Spotlight Customer Reviews
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I own one
Comment: This is a great pda for the price and it works well with windows which is a major plus. I am a med student and use mine to reference material quickly (it makes me look like a genius). Anyway, it has lot of other app as well so you can use it to play your fav song... on the train/bus or edit email or read a book... I COULD GO ON AND ON... anyway, good deal especially if you find one used.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent PDA
Comment: 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
Customer Rating: Summary: Would score it much higher except for a couple concerns
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: Summary: RED
Comment: My only complaint is with the dull metalic red color, I was expecting a more vibrant red!
If the color isnt important to you, it's great!
Customer Rating: Summary: iPAQ has new competition
Comment: I am a developer of game software for PocketPC's. I have owned and/or tested every HPC/PPC/PocketPC device and so far, the Compaq iPAQ and the EM500 are tied for my favorite PDAs.
It does not score a perfect 10 on all points, but overall it is a great PocketPC.
The characteristics most important to me about the hardware are the following:
1) Size/Weight 2) Display readability and responsiveness 3) Battery Life 4) Buttons 5) PC Interface 6) Speed
The size/weight of EM-500 is similar to the HP Jornada, but not as slim nor light as the Compaq iPAQ or Aero 1550. Overall it feels good in the hand - the texture and shape are appealing. The EM500 is basically the same size as the E115, but is a few mm slimmer and a bit lighter. It almost fits comfortably in a shirt pocket, but is just a little too big.
There is a debate now as to whether the display of the iPAQ is superior or inferior to that of the Casio E115/EM-500. In a way it is both superior and inferior at the same time. The iPAQ uses a TFT (active matrix) reflective display with side lighting. This allows it to be used indoors and in direct sunlight. The EM500 uses a backlit TFT lcd with 65536 colors. I prefer the look of the EM500/E115 display. Rich, bright colors and fast response times. I use it mostly indoors, so having a reflective display is not a priority.
The EM500 comes with a replaceable Li-Ion battery pack that can supposedly go for up to 6 hours. I've had about that time on it, but one night it seemed to die much quicker. It may be because I was docked and that drains the battery faster.
The EM500 uses a new type of memory expansion port called a "MultiMediaCard" or MMC. This is similar to CompactFlash, but smaller and uses less power. There are not many options for this interface at the moment besides memory, but I'm confident we will see Ethernet and Modem cards available in the near future. There is also a question as to whether or not this supports the new SDMMC (secure cards). I can't answer that, but people on the net are speculating that it does because of the 9 pin connector versus 7 for a plain MMC card. If you have lots of CompactFlash cards and need a unit which supports them, then you should probably opt for the E125 (a faster version of the E115 + USB).
The button layout of the EM500 is intelligent and includes a 'game-pad' with 4-directions and 3 app buttons nearby. This is very similar to the Casio E115 and superior to the other devices. The 'action' on the gamepad is a little better than the E115 and much better than the iPAQ. The buttons were designed properly for gaming so that multiple buttons can be pressed simultaneously and detected. There is a scroll wheel on the side which is great for reading books/text and is sorely missing on the iPAQ. For some reason, the "windows menu" button has been removed (compared to the E115).
The EM500 comes standard with a USB cable. The data transfer rate is faster than a RS232 interface, but does not appear to run at the USB max rate. The iPAQ's USB interface is measurably faster than the EM500, but the EM500 does a reasonable job. There is an optional RS232 cable and you can also use the E1XX cradle since the connector on the bottom of the EM500 is the same as that on the E115.
The CPU in the EM500 runs at 150Mhz and is an improvement over the E115, but does not approach the speed of the iPAQ. Casio also sped up the memory bus, so programs do run measurably quicker on the EM500 compared to the E115 (maybe 20-30%), but it is no speed demon. Unfortunately Casio only put 16MB of RAM in the EM500 which may limit its usefullness. Apparently there are 32MB versions sold in other parts of the world so it is likely that Casio will release a "EM505" version here in the near future.
Overall the EM500 is a great PDA because of its beautiful display, size, weight, removeable battery, speed, USB interface and case. If you have to choose between the iPAQ and the EM500 you will need to think very carefully about what features are important in a PDA. I am very picky about the display; I think the EM500's display looks nicer than the iPAQ's. Also, I use the PocketPC's for game development, so the buttons on the EM500 are much better than the iPAQ.
