iAudio X5 60 GB Multimedia Player Black

I've had my 20 GB iaudio x5 for... 2.5 years? That seems right. It's a tank. I have an active, perilous and sometimes boring (hence the need for tunes) job (free-range doggie daycare and boarding). It has been dropped, slobbered on, sat on, stepped on, chewed on, scratched, bumped... pretty much everything except drowned or run over by a car. Wait... no. No, it wasn't run over by a car.

The point is, I dropped it again, and though it plays fine, half the screen is wacky. I can still tell what's going on, but... I thought I'd take a look. Just in case it's on its last legs. I'm glad to see that they are still available, I looked on ebay, and there was one used 30gb for kinda cheap (on auction, though), but other than that it was all the super-fancy ones that can do your laundry and play movies and oh, yeah, also play music. I just need it to be able to fit all of my music (I never know what I'll be in the mood for), be easy to take songs and stuff on and off (which it most certainly is), play the radio (not terribly often used, but is handy), and it's really nice to be able to save other kinds of files (word, excel, whatev). I'm not as concerned with the last one anymore since I now have a 2gb flash drive that is easier, as you don't need any cords or anything.

ANYway. I am rarely in love with a product to the point that I want to sing its praises to the world.

iaudio x5, I sing your praises at the top of my lungs.

I haven't used the photo/video features, but it works fine as far as playing mp3s, recording audio, and tuning fm radio. The biggest downside is the joystick, which sometimes skips to the next file when I'm just trying to fast forward a little in a podcast.

Boris Kandov's insightful review summarizes the technical aspects of this very capable multimedia player. However, my short review is primarily about Cowon's customer service.

I sent my X5 (60GB) back to Cowon to request a battery replacement - almost 50 weeks after the original purchase date, but within the warranty period.

They replaced the battery - free of charge - and sent it back on the very same day, even though the defect is related to the battery technology and not in anyway material to Cowon's design.

Kudos Cowon.

Cool device does what I want it to do,but could have higher resolution on the screen.Great music player storage device.

This is an excellent audio player! It plays most every type of compressed audio file, but is one of the few that includes support for lossless FLAC files. The hard drive is fair-sized and the included accessories are very generous: headphones, screen protectors, 12" audio connector cable, USB cable, and charger. The charger dongle/attachment includes ports for USB connections, line-out, and line-in feeds.
The design is very accessible, though the detachable USB and power connector/dongle does present the possibility for losing an important component. It is roughly the size of a RAZR phone, though about twice as thick.
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