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

by Casio

Product Details

Product Manual [873kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 3.2 x 0.8 inches ; 7.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004VWT9
• Item model number: EM-500SkyBlue
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,519 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

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

Amazon.com 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 Sync software (Outlook is also included on the CD-ROM). Download MP3 audio files from your PC using the fast USB connection and play them through the EM-500's built-in speaker using Windows Media Player. The 240 x 320 screen features 65,536 colors for multimedia viewing. The battery has a life of up to six hours.

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Would score it much higher except for a couple concerns, April 1, 2001

By 

Scott K "scottk" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Sky Blue) (Office Product)

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.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for travelling, December 1, 2000

By 

J. Ko "Happy buyer" (San Bruno, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Sky Blue) (Office Product)

The MMC memory is good and small for travelling. Actually, 16MB is not too bad. Comparing the price of the 2,4 or 8 MB Palm Pilot PDA, this is a great deal. With MP3, Video, excel, word, address book features (and more), I choose the EM500 over other PDAs on the market now.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 2 mth. review, January 9, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 Color Pocket PC (Sky Blue) (Office Product)

i've had my em-500 for about 2 months. so far, i've been pretty satisfied. makes me much happier than my old palm III. i still look at my friend's compaq ipaq with a bit of envy sometimes but all in all the em-500 has done everything i need it for: short voice-recording, simple tasks on pocket excel, easy access to contacts, carrying around a few dig-pics, jotting down notes, calendar/planner, spare-time wasting games. in my opinion the color screen on the em-500 looks a bit better than the ipaqs that i've seen. my main criticisms or complaints are the initial lack of memory(16 mb ran out very quickly for me, made myself upgrade my memory after the 1st week of use), and the difficulty in finding a modem. i'm happy with my em-500 and it does everything i ask of it quite well, but i sometimes feel that i may have been better off getting a device with compact-flash support. mmc is conveniently sized, but the difficult in finding accessories has been a bit of a downer thus far. all in all though, a relatively easy to use and well-functioning device.