Cheap Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Yellow) (Electronics) (Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows NT) Price
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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
- Only 16 MB of internal memory
- No CompactFlash support
| PLATFORM: | Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows 98, 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 pack, CR2032 lithium battery, Connector cable, Pocket PC User's Guide, Hardware Guide |
| TYPE: | Personal Digital Assistant (PDA, Electronic Organizer), Pocket PC (PCs), Casio, Handheld (Hand Held), Portable Audio, MP3 MP 3 Player |
| MEDIA: | Electronics |
| MPN: | EM-500Yellow |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| ACCESSORIES: | |
| UPC: | 079767694890 |
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Customer Reviews of Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Yellow)
it's realy good The casio is a really good casio because it is a casio and i THINK IT IS VERY GOOD BECAUSE THESE CASIO'S are always good and so i say this casio is good because it is a casio and casio's are really good so i say this casio is good because it is a casio and casios are good...
p.s. casios are good because their casios
Excellent PDA
I love PDA's (and computers in general, for that matter) and this is an excellent device. There was a time when I swore by Palm's pda's, but while Windows CE (now known as Pocket PC) has evolved to near-desktop power, the Palm has remained virtually unchanged. Of the Pocket PC's available, this unit is the best compromise of size and power. It packs a 150mhz cpu (more powerful than the HP Jornada, less than the Ipaq), 16mb of ram, and an amazing screen capable of displaying 16bit color. The Ipaq and HP Jornada can both only do 12-bit color at best. All of that is packed in a comfortable, small device that feels extremely solid in the hand.
While I do believe the EM-500 is probably the best unit available, it does have a few draw-backs. The miserly 16mb of ram is hardly enough... if you buy this make sure to get a 32mb or 64mb memory card to go with it. My other complaints are minimal: lack of hardware volume control, location of IRDA port... but none of these minor issues really impact the usefulness of the unit.
Definitely a great PDA, and well worth the money
Would have scored it higher except for a couple of concerns
I had the unique opportunity to use and evaluate the Casio EM500 for a week to determine if I was interested in purchasing it. At the end of that week, I really wanted to buy this PDA, but I had some lingering concerns that kept me from doing so. Here are some of my thoughts after using it:
-First off, I really loved the display on this unit. It was extremely bright and easy to read even in daylight. I would not have thought it, but a color screen made a HUGE difference. I had a Palm Pilot before, so I know what I'm talking about here. This Casio has one of the best displays of any of the color units.
-I really liked the PocketPC OS with just a few exceptions. As I mentioned earlier, I have had a Palm Pilot in the past. Of the two operating systems, I prefer the PocketPC. This is largely due to the fact that I use a lot of Microsoft products (Outlook, Word, Excel, Money) and it was extremely easy to synch with data with these applications. Some people prefer the Palm OS's simplicity, but for what I needed to do, I found greater functionality in the PocketPC. The only reservations I had was that the PocketPC makes in annoyingly difficult to close applications and its navigation could be simplified.
-The actual hardware design of this unit is fair. It's a little on the bulky side, but I never expected to be able to fit it in my pocket to begin with. While I liked the semi-scroll wheel on the side, I never used the multi-directional D-pad on the front. In fact, I rarely used any of the buttons on the front. I was also very disappointed that there was no cradle included. The USB cable was kind of awkward to have lying across my desk, and I would have appreciated a cradle to set the unit in when not in use.
-Battery life was impressive. While I never did an official test, I was often able to go through two days of normal use before needing to recharge. The unit uses a Lithium Ion battery.
-Don't underestimate the benefit of having Internet Explorer and Microsoft Reader as included applications. Using Avantgo (which is included), it is very easy to read news, weather, and stocks from sources like MSN and Yahoo. The problem is that it is not a live connection to the Internet, and you must wait until you synch with a PC again to get the information updated. It was also fairly easy to find e-books for Microsoft Reader.
-This unit only comes with 16mb memory. While that is more than enough to run most of the bundled applications, don't expect to play many MP3's on the Media Player unless you buy additional memory.
That brings me to the biggest single drawback of this PDA and the reason I did not end up buying it. This Casio EM500 has a MMC (Multi-Media Card) expansion slot. Most of the PDA's today use Compact Flash memory slots. This means that while I could find MMC memory to buy for my Casio, I could not find very many other expansion options. There are no modems available, or cameras, or any other type of expansion pack available other that just a memory card. Being that MMC is not really catching on, at least in the USA, I worry even about the availability of MMC memory packs in the future. While this may not be important to many people, it was to me. If I am going to spend this much money on a PDA, I want it to last for a while. I want to be able to be able to expand or upgrade the unit as new technologies and products occur. Even Casio seems to realize they made a mistake by using MMC in this unit rather than Compact Flash. Newer Casio models now use Compact Flash.
NOTE: Casio announced recently that EM500 will be capable of supporting SD (secure digital) memory cards. This will require a downloadable update from the Casio web site. Even with this announcement I still am concerned about upgradability options. I have yet to see anyone selling SD memory cards.
If you are not interested in expansions such modems and such, then this is an excellent PDA for you and a great value. I give it four stars (****) in that case. For those of you that are like me and crave expansion, I would suggest looking at the Casio E-125, or better yet, the Compaq iPaq line of handhelds.