CASIO EM500 PocketPC $200? huh!?

[FerretOne]

Circuit City has the EM500 for $349
- $50 CircuitCity Rebate (exp 7/30)
- $100 American Express Blue Pricematch refund
(pricematch Target.com which has EM500 on clearance for $249, but out of stock)
Here is the link to the target.com em500 page showing the price $249 which you will need to print out and send to american express.
= Final price $200!

After the rebate expires on 7/30, there is a chance circuit city will lower the price like the last time when they reduced from 399 to 349. If that happens within 30 days of your purchase, you can go back to circuit city with your receipt and ask for the difference. who knows you might end up getting it for only $150??!

Someone has done exactly all of above, when circuit city had EM500 at $399 with a $50 rebate, he certainly got one hella of a deal!

The credit of deal goes to HotDealz.com

 

[Wei2Cool]

I dont think you can PM with something that is out of stock.

 

[FerretOne]

I called the AMEX pricematch number to pricematch that target.com $249 price. they didn't ask anything about whether it's in stock or not, it's not shown on the site it's out of stock, it's just that you can't successfully order it if you try to.

has anyone else here been declined of a pricematch from amex due product out of stock?

 

[DarkManX]

i got 1 and called AMEX they told me to print out the target page and fax it.

 

[Siamskunk]

You can PM with Blue even if it out of stock. They do not care about that, the only thing they are serious about is whether the website you try to PM with is really in business.

 

[FerretOne]

A question to those have tried american express pricematch,

if I purchase two EM-500 with one transaction, will american express refund me the difference for both of the unit purchased?

I just want to make sure.

 

[polotek147]

Hmmm, I don't know anyone with one of these.

 

[Siamskunk]

FerretOne

They'll give you the difference for both of the item in that order as long as the amount is less than $250.

 

[Murse]

I did this deal in June when the price at CC was $399. But, I price matched CC with CompUSA ($349), got the $50 rebate, and used the AMEX Blue BVG with Target for a total of $220 including tax. I have received the AMEX check for $100.05, but I'm still waiting on the CC rebate.

This is my first PocketPC (I've used a Palm IIIx for about 2 yrs.) and it's a pretty good unit. The color screen is fantastic, and I upgraded the datebook with a more robust program. It's noticeably slower than the IPAQ, but I think the IPAQ looks kind of silly and the screen is not as nice. The only problem with the Casio is storage space, but I added a 64MB MMC for about $70 (Viking from Amazon with free shipping and a $10 off coupon) and have had no probs running programs off of it (including MS Media player 7.1). I'm just waiting for the 128MB MMC's to come out so I can load it up with MP3's. Casio includes a picture viewer program, so now I can snap some shots of the kids with my (Target closeout) Fuji 1300, and carry them around with me!

 

[jbloggs]

I have read on many diferent threads regarding the AmEx Blue price matching, can somebody give me breif details of how this works and what the catches are. Also if somebody can let me know where is the best place (Deal) to sign up for the card.

 

[Rally1]

good deal, they sell for $280 on eBay, so anytime you can get brand new for less its a deal.

 

[buffasnow]

The Cassiopeia E-500 has been discontinued. It is quite difficult to find accessories (camera, reasonably priced 56K modem) for that machine, cute though it is, because it does not accept compact flash. It is possible to upgrade the internal memory to 32 mb ram, but this upgrade, by an outside vendor, will void Casio's warranty. It is a sturdy and fun machine despite its shortcomings.

 

[tixtox]

I went to CompUSA and Circuit City to see the actual one ( the demo machine ). None of EM-500 is working while other model (Palm,Visor, IPaq,.) still work ! I wonder about the quality of this model. Anyway, the new model from CASIO is coming ,BE-300. The BE-300 has a 166MHz chip from NEC and has a 320-by-240-pixel color screen ( but does not support 65536 colors, just 32768 colors ). However, this one supports CompactFlash II ( Microdrive ! ). MSRP is $300 !! You can find more detail at CASIO website. Maybe I gonna wait for this one.

 

[FerretOne]

OK, I am going to do some justice for EM500.

The quality of EM500 as far as I know is quite good. It is far better than the quality of ipaqs! Ipaq users have long been complaining the LCD screen dust problem. There are no serious problems reported on Casio pocket pc message boards.

As a user of EM500, there is one big shortcoming, that is the limited internal memory only 16MB. When you buy a pocket pc, you MUST get one with 32MB internal ram or more! Some games require 6MB of free memory to run. The good news is EM500 can be upgrade to 32MB. I sent my unit to taiwan and get it upgraded to 32MB for $65 + shipping. Lots of people are doing that.

I don't think BE300 is any good at all. It looks ugly too. I think we can expect something from Casio to replace EM500, faster and more memory, perhaps smaller too. I hope they do, cause all the other pocket pcs are no good for playing games.

In fact, the one from Toshiba looks like a winner. It's smaller than ipaq and lighter. with 200Mhz ARM CPU, and 32MB ram. AND it have BOTH SD digital slot AND compact flash slot. I don't think it look as good as ipaq though. But looks like ipaq has got a real challenger this time.

My advice, if you can get this deal to work, buy a EM500. It's just way too cheap! I bet the Toshiba pocket pc will cost a bundle when it comes out just like ipaqs. If want to put more power into your EM500, upgrade it to 32MB, and overclock it to 180Mhz(at least 168Mhz). Even after you done all that, at $300, it is still a steal!

 

[NICKel]

Anyone got a link for the Toshiba unit? Sounds good...

 

[FerretOne]

the toshiba pocket pc e550 press release, and picture

if you are going to buy a EM500, make sure you buy Secure Digital Cards, NOT MMCs. SDs are reported 40% faster than MMCs. Load programs from MMC are rather slow, much slower than compact flash.

looks like circuitcity.com has sold out all of their EM500, the only hope now is if B&M stores have them.

 

[FerretOne]

a review on the new toshiba e505!

take a look! it's smaller than ipaq, thinner, lighter AND it has both SD and compact flash slots.. this is the one we have been waiting for.. ipaq is certainly in trouble.

 

[Knowit2]

From the Toshiba article linked earlier:

The high-end GENIO e550/MD adds a 1GB Microdrive? to this powerful platform, capacity enough to store downloads of both business and entertainment files.

Wow, a 1 gb drive from a Pocket PC device (palm size). I can't wait until Linex comes up with a palm size PC that can perform like a notebook.

 

[fondoo]

buffasnow: do you know who can upgrade 16MB to 32MB on my casio EM500???

 

[locutus4]

How can AMEX afford to do that, ive been hearing about it for awhile and it must cost them millions per year. They just send you 100's of dollars and hardly fight it, whats their secret?