Cowon Exposes Q5 and A3 PMPs
Officially declaring two of their highly anticipated portable media players, Cowon has proposed a late October release date in Europe for the Q5 and A3.
The striking 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel, 16 million color touchscreen of the Q5 is far from all you should be impressed by. An immense collection of supported formats (MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WAV, WMA, ASF, AVI, WMV, MPEG 4, DivX, JPEG, BMP, and PNG) are sure to cover the majority of your music, video, and picture viewing needs. If all this on the 40GB and 60GB hard drive doesn’t give you access to enough media, then the Wi-Fi internet downloads, Bluetooth connectivity and USB port may suit. Stereo speakers are built in, as well as outputs for TV and SPDIF.
The Cowon iAudio A3 makes use of a 4-inch display with the same 800 x 480 pixel resolution as the Q5, but has 30GB and 60GB hard drive capacities. If you thought the format support for the Q5 was impressive, the A3 offers the entire list above plus Apple Lossless, AAC, and Matroska. It will even view your PDF and Microsoft Office files. Also included is a TV-out, audio line-in and the capability to record your video from VCR, set-top box and camcorder.
Both players will produce 7 hours of video playback, while 10 hours of audio playback is given to the A3 and 14 to the Q5. Pricing for the Q5 is €649 ($886) for the 40GB and €699 ($954) for the 60GB, whereas the A3 is €449 ($613) in 30GB and €499 ($681) in 60GB.
[The Register via Tech Digest]
Comments
TonyT61 on August 31, 2007 12:01 PM
Man I really...no I desperately hope that the pricing won't be that ridiculous for the Q5 and even the A3, because they are making this a really easy win for Archos and their new 05 series...
TonyT61 on August 31, 2007 12:12 PM
Ok never mind I have looked at other sources are all mixed up at what the pricing will be, only a few claim it will be that high, while others seem it will be around 650-750 US dollars....I guess only time will tell and clear up the price tag....
Stacy on August 31, 2007 2:46 PM
They look absolutely amazing... except for the price tags! If they lower the prices to $400/$500, I'd buy them in a second. $886/$954 is insane when an 80 GB iPod is $345.
Alex M on August 31, 2007 7:48 PM
wow they'd have to AT LEAST cut those prices in half
AA on August 31, 2007 11:57 PM
Looks like a great product but way to expensive next to it's rival Archos's new 605, for $600, that's a 160GB 605WiFi with all the plug-ins, Opera web browser, and the DVR Station, but the longer battery life and long list of formats will be missed.
OverlordXenu on September 1, 2007 9:07 PM
What is the SPDIF over, Optical? Coaxial?
Does the Q5 use double-platter ZIF 1.8" drives, or what?
Thanks.
Zeddicus on September 2, 2007 7:23 AM
From my understanding, SPDIF is a protocol (not a hardware) for digital audio that both optical and coaxil cables can utilise. I don't think that specific information on the Q5's hard drive is available yet.