IMAC Colored PDAs?
Written: Oct 29 '00 (Updated Dec 20 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: stylish looks
Cons: could use better hardware!
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| jhcashman's Full Review: Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Pocket PC |
The Casio EM-500 is probably the coolest PDA on the market, combining powerful hardware and a stylish design it is the "Imac" of the PDA world. With lots of multimedia features and a great design it is suppose to be targeted towards the [filthy rich] "younger" PDA users or those "older" user who want to feel young again!
Design...
Casio, who perviously had the top PDA in the Pocket PC OS Market, was just spanked by Compaq and the IPAQ. So what do they do? The same think that Apple did! Instead of competing in the hardware department they attract market share with cool looking products! I must say that the Casio EM-500 is by far the coolest and most stylish looking PDA. Not only does it have a cool looking design it also comes in 5 different colors: Blue, Sky Blue, Green, Yellow, Red and Green. A little slimmer and lighter then Casios' other PDAs its is still a bit "chunky" compared to most Palms PDAs; however, I would say its normal sized compared to most Pocket PC based PDAs. The button layout includes a 4-directional joystick like button, 2 application buttons and a smaller 'menu' button. This layout is great for gaming almost like the gameboy controls only the directional button is round instead of 4 arrows which is good for your thumbs. There is also a scroll wheel on the side, which acts like the scroll wheel on many mouses - it is great for viewing documents and I haven't seen it on any other PDA! Over all the design of this unit is very good!
Software...
Powered by Windows CE with Active Sync 3.1 it is alot easier to use then Microsofts past attempts at a PDA OS software. It is totally compatable with your favorite microsoft products. With Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Outlook, Notes, Mobile Address Book and Mobile Calendar this PDA can be really productive and will let you do work on the go. For Multimedia you get Windows Media Player, which plays all kinds of music formats including MP3s. You also get Voice Recorder, Mobile Video/Picture Viewer, Mobile Video Converter and Mobile Video Player. However, the hardware really limits the usefullness of many of these multimedia features, which I will explain later in the hardware section. For entertainment you get a 3D Golf which is pretty fun if you are a golf fan. But you can download tons of other stuff from the internet. The software that can be put on this thing is limitless!
Hardware...
Although the hardware on this thing is not the best you can get in a PDA it is probably enough for most people. The screen is a backlit 240 x 320 TFT color LCD with 65,536 colors. The CPU runs at 150 mhz which is considerable better then pervious PDAs by Casio; however, it doesn't quite compare to the Ipaq's CPU speed. The RAM, a measly 16MB, is not barely enough to support any of the multimedia features that this PDA can "potentially" do. Usually you only have enough space left over for like 1-2 MP3s, if you want to put games on then forget about MP3s and you can totally forget about movies!
The Casio EM-500 connects with a standard USB cable. For some reason it doesn't seem to take advantage of the full speed of the USB connection. In fact the Compaq IPAQ wins in this department too, with a connection that is considerably faster. For memory expansion, the Casio EM-500 uses a smaller version of the CompactFlash cards called "MultiMediaCard". Although there isn't much stuff available for this slot right now besides memmory, I am sure this will soon change. However if you already have tons of CompactFlash cards then I probably wouldn't get this PDA.
The Casio EM-500 is powered by either a AC adapter or a Li-ion rechargeable battery which is suppose to last 6 hours, but I find it gives up after about 4-5 hours if your really use this thing. The Casio EM-500 also comes with a built in speaker, microphone and a Stereo Headphone Jack.
Price...
The Casio EM-500 is $499, you can probably find it cheaper on the internet. This is pretty reasonable for a Pocket PC based PDA. However, it is still a big hit to your wallet! Never the less if you are considering a PDA this is probably what you would need to dish out even for a high-end Palm.
A final thought...
Although not the best when it comes to Hardware, the Casio EM-500 is still one of the best PDAs on the market. The design and good looks of it more then makes up for the lack of hardware for most people. This PDA is very good for productivity, but simply lacks the RAM for its multimedia features. It is basically the Cassiopeia E-115 on slimfast and steriods! If you are in the market for a PDA definately take a look at one of these!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jhcashman
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Location: Lexington; Ma
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 109 members
About Me:
Fresh out of College... Traveling around the USA working as a Tech Consultant...
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