Customer Reviews
great device 
2007-07-07
I'm very happy with X5. Very good sound quality, a lot of functions, sleek desing.
nice mp3/video player 
2007-05-25
Nice to see a US quality made player. I actually took this player apart and it is put together with quality craftsmanship. I was impressed. The user manual was not very helpful, I didn't care because i usually don't look at them anyway. After I loaded the software into my PC and connected the USB cable everything made sense. Nice video converter program, easy to use.
Drag & drop uploading just like moving files around in Windows. You can drag files from any PC in the network.
Glad i bought it 2007-05-24
I'm glad I bought this product last year July. So far, i've had no problems at all with it... Actually, once i had to use the "reset" feature because it froze up while trying to play a video file. I guess its cause this thing has a hard drive in it? Other than that i use it to watch full length movies during Southwest flights which i go on a weekly basis.
I've had no issues with battery life... I charge it about once a week. But if I ever do have an issue with the battery, I hope i get the excellent customer service that Cowon is known for.
The sound quality on this player is awesome. However I did replace the earphones with the Bose ones a few months ago... they fit better and sound better in my ears.
I took a small gamble purchasing this brand over the better known ones.. and it's paid off so far. I figure, if i get one or two years of good use out of any new technology product, its worth it. So far it's been worth every penny.
One of my favourite gadgets 2007-03-13
Positive Points:
- Excellent sound
- Lots of features
- Good interface
- File managment is just like in windows
- Radio reception is very good
- Works great as a tape recorder
I would have given 5 stars if it weren't for the following negative points:
- PC sometimes doesn't recognize the device
- Connectivity to PC and other devices is somewhat of pain beacuse of the adapter (have to carry it around everywhere)
- Screen resolution isn't good enough for playing movies, but heck, I was never interested in it's mpeg4 feature.
Bottom line - I'm Happy.
perfect sound and picture but not convinient download 2007-01-18
V good quality picture and sound, easy to use, the only problem I have is to download music from computer, it uses its own program and it takes too much time to transfer music to apropriate format. I like the way it is build v.solid looks nice. Yes I would buy it again.
IAudio X5 Rocksss!!! 2008-07-03
I bought my X5 over a year ago, and I'm totally SATISFIED with it.
You know, this player has everything you'll ever need in a MP3 Player.
I was scared to buy it, because it was not a popular brand, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything. Easy to set-up, easy to operate.
Shows up as a drive letter, in my computer.
No software to install, just copy and paste.
And it's built like a tank. The earbuds that came with it are OK, but I bought a set of Sony High Performance earbuds, and this thing Rocks.
Well: after about a year, the battery life started to fail after about 9 hours of play time, but Cowon replaced the battery, and now I'm back in business. I never really considered buying a new one, or another brand.
One of my Co-worker's, bought one for her 15 year old doughter, and I never see her without it.
Believe me, you wont go wrong with this MP3 Player.
Battery sucks 
2007-12-05
I've owned this unit for 2 years now. I am not a heavy user. I maybe charged this unit for about 20~25 times in the past 2 years but the battery is already dead. Battery is not user-replaceable.
I am waiting to see how much it will cost to replace the battery. I read in one of the forums that it will cost $35. Still haven't heard back from Cowon support on this.
The headphone was crappy, so I bought Shure for $99 or so.
Overall, I liked the unit but too expensive for a 2 year life.
One of the main reasons I like it was because of the folder based navigation. Plus it had FM Radio, voice recorder etc. I liked the Sound Quality
I am switching to Archos 605. So goodbye Cowon and hello Archos.
Long Term Review... not so good... weakness is the charging system 
2007-10-01
I have owned this really neat player for 2 years. I am very happy with the sound, the controls and the the directory structure. Battery life is acceptable. Even with all that, I need to buy something else.
The reason? The "subpack" that plugs into the bottom of the player, which allows the device to charge, is so poorly designed that I have resorted to a team of rubber bands to keep the charger attached. That worked for a couple of months until the weird "subpack" cracked in half. No more ability to charge the device until I find a new adapter. Here is a link to the currently non-in-stock replacement part on Amazon. [...]
Bottom line? Don't buy this player.
A great player, no complaints 2007-07-29
I've had this mp3 player for over a year, and I'm really pleased with it. Very good sound quality, and it's been very reliable. The battery life is long, too. The interface is a bit strange, but easy to navigate once you get used to it. A couple of things that make this stand out from other players: it's basically an external filesystem, and it works in Linux as well as Windows, which was essential for me. It plays a wide range of file formats. It can even act as a USB host, and I haven't seen another mp3 player with that feature. When I filled up my camera's memory on a long trip, I uploaded my pictures to my mp3 player, and stored them there for the remainder of the trip. A nice feature to have in a pinch!
Other mp3 players are superior 2007-07-12
Pros
-Great sound quality.
-Very small, smaller than ipod or zune.
-Aluminum casing looks good, but it will scatch.
-Controls are decent, but I like the ipods and zune controls better.
-Supports all the mp3 formats I downloaded, even ogg files.
-Has a voice recorder builtin, may be useful for college students taking notes in class.
-Works with any computer with usb, no need for drivers because it works like an external hdd. Battery will drain if you hook it up thru a usb cable. Only charges if you put it in the USB cradle.
Cons
-Small screen, is good for displaying info about songs but not good for video.
-The control wand has some troubles going thru a mp3 library. It's small, flimsy, and not accurate.
-No automatic way to organize your mp3s, I had to organize my mp3 thru folders which took a long time. Also the iaudio would give me errors if I copied too many mp3s to one folder
-Settings and controls are the most complex out of all the mp3 players I have used. I was still able to understand the controls after a few mins of fooling around with it.
-Not good for video, screen resolution is low and the screen is tiny. You even have to convert your videos before you can play them on your iaudio.
This was the first mp3 player I owned and I really liked it at first. My biggest problem with the iaudio are the controls and the way mp3s are organized on it. The other mp3 players are for more advanced in these two areas. Don't buy this mp3 player unless you try it out along with the other brands.
