Digital Media Player Does It All
Cowon's IAudio X5 offers both audio and video playback capabilities for an affordable price.
From its stylish black case to its bright color screen, the Cowon IAudio X5 is a class act. Weighing under 6 ounces and measuring about 4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inches thick, this hard drive-based digital media player crams plenty of features into its relatively small package.
The IAudio X5 can play back audio and video, record from its built-in FM radio, and record from a line input. The unit can also copy files from other USB devices such as digital cameras without requiring a PC to act as intermediary. And at $300 for the 20GB version, the IAudio X5 is attractively priced (a 30GB version costs just $50 more).
A 1.8-inch LCD screen dominates the compact case, and a joystick underneath handles volume and menus. Play/pause and record buttons are located on the side of the device, as is the power/hold switch. The controls are a pleasure to use.
On the bottom of the X5 you'll find a port for connecting what Cowon calls the "subpack"--a small plastic dongle with ports for power, USB, line-in, and line-out. You'll need this subpack to recharge the device in a wall socket, which is a bit of a pain because the piece is small enough to get lost easily.
As an audio player, the X5 performs admirably, generating bright, clear sound. It's versatile, too: The X5 can play MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and .wav music files. And its supported video file formats include AVI, MPEG, and WMV.
Battery life was good: I got around 13 hours of audio playback. Playing a video reduced the battery life to around 3.5 hours, but you won't want to use the screen for that long, anyway: Although the LCD delivers sharp images and bright colors, it's simply too small for extended viewing.
Nonetheless, I found the X5 to be a great little digital media player that gives you lots of features for the price.
Richard Baguley
