iPhone or iPod touch? Help me decide

My friend is coming over from US so I had asked him to get an MP3 player and suggested him to check about iPod touch or iPhone. I know many people in this forum would suggest to go for something other than iPod stuff. My budget is between 10k-15k($250-$400) and it can be stretched a little bit. I was thinking about iPhone as suggested by some of my friends but I was thinking that I may have to shell out some more money to get it unlocked here. I basically need it to play MP3 songs and video songs. Initially my budget was less so I was thinking about Creative Zen but now that my budget has increased I can go for iPod. What are the other options? iRiver, Zune, Creative? Please let me know. I' m thinking more about buying either iPod Touch or iPhone.Please help!

iPod touch is a PMP and iphone is a phone - meant to serve different purposes

There are a number of factors liket consider that iPhone is not officially supported in India, the touch is. On the flip side, Apple makes you pay for iPod touch upgrades but same upgrades are free on iPhone.

between ipod touch and iphone, i vote for ipod touch.

Also check this:

Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB) » for $321.99 at Amazon.com

*www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en

Cowon A3: *www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a3/

Plays:

Audio: MP3/2/1, WMA,ASF, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA(MKA), AC3,TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV

Video: AVI, WMV, ASF,MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT,MTV

One big advantage with this is that you can direcly copy entire DVD on to the player without any ripping and watch it on it's gorgeous 4" wide screen.

This one's far far better player when compared to ipod's.

also has document viewer, FM, voice recorder, photo viewer (JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW)

upto 7 hour video playback time.

Price: $365.95 for 60Gb

slugger said:
iPod touch is a PMP and iphone is a phone - meant to serve different purposes

Initially I was thinking of iPod Touch since my friend in US had bought it and said it's good. But one of my friends here in India had suggested me to go for iPhone since it will have all most same features as iPod touch. My friend here in India has some of his friends who have iPhone and are quite happy with it.

desiibond said:
between ipod touch and iphone, i vote for ipod touch.

Also check this:

Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB) » for $321.99 at Amazon.com

*www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en

Cowon A3: *www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a3/

Plays:

Audio: MP3/2/1, WMA,ASF, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA(MKA), AC3,TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV

Video: AVI, WMV, ASF,MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, VOB, DAT,MTV

One big advantage with this is that you can direcly copy entire DVD on to the player without any ripping and watch it on it's gorgeous 4" wide screen.

This one's far far better player when compared to ipod's.

also has document viewer, FM, voice recorder, photo viewer (JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW)

upto 7 hour video playback time.

Price: $365.95 for 60Gb

I have not heard about Archos before except in the digit forums. Is it really that good? I did hear about Cowon A3 but pata nahin. The only brands I know a little more than you have mentioned and have seen is iPod,Zune and Creative.

Archos 605 wi-fi is the CNET editor's choice.

Flash :

1) Creative Zen 32Gb for $299. I prefer this over touch
2) ipod Touch 32Gb for $499. I prefer 32Gb ipod touch over 16Gb iPhone. Along with it, purchase 2 yr extended warranty and you will ger support for ipod touch anywhere for 2 yrs. Same's not availble for iphone. You need to relock it andship it back to US for support.

HDD:

1) Cowon A3
2) Archos 605 wi-fi

Overall, my pick still would be Cowon A3.

yes archos is THE BEST PMP . the best model is 605 wifi ( biggest screen).
You havent heard about it since it is not officially distributed in india. At least not in my knowledge

Price : of 160 gb model Rs 12,536/- (source zdnetindia.com)
Links:
1. official website
*www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/tech_specs.html?country=global&lang=en

2. *www.zdnetindia.com/index.php?action=pro_review&prodid=13734

I personally prefer archos to ipod touch ..u would know why if u check these links.
I would advice to stay away from iphone since it is not officially relesed in India (so services are worthless), but if u really want a phone go for it (u will have to unlock it which is very risky and makes warranty void)

Get the Cowon A3 ! Supports all major Codecs and has TV Recording too !

