Dell's Axims have always caused other Pocket PC manufacturers trouble, being both well-featured and good value for money. The company has recently released a new set of Axims, and as is the tradition for Dell, there are three in the range, offering low, medium and high specifications, and available at appropriate prices.

The basic Axim X50 excludes wireless and has an Intel PXA270 processor running at 416MHz. The mid-range model has a 520MHz version of the same processor, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and, like the other two models, both SD and Compact Flash memory slots.

We got hold of the very top-end machine, the Axim X50v, which has the top of the range 624MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor and, uniquely to the series, a multimedia accelerator which will particularly come into its own if you have a hankering to play 3D games. The Axim X50v comes with two of these to help you see the accelerator in action. It's impressive, but not, we think, on its own a reason to buy the Axim X50v.

What might be more of a draw is the 640 x 480 screen (the other two X50s are 240 x 320). This high resolution display is a feature of only the very latest version of Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system (Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition), and while it does not let you see more information on the 3.7-inch screen than at the lower resolution, it does deliver images which are a lot clearer and sharper. The advantage is at its most obvious when reading detailed text, such as e-books or spreadsheets, or looking at complex graphics such as photos or movies.

After a hard reset we had 139.55MB of accessible memory on our review unit, comprising 48.12MB of RAM and 91.43 of Flash. It is good to see the balance of RAM to Flash reversed from the norm, as any information stored in Flash should survive if the internal battery fails. On test we asked the Axim X50v to play MP3 music continuously, which it did for four hours and 47 minutes before the battery gave up.

The Axim X50v is one of the first Pocket PCs to come with Windows Media Player 10 pre-installed in the ROM. This has support for playlists and synchronising with a PC if you are running Windows Media Player 10 there too.

The hardware design at last gets away from Dell's somewhat blocky approach of the past, but does not offer anything particularly outstanding. We like the 3.5mm headphone connector, rounded looks and quicklaunch button for Wi-Fi, but these things are not unique.

Nor does Dell now have the kind of monopoly on value for money that it once had. Take a look around the online stores, for example, and you will find Fujitsu Siemens' Pocket LOOX 720 (with dual expansion, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, VGA screen, and 128MB of memory among its features) for a similar price. That device also has a built-in camera so could be a better choice if you really need one of those in your PDA.

There's no doubting that the Axim X50v is a good addition to Dell's range, and that if you are looking for a top-end Pocket PC it is worth a second glance. It's plentiful memory, dual expansion, higher resolution screen and super processor are all particular advantages, but none of these is unique - only the graphics processor can claim that.