Key Screens (continued):
The below left image shows the Programs screen, which provides shortcuts to the key applications and subfolders on the system. As you can see, there are shortcuts for Word, Excel, and a variety of other applications. As I used this device more, and downloaded other applications from the internet, the shortcuts to each of these applications was placed on this screen, or in the appropriate subfolder (as is the case with games).
 
The above right image shows the File Explorer screen, which is comparable to the Windows Explorer screen on a desktop PC. You can browse all the files on the device from this screen, and as shown in the image, you are provided a shortcut to contents of the multimedia (CF and SD) cards installed.
The screen shown below is for the battery status indicator. It shows that the backup battery is at 100% and that the main battery is at 56%. This reading was taken after 6 days of regular use without a recharge, and still having that much battery left was quite impressive to me. Regular use consisted of setting the device up, regularly listening to MP3s off of the SD card, watching AVI movies off of the CF card, playing a good deal of Solitaire and Tetris (downloaded separately), using the calendar, Word, Excel, and so on. It really did get a good work out over those 6 days, and I was more than pleased at how well the power management features helped keep the battery full.
Other settings screens allow for the power management options to be customized. The brightness of the screen while in use, the inactive time until the screen dims, and the inactive time until the device shuts off are some of the variables that can help preserve the batteries. Recharging the batteries doesn't take that long, but goes at two distinct rates... When the battery is very low, say 20%, it will charge back up to 50% in a matter of seconds. Then, from 50% back up to 100% takes a good deal longer, perhaps an hour to an hour and a half. Still, not bad.
The two screens below show Pocket Word in action. The below left shows the on screen keyboard being used to enter data into the document, while the below right image shows the results of using the "transcribe" feature. Transcribe allows the user to write on the screen, and OCR software converts the writing into text. The recognition was quite good, better than others I have seen, and as long as the writing was fairly neat and well spaced, the X5 had no problem transcribing it.
 
And the final screen that we will look at in this section is for Pocket Excel. It looks very similar to the Excel we may all be used to, except that you can only fit a handful of cells onto the screen.
Multimedia:
The fun features of the X5 may be a good selling point in the bundle offered by Geeks.com. Although no different than most PDAs, it is capable of voice recording, digital audio playback, video playback, video games, and web browsing.
The built in AC'97 audio codec is similar to the audio solution found integrated on many motherboards. The audio playback over the built in speaker is weak, as should be expected, with a low maximum volume and significant distortion from bass at that volume. But, for listening to quiet music and replaying voice recordings, it is just fine. Using a set of stereo headphones (not included) makes it much more enjoyable, and on par with the variety of portable MP3 players I have used.
Video playback proved to be a bit tricky as the device did not have many video codecs pre-installed, so I would wind up with just audio on a blank screen while in Windows Media Player. Finding the right codec is up to you, and anything other than the most basic formats may require some extra downloads. The device does allow for movies to be rotated 180 degrees to better utilize the 240x320 resolution at the correct aspect ratio. The below left image shows Windows Media player in action, well almost, as the codec for the particular movie clip has yet to be installed.
 
The above right image shows the Bigbruin.com forum index page loaded on the Axim X5. As you can see, the low resolution screen really isn't meant for serious web browsing, and even some of the newer PDAs with double the resolution still might not make you feel all that at home. In addition, the only way to browse the web is through a USB connection, so if you want to connect to the Internet, you might as well use the PC providing the USB connection. The inclusion of WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity is something you see more on current PDAs, but both are lacking from the X5. You can always add a WiFi card via Compact Flash, and still have expansion capabilities thanks to the SD slot, so things aren't too bad in that respect.
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