Do you think more features will be added?

[dirkkid360]

I'm in love with the Q5 and will be waiting patiently for the US release. But the only problem is the drive space..... 60 gb is very small considering that there are 100+ gb drives out there that Cowon could have used in the Q5. Oh well, I'll just have to be happy with the 60 gb gps version hopefully when it is released here ^_^

[doniago]

Are these 100 gig drives the same physical size as the 60 gig ones?

[dirkkid360]

[thumbsup] well according to Gizmodo.com (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pmp/cowon-q5-pmp-with-hsdpa-and-gps-announcedagain-250553.php) (click on the link to see the actual article), the Q5 uses a 40GB or 60GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive.

I knew toshiba made all different type so I found this: look at the website, or read below: (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=81000000000700000001000065980000000 1/810000000B0C000000010000659C000026BD)

1.8-Inch Hard Disk Drives

Toshiba is the undisputed leader in small form factor hard disk drives(HDD). Our full small form factor hard disk drive product line continues to push mobile PC's and Consumer Electronics to new performance heights. Toshiba's superior technical innovations in the mobile 2.5-inch HDD space have helped us bring the versatile 1.8-inch HDD and the 0.85-inch HDD to market. Built with the performance and reliability characteristics that have made the company's HDD products the drive of choice in today's most popular MP3 players, notebooks, automotive jukebox systems, and portable handheld GPS units. With capacities ranging from 2GB to 120GB* and three form factors, 0.85-inch, 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch Toshiba has the right drive hard drive for you.

Proving our technology leadership, Toshiba is the first company to ship the Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology (PMR) on hard disk drives. Toshiba's popular 1.8-inch HDD is the first product to ship with PMR technology. Toshiba now can deliver massive amounts of storage in a hard disk drive that is the size of a credit card, and lighter then a traditional cellular telephone.

Our popular 1.8-inch drive is the market share leader in this form factor and provides the combination of the highest operating and non-operating shock spec. in a credit card size drive. Toshiba's very popular 1.8-inch HDD can be found in today's hottest MP3 player, portable GPS system, and ultra-thin and light mobile computers. Imagine what you can do with all that storage capacity in a hard disk drive that can easily fit in the palm of your hand!
________________________________

MK1011GAH
Embedded 100.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE PMR HDD link for 100gb hdd (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=81820000000700000001000065980000151 6/818200000b0c000000010000659c000026bd/8182000000e6000000010000659c0000279e/818200000c59000000010000659c00002c38/818200000e3a000000010000659c00002fdb/818200000e3b000000010000659c00002fdd)

MK8009GAH
Embedded 80.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE PMR HDD

MK6008GAH
Embedded 60.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE HDD

MK6006GAH
Embedded 60.0GB* 1.8-Inch HDD

I really hope they try to max out the Q5, because I know I will buy it! ^_^[thumbsup] but for now, I guess I'm going to have to be happy with the 60 gb :)

[mikey]

You have to be careful with 1.8 inch drives as some have different connectors on the end. We will have to wait for someone to open a q5 up to see which connector it has. The 80gb drives are around us$300 so the exercise of replacing a drive is very costly.

[dirkkid360]

You have to be careful with 1.8 inch drives as some have different connectors on the end. We will have to wait for someone to open a q5 up to see which connector it has. The 80gb drives are around us$300 so the exercise of replacing a drive is very costly.

That's true... what I ment is that there are bigger drives that exist out there for Cowon to choose from (besides the 40 and 60 gb models). I do not plan on changing the hard drive myself. I just wish Cowon released the Q5 with bigger drives like the ones available from Toshiba.

I'd gladly pay whatever the extra cost would be, money is not an issue. It's usually the specifications that pmps are usually equipped with that are the problem.

My ideal pmp would be the Q5 with a 160+ GB flash hard drive [thumbsup]

[addz]

tbh id be happy with 40gb easily. the Q5 is not something i would like to store movies/tv/work/music permanently. Out of interest, that usb port on the side; would we be able to connect external hard drives to it?

As long as we have built in wifi im happy. Maybe we could find out a little more information on applications which will run in windows CE.

