Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing for the price
Review: I bought this item to see what Windows CE devices were all about, and wanted an iPAQ, but no one had them in stock.The display on this device was really nice, and I was really impressed with the eBook reader, and how text looks on the screen. Graphics are definitely nice. I also liked the voice note recorder functionality. However, this device is way to bulky and heavy to carry in my pocket, so the odds are I would not really use this feature at the odd times when I might need to record some random thought. I didn't use the compact flash while I had the device (I no longer use it), but the cover feels like it would break off after some moderate use. I really did not like the OS. I started running the Golf demo, and switched programs, and everything kept running in the background, bogging down speed-wise. I could not find a "Quit" on any program. I could kill programs from a task manager, which takes about 5 click menus to get to. I missed the simple interface of my Palm device. I'll admit I didn't read any manual, but this thing was just too difficult to use. I have a Palm Vx, and absolutely love it. This device has some more features, but using it is so much more of a hassle, that the features are not really that useful. I'm planning on sticking with Palm devices, at least until I see the next generation of Windows CE.
Rating: 
Summary: Palm, Casio, HP or Compaq?
Review: I recently lost my Palm V, and was forced to get a new PDA. I researched and researched the new Pocket PC's. I don't know that I would even consider the Palm a device that a Pocket PC user would consider. They are two drastically different devices with the Pocket PC having tremendously more flexibility. Although the Palm has more applications, most of the practical applications are written to duplicate inherent capabilities of the Pocket PC. I won't try to compare the different platforms, but rather the different Pocket PC's because they are in a catagory by themselves. I ordered the Compaq, waited 3 weeks and went and bought the Jornada 548. I used it for 2 days and returned it. It felt fantastic! It is well designed, ergonomic and includes everything I wanted. My major disappointment was the screen display. I am not one of those people who care too much about how many different colors can be displayed, but I do care about clarity. My Jornada was dim and had a streaky display. I don't know if they are all like that, but I have seen similiar display problems on newsgroups. It is unfortunate, because I really liked the way it looked and felt. If I could get one that had a screen like my E-125, I would buy it. That takes me to the E-125. I love it. The screen is bright, clear and easy to read. I don't know if you can read it in "direct sunlight" as has been its criticism, but I hardly have the occasion to use my PDA in direct sunlight. It's outstanding in my office, on a plane, in my car, and sitting outside in a cafe. My criticism is that I wish they had included headphones like HP does and I would say it is a little more square than I would like. Furthermore, it doesn't include a flip cover to protect the screen, which I prefer. One review I read referred to it as brick, I would call it a "thin brick". The reason, I would never trade it for the IPAQ now is a feature I didn't realize I would care about until I have used it. The ablility to swap out batteries is priceless. You can always have a charged spare with you and not worry about having to find a plug, connect a charger, etc. I like the design of the IPAQ better, but I would not give up this feature. I also like the ablility to use full size PC cards on the IPAQ, but so far, I have not been in a situation where this was required (but I like the flexibility if I ever needed it). However, if you think you will always have power available, the Compaq is really well designed. I can't comment on the synching problems I have read about on the IPAQ as I never received mine. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my Casio and would highly recommend it to anyone considering a Pocket PC.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with the palm
Review: As a first time PDA user, I did my research for about 3 weeks, going back and forth from the handspring, palm, casio, and jornada, I decided on the casio which looked like the best overall. My advice to you is to save a little $$, stick with a palm or handspring device. The casio is bulky, good luck finding a decent case to put it in (everything is made for the palm), the activesync hasnt worked yet, it came with no user manuals, so Im having to figure out everything on my own. Finding software in a retail store for the windows based is next to none, and when trying to buy the accessories (cases etc...) from Casio they are out of stock. So I guess in the mean time the screen will get scratched, cant find a case to fit, and I still cant get the active sync software to work. Save yourself some $$ stick with the palm based pda, until the windows makers come up with some more solutions, dont make the same mistake I did. Oh by the way they tell you the casio is compatible with window 95, what they dont tell you that it has to be the second version of 95, or else you will have to upgrade to windows 98, costing you more $$$ and headache.
Rating:
Summary: Better THan the rest
Review: THough not owning a Cassiopeia, my fellow schoolmates own the three most popular pocket pc platformed handhelds:HP Jornada, Compaq Ipaq, and the,of course,Cassiopeia E-125. THe Compaq,though sleek and stylish, my friend has many problems:Dusty screen and system failure. HP jornada-less powerful than Ipaq and E-125,IMPOSSIBLE to see outside,IMPOSSIBLE.Also i have found that is significantly SLOW> E-125-fast,reliable,stylish, and great for all ages.
