By Jason Giacchino
A late adopter into the true realm of literal pocket computing, I'm finding myself wondering what has fueled my devotion to tablet and notebook computers for so long. This revelation in thinking has been sparked in part by my recent acquisition of a Dell Axim X50 Pocket PC, the very tool I'm using to write this review while sitting in the brightly lit surroundings of my favorite local coffee spot.
Sure, I've done countless articles from this very seat through WordPerfect, which is installed on my Dell Inspiron notebook computer and Acer Tablet PC, but this is the first through Microsoft's equally impressive Pocket Word. And even more amazing to me, it was done without a massive bag across my shoulder or chronic battery indicator checks between sentences.
If you're a photographer, you might be interested in the review of the Axim X50v we ran in Connected Photographer Magazine at http://www.connectedphotographer.com/issues/issue200503/00001518001.html.
This purchase was a carefully made, much researched endeavor, and much to the delight of my credit card company, included a slew of after-market and factory accessories, sweetening the pot to the level of irresistibility. Among them, a Dell foldaway keyboard, a sturdy travel case, and a USB car charger, in addition to the USB PC docking cradle, battery (lithium ion), and charger shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
A box full of goodies (excluding the extras I opted for). (click for larger image)
The unit itself, complete with 64 Megabytes of SDRAM, 64 Megs of Intel StrataFlash ROM, an Intel Xscale 416 Mhz processor, came preloaded with Windows Mobile 2003 Premium; a slightly outdated operating system in terms of Microsoft's recent releases, but still a practical, feature rich tool that has proven itself bullet-proof and limitlessly upgradable, see Figure B.
FIGURE B
Windows Mobile 2003 Premium; still packs a punch. (click for larger image)
I found navigation with the stylus to be natural and swift within the first few minutes of operation, nearly as effective on the 3.5-inch LCD touch-screen as a mouse on the desktop. However, far from an expert with Graffiti, and not too much faster with the on-screen virtual keyboard, I find the optional foldaway keyboard priceless for entering sizable amounts of text (like this article for example).
For whatever reason, brand new and out of the box the letter "O" seems to require a more deliberate stab to register than the remaining keys. And the letter "K" tends to stick, offering me more misspellings than I can (and do) already provide in my writing. Fortunately spell check is fast and efficient, and I'm almost constantly discovering more of the perks of using Windows Mobile's compatibility with Windows XP.