[dirkkid360]

I found some more information--> hitachi also makes 1.8 drives... only up to 60gb and samsung just got the 120GB 1.8 hdd out ^_^ production for them start July 2007

link 1: @engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/25/samsung-announces-1-8-inch-120gb-disk-for-umpcs-and-perhaps-ipo/)

link 2: hitachi drives (http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.46452879db9830a52d4fed26eac4f0a0/)

[dirkkid360]

tbh id be happy with 40gb easily. the Q5 is not something i would like to store movies/tv/work/music permanently. Out of interest, that usb port on the side; would we be able to connect external hard drives to it?

true... I'm not looking to store media permanently on the Q5 as well... but I travel a lot and I'm not looking to lug around my 500gb external hard drive, nor keep changing my media when it gets full. I'd like to keep a nice sized archive on it that will last me a long while... and as the availabilty to connect an external hard drive.... maybe not because it might draw out too much power, thus reducing the factory battery of 5 hours estimated life for video? to like 2-3hours? But it would be nice if there was a way to get around it. Oh well, I guess we will just have to wait.... but its fun to speculate in the mean time ^_^

[dirkkid360]

I just figured out that the Archos 504 160gb pmp uses 2.5' hard disk drive. I would not mind a bulkier Q5 with a 200 gb 2.5 HDD

200 GB 2.5' HDD from Toshiba (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=81820000000700000001000065980000151 6/818200000aff000000010000659c000026ad/818200000192000000010000659c0000279f/818200000d07000000010000659c00002ea4)

[artichoke]

[thumbsup] well according to Gizmodo.com (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pmp/cowon-q5-pmp-with-hsdpa-and-gps-announcedagain-250553.php) (click on the link to see the actual article), the Q5 uses a 40GB or 60GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive.

I knew toshiba made all different type so I found this: look at the website, or read below: (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=81000000000700000001000065980000000 1/810000000B0C000000010000659C000026BD)

1.8-Inch Hard Disk Drives

Toshiba is the undisputed leader in small form factor hard disk drives(HDD). Our full small form factor hard disk drive product line continues to push mobile PC's and Consumer Electronics to new performance heights. Toshiba's superior technical innovations in the mobile 2.5-inch HDD space have helped us bring the versatile 1.8-inch HDD and the 0.85-inch HDD to market. Built with the performance and reliability characteristics that have made the company's HDD products the drive of choice in today's most popular MP3 players, notebooks, automotive jukebox systems, and portable handheld GPS units. With capacities ranging from 2GB to 120GB* and three form factors, 0.85-inch, 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch Toshiba has the right drive hard drive for you.

Proving our technology leadership, Toshiba is the first company to ship the Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology (PMR) on hard disk drives. Toshiba's popular 1.8-inch HDD is the first product to ship with PMR technology. Toshiba now can deliver massive amounts of storage in a hard disk drive that is the size of a credit card, and lighter then a traditional cellular telephone.

Our popular 1.8-inch drive is the market share leader in this form factor and provides the combination of the highest operating and non-operating shock spec. in a credit card size drive. Toshiba's very popular 1.8-inch HDD can be found in today's hottest MP3 player, portable GPS system, and ultra-thin and light mobile computers. Imagine what you can do with all that storage capacity in a hard disk drive that can easily fit in the palm of your hand!
________________________________

MK1011GAH
Embedded 100.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE PMR HDD link for 100gb hdd (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=81820000000700000001000065980000151 6/818200000b0c000000010000659c000026bd/8182000000e6000000010000659c0000279e/818200000c59000000010000659c00002c38/818200000e3a000000010000659c00002fdb/818200000e3b000000010000659c00002fdd)

MK8009GAH
Embedded 80.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE PMR HDD

MK6008GAH
Embedded 60.0GB* 1.8-Inch CE HDD

MK6006GAH
Embedded 60.0GB* 1.8-Inch HDD

I really hope they try to max out the Q5, because I know I will buy it! ^_^[thumbsup] but for now, I guess I'm going to have to be happy with the 60 gb :)


If what a poster said in a previous thread is true, we won't see the Q5 till August or September. They have plenty of time to revise their Q5 to a 80 or 100GB which would want me to buy one for sure! 60GB is alright but the 100GB is perfect!

[dirkkid360]

That would be nice if they did that, but I doubt they are going to because of the fact that is just what companies always do. They make "lower" end version of the product and then after they release it, then they will decide to upgrade the hard drive at a later date. I always see this happen in tech products. If they do decide to make a 100+ gb Q5, it will probably not be until later in 2008.