Cowon A3 is the best...
I am not that sure of Archos 605, as I am unaware of its features.

Any idea about iRiver? From the reviews I read about Cowon A3 its mentioned that its a little bulky and not so compact and little cumbersome with the joystick/control. But Video and Audio are good it seems.

desiibond said:
Archos 605 wi-fi is the CNET editor's choice.

Flash :

1) Creative Zen 32Gb for $299. I prefer this over touch
2) ipod Touch 32Gb for $499. I prefer 32Gb ipod touch over 16Gb iPhone. Along with it, purchase 2 yr extended warranty and you will ger support for ipod touch anywhere for 2 yrs. Same's not availble for iphone. You need to relock it andship it back to US for support.

HDD:

1) Cowon A3
2) Archos 605 wi-fi

Overall, my pick still would be Cowon A3.

What is the difference between Flash and HDD? I'm sorry dude if this is a stupid question but I'm really not aware of these terms wrt MP3 players!

one problem with Archos 605 is that many of it's features are enabled by purchasing plug-in's or optional hardware. that is why I prefer cowon A3 over Archos 605 wi-fi. Anyways, you need to pay around 90$ for the plug-in's that are most important like vob playback.

desiibond said:
one problem with Archos 605 is that many of it's features are enabled by purchasing plug-in's or optional hardware. that is why I prefer cowon A3 over Archos 605 wi-fi. Anyways, you need to pay around 90$ for the plug-in's that are most important like vob playback.

exactly.
and cowon is rather encouraging to the RockBox team to develop better alternate firm ware for its PMPs, so even A3 may get a RockBox support. But it hardly needs it. Cowon is recomended by Audiophiles for a reason. They ensure that the latest High End Formats like MusePack are supported. Go to a site like www.hydrogenaudio.com and see how thankful audiophiles are to cowon for their PMPs.

So maybe I have to decide between Cowon or iPod touch I think. But the only problem is I haven't heard about it much. So if at all I'm not so happy with it I may have to sell it and in that case I may not have good prospective buyers.

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNR-_GqOyFE

much

*www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_WWSBFkFsI

A

Whatever you buy, never buy the Apple iPhone. It is only an overhyped piece of junk.

I have used Zenvision:W for few days (borrowed from my friend) and this itself is a superb player, certainly better than any ipod. here , the techtree author says that A3 is better than Zenvision:W. If I were you, I will go for Cowon A3.

Moreover, this one plays 720p video, can connect it to your HDTV using the provided componenet cable, record TV shows using line-in cable and lot more features are there. take a look at the below content.

Anyways, it's your decision.

Techtree says:

Conclusion

As far as comparing this wholesome PMP to the others goes, I can't pass a verdict on the ones I've never tested; therefore, for me, this one steals the show with all its features put together. Compared to the previously reviewed Creative Zen Vision W, this is a complete step ahead. Probably a price of 20K for the 30GB version would've been more apt for this.

The A3 can play HD content, but it's restricted to 720p. It finds it difficult to process WMV-HD, whereas, 720p MKV and AVI files played on A3 pretty well. While all standard format videos would start playing in a couple of seconds, the 720p videos would take its toll on the player; although the difference in startup times was just about 4-5 seconds.

If you are a video buff, believe me, A3 is the way to go. All that you can play on ipod's in mp4 and it's a headache converting each and every video you have to this format.

A3 comes with component video cable to connect it to your TV and also has Hi Quality cable to connect this to HDTV.

The A3 provides lots to fidget around with in order to adjust the video to your liking. All of the adjustments can be done with the video playing in the background -- be it aspect ratio, panning & scanning, video playback speed, subtitle adjustments. Hence, the result for every change is instant. Even while having the PMP connected to an external screen, you could make the changes on-the-fly and settle with what looks best on in a matter of few seconds. You can also take a screenshot from a video playing and it'll have the shot saved in the Photos Mode under Screenshots; this is a nice addition something that even Windows Media Player doesn't offer.

