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Casio Cassiopeia E-125 Color Pocket PC

Casio Cassiopeia E-125 Color Pocket PC

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very good.... At least for me.
Review: Let me put it to you this way. I was a Palm lover, I had the Palm Pilot when it first came out, I had a Palm IIIx. Then I dropped it. Enter the Casio. Man, having the ability to design Excel sheets, browse some sites with Pocket IE, download and check my mail, and write up employee reviews from one source was a dream come true. I like the Compaq, but for the money, the Casio was the way to go for me. The bad side to this is that I had to buy a few memory cards, one for music, one for books, one for work and one for maps (MUST get Pocket Streets, excellent). Pocket PC is an excellent way to continue to work when you're away from your desk, if your into that. Having the ability to do all that from something so small is great. I think now with the PPC2002 units coming out, I think it's just a matter of time when people will be saying, "Palm who?"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best at the Price
Review: I thought hard about this with the new 2002 versions coming out, but this one did what I wanted and the price was right. My teen-aged son has one he takes to school--it has survived and he has found it very useful, he can start drafts of his papers and not have to type them in later. I also really like the Microsoft Reader...it is much easier to read and use than I had anticipated. If you want a useful tool at a good price, this is the one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Casio Blows their lead
Review: Casio, a leader in retail electronics and one of the first on the market with the Pocket PC (windows CE) device has sadly let their lead slip away. They remain the most expensive of the Pocket PC's and it's darned near impossible to find accessories. I have a Cassiopeia Pocket PC which I will keep but if I had it to do again, I'd save a hundred bucks and buy an HP or Compaq Pocket PC. Same quality, better price, and easy to find goodies like keyboards and cases.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best overal choice
Review: I've had the e-125 for more than a year now had it has worked great. It's speedy and reliable, something the Compaq isn't according to my associates who have them. I have several programs and games loaded in main storage and on the CF card as well as dozens of books and WMA and MP3 files. I've haven't found a single CF card that wasn't compatible including microdrives and modems. I've even been able to use the Cassiopeia as an instant image editor before emailing digital camera photos from it. If you looking for speed and reliability with lots room for expansion buy a Cassiopeia e-125.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Little PPC
Review: I have both a Casio 125 and an iPaq 3600 series. My wife uses my Casio. It was a great little PPC, but it I had iPaq envy because of the expandability of the iPaq. The screen on the Casio is much better than the iPaq!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So Much Fun
Review: I spent lots of time reviewing and comparing and ended up first getting a Platinum Visor by Handspring. The Visor was very cool and very quick to learn. Plop in the AAA batteries and you are ready to go. Plus the price seemed right. (Excellent choice if you are looking for a palm with flexibility and one that is easy to learn) Then I started looking for software to download and realized how much neater the software would be in color. Plus I do a lot of financial snapshots and analysis for clients and the graphs would look much better in color...so I began a new search and went to all the electronic stores to physically see all the window based PDA's and settled on the CASIO E-125. The HP screen is really hard to see even in the florescent lighting in the store.

My casio arrived 2 weeks ago and I have been configuring it since then...long into the nights. I think I finally have it down and do realize the frustration of a lot of the other reviewers with this product. It is much more complicated then a plug and play OS based PDA. It takes some reading and understanding how windows works in order to configure it properly. I found some great programs that help it to run faster, because one draw back is there is no way to easily close the programs once they are opened. This can severely hamper the memory and speed.

There is a freeware from SnoopSoft.com called BananaPC. It will easily close the applications to keep everything running smoothly. There is also freeware called DTSysView by Herbert Fann which keeps track of memory and battery usage and is a great task manager. These two pieces of software in my opinion are a must. SnoopSoft.com also has some great skins to make your Pocket PC uniquely yours. Try mcdeb.com for some great designs. She will even create that is all your own for a small fee. Another freeware called ColorPicker from Newmad, will let you change your windows color scheme. These are the memory hoggers and battery reducers, but the ones that make your pocket PC fun.

As for the essential software, my suggestion is...stick with the mobile address book and calendar that come with the Casio. I bought PocketInformant, but feel the default applications are just as good.

Bottom line Pros: This is an excellent tool. The screen clarity is awesome, the colors are magnificent and the picture quality is outstanding. 32M is a whole lot more storage space the the OS based 8M. (I just order 128M more!) It seems to run very quick and will prove to be invaluable for keeping tasks, appts, and contacts in order. (also will keep in order kids activities, grocery lists, recipes, car mileage, expenses, budgets and on and on!)

Bottom line Cons: It definetely takes some getting used to, but the frustration is worth it in the end. The battery life is not that great, but I have been working on it night and day to get it configured the way I want it. I have not yet tested the battery life under normal usage. I figure I will just get another charger for work or for the car and shouldn't have to worry.