A perfect example of a company doing this is Apple with their Ipods. I first remember them with 20 GBs, then 40, 60, 80 gb versions, but the smaller versions always came out before they would release the 80GB versions. This could just be a part of their strategy, and/or just the way the market is with the price and availability of that certain hard drive they are going to use from the manufacturer. If the manufacturer only has the capability of producing and supplying only 1,000 HDD a month, Apple would not use them and find someone else who can offer the same type of HDD and who can keep up with Apple's production needs (maybe like 10,000 plus HDD a month...just as an example).

I'll still pray for a 100+ GB version Q5 at the US release date [surrend]. If not, I'm just going to have to be happy with the largest hard drive specifications they will release then..... and sell it when they come out with the 100+ GB version [thumbsup]

I really hope Cowon steps up to the plate and provide what costomers want..... which is a high quality - premium PMP that contains everything and anything! (ie. gps, play all codecs, radio receiver/transmitter, wi-fi with no restrictions, cell phone support ^_^, all format document reader, pdf, flash, online chatting -when on the internet with wi-fi, Skype, media card reader, everything internal instead of the crap external wi-fi dongle in the Korean Q5 versions, TV out, 100+ GB flash HDD ^_^, etc etc etc...) for a reasonable price..... but I really don't care about price as long as it has what I want .... lol thats why I'm so poor!!! LMAO

[dirkkid360]

If Cowon can put this into the Q5 by the August US release, I'd buy two Q5 in a heartbeat.
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

By Cyril Kowaliski - 11:48 AM, April 25, 2007

Earlier this month, Samsung announced two new 2.5" SpinPoint hard drive lines and mentioned that it was developing a SpinPoint M5 2.5" hard drive with a capacity of 250GB.

Japanese site PC Watch now reports that Samsung's Japanese branch as announced a 1.8" SpinPoint N2 drive with a capacity of no less than 120GB.

The drive isn't scheduled to go on sale until July, but its size makes it ripe for use by the likes of Apple and Microsoft in next-generation iPods and other hard-drive-based portable media players.

The drive will reportedly have either 4,200RPM or 3,600RPM spindle speeds, 2MB or 8MB of cache, and an operating shock tolerance of 600G. Samsung will also make lower-capacity models with capacities ranging from 30GB to 100GB.

Incidentally, PC Watch's article contains an interesting slide from a Samsung presentation that discusses solid-state drives (SSD). The slide says says the per-gigabyte cost of SSDs won't come anywhere close to that of regular 1.8" hard drives until 2010. By then, the firm predicts that SSDs will have a per-gigabyte cost of 90 cents to $2.5, depending on estimates. By contrast, Samsung expects 1.8" hard drives to have a per-gigabyte cost of 60 cents in 2010, down from $1.4 today.

[Hess]

I really don't understand why having such a big hard drive is deciding factor for you guys? Why do you need that much on your PMP? You will never listen to every track if you're filling it with music, you're not going ot have every application installed because that's what your PC is for, and there is enough space to fill it with enough films to take your from California to Japan, the long way round.

60GB is fine for what I want out of a PMP, if you want more, why are you not buying a laptop?

[dirkkid360]

I have an archive of over 500 GB worth of anime (and growing) on my external HDD right now which took about a few months to download here and there. I've already watched over 2/3 of it already.

I travel a lot and have a lot of down time at work... I'm talking hours worth of free time.... so I run through shows like it is nothing. That is one reason why size matters to me. You figure 175-200 mb per anime show- 12-26 shows per season..... which I can finish in about 2 days worth of free time watching.

I'm sick of carrying around my 17'' inch wide laptop, and the Cowon Q5 would be perfect to fit in my bag or pocket on the plane or train, (which I can finish another anime episode). I would only use the Q5 for watching my anime, GPS, and the occasional movie and web surfing.

I don't want to be rude or anything, but remember there are many different uses people will use the Q5 for. Just because you are fine with the 60GB model, does not mean you have the right to justify your understanding and needs on others. If I did not hear about the Q5... I would have already bought the older Archos 504 160 GB HDD version just because of the size. But I really did not want to go through the trouble of converting all my shows for them to work on the Archos. Also the GPS feature, and style of the Q5 grabbed my attention.