It's powered by a DaVinci AV DSP processor of Texas Instruments. The processor is a dual core and enables smooth decoding of various codec. You can connect the A3 to an HD TV and enjoy HD-quality video. If that wasn't enough, this PMP can even record video through a TV Line-In

The player has a 10 Band Equalizer to create personal settings with Mach3Bass, BBE, 3D Surround and MP Enhance. It's crazy enough that the A3 records video from an external source, therefore, you shouldn't be surprised to hear this -- the A3 records audio in lossless FLAC format through its Line-In.

The other capabilities of the player lets it read various image and documents formats. It even covers the RAW format under images, and Microsoft Office files along with the standard PDF and TXT files.

OK after reading so many reviews
+1 for cowon A3

Damn it Why did I not see the Archos thing before purchasing the 160GB iPod. Is it available in India?

ajayritik, dont think much bro.....just get teh Cowon A3, Im sure you won't be disappointed ! Cowon is known to have the BEST Audio Quality among any other player. And now with its awesome sharp LCD Screen its the best Video Player too.

Just go for it.....

does a3 have a touch screen

Archos is by far the best PMP out there.
If you need style and a gorgeous interface, get the iPhone
If you just want a good MP3 player and not a PMP, the iRiver Clix 2G is super pwnage.

girish.g said:
does a3 have a touch screen

nope. it's vanigation is using joystick and four functional keys.

desiibond said:
nope. it's vanigation is using joystick and four functional keys.

did you mean navigation?

lol. yes.

One big plus with A3 is that it supports lot of models but without touch screen it doesn't look so sleek. Is the brand very popular? Any idea whether this is available in India? From where should I ask him to buy if at all he has to buy?

desiibond you still have not told me the difference between flash and hdd! Friends what would be the best place to buy these from? Amazon?

^^ Touch screen is not an important factor for PMP's. Yes. the brand is very popular in US. If you remember jetaudio application, that's developed by Cowon and expanded to America as JetAudio Inc. Later changed name to Cowon America. South Korean company doing pure music since 1995.

go to deals2buy.com to find out best deals for this player. You can check the following stores:

1) buy.com
2) tigerdirect.com
3) walmart.com
4) amazon.com
5) circuitcity.com
6) newegg.com
Differences between flash and HDD:

1) flash reduces size of the player
2) flash is faster than HDD
3) flash is much more costly
4) you get 160Gb HDD (hard disk drive) for the price of 16Gb flash. and 80Gb HDD for the price of 8Gb flash.

Moreover, Cowon D2 is flash player that competes directly with ipod touch:

Video & Audio Player / FM Tuner / Voice Recorder / Text & Photo Viewer-2.5 inch 16 million color 24bit TFT-LCD - QVGA (320x240) Touchscreen-SD / SDHC Memory Expansion-Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)**-DRM-protected content Support (PlaysForSure, etc.)
Audio: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, APE, WAV, AAC (only on older firmware versions)
Video: MPEG4-SP (DivX, XviD, ...), WMV9 - 320 x 240, 30fps
Photo: JPEG (no size limit)
Screen: 2.5", 24 bit (16 million) color, 320 x 240, TFT-LCD
Dimensions: 78.0 x 55.4 x 16.6 mm (3.07 x 2.18 x 0.65 inches)
Weight: 91 g (3.21 oz)
Rated battery life: 52 hours for music, 10 hours for video
Other features: Touch screen, SD/SDHC card slot, TV-out, FM radio, voice/line-in/FM recorder, BBE sound enhancements, user-configurable effect presets, text viewer, date/time/alarm, bookmarks, on-the-go playlist, deleting files on the player
Dimension: 78.0 X 55.4 X 16.6 mm
8gb for $200, transcend 8Gb SDHC card for $33 at amazon.com
comes with a handy stylus/kickstand

If you need a flash player and don't worry about converting every single video you have and you get into MP4 format for ipod, you can go ahead and get ipod touch but belive me, ipod touch's video clarity will not where be near to cowon A3's.

