An Electronic Review of the Dell Axim X51v

Shortly after discontinuing the Dell Axim X30 series, Dell produced the Axim X51 series. Right now we are going to take a peek at the Dell Axim X51v. During this review you will learn about the internal features, external features, performance, the good, and, of course, any bad.

Eye candy or forced eye contact?

Dell did an excellent job designing the Axim X51v. Though the design of the X51v is appealing, it is also disappointing. Dell's X51v and X50v look exactly the same! Not very original. But we still enjoy the copy-cat, black and silver colored, squared off top and round bottom, device. Axim X51v is rather small and fits perfectly in the hand (2.9 inches x 0.7 inches x 4.7 inches; weighing 6.2 ounces). The X51v has a TFT Active Matrix 3.7 inches display screen (touch pad); it's a nice sized screen for the body size and the colors are amazingly bright and vivid. The TFT display has 16-bit color support and it's resolution max is 480x640.

External:

X51v comes equipped speakers, microphone, touch screen, 5-way navigating buttons, 1 headset port, 1 USB port, 1 SD Memory Card slot, power adapter port, and 1 CompactFlash Card Type two. Located on the button of the X51v is the docking station ports.

Internal:

Dell gave the X51v that ability to handle both MP3's and WMA's for digital audio, Intel 624 MHzXscale processor, Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 (OS), 64MB installed RAM (and 64MB is the max supported RAM amount), SDRAM (this is the RAM tchnology), and 246 MB flash installed ROM. The software included with the X51v is Windows Media Player 10 Mobile edition. Web connectivity is wireless Bluetooth, IrDA, and IEEE 802.11b.

Performance:

Out of 10 stars, I would have to give the X51v - 7 stars. Yes this device runs well, but it could run faster. Sometimes it takes awhile to Sync with a computer when plugged into the docking station, but it does pull up web browsers, pictures, audio media, in a timely fashion.

The good:

The X51v is everything you could ever want/need if you are on the go and need MP3 player, handheld Internet, photo album, note maker, and organizer. Streaming movies is a bit slow, but make sure you have nothing else going while you are watching a movie. All-in-all its performance is good.

The bad:

The battery life is very sad; 1 hour seems to be the crashing point (linthium ion battery). This the only big downfall.