Epson P-2000 Review

I first saw a prototype of what was to become theEpson P-2000, at a trade show about 18 months ago. It looked interesting, but when the Epson rep told me that it used USB 1.1, I shook my head in dismay, and walked away. Apparently Epson's marketing people felt the same way, as the product never shipped, only to resurface again at Photokina in September, 2004. This time it has USB 2.0, as well as a number of other enhancements. As of late November, 2004 it has started shipping to consumers.
This is the portable card transfer / hard disk (digital wallet type device) done right. Until now there have been several attempts at such units by smaller companies, but all have been flawed in some way. The three main areas in which they have been weak have been with regard to battery life, screen size, and disk size.
Most of these units have had undersized batteries, and one would be lucky to be able to copy two cards before the battery would die. Screens were small and dim, and there was rarely...