^^ I hope you mean that the iPod touch has so-so Video Quality.

@OP, if you are an audio/video phile [i.e. Sound and Video Quality are of prime importance] then DO NOT get the iPod touch, considering that it has only "okay" sound quality and the videos aren't great either.

If you do need great sound and video quality, nothing beats the Cowon D2. If you want what is positively the best video experience out there, get the Creative Zen Vision W.

If you want a great balance of both and a truckload of features, get the Archos 605.

What is the difference between Cowon A3 and Cowon D2? Is it only that the latter has touch screen? what about the price and features comparitively? which is better of the two mentioned?

nope. Cowon D2 supports less number of video and audio formats. Much ni line with zenvison:W and far more than ipod's.

ajayritik said:
What is the difference between Cowon A3 and Cowon D2? Is it only that the latter has touch screen? what about the price and features comparitively? which is better of the two mentioned?

Cowon A3 is better than any current generation PMP.

where can i get archos in delhi??

One more player but price is very high at $549.

cowon Q5W.

Main features:

1) 5" 16M touch screen (800x480).
2) wifi with internet browsing
3) Windows CE Office viewer
4) 64MB NOR Flash, 128MB DDR2 SDRAM, 40/60Gb HDD
5) Bluetooth Class 2, Ver. 2.0 +EDR, which means you can use bluetooth headphones with this
6) WinCE 5.0 Professional Operating system running
7) 5.46 x 3.48 x 0.79 inch
8) audio fomats: MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC
9) video formats: AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM, DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV7/8/9
10) TV Out: COMPONENT, S-VIDEO, COMPOSITE
11) Voice recorder, FM.
12) audio resolutoin: 8 ~ 1.4Mbps (based on MP3 format)
13) works as USB host. Copy photos from digicam directly to this player. Also connect Windows CE compatible USB devices like Microsoft mouse and keyboard

Package content:

1) player
2) handstrap
3) earphones
4) wireless remote
5) AV cable
6) AC Adaptor
7) USB cable

*www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/q5w/index.html

Today I was going through Digit magazine March Edition. According to Digit iPod wins hands down. I see almost all iPod products being recommended by Digit! Strange when compared to the people here in forum who suggest anything but iPod!

ajayritik said:
Today I was going through Digit magazine March Edition. According to Digit iPod wins hands down. I see almost all iPod products being recommended by Digit! Strange when compared to the people here in forum who suggest anything but iPod!

who cares what digit says ? They don't test more important things like geek friendliness, format compatibility, future firmware expantion availability, processing power, etc. And digit thinks we all need only 4 gb of space maximum for our music, while many PMP users like to have a carbon copy(often synchronised) of their Music partition within their PMP. Digit is way too mainstream and hence not at all paid heed to by extremists.

ajayritik said:
Today I was going through Digit magazine March Edition. According to Digit iPod wins hands down. I see almost all iPod products being recommended by Digit! Strange when compared to the people here in forum who suggest anything but iPod!

that review was totally biased towards ipod. I had mentioned few points in the March feedback thread. You can take a look there. They prefer thinness over performance. If it's shiny, it wins the best buy award.

Too be really honest its been some time since I went through the reviews given by Digit for any of the computer products. I had a feeling it was biased towards iPod, so I wanted to confirm with you all. I agree I went through one of the posts where it was mentioned about the digit review on Music Players and how it was biased.

The other day I went to Apple Retail store and checked out how the quality of iPod touch was. It was ok not that great! Maybe headphones were not that good!

^^ Apple earphones are crap. You should've taken your own headphones with you.

Guys I think it's time for me to decide. So please once again let me hear from you all again! What's your final say? what should I go for?
1. Cowon A3
2. Archos
3. iPod Touch

@Gautham and DesiiBond, totally +1. I noticed that too. The reviews contradicted all major websites.

