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

Running Linux

[Splezunk]

Could someone please explain the infation that everybody seems to have about running linux on everything even though its not suited to that task?

I agree that linux is a good secure Server system, but for the life of me I can't understand what you would want it on a PDA for. Use the best tool for the job - This exludes Win XP as well.

Is it REALLY a better mousetrap?

[Christopher B. Brown]

• I keep being amused (and a little disgruntled!) that the 225MHz StrongARM of about three years ago is still the same "205 MHz StrongARM" that they keep deploying on these little critters.
  
  

  I realize that the 16 MHz DragonBall chips are still pretty sufficient for coping with storing addresses, notes, and the likes; it's just irritating that it's stayed at the same speed for so long.
  
  

• On the up-side, it moves from having a mere 16MB of RAM to having 64MB of RAM.
  
  

  That's probably enough to start moving towards doing some "real" work, although if you want more than 15 minutes worth of MP3s, you'll still have to wait for the 256MB model.
  
  

  I don't think these get to be truly better "mousetraps" until they have a pretty serious amount of storage space.
  
  

• The "StrongARM-based" PDAs have been around for a while, and the ones that you'd actually want always cost about $600 USD, which is a whopping lot more than a not-quite-disposable Whichever-Palm-has Gotten Cheap .
  
  

  A year ago, it made sense that the iPAQ was expensive as an 'early-adopter" product; the continuing-to-be-hefty price is not particularly attractive.
  
  

• Woo-hoo! It runs Linux!
  
  

  I think it's pretty cool and all that IBM has built a wrist-watch that runs Linux; that doesn't forcibly grip me as being fundamentally important.
  
  

  PalmOS is old enough that it may be getting "old in the tooth;" it's still pretty much useful enough. (Except for playing MP3s, but it's cheaper to get a recent Diamond Rio for that...)
  

A new model from another maker may be News for Nerds, but I have to wonder if it's really Stuff that matters.