Casio E-125 Pocket PC

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Casio just released the Cassiopeia E-125 Pocket PC, an incremental upgrade of its popular E-115 Pocket PC.

The E-125 builds on the strengths of the E-115, giving users a well-tested and stable platform that can use accessories from its E-100 series Palm-size PCs or it's E-115 Pocket PC.

The Cassiopeia appears identical to the latest Casio Pocket PC, the E-115. It has the same game button on the lower left below the display, with three user-programmable application launch buttons on the lower right. On the left edge of the E-125 you'll find the power (on/off) button, the fourth application launch button (set to activate the Start menu), the rocker button to navigate through menus and select options, and the voice record button (hold down and talk to make a voice recording). Also located on the top of the left edge is the stereo headphone jack. Plug in stereo headphones and you can listen to voice recordings, or high-quality MMP or MP3 music.

Hardware enhancements to the E-115

The E-125 will replace Casio's E-115 as Casio's first-string Pocket PC. The new Cassiopeia has NEC's newer NEC 4122 CPU running at 150 MHz (up from the E-115's 133 MHz processor). The new CPU has twice the Cache of the older one. Both these features speed up the performance. I noticed it when opening and closing documents. Casio claims a 30% improvement in speed based on benchmark tests. To speed things up even further, Casio includes a USB connectivity cable with the E-125. This allows you to synchronize data and transfer files much faster than with a serial cable. (However, there is an optional serial cable available if your desktop PC doesn't have a USB port.)

The E-125 has 32 Mb of on-board RAM memory, split between data/file storage and system memory to run programs. It has a 240x320 65 K color backlit screen. It does appear to be a little brighter than the E-115's screen. It's quite readable indoors, and even passable outdoors when I shaded it with my hand.

Hardware options for the E-125 are listed in the Spec Sheet on page 20. Of note is Casio's Digital Camera Card, which lets you record and play back movies and still images on the E-125. Casio also offers Landware's GoType portable external keyboard as an option for the E-125. Casio offers a cable to connect the E-125 to a CDMA mobile phone. They will also be offering a CompactFlash format CDPD modem card that will work with the E-115 and E-125.

Built-in and add on software

The Casio E-125 comes with the Windows CE 3.0 operating system and Microsoft Pocket PC applications built in. The latter include MS "Pocket" versions of Outlook, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, Money, Streets, File Explorer, Reader, and Windows Media Player. It also includes Solitaire and various setup and configuration utilities.

The following Casio custom applications are built into the E-125:

• Button Assignment lets you configure the launch buttons to start other applications.
• Card Backup lets you backup data to a CompactFlash card.
• Menu is user-definable iconic start menu. Tap on a programs icon to launch it.
• Mobile Address Book and Mobile Calendar are Casio's alternative views to Pocket Outlook's Contacts and Calendar applications.

Casio includes a CD ROM with the following user-installable software on it:

• AOL Setup is a set up utility making it easier to configure the E-125 for AOL.
• bTASK is bSquare Technologies' (www.bsquare.com) shutdown and launch application.
• Cassiopeia Update file version 2.50 updates the automatic power-down feature to protect memory.
• Enterprise Harmony 99 is desktop PC software that converts Palm PIM data into formats usable by the E-125.
• Mail Setup tool simplifies ISP setup and configuration on the E-125.
• Mail Setup Manager for the PC allows users to copy PC e-mail settings (DNS, POP, ID, etc.) to Cassiopeia settings. It is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express 5.0.
• Mobile Picture & Video Player with Camera is a program that lets you record and play back movies and snapshots on your E-125. It also includes a thumbnail viewer and other functions for easy management of your movies and snapshots. (You need the optional Casio Digital Camera Card to be able to record movies and take photos.)
• Mobile E-mailer is an alternative to InBox with features such as automatic disconnection on conclusion of data transfer and incoming e-mail filtering. E-mail attachments and HTML e-mail can be received and, data can be synchronized with Outlook. Address books can be created with data other than Pocket Outlook address data, allowing address books to be divided along business and personal usage.
• Mobile Video Converter is a desktop PC utility that converts popular video formats, such as MPEG1, AVI and QuickTime, to the CMF format for playback with the Casio Mobile Video Player.
• Mobile Video Player for PC lets you play Casio Movie Format (CMF) videos on your desktop PC.
• Packet Video Player allows the Casio E-125 users to view MPG4 videos. This software is not on the CD, but can be downloaded for free from a Web site link that is on the CD.
• ZioGOLF Demo is a trial version of the popular graphical golf game.

Two other CD ROMs come in the E-125's box. The first is from Audible, letting you install the latest version of Audible Player on the E-125 and Audible Manager on your desktop PC. This sets you up to download Audible audio books through your desktop PC and listen to them on the E-125.

The other CD ROM contains an upgrade to Windows Media Player for the Pocket PC. According to the documentation, the E-125 utilizes an advanced processor, which requires installation of an updated Windows Media Player for Pocket PC. While it's great to have the latest version of Media Player, it now occupies precious RAM memory.

A notch up the ladder

I still think that Mobile Address Book and Mobile Calendar are great alternatives to the built-in applications. They've been on the Cassiopeia's since the E-100 Palm-size PC and I've written about them in another review. I like the new applications Casio included on the CD ROM, particularly the extra setup programs. Anything that makes it easier to connect to an ISP and setup an email service is great for the end user. Finally, I am very intrigued by PacketVideo Player. It lets you go online and play streaming MPG4 videos.

Casio has stayed with this form for two practical reasons. First, it lets users of the Cassiopeia E-100/105 Palm-size PC, and the E-115 Pocket PC re-use their accessories if they buy an E-125. Second, it's thick enough to include the larger Type II CompactFlash card slot in the device, opening a number of other expansion possibilities to E-125 users.

However, the E-125 has new insides, including a faster CPU and the wiring for USB connectivity. Casio will not be offering a replacement ROM chip for E-115 users. They will probably offer the new software to existing E-115 users, but I've had no official confirmation of that. If you have an E-115 and are satisfied with its speed, keep it. If you want something a little faster, with a lot faster connectivity, take a close look at the Cassiopeia E-125 Pocket PC.