@Krazyfrog, I did, I took along my EP-630s, and heard the iPod touch. There was a significant amount of detail loss, Music was bright, and very muddy.

According to me, the nano sounds slightly better. At least it's not muddy sound. But still bright and some detail loss.

^^ I know you did. I was telling ajayritik who used Apple earphones for testing. I'm sure his experience was far worse than yours.

ajayritik, I think you should go for Cowon A3.

+1 for Cowon A3

Also, get global warranty enabled for that so that you can take the player to India service centre too (which I don't think will happen)

But please stay away from the Touch. That's only for looks.

Don't belive in your eyes. Believe in your mind

More or less it's confirmed that I may not go for iPod Touch! But I wanted to check if Cowon A3 will be very bulky? I heard weight will be three pounds! So I guess we can't carry that around as easily. Time is running out man! My friend called me yesterday and asked me to decide coz it will take some time to get it shipped to his place. I find the product only in newegg.com and amazon the remaining sites don't list it.

^^^ what?? 3 pounds??

dude, it weights 280gms (30Gb). That 3 pounds might be the weight of the entire package (manuals, cables etc).

280gms means around 0.6 pound.

ask your friend to call nearby buy.com store or circuit city and enquire the availability or he can order at Amazon/newegg but make that he doesn't order refurbished or second hand product.

I checked with him already, he told he has best buy and circuit city nearby to his house. I guess he may have to order online from either Amazon or newegg. Any idea how to check if it has a global warranty? I think I have to tell him to go ahead with it! Do I have to tell him specific not to get a refurbished one? I thought that it is implied! Anyways now I have to ask him to check from wherever he can get it.

Refurbished products will be tagged accordingly.

Better get the 60Gb edition as there's only 40$ difference between the two.

*www.amazon.com/COWON-A3-60SL-Porta...1?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video&qid=1206953913&sr=1-1

You can check with Lipap systems to find out how to get global warranty enabled:

Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd.
A-213, Virwani Industrial Estate,
W.E.Highway,
Goregoan (East),
Mumbai

+91-22-28743457, 28759382,

email: iaudio@lipap.com

Also get Shure E2C earphones along with that player.

*www.amazon.com/Shure-E2c-n-Sound-I...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1206954418&sr=1-2

or else you can buy Creative EP-630 in India for Rs. 800 (approx)

one more serious advice. If he is going to buy the product in the store, ask him to open the pack before the store's employee (after paying bill) and check the package content.

I have decide to go with the 60 GB one. I already have Creative EP 630. Do you think I need to go for anything better? Why did you ask to check him the contents of package with the shopkeeper?

EP-630 should be enough.

Sometimes, buyers are getting either empty or filled-with-garbage instead of the actual stuff inside. That is why I have asked for a thorough check of content. Even in India, when I buy some electronics item, I check if package content printed on the box is present inside or not. One or twice, some cable/CD used to be missing and the shopkeeper gave me new pack

Just to be on safeside. Coz, once you leave the premises, the store will not take responsibiliy of missing content.

^^+1 . I read an article where a girl picked up two iPod Touches, only to find both boxes filled with stones. That, my friend, is harsh.

i also read that article and that was ipod video not ipod touch. this happened in USA to a teenage girl.

This is kind of put off man! In that case I can't gift it to anyone if I want to! Anyways it's better if we check it rather than gifting an empty box!

I checked that 160 GB iPod classic is $249. What's the difference between iPod Classic and Cowon?

Hi Everyone! I have received bad news! My friend will not be travelling any more to India. He has dropped the plans to come over to India! I guess have to wait for some more time!

ajayritik said:
I checked that 160 GB iPod classic is $249. What's the difference between iPod Classic and Cowon?

ipod classic to Cowon A3 is what ipod nano is to ipod touch.

That much difference there is between these two. cowon a3 is better than ipod touch and ipod touch is better than ipod classic.

