Casio's New Pocket PC: Is Palm Sweating?

The Casio Carry-On

I was surprised by how quickly I took to the EM-500 as a traveling companion. Word files were surprisingly readable, but entering any significant amount of text--whether I used the handwriting recognition feature or the on-screen keyboard--was a chore. The device was easy to grip, once I managed to extract it from the too-snug clutches of its padded-nylon case. (And because the case fits so snugly around the device, it has a tendency to rub against the power-on button, causing the battery to run down.)

The EM-500's 16MB of built-in memory is half that of its sibling Casio PDA, the $600 E-115. But unlike the E-115, the EM-500 adds a MultiMediaCard slot to accommodate the teeny-weeny cards that can hold up to 64MB of data apiece. (A 32MB card costs about $70.)

With its stylish colors and multimedia support, the EM-500 appears designed for the younger crowd; it even offers Windows Media Player support for Windows Media Audio and MP3 (in addition to .wav) files. Its 150-MHz CPU (up from the E-115's 131-MHz CPU) will help those multimedia files play faster and smoother.

This new Casio entry gives you a nice color screen on a device that fits easily into your hand and allows you to access Word and Excel files. And like the E-115, the EM-500 can play music and video. While the EM-500 is more expensive than Palm alternatives, its color screen, memory cards, and familiar apps help mitigate its higher price.