What? Hold on, no one's even asked the guy what hte main thing this guy'd going to be using it for. So, what are you going to be using it for mainly? If you're going to be using it for simple PIM stuff, but you like the extra abilities of the Mp3 and video etc. but you want some real durability, and don't care too much about gaming, get the Jornada. However, if you're going to do any serious gaming, do not get the Jornada because there is no gamepad, and while games are still playable, it's very difficult to control (i.e. using the scroll wheel to move up and down while the two buttons on the left to move left or right and then the buttons on the right for fire etc., as you can see, a little awkward).<br>If you want to do really processor intense business apps, such as big excel spreadsheets, using a graphic viewer for Powerpoint presentations, and you want it to be zippy while you're showing it to a client, get an Ipaq, ahnds down, that thing's movement through the OS, PIM functions, and normal business apps is extremely fast and the the Casio doesn't even come close (unless you get rid of all of any of the following: gigabar, WISbar, Startap, Dashboard, the Microsoft Today Screen, and you cansee how useful that is.., while the ipaq can run all of those at the same time and still have more speed) However, if you grew up on console games, like me, and you owned an Atari, NES, SNES, Playstation/N64, good PC, and especially gameboy, you'll find the Ipaq's game playing ability, very frustrating if you want to play games using the D-pad and any buttons.. because it just doesn't work that way, the only way it is really feasible controlling htese games, I fonud was using the stylus to control movement (instead of hte D-pad) and using the buttons with your left hand, which is still very awkward for me. But, I've heard hardcore Desktop PC gamers like this for PocketQuake, because it reminds them of Mouse in right hand, keyboard buttons with left hand.. but, I always used my gravis, so I was never hardcore, I guess. Oh, and if you plan on using your PPC outside at all, get an Ipaq, I'm sorry, but nothing else compares right now, the Casio and the HP suck (unless you really want to search for a tree or a wall for some shade and then turn the brightness and the contrast ALL the way up, just so you can kinda see the screen, and completely drain your battery. speaking of which). The battery on the Ipaq, I've fonud, seems to last the longest out of the three becuase you can turn the backlight off, and still see the screen with many lighting situations, which you cannot do with hte others. However, if you want the middle of the road PPC go with the Casio. The casio, gets through most apps at a pretty good speed, much faster than the Jornada, but most of the time not even close to the Ipaq (unless you overclock it to 200MHz and remove all apps in the background). While some games don't run as fast on the Casio (yes, it does make a difference, if anyone here played Snesce (first version of TWSFC) on the Ipaq and the Casio they would know the speed difference), to me, they seem more playable, even if it's at a slower speed sometimes. And I do have to admit, the screen on hte Casio is amazing. I still just stare at it sometimes and go, "damn, that is a cool looking screen!" Call me a dork if you want, but you probably do it to, if you own a casio. And, to me, the E-125 (not the EM-500) has a solid form factor to me. It's huge brick-like size (1/2 inch thick about 8-9 oz. heavy (full soda can is 12 oz)), fits well in my hands when I'm playing games. The ipaq, is much smaller, and for PIM functions (hold in left hand, stylus in right) this is awesome, and compares closely to the Palm V, but looks much cooler (and does cooler stuff obviously). But I found that when I tried to play a few games (believe me you will try this) with both hands, attempting to use the gamepad and other buttons by alternating..you get the idea..my hands would actually hurt and start to cramp up after awhile, unless I put a sleeve on it (which then makes it the same size as a Casio E-125, some say bigger, and have pictures to prove it, but that's bull, it's so minimal that it's a silly argument) but once the sleeve is on, it feels more solid.. then you realize that to really play thise thing you're going to use the stylus anyways, so you really don't need that sleeve for support (and it just feels big when you're using the stylus, to me) but then you realize, "oh crap this game is installed on my CF card, I have to leave the sleeve on" and then it just ends up being the same size as an E-125, but you're using the stylus instead of a gamepad.. but it still is faster. Oh, and the EM-500 is cool, and kinda middle of the road, cause it's smaller than the E-125 but a little bigger than the Ipaq, and smaller than the ipaq with a sleeve, but it uses Multimedia cards, which just aren't supported enough yet, and if you already have some CF stuff, I'd go with the E-125. Alright, I'm tired of typing now. I hope some of that helps. And remeber, no matter what choice you make, if you buy it somewhere with a good return policy, you can always take it back within a month if you change your mind and want to try/use a different one. Again, this is all my opinion, and I'm sure that every Ipaq evangelist will disagree with me, but it seems reasonable to me.
Jornada 548 or iPAQ 3650?
by Peter Milliron » Apr 7, 2001 @ 7:26am 