Reason why ipod touch is better than ipod classic

1) Bigger and much better screen
2) Better video quality
3) Thin size
4) internet access and youtube video download and playback

But the main disadvantage is it's cost.

why cowon a3 is better than ipod classic:

1) 2x size of display
2) video and audio format of ipod classic is way behind that of A3
3) direct dvd copy and playback
4) crispy video and audio quality
5) lot of accessories provided in the kit.

G

Cowon A3 is excellent, but its not handy

So what is price of Cowon A3 in Delhi?

genxguy said:
Cowon A3 is excellent, but its not handy

So what is price of Cowon A3 in Delhi?

What do you mean by not handy? Is it too bulky? Can I check it anywhere here in India? Is it available for sale in India?

I, for one, would suggest an iPod touch over the Cowon but then again, I own an iPhone, love it and am completely biased in favour of it, so you might not want to bank on my recommendation.

^^ yep. we know

aryayush said:
I, for one, would suggest an iPod touch over the Cowon but then again, I own an iPhone, love it and am completely biased in favour of it, so you might not want to bank on my recommendation.

When did you get an iPhone? Weren't you going to get it only after it was officially launched in India?

What would be the least price for which I will get an iPod Touch 8 GB in India? I enquired in Reliance Apple iStore, it's cost was around 16k. Would I get it for lesser price from other cities like Delhi or Bangalore?

Pathik said:
When did you get an iPhone? Weren't you going to get it only after it was officially launched in India?

Yeah, but my patience snapped when Preshit and Milind started waving their iPhones in front of my face.

aryayush said:
I, for one, would suggest an iPod touch over the Cowon but then again, I own an iPhone, love it and am completely biased in favour of it, so you might not want to bank on my recommendation.

Dude you told that you own an iPhone then how come you recommend iPod touch which is different from iPhone.
If you have or know about iPod Touch can you please list me its features?

It isn't much different. It's basically a much thinner iPhone, sans the phone, and with a shiny, scratch prone backside. It also does not come with a wall charger or dock, while the iPhone does.

Both run the same OS, have the same screen and same hardware components and the same capabilities. Both have the same interface and functions. They're almost identical (except for the phone part, of course).

If you want to know anything in particular, let me know. I've used an iPod touch extensively too.

Dude I really need to know more about iPod Touch! What are the formats that can be played? Can I play mkv, avi, DVD files on it? or Do I have to convert it to some other format? I mainly need to know the formats that it supports? If I go for 8 GB one I think I cant store much of movies of DVD format.

You'll have to convert all movies to the AAC format, using H.264 encoding. It'll have to be 44.100 kHz with a maximum horizontal resolution of 640 pixels.

Basically, you take any movie, import it into iTunes, right click on it and hit 'Convert Selection for iPod/iPhone". Or open it using QuickTime Pro and export it using the default iPod setting. Alternatively, you can use one of the many free and paid iPod conversion utilities available on Windows.

How is the video quality like when we play it on the iPod? I really dont know much about AAC format. Does it matter what the source of the video file is? For example would we get a better output file from DVD Rip, VOB file as compared to other formats which are smaller in size?

Of course you will. The quality of the video remains exactly the same after the conversion, so if you start out with better quality, you end up with better quality.

On the iPod, it looks crisper than it does on a computer because of the very high PPI density but, of course, the screen size is small so you might not want to watch entire movies on it.

H

I personally think that Cowon offers better audio quality than i pod.A good video quality too..

So go for it,unless u feel touch screen is a must.

It would have been great if I had touch screen in Cowon A3 but main thing I'm looking for is good audio and video quality. Even if iPod Touch gives good audio and video quality I dont mind shelling out more money. But it should be worth it.

^^ Can't compare A3 with ipod Touch. If you put aside the touch UI, it's nothing before A3, be it audio/video quality or format support or features.

Man I just now checked the price with Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd. They are quoting Rs 23k for 60 GB and 21k for 30 GB. Damn thats so expensive man!

iPod Touch is nowhere close to Cowon A3. The iPod Touch can't play any other formats, TV Out Cable Costs a bomb, no DVR Functionality, smaller screen, lesser resolution, lesser space, lower Sound Quality !

