Dell Axim X51v - Handheld - Windows Mobile 5.0 - 3.7" color TFT ( 480 x 640 ) - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Most of these reviews are old now, but here I am in 2010, I just bought one of these and have had it a few months. I bought mine after reading a lot about using PDAs to study Japanese, and thought I'd comment about that for others with similar interests. If you look around, you can find a lot of info about using these things for studying Japanese.I've got Windows Mobile 6.1 on mine, and I am pleased as punch with everything. If you're used to playing and dabbling with computers, you'll be enjoying this machine quickly, I find mine handy on a daily basis even though I use it almost exclusively for Japanese study. Definitely get the latest ActiveSync. It's a snap now using my PDA with my W7 laptop.So how does it do for studying Japanese? Great! I installed KingKanji and I use that every day, I can handwrite the kanji and it gives immediate feedback on the strokes I draw. I like the jitterbits dictionary, and ookii's input software is amazing. There are lots of dictionaries and other software that you can get however. I got everything that Declan has to offer but ultimately don't find it very useful, I use the free stuff a lot more. And of course, I can listen to music or JapanesePod101 audio while I'm using it! Reading in bed on the Axim until the wee hours though is kinda hard on the eyes, get a kindle or something for that.Since I'm planning to go to Japan at some point, I'm also getting all the ebooks, travel info/software, anything related to going to Japan that I can find. There is so much free (most good, but by no means all!) software for these things. If you scrounge around the Internet, it's just amazing how much free software that you can find to play with on this thing.Anyway, I really, really like this machine, I had no idea how much I would like it until I got it. I don't think you can beat using one of these PDAs to practice your kanji, things like that. I happened to get mine very cheaply, and the lady threw in a lot of goodies, so I am so happy with my purchase, how did she stand to part with it??Now I just wonder, where have all the PDAs gone? I really don't want a smart phone! But don't just rush out and buy this, if you are thinking it might help you to study Japanese or some other language, do some research and read reviews, and google for studying your subject with a PDA. I can just tell you that so far, mine has become indispensable to me and if something happens to it I will buy another one as soon as possible!

I am glad they still sell this in 2016 and the price hasn't inflated to crazy high prices. I mainly like it because I can use it as an MP3 with high capacity SD cards (if you upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1). I currently have two 128 GB sd cards in it, one is in a SD to Compact Flash card converter, for a total of 256 GB.Now with 512 GB SD cards and 1 TB coming out soon, it's hard to believe that I may be able to eventually have up to 2 TB on a device that came out in 2005.The best music app, I believe, is PocketMusic. It supports MP3, OGG and FLAC. It also supports custom playlists (which you can edit on the device) and other features if you like to listen to podcasts. For example bookmarking and the ability to skip forward 15 seconds and skip back 5 seconds if/when there are commercials. You can also set it up to resume where it left off when you exit and reload the app.I remember waiting for years for before I found an Android app that had the same features as Pocket Music. The drawback is there isn't any phone that will support 2 TB of storage anytime soon (if you still like to play from your personal MP3/FLAC library).Though services like Google Play Music and the All Access Pass ($9.99/mo.) is a nice bonus, though you do have to worry about your phones data caps. If you've got a good FLAC collection, there isn't a good way to store it on your phone, currently. The biggest microSD card is 200 GB and many phones are moving away from microSD card support.

The dell axim X51v is a nice unit. Small, yet has CF,SD,WiFi/Bluetooth, It's downfall for me is that it is slower than my HP Ipaq 4705 and has a screen that is definatly not as nice. Color depth os 4096. the resolution is, however, 480X640 so it's sharp. I think the contrast ratio is maybe just not as good as the Ipaq. Preformance wise, it does well. Some of it's "slowness" is due to the Win Moble 5 OS. As PDA's goit is worth the money though. I did have to hard-reset it once for some unknown reason. Good thing I had a backup. The CF cardis definatly faster than the SD. I advise loading programs to the CF rather than main memeory. It will slow them down a bit but not bad. Now for the PIM operation. It works fine, but is just slow. It's not bad after first using it as long as you don't do a soft reset. Also, use the buttons to access the calendar/contacts rather than the screen icons since using the screen icon makes it act as if it first started up and it takes some time to allow going to a spacific contact. Note that I do have over 2000 contacts in it, so this may be part of the reason it's slower. The Ipaq is a lot faster though. Battery life is decent but I did do the Mods shown on Dell's forem. Be sure to get a good case as the crappy one it comes with gives little protection. This is common with most PDAs though. I would give it a 5 if the screen were as nice as the Ipaq 4700. I think the 4700 is discontinued though.

I ordered this item refurbished for my husband to use while deployed. I was thinking the product would have been tested before being sent to make sure everything worked correctly. That's typically how things are done when refurbished. However, this was obviously not tested beforehand. The battery was completely dead upon arrival (which is to be understood, no problem there). While charging, the device worked fine. Then the device shut off. When checking it over, we found the battery was to blame. It is bloated and warped.EDIT:After submitting this review, and waiting for awhile to receive a response to the email I sent to this company, I was asked to send pictures of the defective battery. We are now awaiting, no extra charge, a new battery for the PDA. The item worked great before the problem, so I hope it continues to work after getting the new battery.They are quick and have sent the replacement same day.