Rating:
Summary: Best on the market
Review: I "test drove" everything from the upper end palms to the iPaq and HPs, but this had it over all of them. The Palms didn't even make it past the first round, and the iPaq had too many syncing, battery, locking-up problems, and the Casio had none of these difficulties. Viewing the Cassiopeia in direct sunlight is a bit inconvenient (the iPaq was better there), but not impossible, and as it is faster in its transfers from the pc than its competition, more rugged, and has a better color resolution than anything else, I was quickly sold. If you're worried about the speed of the Casio versus the iPaq, I found them to be equally fast at processing information (though neither likes to have too many applications open). The battery life has been great (longer than the iPaq), and I love its casing. CNet complained about just that, but the brick/boxiness is not unlike a mid-nineties Volvo--it's what's inside that matters! The best feature is the internet connection is very speedy with the Pretec 56K flashcard modem, and Pocket IE is infinitely better than its earlier incarnations. It even is perfectly secure, as I placed an order on ... while I was traveling, using my Casio. I have not yet given up on my HP Jornada 820 HPC Pro, but this Casio is quickly taking its place.
Rating:
Summary: I want my Palm back!!!
Review: I've had my Cassiopeia for close to 9 months now. Prior to having the Cassiopeia I was a Palm user. I more or less depend on having my calendar, contacts, notes, etc. with me all of the time. I made the decision (and it was a tough decision) to switch to the Cassiopeia/Windows CE platform because of the following things that the Palm didn't offer. I've been constantly disappointed. -Ability to sync with outlook mail: It works great, however you can't sync email if you're syncing with more than 1 computer (i.e. home computer and office computer) so it's useless to me. -Ability to access personal financial sites: Many of the web sites that I want access to when traveling are my bank accounts. I can't access them because Pocket Explorer is not the "correct" version and does not have the correct level of security (even with the 128 bit patch), so my bank site will not allow access. -Ability to download and listen to audio books from Audible.com: The transfer process is so unbelievably slow I've given up and taking audio books with me when I travel. -Ability to read eBooks: Books from Peanut Press work fine with Peanut Reader. Books for Microsoft Reader are another story. Very disappointing. -Ability to synchronize with my MS Money accounts: This is perhaps the most infuriating bug of all. Good luck with keeping your accounts synced. Balances get screwed up and it's not uncommon for the Money file to come up corrupted, requiring you to replace the file and re-sync it. There's a whole list of procedures to remedy crashed money files, but I really don't feel like spending hours fixing something, over and over, that should have worked in the first place. Add to all of the above, appointments and contacts that magically vanish, only to reappear days later, and some of the worst customer support from Microsoft that I've ever experienced, this time-saving device is far too time-intensive. I regret ever letting go of my precious Palm!
Rating:
Summary: Reformed Palm User
Review: I bought the E-125 a week ago. I had intended to replace my lost Palm V with another Palm V. However, the sales guy asked me why the palm versus the cassiopeia. My response? Familiarity and I knew the Palm V worked and worked well. I've owned a Palm from the original Palm to the Palm III to the Palm V. After a quick tour of the E-125, I decided that it had more potential and decided to be brave and go for something new. My reaction after a week? PRO's 1. I love the screen - great colors, clarity and graphics 2. Syncronization is tons faster than the PALM with either pocket mirror or chapura intellisync 3. All of the fields are identical to outlook - it is actually Pocket Outlook you are using - so if you are an outlook 97 or 2000 user, this is a significant plus. 4. Its an MP3 player with good quality! (what a nice extra) 5. The audio recording of notes when I'm driving and have one of those rare brain flashes is great. 6. The pocket internet explorer with AvantGo for storing my certain web pages for long flights 7. The Pocket Word and Pocket Excel which allows me the ability to open attachments - so far it works great 8. The windows look and feel that I'm used to made the jump from Palm a little less painful. CONs: 1. Software (freeware & shareware) not as plentiful as Palm OS software - seems we need to hope it becomes more popular. Tools for development are just coing out which should help. 2. Wish it were just a tad thinner - but this isn't a killer like I was afraid of 3. Wish there was Pocket Adobe Reader and Pocket PowerPoint (that's more a Microsoft and Adobe issue) 4. My kids keep taking it to play games that have incredible graphics
Rating: 
Summary: The Best PDA Ever!
Review: Yes, I'm a high school student that owned a few PDA's before but this PDA is the best ever. You might say I'm a computer nerd, but if you need a PDA, just go to Best Buy and try this one out. After going to best buy, I knew this was the best PDA to buy. Anybody can use it, and it does everything or anything you want it to do. I recommend this product for college students, and or anybody else that is in the market for a PDA. Trust me, you will not go a day without using it!
Rating:
Summary: Compare the iPAQ and the Casio E-125 and see the diff!
