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Documents found on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Web site indicate that Dell's forthcoming Axim X3 personal digital assistants will come with many of the same features as the older Axims, but in a smaller package.

Dell announced the new PDAs last week along with a new music player and LCD televisions. At the time, Dell said the new Axims would be slimmer than the older model, which was Dell's first entry into the PDA market.

The new Axim X3 measures 3 inches long by 3.21 inches wide by 0.58 inches thick, according to documents filed by hardware manufacturer Wistron last week with the FCC. The device weighs 0.3 pounds with the standard battery.

Devices with communications chips must get approval from the FCC and other regulatory agencies around the world before they are sold to the public, and those documents are regularly made available on the FCC's Web site before the products are introduced. Dell declined to comment on the specifications of the new Axim. In the announcement last week, the company said that the new models would ship later this year.

The original Axim X5 measures 5 inches long by 3.21 inches wide by 0.71 inches thick, and weighs 0.43 pounds.

Technical Details

The X5 is available in two configurations that will also be found on the new X3. The higher-end model will come with a 400-MHz XScale processor from Intel, 64MB of RAM, and 48MB of ROM, while the less expensive model uses a 300-MHz XScale chip, 32MB of RAM, and 32MB of ROM, according to the FCC documents.

Dell will reuse the display technology from the X5 on the new X3. Both devices feature a 3.5-inch TFT transflective display with a resolution of 240 by 320 pixels.

However, users will not find a CompactFlash expansion slot on the new X3, according to the user manual on the FCC site. The X5 included both a CompactFlash and an SD expansion slot, but the X3 supports only the SD standard.

The operating system on the X3 will be upgraded to Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003 Premium Edition.

The X3 will also come in a configuration with an integrated 802.11b wireless chip, said Michael Dell, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, during last week's announcement.