Cassiopeia E-125

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(09/27/00)
Casio has blitzed the market with three slightly different Pocket PC handhelds in six months. Each offers incremental improvements aimed at creating the best possible PDA. The Cassiopeia E-125, with its fast processor, colorful screen, and Type II CompactFlash slot is a darn good device. But even this third-generation product has some remaining problems to overcome.

Looks Matter
Slick design has played a big part in the success of handhelds such as the Palm Vx and the Compaq iPaq. And that's one thing we liked about the Cassiopeia EM-500, too; it looks good. The design of E-125, on the other hand, isn't very inspiring; it looks a bit like a brick, even though it's only slightly larger than the EM-500 and the iPaq.

If you're not swayed by good looks, though, then consider the E-125. Powered by a 150MHz processor, this handheld has enough power to run a few applications at once, but it bogs down if you have four or five applications running simultaneously--a common problem with Pocket PCs. The iPaq's 206MHz processor is the lone exception.

Casio has finally embraced USB cradles, so we were able to load new applications in a flash. With 32MB of RAM built in, the E-125 has plenty of room to store apps and data. But if you want to use this as an MP3 player as well as an organizer, you'd better take advantage of the CompactFlash expansion slot. It can accommodate Type II cards, such as IBM's Microdrive, modems, and Ethernet cards. But its list price makes the E-125 slightly more expensive than buying an iPaq and a CompactFlash sleeve.

The E-125 has the same terrific 65,536-color LCD seen on previous Casio Pocket PC devices. When checking out Web graphics, we were able to notice the subtle changes in color that we're used to seeing on a desktop monitor. However, the display has a pretty narrow viewing angle and is barely legible in direct sunlight. For those reasons, we prefer the iPaq's reflective screen, even though it displays only 4,096 colors.

On The Road
Loaded with a card full of music, solitaire, and an e-book or two, this would be a great traveling companion if it weren't for the short battery life. Casio claims eight hours of use, but our review unit ran out of juice in less than five. However, this is a problem shared by all the Pocket PC devices we've tested.

Casio comes close to making a great handheld with its E-125: The Pocket PC operating system can keep you entertained as well as help you stay organized; the fast processor makes it a pleasure to use; and if you intend to load it up with graphics-heavy Web pages, you'll appreciate the colorful LCD. However, we'd gladly trade a few colors for the ability to read text outdoors. We still stand by the iPaq, which costs roughly the same amount of money.