Review: The New Casio Pocket PC E-200

msolnik writes: "PocketNow has done an in-depth review of the new Casio Pocket PC E-200. It has a built in compact flash and SD slot. It has a 206mhz strong arm, reflective screen and a replacable rechargeable battery. In my opionion it looks very cool and seems like it could do some damage to the IPAQ's sales. On a side note it should run linux no problem."

Comments

Re:NetBSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

actually people are playing quake on it...

http://quake.pocketmatrix.com/quake/index.html

How 'bout one better?

[fader]

For less than the $600 price the article mentions, you can get a Sharp Zaurus with the same specs. (CF slot, SD slot, 206MHz... the works.) Plus you get a keyboard(!) and there's no ugly windows logo emblazoned on it.

Sorry, I think that Casio's a day late and $100 to expensive.

Re:How 'bout one better?

[neema]

The one you mention, with the 206mhz StrongArm, keyboard, FC slot, SD slot, all of that... Well, it's not out yet. As you can see here. So Casio isn't really late. Maybe just expensive.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: I agree (I have an E-100)

[nikoftime]

As a premise for this post, I had owned a Casio model E-100 for roughly 2 years until last week when I traded with a friend for his Palm III.

Quite simply, I decided that the E-100 lacked true portability. This new device, and all others from non Palm or Handspring vendors, tend to simply be very large and cumbersome.

What I love about the Palm is the ability for me to put it in my shirt pocket and not have it way that down. Though this may seem trivial, it is very important to me as I generally would rather not have a large device in my pants pocket (Aside from the obvious "device" already there).

Anyway, I what I think needs to happen is that designers should take a look at a device like the Rex (remember that? It was a PCMCIA card that had a screen and PIM apps on it) and attempt to improve on that. A simple color screen shouldn't increase size overall too much, but would increase definition and clarity quite a bit. There seems to be a fairly large market for people who want simple, cheap PIM and PDA devices without hundreds of MB of storage, wireless networking, a Pentium IV processor and other crazy stuff that simply doesn't belong. Anyone out there with investment capital and some friends with engineering degrees listening?

General observation

[biglig2]

It should perhaps be pointed out to those not watching this market closely (just went thru a pda upgrade cycle meself) that after the sucess of the ipaq 36xx every single Pocket PC manufacturer is going for an ipaq clone as the PockerPC 2002. This is not anything spcial or surprising that they are doing.

So they all have memory slots, tft screens, expansion capabilities of some sort, 206MHz processors. People are even throwing away their USPs to get on the ipaq bandwagon - the older casios were famed for high quality of their reflective screens. Now they're TFT too.

There are differences of course, but it's thinkgs like size, form factor, how much in the way of accessories are ut there, battery life.

Oh, and what did I pick? Palm M500. Does everything I need in a box that is so tiny I can barely tell if its in my pocket or not and that costs £200 instead of £500.

OK, doesn't run Linux and it doesn't really do multimedia. Mind you, that £300 difference will buy me rather a lot of MP3 player ;-) And failing to get the sound to work on my thinkpad 600 under Linux meets my cursing needs.