Review: The E-125 by casio is far most a must choice if you are planning to get a PDA. Being an owner of a PDA Cassiopeia E-15 (Windows CE 2.1 - Gray scale) I actually thought of striking of the Casio Pocket PC off the line of choice such as the iPAQ and the Jornada by HP. The reason being, I had many, too many miserable times with the screen. The display is fine but the touch screen gives me one too many problems. Every ones in a while I will be required to recalibrate it to ensure the accuracy, at times it would not even work. Enough about the bad things on the E-15. On the overall it is a great product if the problem of the touch screen alignment is resolved. Now that I am purchasing a Pocket PC, and with 3 choices I was actually settling down on the iPAQ until I did more research on it. I picked iPAQ initially because of it's fast processor and the great looks. However, when I did my comparisons and further research, I found that the Cassiopeia would be a better buy. This is why : Firstly, when you are thinking of a Pocket PC which has multimedia capabilities coupled with coloured screens and stuff, one would require a whole lot of power. Sure, the Compaq boasts a 10 hour continuous use where the Casio has 6. This is gauged from a heavy user where the owner would use the Pocket PC continuously. However, at the initial thought, the Compaq would be better in battery usage, TRUE but not on the long run. What Compaq has which is overlooked by most Compaq buyers is that the battery is built in. The battery is not consumer removable, thus, just like all batteries, the battery has a life cycle of charging and discharging, when the battery goes too old, the performance will be significantly reduced. The Casio on the other hand uses a Consumer removable lithium battery, so if the case of ageing begins, all you've gotta do is to replace it with a newer casio lithium battery which you could purchase from the stores. This stance however, is impossible to be done by iPAQ users. Secondly, data safety. This would be one of the most thought issues for users of Pocket PCs. As data is actually being kept safe through the charge of electric currents from the battery, ones the battery is flat, the data is GONE. As the iPAQ only has one battery without a backup, you data is seriously at high risk when the battery dies. On the other hand, the Cassiopeia resolved this problem with an additional backup battery. Thus, if the main battery ever goes flat, there is still a 2 week data storage time utilizing the backup battery. Thirdly, vibrant colours. Compare 14000 odd colours with over 46000 colours. The difference is significant. Just image placing your desktop from 16 colours to 256 colours. The iPAQ displays only 14000 odd colours and this is not exceptionally good as when video playback is concerned, one will certainly identify certain reduction in picture quality. The same thing applies to still high quality images. On the other hand, you would see a great difference in both picture and video quality with more colours capability on the Casio. Fourth, comes processor speed. Sure you'll see an extra 45 - 55 Mhz boost in performance for the iPAQ but that is about it. In terms of running applications, the Casio would do just fine. You would not see a significant difference. However, I must admit that you would be able to launch applications faster with a faster processor but do we REALLY need that extra 1-2 seconds? Fifth, size. Sure the iPAQ looks great but when you wish to have extra storage space such as an additional CF Flash Card for memory, you'll have to slot in a sleeve as an accessory to the iPAQ giving it a much bulkier look. In fact, it looks bigger than the Casio ones the accessory is on. Sixth, cost. In reference to the fifth point, the extra accessory sleeve that you will need to add in more memory would be an added cost. The sleeve is not provided. As such, the Casio wins at this point as it comes originally built in with a CF card slot. Seventh, screen glare. This is one point where Casio loses out. If you are talking about using the Casio under direct sunlight, the display would be more on the lighter side thus, you would not be able to see much things on the screen. However, the iPAQ has a lighting system which comes from the sides of the screen giving it an outdoor advantage. However, think again, would anyone want to use the Pocket PC under direct sunlight? Why not go to a shade or get in the car? Eight, one hand usage. If you are driving or might be reading a map and would like to be one handed on it, the Casio would allow you to do so as it comes with scroll keys on the sides. Unlike compaq where the keys are actually right infront of the device thus making it not very Human Friendly. Finally, you might think that since I have had such bad experiences with the later Casio model, why would I want another Casio or at least recommend it to others? Casio has been in the PDA world for a VERY VERY long time and being a Japanese company where quality is of great concern, also based on my usage of the Cassiopeia E-125 for some time now, I have never calibrated the screen more than twice. The second time was that I wanted to reformat the whole System, giving it a fresh restart. The system is stable and in terms of speed, it suits me well. I certainly hope that this article has left some ideas in you and hope that someday, you will make a wise decision on your purchase of the Pocket PC. Think Casio, think Cassiopeia Pocket PCs. You are free to contact me at benjern@benjern.com if you need more advice or details.
Rating:
Summary: I only have one thing to say......
Review: PocketQuake!!!! www.pocketmatrix.com/pocketquake/ oh yeah, it's actually cheaper on outpost.com, plus you get free overnight shipping. Just a FYI.
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