I already have the Cowon U3 for my podcast and music, so the Q5 would be for the wi-fi, GPS, video codec support, and design over the newst Archos, which I think is the 704 wi-fi. [excited]

[artichoke]

Cowon Petition:

If you're listening, I want a 100GB Q5. Please revise this before you release it in North America. I will buy 2 Q5 (One for myself and another for my Wife).

Sincerely,
Nick Hrisikos

[eric3a]

My bet is that people who want bigger drives than 60GB are outside of the statistical curve for the market and therefore not of big interest to COWON.
So I'd say unlikely to happen. Luckily with CE and an external HD you have options.

I have no idea how many terabytes of videos I have, but considering the number of tuners on my video server and that I've been at it for years now, it's a LOT.
Never had a need to take even a fraction of that with me on the road, and 30 GB of video proved plenty enough for a round the world trip, on 64 flights last year. Or 33 flights in 10 days recently.
Eric

[MCSmarties]

I agree with eric3a. Sure, more is often better (specially when talking about digital storage - your player still weighs the same! *grin*) but
do you really NEED to have that much space at your disposal at all times?

My MP3 alone fill up close to 50GB, but I would never listen to all of them on the go! So I just pick 12GB of the best, and fill up the rest with videos...

I for one think that a 120GB version would be way too expensive.

[dirkkid360]

Well like I said before, everyone's wants and needs are different as well as opinions. That's why there are usually different models for the same product. Companies understand that, so they accommodate with different versions of their products.

(ie. Archos with 80 and 160 GB HDD, and the Ipod pushing out 80GB in their player. Cowon also expressed the desire to produce and sell a larger capacity Q5 after the initial American Summer launch which will be offering the 40/60 GB flavors)

Also there is nothing wrong with wanting a bigger HDD. Like I said before in an earlier post, I'll be using the Q5 for videos rather than music. Unlike dumping thousands of songs in a 10GB+ digital player and not listening to 2/3's of the music, I actually use most of the videos that I will be putting on it. So therefore it would best suit me to have the largest capacity HDD while keeping in style with the Q5.


I also like the options a larger HDD provides:

1. Even if I do not use all of videos at any given moment, I love the idea of having most of my collection at my disposal. I network with a lot of different people and I would hate not to have a video with me knowing that I do have it at home.

2. I do not care how expensive it is. If a larger capacity HDD can fit in the same model the 40/60 GB houses, then there will be no problems for Cowon to simply switch out the harddrive with a larger capacity one. It's not like they have to create a brand new production line just to make a Q5 with a bigger HDD in it.


*I do not understand the negative backlash against such an idea. If you decided that your use of the product does not grant purchasing a larger version of the player, then do not buy it. It's as simple as that.

Am I wrong on anything? I simply expressed a desire to have a bigger HDD on a product that I'd pay extra for to get the features I want.

I'm not criticizing the 40/60 models. I just wish that the *future* larger version of the Q5 would be available at launch so that I do not have to buy the 60GB version and sell it later when they release a 70+ GB version.

Once again, your comments suggest that the 40/60 GB version would be the perfect version for you and everyone else who does not care for a larger sized pmp from Cowon. The world and the internet is changing at an extraordinary rate and the fact is that video is become more and more popular as time passes. If you noticed the 5Gen Archos plans for greater support for bittorrent and other popular video sites like youtube.com.

[excited]

[doniago]

I think there's a good chance Cowon wouldn't use a very large hard drive because, as mentioned up-thread, at that point the Q5 would be expensive enough that, in their opinions, people wouldn't want to purchase it.

I could live with 30 gigs, but I'd be happy to have more.

[dirkkid360]

That might be true right now, but that will change in the future given the current trends in the price of HDDs.

I bought my 2 GB Cowon U3 almost 2 years ago for $170. I see that they have a 4 GB U3 version now for the same price as my 2 GB version.

Also I made the terrible mistake a few years ago purchsing the 60 GB 4th gen photo Ipod, which broke in 11 months.... and I noticed a few month after I bought it, that they came out with the 80 5th gen for the same price.

It just shows that as time passes, they will find it profitable to replace older models with newer HDD with more capacity for the same price. Even though it might be 6 months to 1 year before they add more features to the Q5, I think that it is a very real possibility.

Besides, the price of 1.8 HDD have been getting cheaper and cheaper to produce. And if they want to compete with Archos, which I think is the only other "premium" pmp manufacturer out there, I believe they will come out a more advanced and spacious Q5 after the initial release this summer. It only makes sense.

