Axim and wireless surfing

[dnuggett]

Hello,

I am contemplating getting a Dell Axim to use for wireless (802.11b) web surfing throughout the house. Here are my questions...

Is there a better choice than the X5 for the same price?

Do I lose any browsing functionality vs. surfing with a laptop? What I mean is do you lose any click thru capabilities (like click on this pic to see a larger version)? I know obviously they are smaller and less detailed, but I am concerned with losing that functionality altogehter. Also can you still do the auto logons, like at Ananadtech?

 

[dnuggett]

Bueller.....? Bueller......?

 

[herbage11]

I don't have wireless on my Axim b/c I just hooked up the WAP and getting a laptop for surfing. I can tell you the Axim has been great for me. The screen size and color is very nice and my Avantgo web page look and navigate just great. Sorry could not help more but let me know after you do go wireless so I can consider it more also.

 

[AnyMal]

I used to own Toshiba e740 with built in wifi and can share my experience. Does it work? Yes. Is it cool? For me, it was about 5 minutes of cool (yay I can do THAT!) which wore off pretty quick. Here are some of the issues I could not stand.

1. Cramped screen. If you are lucky to get a 3rd party browser that can run in landscape mode you may like it a little better. To me, the browsing was very painful, having to constantly scroll from side to side and up/down.

2. Pocket IE does not support 128 bit encryption. Hence, many secure websites (Yahoo! email for example) would not let me log in. I did manage to log in to AT though

3. Browsing is SLOOOOOOW. Unlike IE (or whatever elese you're using on your PC), PIE renders webpages very slowly, not to mention that most websites are not optimized for PDA screens.

4. Drains batteries like a hog!

This was just my experience. I know a lot of folks are using their PDA's for wireless and quite happy, but I'll stick with my laptop.

BTW, Axim is a fine PDA. I've owned two and loved them.

 

[shurato]

I've got a toshiba e755 with built in wifi and i must admit after the novelty wears off, its hardly useful unless your in a setting such a campus with a wifi network or you have a cell phone that you can connect with for on the go. Yes PIE is a pain in the ass to use...constantly scrolling, and yes...it is indeed slow. I believe you can purchase another browser with the landscape mode but i wouldnt do it on mine because the screen gets harder to view when i look at it in landscape mode on my device. If you want it just to surf around the house your better off getting a small laptop. I think however having a PDA is very useful for other things and that wifi surfing is just icing on the cake. I love my toshiba unit and take it with me everywhere I go. You might want to check out the deal going on at Amazon for a e755 for $320 after $50 rebate.

 

[Superdoopercooper]

Just got rid of a wireless card and an AXIM 400.

Surfing is slow. Websites generally have a lot of data which is toufh for the Axim to handle, espcially with a lot of graphics and stuff. Or try to read some user forums... YIKES.

What WAS cool though was walking around listening to streaming MP3's off of di.fm --> I was mowing the lawn and lounging around outside while getting some groovy music piped through wirelessly.

Stick with the laptop to surf if you've got it though.

 

[xizor]

had an Ipaq and wireless card and hated web surfing. ditched the wireless card and got a laptop, much more useful.

 

[dnuggett]

Thanks for the input guys. So far it looks like surfing on the Axim is bad news for now...