Cowon Q5 PMP unboxing

Normally our product unboxing posts are reserved for prime American kit from the likes of the biggest manufacturers, but Cowon's Q5 portable media player with its integrated WiFi and HSDPA definitely deserves the same treatment. Just so you get a sense that the feature packed PMP actually exists and is coming to these shores, check out the product unboxing over at the Cowon forums. Get a load of that 5-inch 800x600 LCD display, check out the included remote and cables, and ogle at all that unintelligible (to us) Korean text. Just to remind you, the Q5 should be dropping sometime this quarter for $499 to $549, depending on whether you opt for the 40GB or 60GB capacity.

[Jesse S Posted May 19th 2007 5:20PM]

Oh man...I can't wait! Which codecs does it support? If it supports x264...I'm holding off on my HTPC!

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 6:52PM]

Unfortunately it does not ... at least according to that comment posted in the previous article about the device (http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/09/cowon-q5-pmp-gets-priced-and-dated/comments/4376784/) ...

[JKooL Posted May 19th 2007 5:29PM]

Gotta love cannon cameras. Looks to be a nice portable computer there.

[musicguy Posted May 19th 2007 6:32PM]

lol... it's Cowon, not Canon.

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 8:02PM]

the camera in the reflection you dumbass.

[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2007 1:56PM]

Canon*

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 5:35PM]

Holy crap. No wonder nobody in Korea is buying an iPod.

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 6:04PM]

Oh my god. That thing is so sexy, I want to marry it and buy it house in the northeast on a bluff overlooking the ocean and read poetry to it every night.





But...maybe I've said too much.

[Jesse S Posted May 19th 2007 6:16PM]

You been to Block Island? Wonderful place. I wish I could live there...But it's way too expensive, and their school sucks.

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 6:46PM]

Undoubtedly the most fantastic piece of PMP (The perfect "in-car" PMP) I've ever seen. But wasn't it supposed to sport some kind of Windows (CE?)? Looks like we have to deal with a Cowon-made OS here or maybe it's just the soft running under Windows CE?

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 7:19PM]

You could visit the site below to have a look at more pictures with a video, although it's all written in Korean, I guess that wouldn't be a big problem.

http://clien.career.co.kr/zboard/view.php?id=use&page=1&sn1=&divpage=2&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=6910

[JorgeS18 Posted May 19th 2007 7:52PM]

I've had the A2 for almost two years now and I have been waiting upgrade it. Now I don't have to settle for achos PMP.

[Viper2005 Posted May 19th 2007 8:39PM]

The Q5 runs on an AMD Alchemy Au1200 500MHz, which makes it underpowered for a Windows CE 5 device. My Dell Axim has an Intel 624Mhz and it has trouble playing back h.264 at 640x480. I wonder how this device will perform playing back full screen 800x480 video.
The Windows CE5 performance will likely be sluggish too.

[mcc Posted May 19th 2007 9:07PM]

Yes, but Intel != AMD.

Now I'm just waiting for the X7 to replace my X5, which I still think is the best DAP out there.

[mcc Posted May 19th 2007 9:15PM]

Oh yes, and don't forget that Cowon is very highly regarded for their audiophile sound and their build quality. My X5 has seen several drops from above waist level onto concrete/hard floors and the solid metal case it's built with never even dented. See head-fi.org to see what people are saying about Cowon's sound.

I wonder how long the battery lasts on this? My X5 is rated @ 35hrs (it's also a HDD player)

[Viper2005 Posted May 19th 2007 10:35PM]

The Q5 is supposed to last 13 hours with music, and 7 hours with video.
Not very good, IMO.

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 11:19PM]

Maybe in your opinion, but in comparison with similar products, the (claimed) battery life's excellent ...

[(Unverified) Posted May 19th 2007 10:58PM]

Any word in the new specs/docs on whether it supports APE?

[JeremyBenthem Posted May 19th 2007 11:04PM]

its nice that's it's 5"
but I can see that for some situations, like in a car or plane, the competiing ARCHOS 704 being a better option

[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2007 12:36AM]

Man, that thing is so sexy that I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant

[Viper2005 Posted May 20th 2007 1:28AM]

Another page with a Q5 unboxing.. Some very HQ pics here, and screens of all the modes.

http://clien.career.co.kr/zboard/view.php?id=use&page=1&sn1=&divpage=2&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=6910

[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2007 3:08AM]

I'm currently in Korea and I must say the device is pretty tempting. The big question I have is whether the machine has English localization for all menus. In the link that Vince posted above, most menus are in English, but the File Info shot has "File Size", "File Type" and so on in Korean rather than in English. Does anyone know if that stuff can be changed? My guess is that there probably is a lot of software that has been added to Windows CE by Cowon to make the device work the way it does, so re-installing an English version of Windows CE doesn't seem like a viable option. I've never had any kind of PDA/smartphone/Pocket PC/Windows CE device, so if anyone has experience with that, it'd be much appreciated.

[dansus Posted May 20th 2007 1:47PM]

Dont forget the US and Far East models will be different.

FE gets DVB, US gets integrated wifi.

Not sure about the HSDPA being integrated, but sure hope so.

[refractured Posted May 20th 2007 2:29PM]

i was unaware that 7 Eleven was a major parcel carrier.

[Dori Posted May 21st 2007 1:55AM]

Not sure which comment or article you're refering to, but I heard that, in Korea, you can have your packages shipped to the nearest liquor store, so you can pick them up later on the way home.

[refractured Posted May 21st 2007 12:02PM]

i was referring to the 1st photo in the set.. 7-eleven stamp on the package.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2007 9:42AM]

Charbax runs the ArchosFans website and forums, so you have to take his critique with a grain of salt. Yet, Archos PMPs are awesome, so I'm not too upset.