Cowon's Q5W the iPhone of Personal Media Players?

December 7th, 2007 by Lisa Zyga

Cowon Q5W

Cowon has recently released the Q5W personal media player in the US - a device akin to the iPhone in its long list of features that far surpasses other gadgets of its kind.

The Cowon Q5W can do just about everything but make a phone call. To start off, it has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS, an audio player, photo browser, and a video player, with a 5-inch touchscreen LCD, built-in speakers, and 40-60GB of storage.

The device can hook up to the Internet anywhere there´s a Wi-Fi connection, and it runs on Windows CE, providing Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger. Users can type with an onscreen keyboard, and navigate with a stylus.

One of the greatest features of the Cowon Q5W is its compatibility with a wide variety of music, video and photo formats. Video formats include DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV7/8/9, music formats include MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC, and photo formats include JPEG, BMP, PNG, and even RAW files from various camera manufacturers. Also, its 800x400-pixel screen resolution makes images and video bright and crisp.

The device also has voice-guided, 2D/3D GPS, along with a car dock, and conveniently plugs in to the cigarette lighter adaptor. Also, while you´re in the car, the built-in FM transmitter can wirelessly transfer sound to the car´s speakers, giving a better overall sound.

In addition, the Cowon Q5W´s other features include a flash-player, wireless remote, and a voice recorder. Due to its near-pocket-size, its 600MHz processor has been described as a bit sluggish by Gizmodo compared with a PC. For a PMP, its average battery life is 13 hours for audio and seven hours for video.

Finally, the cost of the Cowon Q5W is $599 for 60GB storage, and $549 for 40GB storage.

via: Gizmodo

More information: Cowon