New Cowon Q5W isn’t sexy or sleek, but it is an intimidating-looking machine. The 5-inch LCD touchscreen is set into a black and dark navy anodized aluminum brick that

17.jpgmeasures 5.46 x 3.48 x 0.79 inches and is trimmed in pewter-colored plastic. The player’s sturdy shell and 13.4-ounce heft make it the linebacker of Cowon’s team, but it maintains a clean look since there’s nothing on front but the screen and the company logo.

The Cowon Q5W PMP that has a feature list as long as my leg, which (and this is abbreviated) supports a bunch of video formats such as DivX and XviD, along with various nerd-friendly audio formats like OGG and FLAC. It’s also got an optional GPS mount as well, in addition to 60GB of storage and a 800×480 display.

Now that the Cowon Q5W is finally on sale in the US, reviews are starting to spring up, and sadly, it looks like we’ll have to put off our newfound love affair for a while — while the device is sexy and the feature list is there, it seems like the interface just isn’t up to snuff. The folks at Gadgetaholics are first off the line with a review, and while they praise the extensive feature list and codec support, it seems that the three-year-old Windows CE 5.0 OS just isn’t quite as touch-compatible as that five-inch screen would have you believe,

Cowon Q5W powers up in about 20 seconds, booting first into Windows CE and then launching Cowon’s extremely thin interface layer — two icon-filled panes on either side of the screen and several inches (diagonal) of wasted space in the middle. While clearly designed for fingers, the icons should have been made much bigger, and the rest of the menus could use a lesson in finger-friendliness.

Mobilemag reviews The first impression of the reviewer was the size of the screen. We knew from the specs that it was going to be big - a 5″ WVGA. Hands on, though, it seems even bigger, with just a couple of buttons getting in the way of the screen taking over the whole face of the device. There are a couple of problems, though. First, the touchscreen actually requires a stylus for many of the screens, so it isn’t as easy to use as it could be. Also, perhaps because of the screen, at 380g it is heavier than pretty much every comparable device

TechReview reviews  ‘The Q5W is clad with an aluminum shell that feels very sturdy and heavy; it can definitely cause some injury if dropped on a body part. As mentioned, the front of the unit is all screen. The screen is recessed slightly to prevent damage when one accidentally drops it. All of the buttons are located on the top: a power/hold button on the left and volume buttons on the right. The top of the unit also houses an IR receiver, an internal microphone, speakers and a stylus. To the left of the unit, you will find a retractable WiFi antenna, a mic input jack, an earphone jack, a USB connector, a USB host connector and a DC in jack. Rounding off the looks department is the proprietary connector located at the bottom. The connector can be used to connect the AV cables or the optional GPS cradle.’

Electronpedia reviews Cowon has revealed that its Q5W media player, announced for the US earlier this month, will at last ship in early December. The player is unique in several respects; it supports 802.11b Wi-Fi for instance, but unlike Apple’s iPod touch, can browse websites with and without Flash. The player also has a five-inch, 800×480 touchscreen, which can be optimized for either fingers or a stylus.

Pcworld reviews The Cowon Q5W works well enough for listening to music and watching video, but you’ll need patience and some technical savvy to achieve more complex tasks, such as loading content over a secure wireless network. While the player has much potential, it feels less refined than the cheaper Archos 605 Wi

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