TH smokes almost any machine at multimedia! I like to see any Pocket PC play continous music for 24 hrs. on a SINGLE CHARGE. The TH can also play movies for a good 4+ hrs on a single charge. I can watch the entire Lord of the Rings Return of the King Extended Edition on ONE CHARGE. As for office apps the TH comes with docs to go for FREE. The TH kicks the ppc *** at PIM! CLIE ORGANIZER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You want to talk VGA, you can't even see the quality difference, your eye can't precieve it therefore it is a waste of time because it does not display more info. Wait you want to talk software compatability, compared with 5,000 software titles for ppc, palm os is pushing 25,000 titles. Bluetooth AND Wfi in a slick package for usually less then that ppc. Go with the TH.


This is just fanboy dribble, I can see the difference between half VGA and full VGA verry well thank you, I can even see the difference between WVGA and VGA.
Docs To Go no matter which way you slice it is a third party app and I managed 6 houres of video on a standard battery with the Toshiba e800 depending on the settings.
Screen of the Ipaq RX3715 gets around 20 houres of MP2 playback as well.
As for software compatiblity both operating systems have roughly the same amount of usefull apps with new apps lately favouring the PPC by a huge margin, especially for graphical stuff and games.

The TH-55 is an awesome machine no doubt about it and my favourite PalmOS machine ever(and I have owned quite a few), but the stuff you are saying here are just fanboy shouts.

[blck1jack]

Wait and how heavy is that toshiba, or how big is that battery, the TH's is only 1000mah. Also I would like to know what we are comparing, the dell or the ipaq or the toshiba, because the thread title indicates the dell. The TH still gets more music play back time. Useablity of apps is based on what you use your handheld for, palm still beatsppc in the application area. For pocket ppc's 5,000 apps the palm os gives nearly five times that Yes docs to go is a third party app, but it is bundled and does not need to be purchased, cutting down on cost. So you can get an overpriced, heavy, hunk of windows errors machine or you can get the lightweight, long lasting, powerful TH55.

[Cyker]

Hehe, settle down guys ;)

Not sure whether to tap anything in here since most of what I could say has been said piecemeal by pretty much everyone else, but I will say for me, the TH is the best PDA for me.

There are lots of stuff out there that can do things better than a TH - Some PPCs have far better Wireless connectivity, most other PDAs are faster, some have comparible battery life etc..

Jeff even makes this point in his Podcast, which is why he says PDAs are becoming obsolete.
However, I don't like carrying around 50 different devices, and the TH55 is the only one that has all the features I want, whereas almost all other devices only do one or two of the things I want, but do everything else badly or not at all...

The problem is that marketting seem to be dictating what goes in now: All PDAs are now marketted on features and BIG numbers. This is understandable, because things like usability are very hard to quantify, but the problem is that usability is being mostly ignored it seems to me. Microsoft should be doing a lot better than they are - their old Windows GUI guidelines were good, but in PPC they haven't really stuck to them and in XP they're even starting to ignore them!
Palm had a good thing going, but now they too are starting to go down-hill, concentrating on making the numbers bigger instead of trying to see if they can tweak the usability.

Usability isn't just about how many checkboxes you get on the feature chart, or how pretty the GUI looks. I don't think I can even describe it other than saying 'The Feel' of the device.
The Clies have always won out for me in this - In the interface alone, the amount of little tweaks that Sony have made to the OS is incredible. The only problem is they never flippin' document most of the tweaks, but since I like to play with my TH I tend to trip over new ones every now and again, at which point I'll go "Oooh, that's nifty!" and people will look at me strangely :)
But everything - The design of the case and the position of the controls feels very natural in my hand, and the brightness and colour saturation are perfect; Not too bright, not too dim, not washed out, but not over saturated. The value added software - e.g. MSImport - How long before anyone else had such a thing...?

What does it for me is the TH55 as a whole - It doesn't really have any individual features which it can boast it excels over every other PDA in, but in this case the whole package is definitely greater than the sum of the parts IMHO.

[Jayman]

After using a HP4700 series PDA for a week, I have to say that the TH55 is just a better PDA for my needs. The TH55 is not the fastet device, however I re-charge the device once a week.

[blck1jack]

Jayman and the guy posted before you, stay out of the way, I will smote Fishie Flop's ruin on the mountainside. This is my battle, you are too inexpierenced to confront the this agent of the dark lord(no offense). Return to your master, creature of shadow!

