Cowon Q5W vs Archos 605 wifi.

ne_ATL · Post by **ne_ATL** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:38 pm

Ready, Set......discuss!

Healthy price tag but this thing is packed with goodies!. But I'm not too excited about the Windows OS.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/q5w/

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/29/cowo ... um-skills/

omontero · Post by **omontero** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:57 pm

Awesomeplayer but hefty price tag. Better than Archos if you have the money to spend.

ramsdens · Post by **ramsdens** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:16 pm

Looks very nice, only real drawback is the HD - 60GB max. Plenty of people will be put off by that, but the USB host aspect opens up external storage in the same way as the 605 (wouldn't need the DVR tho')

brik · Post by **brik** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:38 pm

Cowon is known by awesome sound quality.
At the same time I am not very happy with Archos 605 sound - I expected it to be the same (or better) than my old Archos AV500, but I was wrong

lkmg · Post by **lkmg** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:42 pm

ramsdens wrote:Looks very nice, only real drawback is the HD - 60GB max. Plenty of people will be put off by that, but the USB host aspect opens up external storage in the same way as the 605 (wouldn't need the DVR tho')

yeah, i agree. i was actually thinking of getting this new cowan set, but the 60gb max hdd put me off. now i have the archos 605 160gb.

ranceramos · Post by **ranceramos** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:13 pm

Have any of you actually seen the reviews of this device (or the videos)?? The touch screen is HORRENDOUS and the display is much worse than the Archos (none of the brightly colored pics in the ad are real shots of the player's screen). This has been talked about many times here. Check out this link for a review:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ifa2007/styl ... 297270.php

lloyd877 · Post by **lloyd877** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:48 pm

Yeah price is a bit high.

bananfish · Post by **bananfish** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:07 am

ranceramos wrote:Have any of you actually seen the reviews of this device (or the videos)?? The touch screen is HORRENDOUS and the display is much worse than the Archos (none of the brightly colored pics in the ad are real shots of the player's screen). This has been talked about many times here. Check out this link for a review:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ifa2007/styl ... 297270.php

You ask whether we've seen the "reviews" but have pointed to only one review. It's not clear to me whether the device reviewed on gizmodo is truly representative of the Q5W. That review was of the Q5 (not the Q5W - I think there's very little difference, but who knows at this point) at a trade show two months before they even introduced it in the U.S. There could have been wonderful advances in the bugginess and responsiveness in the software since then for all we know. I'm waiting to see a review of the device that's actually being introduced in the U.S. before making any overarching judgments.

Just found not quite a review, but a photo essay about the Q5W on Crave. Here it is.

i64X · Post by **i64X** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:41 pm

These are my first impressions.

* No buttons on the front of the device make it look hella sexy.

* I could give a crap less if it ran Windows. To me that's not a feature. Hopefully it doesn't lock you in to using Windows to put stuff on the device, as I'm an Ubuntu user and appreciate greatly how I can add stuff to the 605 as a "mass storage device."

* Wireless Bluetooth headphone support is nice, but how much will it affect battery life. This isn't a big deal to me (yet) as I just invested a couple hundred bucks in to a good set of headphones, and they've got a cord on em. How is sound quality with stereo Bluetooth? Is it STEREO Bluetooth capable or only mono? There is a difference.

* "Wireless up to 11mbits/sec" It's 802.11B only? No G? What year is it? 2002?

* Bigger screen means bigger unit without adding resolution. I'll keep the 4.2" 800x480 screen over a 5" 800x480 screen... as it is the 605 barely fits comfortably in my pocket.

* FLAC support - the ONLY thing that the 605 doesn't have that keeps it from being the ULTIMATE player. ARCHOS - PLEASE release a FLAC/OGG plugin for the 605.

* TV out via a cable beats TV out via a $100 dock. Being that the 605 Wifi 160GB version is much less than the 60GB (MAX) version of this Cowon, that price is offset though and makes the point totally moot.

* USB port right on the device is awesome. Period.

* THE DECIDING FACTOR: 60GB MAX hard drive space on a device like this is worthless. For something that's physically larger than the 605 there's no reason that they couldn't have crammed a 160GB drive in there. For a device even as big as the 605 it's nice to have ALL of the music I want on it, ALL of the shows I want, and ALL of the movies I want. The 605 can do this for me with space to spare.

I've got all 10 seasons of Top Gear, both seasons of Extras, all 4 seasons of The Office (US), tons of pics, all the music I care to listen to, and I still have tons of space free. If the 605 supported FLAC, my device would probably be full though. At 400-500MB per CD, the 60GB COWON would hold about 120 CDs. Not bad, but add video in to the mix (10 seasons of Top Gear is 60GB by itself) and what's the point.