I found a great little leather case for it with room for business cards and a little cash by Sumdex on ... for around $....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: First Impressions
Review: I did a lot of research before buying this little device, and of all the reviews I read, it was the ones here on Amazon that convinced me to buy the E-125. The fact that I live in Japan, where Casio reigns supreme (but all the OS's are in Japanese) and peripherals are easy to find, was also an important factor. I've only had it a few days, and I've never owned a palm-sized device before this one, but I can at least share my first impressions and how the device is holding up to my high expectations. My VERY first impression after taking it out of the box is that it's a pretty unsightly little thing. Of course, a desktop PC doesn't have to look good to perform good, so it's very easy to let slide. I've always been one who values performace over appearance. People complain about the size of the device..., but I find it easy to manage. It's not pocket size, but it's no bigger than a day-planner or a paperback book, two thing's I usually carry around anyway. "Pocket" PC is a bit of a misnomer though. It doesn't take much to leanr how to use the out of the box software. I had to refer to the documentation more for synching, which I'll cover in a moment. I was setting up my calender and address book in no time. I do think the on-board character recognition software needs some help though, it didn't seem able to recognize J's. Unfortunately, the onboard software doesn't cut the mustard so inevitably, you're going to have to synch the little guy with your PC to make it worth your money. After a little reading, I managed to synch the very first time I tried. I downloaded a couple of free ebooks, a game, an audiobook and a small mpeg for starters. The books were the only thing I got working the first time. MS Reader has its faults if you want to buy e-books, but it's great for all the free stuff. Peanut Press uses their own software and is apparently the palce to go now that most ebook retailers don't support MS Reader.

The audiobook, which I got from Audible, took a good bit of time to get working. I had to remove it and transfer the file a second time, in a more compressed format to get it to play. not to big a deal, but not nearly as convenient as my MP3 player. The MPEG which plays fine on the desktop version of media payer, refuses to play for the PPC version. Apparently, the program to view movies comes on the disk and must be installed seperately. Does that mean that Media Player only plays music and sound files on the PPC? The gmae I never got to work. Even the best sites for PPC downloads seem lite on instructions. I suppose I'll figure it out eventually, but it is a bit frustrating.
Overall, software is as frustrating as I remember PC software being when I knew nothing about it. The Windows software is similar, but it's not the windows your know and it's like learning a whole new operating system all be it a much simpler one, which is to be expected. I don't really judge this as good or bad, it's just the nature of the beast. The more I learn and each new triumph sort of lessens the frustration, but don't expect plug and play, we're still not there yet.
The hardware seems really nice. The screen was a very important factor. I'm an Air Traffic Controller, and I spend lots of time in the dark with nothing to do. The bright colorful screen is one of the E-125's best features. A lot of people complained that you can't see the screen in direct sunlight, but I found that it wasn't so bad with a little tweaking. The IPAQ's screen is much brighter and easier to see, but not nearly as rich.
As for speed, the Casio does seem a little slow at times. I had a couple of spare minutes today and decided to spend it reading one of the ebooks, but by the time the thing loaded, it was time to go. All of the current PPC's are guilty of this. I have a friend who owns an IPAQ, and I don't discern much difference. It's especially hard to judge after playing with my 1Ghz PC all day and then switching to my Casio.
Overall, I seem to be complaining a lot, but I think this has a lot more to do with expectations than with the quality of the machine. I once told a friend of mine that if they ever made a Plam that was in color, played MP3's, stored e-books and played movies I'd buy it, and essentially I have. The higher end PPC's on the market are really just a showpiece of what future palm sized devices will be able to do faster, smaller and hopefully easier. These are really the first generation of multi-use, multimedia devices that will become household items, of that I'm sure. They're cool and they are useful, and while they can do a lot of stuff, they're not quite ready to replace paper, books, or CD's. Ultimately this is a gadget for a gadget junky and not for the casual user looking to get organized. I think that is the key thing to keep in mind. With a little patience and a little research, I'm sure I'll get as much out of it as I put into it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome tool! Don't leave home with out it!
Review: I have been using the E-125 for quite some time now. There are a huge amount of programs available today for PocketPC and more are available everyday! I am very pleased and have converted many people to PocketPC from Palm after showing them its' capabilities. "Hey Casio, How about some commission checks?" The best reason I like it? You can customise it to your very own style and way of life. As for its' size? It's not like many cell phones that are getting too small to use comfortably. The E-125 is a great size and easy to use. Mine gets used and abused quite a bit for work and play. It has been dropped accidentally about 10 times (not recommended), but it still works fine. The screen clarity and size are great too. I do recommend buying a large compact flash card (256mb min.) to hold a lot of music, video, games, maps, programs, etc! Get the hint of capabilities? If you use it, you will love it! Take my word for it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Too big for pocket
Review: While productive, its size makes it difficult to carry in your pocket. The software os quite limited

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Son loves it
Review: For his 25th birthday this is what i got for him. He loved it, it plays his music and he can take it everywhere.


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