I had a Dell Axim (not sure of the spec), I'm pretty sure Dell gave it away for buying a couple Dell branded printers or something like that. I also had an HP iPaq which was pretty similar (I also think I got Linux running on that one somehow).
It could do a few fairly impressive things, like running emulators as you mentioned. But I think the problem with those was Windows Mobile or Windows CE or whatever they called it at the time. The touchscreens stunk as well.
It was just a crappy scaled-down version of Windows. It was missing the ability to run actual Windows software. It had a browser and a serviceable camera (it helped fulfill my eBay addiction at the time), but it wasn't the same as browsing on a PC.
It probably still wouldn't have been ideal, but within another 2-3 generations it would have been improved/faster and then 'good enough', just like the early iPhones.
I also had an ipaq ~2003. It didn't have enough storage to be a reasonable music or movie player for commutes and (mine anyways) only had wifi via a honking PCMCIA adapter that drained the battery in no time, so I otherwise browsed the web with a laptop. No websites were anywhere near designed for small screens in those days, either.
You're right that the OS was garbage, further limiting the already limited hardware. I think I also got linux or BSD running and messed around with some WEP cracking in my neighbourhood for a bit, but then it otherwise sat in a drawer.
I was still in school and it was a stupid and expensive purchase, but it did teach me to only get new tech if it was actually useful and otherwise wait, which as served me well since, including the iphone (which the first one was barely adequate for what it promised).
You didn't just get a storage card? Between an SD card and a CF microdrive I kept a ton of media on my pocket PC. Most of the ones that came out in 2003 and onwards had bluetooth and wifi built in.
Wait! I had the x51v! That’s probably why I loved it so much. With the two batteries and stand to charge them both. (Or was it three?) I can understand the desire to get one for nostalgia.
For some reason my strongest memory is using it in the dentists office.
My previous device had been a Sony Clie peg-tg50/u (which in some ways was great, but lacking built in WiFi… however I used to save web pages on my laptop and put them on it to read later). But that once fell out of my pocket on a lawn tractor, went through the blades, came out with some nicks but was otherwise fine.
I have fond memories of worms and an rts on that. (The stylus was both great and horrible for that ).
In memory what really was just amazing to me at the time: great fast mp3 player(better on the Sony)
The ability to play videos.
On the dell, the web browser probably wasn’t great, but in my memory I still remembering thinking it was the bees knees. My laptop at the time was a Toshiba Satellite with a pentium 4, 512mbs of ram, and a 16mb GeForce card. Which to me, was pretty darn amazing. (Except for its tendency to every 6-8 months become unable to boot suddenly, needing windows to be reinstalled from Toshibas 4(?) re install discs on an increasingly broken disc drive. This of course was partially more frustrating due to my limited computer skills at that time… which were more comfortable overclocking AMD K6-2s with jumper settings)
Yeah those NAV buttons drove me nuts. Such a wart on an otherwise great upgrade. Wm5 had one handed navigation and you didn't have to worry about a dead battery wiping your applications.
But the ability to mostly browse the web on it was amazing.
Also, if I remember correctly, you could adjust the clock speed to trade off battery life / performance.