To the point -> Archos, add a FLAC codec to the 605. PLEASE.

Missionsparta · Post by **Missionsparta** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:09 pm

i64X wrote:These are my first impressions.

* No buttons on the front of the device make it look hella sexy.

* I could give a crap less if it ran Windows. To me that's not a feature. Hopefully it doesn't lock you in to using Windows to put stuff on the device, as I'm an Ubuntu user and appreciate greatly how I can add stuff to the 605 as a "mass storage device."

* Wireless Bluetooth headphone support is nice, but how much will it affect battery life. This isn't a big deal to me (yet) as I just invested a couple hundred bucks in to a good set of headphones, and they've got a cord on em. How is sound quality with stereo Bluetooth? Is it STEREO Bluetooth capable or only mono? There is a difference.

* "Wireless up to 11mbits/sec" It's 802.11B only? No G? What year is it? 2002?

* Bigger screen means bigger unit without adding resolution. I'll keep the 4.2" 800x480 screen over a 5" 800x480 screen... as it is the 605 barely fits comfortably in my pocket.

* FLAC support - the ONLY thing that the 605 doesn't have that keeps it from being the ULTIMATE player. ARCHOS - PLEASE release a FLAC/OGG plugin for the 605.

* TV out via a cable beats TV out via a $100 dock. Being that the 605 Wifi 160GB version is much less than the 60GB (MAX) version of this Cowon, that price is offset though and makes the point totally moot.

* USB port right on the device is awesome. Period.

* THE DECIDING FACTOR: 60GB MAX hard drive space on a device like this is worthless. For something that's physically larger than the 605 there's no reason that they couldn't have crammed a 160GB drive in there. For a device even as big as the 605 it's nice to have ALL of the music I want on it, ALL of the shows I want, and ALL of the movies I want. The 605 can do this for me with space to spare.

I've got all 10 seasons of Top Gear, both seasons of Extras, all 4 seasons of The Office (US), tons of pics, all the music I care to listen to, and I still have tons of space free. If the 605 supported FLAC, my device would probably be full though. At 400-500MB per CD, the 60GB COWON would hold about 120 CDs. Not bad, but add video in to the mix (10 seasons of Top Gear is 60GB by itself) and what's the point.

To the point -> Archos, add a FLAC codec to the 605. PLEASE.

You forgot the amazing battery life.

raven2000 · Post by **raven2000** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:07 am

no mkv support means im not buying it

i64X · Post by **i64X** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:29 am

Not really - the 605 is advertised at 4 more hours for audio and only 1.5 less for video. I bet both players get around the same life for each.

honeymonkey · Post by **honeymonkey** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:07 pm

ranceramos wrote:Have any of you actually seen the reviews of this device (or the videos)?? The touch screen is HORRENDOUS and the display is much worse than the Archos (none of the brightly colored pics in the ad are real shots of the player's screen). This has been talked about many times here. Check out this link for a review:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ifa2007/styl ... 297270.php

I'm not sure that was a fair review yet. I'm certainly not going to run out and buy one yet until I read a few more. They didn't mention in that review that there are two touchscreen modes to choose from that I read. "Pen mode" and "Finger mode", so maybe they had it in pen mode while testing.

su-30mki · Post by **su-30mki** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:54 am

honeymonkey wrote:
ranceramos wrote:Have any of you actually seen the reviews of this device (or the videos)?? The touch screen is HORRENDOUS and the display is much worse than the Archos (none of the brightly colored pics in the ad are real shots of the player's screen). This has been talked about many times here. Check out this link for a review:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ifa2007/styl ... 297270.php
I'm not sure that was a fair review yet. I'm certainly not going to run out and buy one yet until I read a few more. They didn't mention in that review that there are two touchscreen modes to choose from that I read. "Pen mode" and "Finger mode", so maybe they had it in pen mode while testing.

yeah it had a lot of problems which needed to be solved, and hence many many delays and false release dates. So let it become a stable device first.

bananfish · Post by **bananfish** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:49 am

ranceramos wrote:Have any of you actually seen the reviews of this device (or the videos)?? The touch screen is HORRENDOUS and the display is much worse than the Archos (none of the brightly colored pics in the ad are real shots of the player's screen). This has been talked about many times here. Check out this link for a review:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ifa2007/styl ... 297270.php

That was a Gizmodo.com review of an earlier version of the device - they've published a new review that is a lot more favorable.

Click here for the new review.

If it had 160GB of storage, I'd definitely go with the Q5W, but I think my Christmas present to myself will probably be a 160GB 605.