Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Slate Blue)

[Archived in $300 - $400, Casio, Casio Handhelds und PDAs, Products]

Manufacturer: Casio
Price at amazon.com: $399.99
This item is not stocked or has been discontinued.

Product Features:

• Color screen with 240 x 320 display in 65,536 colors
• 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
• Play MP3 audio files with built-in speaker
• 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

Product Description:

The Casio EM-500 Color Pocket PC features a fast 150 MHz processor, convenient Microsoft software, and 16 MB of storage in a modern and durable body. It's also the first Pocket PC to feature the new MultiMediaCard with postage stamp-size memory cards with up to 64 MB of storage. The EM-500 comes with Microsoft Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Money, and Pocket Internet Explorer. You can synchronize the EM-500's Mobile Address Book with Microsoft Outlook on your desktop using the included Active... read more


See all product description...

Description from Manufacturer: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

Average Customer Rating:

---

Comment: THE BOMB Rating:
This Casio Pocket PC with Windows lets you do so much more than the Palm's. This you dont have to spend the extra money to buy a MP3 springboard or voice recorder and so on. This is all in one listen to MP3's with the windows media player. Dont just look at word documents, make them, edit them and more. The Palm you can only view, not edit or create. This is much more than an expensive organizer like the Palm's and this Casio has +65,000 colors. This is the best handheld in the world, better than Ipaq, HP Jornada, and more that dont have the convienent Casio menu. They also only have 4,096 colors. The good thing about the Windows CE base Casio handheld is that when you connect it to the docking cradle it automatically sends all the updated files to your comp without having to convert from PALM OS. Since it has Windows you dont need to learn how to write in "Graffiti", this has an on-screen keyboard which allows you to get things done faster. You can also buy tons of upgrades for this Casio, the EM-500 has the best memory type of card, the new MMC slot about the size of your thumb to your nuckle. The scrool button (the round silver thing) is great for games, you can also get a free fun pack at PocketPC.com the Microsoft website that is worth $75. If you need more than an organizer this is the best thing. If you want an ugly yellow looking expensive organizer then by the hard to learn PALM (with of course the crappy PALM OS). This is the way to go.

---

Comment: The best PDA/PocketPC on the market! Rating:
The Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 is undeniably the best PDA/PocketPC on the market today. It has a vast number of programs: telnet, finger, ping, internet explorer, e-mail, irc, aol instant messenger, word, excel, access, notepad, transcriber (no graffiti to learn, it recognizes anyone's natural handwriting and converts it to text just like this you're reading now), and so much more. If you are a programmer or web designer, you must have this PDA/PPC! It's also great for listening to MP3/WMA audio and playing video clips and movie previews, storing pictures, scanning the Pocket Bible, and so much more. MMC is the future of compact memory technology..., it will replace compactFlash within the next two years guaranteed! It will support modems, network cards, cameras, and of course memory with projected sizes above anything CF Cards can imagine. (according to the MMCA group). Do yourself a favor and get the CASIO EM-500! It is the next best thing to a laptop!

---

Comment: Three years old Rating:
I've had mine for three years. I did buy it new, though. I have been eyeing the Dell Axim, but since there is nothing wrong with my Casio, I can't find any reason to switch.

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)