Cowon's upcoming A3 and Q5 PMPs are fit as fiddles and ready for love

While we'll miss our sexy, chest hair-free modeling friend, it's nice to finally see Cowon's new A3 PMP (top), a followup to the lovable A2, up close and personal. As expected, the 4-inch 480 x 272 player now includes a DMB receiver, plus a spiffy new "DaVinci" video processing chip from Texas Instruments to improve playback in some indeterminate way. Cowon's Q5 does it all one better, however, with a 5-inch touchscreen, GPS support of some kind, DMB, WinCE 5.0 and an external HSDPA module. No word on screen res, but there's plenty of hawterness to be getting along with already. These two players and plenty more from Cowon will be on display at CES -- specifically, the D2, N2, U3, T2, F2 and X5, for any model number junkies out there -- so we'll be sure to drop kick a few and let you know what's what.

[Via dapreview]

[oshean @ Jan 5th 2007 11:09AM]

hawterness?

[Flying? @ Jan 5th 2007 11:30AM]

any word about storage?

Seems like a good in car-PMP :)

[Sam @ Jan 5th 2007 11:46AM]

Is it good enough for me to upgrade from my A2?

[WT @ Jan 5th 2007 12:25PM]

Very interesting.
I think I will buy this one.

Br,
www.emergingtechs.net

[MJ @ Jan 5th 2007 12:30PM]

I love my A2. Unless the A3 brings a significant increase in battery life (A2 is already at 10 hours) and/or a major decrease in thickness, this doesn't seems like a must-have upgrade yet. The one feature that I'm looking for is the ability to "zoom in" to letterboxed 4:3 content. If the new video processing chip can provide this, then I'll be the first one in line.

[brian @ Jan 5th 2007 4:50PM]

with the update to the A2 you can zoom in on 4:3 stuff you just still have to record in 4:3

[Taz @ Jan 5th 2007 12:40PM]

Agree with MJ... the A2 is already the dogs bollocks of PMP's... the 10hr battery when watching video has helped me wile away many transatlantic flights (EDI-LAX). Not too fussed about TV reception - I just load up the HDD.
If I were to add to my wishlist... another extra couple of hours on the battery (or interchangeable battery packs), support for AC3 XviD and DivX files, support for playing ISO and VOBs.
Other than that - A2 is already the best by far... I love mine.

[tmbavarira @ Jan 5th 2007 12:58PM]

This might be what I have been waiting for ultimate jack of all trades portable media device that may not be exactly an iPod killer but start to some alternative in portable players. Hope it has a removable battery.

[kadler @ Jan 5th 2007 1:50PM]

These players look great. I own a X5L, and I can say from experience, Cowon makes audio players of the absolute highest quality. They may not have the sales numbers to compete with Apple right now, but they certainly have to quality to do so.

[Aaron @ Jan 5th 2007 3:24PM]

Those both look awesome. What kind of prices can we expect for these? I'd like something to replace my 5G iPod. The sound quality on it isn't great and the video capabilities are sort of lacking.

[TJ @ Jan 5th 2007 7:58PM]

It took Cowon this long to add some new processing chip and give it another paint job, thats the A3? I was expecting something really competitive to the Archos series, such as a 4.3" screen, removable battery, more storage etc etc im REALLY disappointed... I'm happy with my A2 but I once watched a UMD movie on a PSP with my friend and for some reason that .3" difference in screen size seemed HUGE. In addition, we discussed the oh-so-many flaws of the A2 at iaudiophile.net and I'm again, really really disappointed.... btw, they messed up the paint job on the beauty of the A2 SO bad that thing is uglier than the brown Zune..... WOW......

[dansus @ Jan 14th 2007 2:59PM]

PMP with wifi and BT. At last, i want one.

[korockid @ Feb 11th 2007 5:08PM]

OK for the people commenting on the cowon A3:
Yes, it is only slightly upgrade for the A2, as it has a more powerful processor and can play more codecs. The battery may only improve slightly or stay the same.
Yes, the screen is STILL 4" and not the achos's 4.3.
The Cowon A3 is a great opprtunity for people who havent bought the A2 and wants more than twice the batterly life and some more extra features from the Archos.

Now for the device I am truley excited about: the Q5. All the functions and spec however... intimidates me for the price. The design and size of the Q5 is rediculously attactive, and hopefully will accomodate with a good price also.

I really hope they change the A3 color scheme. I really do.

[Jac @ Sep 22nd 2007 10:13AM]

I have a 30GB A2 and I love it and will probably upgrade if the A3 is a big step forward or if it has a removeable battery. I also have a extra battery for travelling with my laptop so that would be the ultimate travelling companion for me.

I can't wait.

[Bill Walkling @ Nov 7th 2007 2:21PM]

I want to know if I will be able to flash my A2 with the A3 firmware??