| Cowon Q5W Unboxed |
| Written by Luck Kanthatham | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, 30 November 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Our first impression of the Q5W is good for the most part. The metal-bodied hardware feels really solid; a little bit on the heavy side. The LCD takes up the whole of the front, which is nice. The touch-screen LCD is bright and sharp at 800x460. The interface is where we have some concerns with. Since the Q5W runs on WindowsCE 5.0, the Cowon interface actually runs on top of it. A lot of the functions fall back to using the default WindowsCE native interface, which is not exactly user-friendly. Another big down side is that it was not able to locate our WiFi signal even when we placed the unit right next to the access point. We'll be taking the Q5W through its paces in the next few days. We will let you know how it performs. As promised, we will also be comparing to its direct competitor, the Archos 605 WiFi. For now, enjoy the unboxing pictures. Update: The more I tested the Q5W we received, the more I am convinced that we have a faulty unit. Here are just a few things that I am having problem with:
                       
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Comments (21)
Sceptic
said:
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Uh, I think you may have problems picking up wifi considering that your unit looks like the Korean Q5 with DMB. It's not supposed to have the pull out antenae for the US version... |
luckk
said:
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Thank you guys, for the comments. I contacted Cowon's technical support briefly. They asked me if I pulled out the antenna to get better reception. So I'm assuming that the antenna is needed. Besides the manual mentions the inclusion of the antenna. |
Mike
said:
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There is now a 30 page PDF manual on the CowonWmerica site, it is *somewhat* extensive and answers a lot of little questions...things like, earphones need to be plugged in for the FM radio, since it uses the earphone wires as the FM antenna... Check out that PDF and see if it help with anything. |
luckk
said:
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Mike, please tell me where you found this PDF manual. I wasn't able to locate it on the site. |
Mike
said:
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http://download1.iaudiousa.com..._1.0EN.pdf Linked from: http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/q5w/ |
specb
said:
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http://download1.iaudiousa.com..._1.0EN.pdf This is the link for the manual. It's really unfortunate that our unit doesn't work correctly. I'll be looking forward to the full review. One question, though, is Office included on the Q5W? The manual mentions an upgrade to Windows CE Professional in order to be able to read Word documents. Thanks. |
Mike
said:
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I read that as well, and it seems to me that they are not including any Office stuff...I thought there was still supposed to be an included Viewer, but maybe not  |
luckk
said:
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Duh, I was looking on the left navigation bar for the manual. Regarding the Microsoft Office stuff, none is included. I just realized that what I was using on the Q5W was Microsoft WordPad CE. |
Mike
said:
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I am interested in seeing your reports...I'm waiting on buying my Q5W based on what you think (no pressure though :p ) |
Marc
said:
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Me too  Its between the Archos 605 and Q5W for me. The Q5W seems far sexier but we'll have to see if it meets expectations. |
luckk
said:
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So, I don't actually have a faulty unit after all. The WiFi problem was due to a bug in Windows CE. I was finally able to connect to my access point. The radio problem, as mentioned by Mike, was due to the Q5W's dependency on the earphones as antenna for reception. |
Mike
said:
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Oh come on man! :p We need the scoop! I have my 605 on E-bay right now to fund the Q5W, and I need to know if I just made a REALLY bad mistake, swapping a 90% perfect pmp that works for a 100% perfect PMP that might not work... |
RyanF
said:
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i, too, am going to heavily base this on the war between the 605 vs. q5w hahaha. great minds... my one big concern was that archos has had longer to refine their product (through the 604), whereas this is, it seems, cowon's first big dawg. they definitely nailed the styling though, i think few would argue against cowon winning that battle over the 605. |
Wintermoon
said:
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I'm so looking forward to your review of this product. I thank you before hand! This has possible Christmas present for myself, written all over it. I was going to go for the 605 till I read the Q5A was going to be released. Especially since the Q5W will handle Nikon NEF files!!! Woot! I'm so glad I didn't buy an Epson P-5000. Does anyone know what Cowons "Quality" reputation is like. From what I've seen on line, Archos is hit-and-miss but Cowon seems to have a lot of fans. Thank you, Wintermoon |
Idruna
said:
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Glad you were able to get WiFi working. Could you do me a favour and see if a small file copied to main memory (/ in the file explorer) stays there after resetting the Q5W? |
EXCELSIOR
said:
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i am selling my laptop on ebay so i can get this. i have been waiting over a year to get this to. i used to have a cowon a2 till it was stolen and i love all of the cowon interfaces they have amazing capabilities |
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