The State of Dell’s Axim x51(v)
Something is rotten in the state of Texas… and no it is not ghost of a dead king but a bug-ridden PDA…
Shame on Dell and Microsoft. For nearly 5 months, I have complained (repeatedly) about system crashes (white screen of death), random battery drainage, disappearing memory cards, lack of WPA2 support and a crippled Bluetooth stack amongst the problems to have completely ruined my latest foray back in to the PDA world. To even suggest that I consider my PalmPilot Pro I purchased in 1997 to be a far more stable and usable device for basic PIM functions over a WM5 device is an embarrassment for the companies involved.
Although the Axim community has petitioned and complained on the phone for fixes, Dell’s oft repeated response to its customers has been “an update is coming in two weeks.” Right… the latest ROM update is version A06 released on January 3, 2006. Five months of “two week” excuses is not only frustrating but also led many to lose faith in the competence of Dell’s mobile computing division. A majority of Dell’s most technically savvy customers have already given up on any future updates including the anticipated AKU 2.0 for the Axim x51(v). What about an update including Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Push Email? I’m sure it’ll be another two weeks but don’t count on it.
In the mean time, many users have banded together to solve many of the problems through various workarounds on community forums like Aximsite. Some tend to be more elegant than others but they all accomplish the goal of making a device work as it should have from the factory. For example, WPA2-Enterprise support (WPA2 + AES + RADIUS authentication) is lacking in the x51(v). Dell includes Funk Odyssey Client to allow connections to such wireless networks but somehow it doesn’t work. Funk, now owned by Juniper Networks, claims to support WPA2 as of version 4.0, but version 4.02 in Dell’s A06 update doesn’t seem to want to connect. I was able to downgrade to WPA-Enterprise on my wireless APs and select TKIP instead of AES. Now, 802.1x authentication works perfectly with my RADIUS server–which is more than I can say for Windows Vista Beta 2* in the same network but WM5 should be release quality by now. Albeit that most home PDA users don’t have such an elaborate wireless security arrangement, but how do corporate customers handle such a hindrance? That’s right, they either have expensive support contracts out of reach by us lowly home users or they buy a better product (i.e. iPaq, HTC, etc).
In recent memory, it seems like early adopters are being subjected to half completed or severely crippled products for which we pay companies the privilege to beta test. Larger corporations have armies of card carrying support staff that belt out the party line hoping customers will eagerly line up for the next product–an update meant to fix the problems that should have been addressed in the current shipping version.
I wonder if the current decline in PDA sales has anything to do with less technically savvy people being turned off by relatively high prices and poor end-user experiences with these devices. Could it be that the rise in smartphone usage is directly correlated to carrier subsidies mitigating the sting of purchasing a flop? In those cases, at least it still works as a phone if it fails as a PDA. Whatever the case is, I doubt I’ll be rushing in to purchase another device with the first release of major mobile operating system. As far as well is concerned, as a shooter they have constantly rolled 2s, 3s, and 11s in the Axim x51(v) debacle and now it’s time collect my chips and walk to a company.
* After installing Windows Vista Beta 2, 802.1x authentication did not work in my WPA- or WPA2-Enterprise wireless network. Vista would send the proper authentication information and the RADIUS server would grant access but Vista would not grab an IP address. Statically setting an IP also failed to provide network access. I had to pull out an old WEP access point and finally Vista worked. Due to WEP’s insecurity, I would VPN into my local network.
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We purchased a few PDa’s for my company to test our solutions on. We bought a few Palm based handhelds and a few Windows based ones (HP, Dell, iMate) before placing a large oder.
Your article came first when typing “axim x51 v” on google. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Do you have a good reference for PDA reviews, we are now looking to buy exclusively HP PDA’s, wouldn’t want to end up with a bad experience.
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