[mikey]

Maybe (wishing) the next q5 will have sdhc support, this is the road Cowon seem to be going down. Thus you can get the 60gb and do your own add ons.

It will be so nice once we have one to play with, trying add ons our selves like a sdhc card reader in the usb, with the future 32gb sdhc card, ahh bring it on

[GVera]

I really don't understand why having such a big hard drive is deciding factor for you guys? Why do you need that much on your PMP? You will never listen to every track if you're filling it with music, you're not going ot have every application installed because that's what your PC is for, and there is enough space to fill it with enough films to take your from California to Japan, the long way round.

60GB is fine for what I want out of a PMP, if you want more, why are you not buying a laptop?

I have more than 300GB of music in FLAC in my home system (I use Sonos products to wireless distribute it to every audio system in the house)

I like to carry as much of it with me when on vacations, travelling, etc.
A notebook, no way, the Q5 (¿or X7?) with large capacity is what I'm waiting for.

[addz]

do we know if it has a true audio line out? I assume the connect on the bottom of the Q5 can provide us with line out when connected to some sort of dock? like the X5 and M3?

[dirkkid360]

well an update to my first post, Toshiba upped their 1.8 HDD to 160gb now!!!

http://sdd.toshiba.com/techdocs/PR2007-09-18-inch160GB_US.pdf

If only the Cowon shipped with this..... ****dreaming****......

[globex]

Look at how much the price jumps from 30gb to 100gb hard drive. At that price, most people wouldn't want it. If you have the money, you can easily do a diy job on the Q5. Afterall, that's the beauty of Cowon. You can open it up yourself and replace all the parts. (Apple loses again)

I can't imagine anyone ever needing more than 10gb. Even at full quality, (unless you're using HD DVD or Blueray, and that's totally stupid on a 5" screen) you can fit more than 2 full movies and 2gb of music. After that you're battery is going to run out anyways, and you can replace the content with another upload.

Portable players aren't supposed to store your entire music and/or movie collection. Our hard drive technology is just not up there yet. So I don't see the big fuss.

[fornies]

I can't imagine anyone ever needing more than 10gb.
I can't imagine anyone use less than 30gb

After that you're battery is going to run out anyways, and you can replace the content with another upload.
What if you are traveling and do not have a computer to upload content from. Also, if you really like all of you music (or at least 90%) like me then you enjoy shuffling your entire collection and 2gb out of 30gb is a boring selection.

Portable players aren't supposed to store your entire music and/or movie collection. Our hard drive technology is just not up there yet. So I don't see the big fuss.
There are a few player that support 80gb and even 160gb so why cant portable player be made to hold the entire collection? It would certainly make it easier.

There are plenty of small flash drive based players out there why cant the larger video players support lager drive. Especially as HD video with more audio channels and lossless audio (which both require more drive space) become more popular.

[dirkkid360]

thank you fornies for understanding! ^_^

Well here is another HDD update. But this time its SSD!!!

Samsung's SSD gets faster! With a release date of Q1 2008 this new drive, 1.8-inch SATA II with feature 64GB.

I mean we are talking 100MB/s and 120MB/s read and writes versus current 50-80MB/s rates!!

If only we can figure out how to put this into the Q5W ;)

***goes and drools in corner.......

[Prosperus]

thank you fornies for understanding! ^_^

Well here is another HDD update. But this time its SSD!!!

Samsung's SSD gets faster! With a release date of Q1 2008 this new drive, 1.8-inch SATA II with feature 64GB.

I mean we are talking 100MB/s and 120MB/s read and writes versus current 50-80MB/s rates!!

If only we can figure out how to put this into the Q5W ;)

***goes and drools in corner.......

Not to mention that the battery life would rise significantly and despite the fact that dropping it on your foot would break a toe a SSD Q5 might not break itself. Here's to hoping for a bright future but I'll be glad just to drool and coddle a regular Q5 in the meantime.

[Overfunction]

Maybe (wishing) the next q5 will have sdhc support, this is the road Cowon seem to be going down. Thus you can get the 60gb and do your own add ons.

It will be so nice once we have one to play with, trying add ons our selves like a sdhc card reader in the usb, with the future 32gb sdhc card, ahh bring it on

Writing from q5, I can read SD cards with a usb card reader. Also it takes usb thumb drives. It can read 1500kbs movies right off the usb drives and they play great.