Cheap Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Sky Blue) (Electronics) (Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT) Price

The Cassiopeia EM-500, Casio's follow-up to its E-100 series of personal digital assistants, closely mirrors the E-115 but offers a few changes. The biggest change is the move to using MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory over the more standard CompactFlash memory slot. The postage stamp-size MMC cards offer needed memory expandability (as the EM-500 comes with only 16 MB of internal memory, compared to the 32 MB of the E-115), especially if you plan to use the EM-500 as a portable MP3 player--one of its many multimedia capabilities.

While MMC over CompactFlash limits the ability of the EM-500 to use many Pocket PC peripherals, we were willing to overlook that once we got a peek at the EM-500's gorgeous TFT screen. This very bright, very colorful (65,536 colors, to be exact) display shines beautifully when you're playing games or watching mobile video player clips, which run along at a respectable 15 to 20 frames per second with the EM-500's 150 MHz MIPS processor.

The thick EM-500 (about twice the thickness of the Palm Vx) offers standard Casio programmable buttons to bring up the menu, calendar, and contacts, as well as a navigational D-pad, which is great for gaming. In addition to functioning as a stereo MP3 player (when using the included headphones), the EM-500 also works as a voice recorder, allowing you to dictate reminders for yourself or voice messages to send with e-mail. Casio promises six hours of battery life, but we often were able to get seven or more as long as we left the backlight on medium brightness.

With its IrDA port, the EM-500 can communicate with wireless devices, and its USB connection provides speedy data transfer--even installing programs larger than a megabyte took only a few seconds.

Despite the limited memory and the lack of CompactFlash support, the powerful processor, excellent display, and long battery life make the EM-500 a competitive entry into the Pocket PC market. --J. Curtis

Pros:

• TFT color screen
• USB connection
• Good battery life
• Expandable using MultiMediaCard memory

Cons:

• Only 16 MB of internal memory
• No CompactFlash support

PLATFORM:	Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT
CATEGORY:	Electronics
MANUFACTURER:	CASIO
FEATURES:	Color screen with 240 x 320 display in 65,536 colors, Synchronize to your desktop with rapid USB data transfer, Includes Microsoft Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Money, and Pocket Internet Explorer, 16 MB of internal RAM, expands up to additional 64 MB with optional MultiMediaCards, What's in the box: Cassiopeia EM-500, Stylus, USB Cradle, AC Adapter, Lithium-ion rechargeable battery, CR2032 lithium battery, Connector cable, Pocket PC User's Guide, Hardware Guide
MEDIA:	Electronics
MPN:	EM-500SkyBlue
# OF MEDIA:	1
ACCESSORIES:
UPC:	079767694869