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

Other products 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: B00004VWM5
• Item model number: EM-500SlateBlue
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #108,881 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

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

Product Description
The slim EM-500 is a mobile multimedia tool that targets both the younger market and professionals. Designed to highlight Casio's new faster processor and available in 5 different colors, the EM-500 is stylishly designed and engineered to take advantage of the new and emerging digital content that is available on the Internet. The EM-500 is the first Pocket PC to feature the new MMC (multimedia card memory system) featuring postage stamp size memory cards with up to 64MB of storage.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Technology, October 2, 2000

By	"arkascha" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

As one of the first users of Palm Vx I was speechless about what this little thing was able to do...that was, until I finally got ahold of an EM 500 ! The looks alone are stunning as well as the feel of the matted surface but whats inside is unbelievable: colour, sound, Microsoft software including Pocket Outlook, Adresses, Tasks, Calendar, Memo function with which you can write in your own handwriting (the EM 500 learns to recognize it), Pocket Excel, Money, Word, Internet Explorer, Win Media Player (plays MP3s and WMA's) and MS Pocket Reader for books. Did I forget something ? I probably did, but you name it, its there... Colours are clear and crisp, programs function without glitches (so far), communication with Outlook 2000 on the desktop (has to be installed to keep track of adresses,calendar etc.) and Active Sync (the program needed for the exchange between computer and Pocket PC) works smoothly and best of all, everything is included in the box along with a hotsync USB cable, recharger cable and a little slip-in case for the Pocket PC, so no extra buys upfront. I played music on the EM 500 which sounds a bit hollow when listened to without headphones but has alot of "boom" when headphones are used. I uploaded pictures onto it, just try it, you will not believe the quality (tip: resize or cut your pictures on your desktop first to what you really want to see , it saves memory and displays the picture without having to scroll on the Pocket PC). I uploaded books unto the MS Reader, who needs paper anymore ? I dictated notes to myself (yes, it has a little voice recorder built in), I moved and removed programs, users who are familiar with Win OS will have no problems with the Pocket PC OS called Win CE. So where is the catch? first of all the EM 500 is a heavy brick compared to the Palm Vx which on second thought is not that bad for all you get. But right now accessories are almost impossible to find, so one has to be patient and insistant with checking around for a modem (of course it is internet capable, E-Mail function included), the little Multi Media Cards for storage and other neat items. I finally managed to get ahold of a 64 MB MMC card for a pretty hefty prize but the reward is great...just slip in the postage stamp sized card, find it in your document folder and move games, programs, pictures and songs onto it and you will see that 16 MB of basic memory on the EM 500 is more than enough for everything that cannot be moved. Games are rare and most of the time expensive but worth it, books for the MS Reader are even rarer (but 20+ come along with the Active Sync CD Rom) and utilities have their prize as well, as opposed to the Palm Platform where you can find virtually myriads of free goodies. My advice: think about what you want/need a palmsized computer for... is it business or pleasure ? do you want to combine both ? For pure business go with the Palm Vx, for all other uses do not hesitate and at least check out the EM 500. You will most likely end up like me, that is buying it anyway even though a little voice asks you whether you really need another techy item, "making up" excuses that with not having to buy an extra MP3 player you will save at least a buck or twohundred :o)

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Palm-sized computing devices, December 21, 2000

By A Customer

I rate this product with 4 stars. Nothing receives 5 stars, that would imply perfection, and no room for improvement.

It's hard to compare this with a Palm Pilot, because they're so fundementally different, but that is exactly what the target is. I have a Palm IIIxe, which may not be the top-of-the-line Palm, but is functional, and use this as a comparison to the Cassiopeia EM-500.

Cost: the Palm IIIxe is half the price of the Cassiopeia, but if you compare the Palm IIIc, then the price range narrows where it's no longer an arguement.

Size: the size is similar enough that any arguement of which is smaller/bigger is a lot of hot-air. The Cassiopeia is substationally heavier than the Palm.

Processor: people make a big fuss over processor speed. The Cassiopeia has a 150MHz MIPS processor. The Palm has an unknown speed 68k-based processor.

Screen: The screen is bigger than a Palm, and needless to say, it's color. It's very sharp and easy to read.

Sound: The Palm has no functional sound to speak of. It's capable of emitting beeps reminiscint of the Apple II.

Battery: The Palm here wins flatout. Lifetime on the Palm far exceeds the Cassiopeia. The Palm uses AAA batteries, and the Cassiopeia uses rechargable batteries.

Memory: The Palm again wins here. The IIIxe has 8mb of RAM, and the operating system is extremely efficent with memory allocation. The Cassiopeia has 16mb, and I've already started to run out of memory. I have a full KJV Bible installed on my Palm, as well as several other apps, and still have over 5mb of free memory. I installed a single 7mb MP3 on the Cassiopeia, and have no room left. Memory management for the Cassiopeia is bizzare - you select, via a slider, how much memory to allocate to storages vs. programs. I

Expansion: The only Palm-type product to offer reasonable expansion is the Handspring Visor. The Cassiopeia EM-500 does not use Compact Flash cards, but rather something called "MMC". The CF-style handhelds offer a wider range of expansion - such as modems, network cards, physical drives, and so forth. The MMC seems to limit me to multimedia storage expansion only.

Syncronization: Microsoft's ActiveSync is much better than HotSync. When you plug the Cassiopeia into the sync cable, the machine stays synced during the entire process. Also, the interface is nicer. If you want to install files/programs, you use an already familiar Explorer-like window to drag items into and out of the Cassiopeia. Updates occur async, so you can continue to use the Cassiopeia while syncs are happening.

Operating System: The Palm wins here. PocketPC Windows is very confusing, and the screen is incredibly cluttered. I would like if there were alternative OS's available for PocketPC, such as NetBSD.

Handwriting: this is hard to compare. Both products offer handwriting recognition systems, and also offer on-screen "soft" keyboards. The Cassiopeia was sometimes too fast to recognize my characters before I was done with them. I like the ability to see the on-screen results of my handwriting on the Cassiopeia. You can add several hacks to the Palm to do simiar, but it's not a base feature.

Third-party software: forget about it. The Palm has an enormous base of software applications.

Applications: The apps are similar across platforms, but I find the Palm versions of the apps easier to use. Everything is readily available at the touch of a single button. You may need to wrangle a few menus on the Cassiopeia to find what you really want.

Bottom line: this is a fine computer product. If you're interested in a personal organizer, I would stay towards the Palm Pilot. If you're interested in an alternative to laptops, with all the bells and whistles, the Cassiopeia is a good choice.

64 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great multimedia Pocket PC, September 15, 2000

By	D. Verheul - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Cassiopeia EM-500 looks like a pretty sweet deal. It can do almost anything the E-115 does, and it's smaller and faster. If you compare the EM-500 to the E-115, you'll notice that the E-115 has 32MB of memory, where the EM-500 has 16MB. Also, the EM-500 offers the multimedia card memory system, so memory can be easily expanded.

The EM-500 seems targeted at a younger market, with great multimedia capabilities (MP3, 240 x 320 TFT 65,536 color screen, excellent gamepad).

Its main competitor, the Compaq iPaq, offers more memory and speed, but less colors, and, most importantly perhaps, the keypad of the iPaq cannot register simultaneous clicks, which limits its gameplay capabilities.

If you want a good Pocket PC for both "serious stuff" and games and multimedia, the EM-500 seems the way to go. A fine product by Casio, with more memory I would have given it 5 stars.