[Fishie_Flop]

IC So it isnt enough that I enjoy my PalmOS machines AND my Psion MX5 AND my PPCs.
I have to choose PalmOS and PalmOS only and declare it the best thing ever for now and eternity, is that how it works?

Lets not start about stick sizes either :)

[blck1jack]

Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I have not passed through hard resets and crashes to bandy crooked words with a witless worm!

[jjesusfreak01]

BJ, come to the chat room.

[Fishie_Flop]

BJ, come to the chat room.


That sounds so wrong.

[SonyStyle]

i would love to switch to a dell x50v and see how nice the vga screen is and the speedy processor and wifi + bluetooth, i would love to experience multitasking. i am sure if the dell was underclocked it would have pretty much the same battery life as the th55. but the thing is, it lacks a camera on the device which is a must for me. it doens't look as nice as the th55, it doesnt have a jogdial and most importantly its not a sony. sony means quality. i think the quliaty build of the th55 is better than dell which is why i buy sony,.

[jjesusfreak01]

That sounds so wrong.
Just trying to garner chat room members. The more the merrier.

[clieman04]

Just wanted to let those who are planning to switch from a Th55 to Axim x50, Dell online has it for only $399 today only. (only Canadian?)

[sdkat2]

I thought about buying the Axim but decided to keep my TH55 and bought a Dell 9300 notebook to keep her company instead. :D

[Pseudo Nim]

Here's my two cents as a PocketPC switchee.

I used to be a die-hard Palm fanatic - I owned every Clie up to the NX series (and LOVED them - still have my NR70, albeit with a cracked screen [on that topic, anybody know anywhere selling cheap NR-series screens?]), and used to swear by Palm. I mean, Sony was the first to introduce MP3, and so on.

Then things changed. I got into digital cameras, and I wound up with CompactFlash cards, which were obviously useless on Clies. Eventually half-*** support was added, but it took months to get drivers working. By the time the (huge) UX80 was out, it was too late - I jumped ship to iPaq.

Now I'm a (somewhat) happy owner of a Toshiba e830, and I jumped on that Axim X80v deal. Why? There are a few reasons I'm in the "evil" camp now.

- The PPC natively supports SD and CompactFlash (can you say "three gigabytes" with me?)
- The PPC does DivX/XviD/MPG using Betaplayer natively (i.e. no conversion/lowering of bitrate needed, particularly if you use SD cards), which means that you can play anything you get off the net AS IS without having to convert it to Kinoma, etc.
- 640x480 is pretty
- 520/620 MHz CPUs are ... well ... faster than the Sony MediaEngine. I tried Bejeweled2 on my friend's TH55, and I couldn't believe he was able to play that - the lag was unbelievable.
- Wifi/Bluetooth is nice (though the European TH55 has that; but how hard is it to get it imported into Canada?!)
- Come on - you can't beat Calligrapher.

Of course, that's not to say that PPC is perfect - FAR from it. To be honest, if someone came out with a Palm that supported Microdrives, I'd probably switch back. PPCs:
- crash;
- randomly slow down and speed up again;
- exhibit strange graphics glitches only like Windows can
- have this ANNOYING bug in Internet Explorer where if you're accessing a page and it fails (network timeout, etc), then you retry, it will cease trying and just pretend like it can't find the page - you must kill IE and start it again to make it stop behaving like that
- (usually) don't have a "Close" button for apps (the X button is "minimize" - explain that logic to me), which results in you QUICKLY wasting all of your valuable RAM on programs you THOUGHT you closed;
- have simply WEIRD bugs that I've never experienced on Palm (though my Clies had their fair share of locking up / hard resetting) - my PocketMusic will occasionally refuse to play more than 3 seconds before quitting (and when that happens, I have to reinstall it), and my AvantGo occasionally does same;
- ActiveSync is GARBAGE (Microsoft needs to take a clue from the Palm, where you can hard-reset, put it in and it will be restored to previous state).

That said, since I'm more of a multimedia person these days, I am willing to live with the mediocrity of PPC because of the video/audio playback which is simply unparalleled on the Palm.

Here's hoping that Palm will wake up and try to take back some of this market segment, though - I'm sure that there's a market for $500-$700 per device geared for *performance* [video/audio/games] above everything. Intel 2700 16MB video card, anyone? (standard on the Axim).

Cheers,

-pN