Cowon is the Best. Its costly here, (so is the iTouch) so try to get from US.

ajayritik said:
Man I just now checked the price with Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd. They are quoting Rs 23k for 60 GB and 21k for 30 GB. Damn thats so expensive man!

ah. okay.

Though I have seen videos of Cowon A3 on the net I still wanted to have a look personally. Too be really honest I don't know about some of the features of Cowon A3. And also some of the reviews were against the joystick. Can someone throw some light about the other features of Cowon A3?

If you've read the review, what different features are we going to tell you ? Just check the Official Site of Cowon and see the features for yourself.....

*www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a3/

The other day I had asked my colleague's friend who was coming from US to get it for me.

Unfortunately he couldnt find one. I think he was shopping in Wallmart which I think didnt have any stock. Since I came to know about him coming very late I couldnt have asked him to get it shipped using Amazon. I guess have to wait for someone else who is coming over from US.

Which is the best online shopping portal in US? I have choice from Amazon, newegg.com. How much would the tax be like? Do these people charge additional for shipping? Amazon has mentioned some offer but I'm not sure how it works?

My friend's colleague is getting it for me from US. The only thing I'm not able to figure out is what do I need to protect it from scratches. I found one leather case but that costs $46. Can anybody suggest me something?

Thanks all for your inputs! A special thanks to desiibond. I have finally purchased COWON A3 60 GB. Waiting for the piece to arrive!

ajayritik said:
Thanks all for your inputs! A special thanks to desiibond. I have finally purchased COWON A3 60 GB. Waiting for the piece to arrive!

Yes finally. :lol:

Congrats!

Nice Choice! The A3 rocks.

Nice ! Finally you made a choice ! Congrats on your purchase...do post your views about it later...

ajayritik said:
Thanks all for your inputs! A special thanks to desiibond. I have finally purchased COWON A3 60 GB. Waiting for the piece to arrive!

congrats buddy. Try to write a review at digit

Dude! I'm not good at reviews thing. I'm not so technical that I can give all the details. So I'm not sure if I can post a eview. but definitely will post my experience about it here.

I heard that the archos player was available in Nehru place.

can anyone tell me the price of its 30 and 60gb variants?

Does anyone here own a Cowon A3? I have couple of doubts on it?

Tough luck! My friend brought it but the customs people charged him 5k. It seems. So all plans of getting it for a less price flopped!

^^Just make sure he is not fooling you coz if the custom duty is charged, it is quite high, some 75%, check out the rules before paying him!!

^^ can't say. If the customs officer is honest, it will be upto 75% tax. If he want the money to go into his pocket, he will take something like this.

The player costs $359. So I dont know how to calculate. So finally this cost me around 20k instead of around 15k. I hope its worth it. I went for this player based on the feedback given by the forum members here. I hope its worth the extra 5k which eventually I have to pay.

^^^ don't worry buddy. you will be amazed by looking the the vidoes on the huge display and by the quality of the music.

One more suggestion. Rip your CD's to 320kbps instead of 128kbps. That makes huge difference.

I hope so desiibond! And one more thing I wanted to check is if it's possible to connect the player to TV and play the HD rips stored in it?

yes. you should use the adapter to connect to TV's RCA ports (should come bundled with the player). That way, you will be able to watch videos on TV.

I personally suggest you go for a PSP plus memory card.

^^hehehe.

MetalheadGautham said:
I personally suggest you go for a PSP plus memory card.

dude I have already bought the PSP. I think 60 GB is sufficient with regards to space. I dont know why I would need a memory card again!

It's finally arrived! I picked up the Cowon A3 from my friend today. I will check out the features and let you all know about the same.

Does anyone have Cowon A3 or Cowon products here? I broke my LCD Screen. Do I need to contact Lipap systems which is located in Mumbai?

afaik, Lipap have service center in Bangalore

You contact mumbai branch first and they will give you service center detail in your city.