[Basketballer]

You can go to the site, www.cowonamerica.com and click on products, and tech specs and look them up and you will see that these two players are almost the same.

the only differences I have found are:

1.) U3 is a FLASH drive player and I6 is a HARD DISK drive player.
(2GB vs 4GB) (can someone please tell me the difference?)

2.) U3 has USB 2.0 capable of 35Mbps downloading. I6 has USB 2.0 (Host [OTG] Interface) capable of 30Mbps. The I6 can hook up to most digital cameras for instant picure storage. (I'm assuming U3 can't directly store/display the pictures form a camera but it could from a computer.

3.) The displays are both 1.3" but U3 is TFT-LCD and I6 is OLED.

4.) Finally and the most drastic and most decision influencing difference, USER CONTROL. U3 has a jog button. I6 has a touchscreen or "swingtouch" interface. My question do all of you, especially those who have experience with touchscreen buttons on mp3 players or the I6 is, can you easily change the track without messing up first while the player is in your pocket and you are walking or riding a bike? Doesn't touchscreen require using your vision as well? Does the I6 have seperate buttons or a way that you dont have to use the swingtouch in order to change ur tracks up and down? The point of having these mp3 players small, is for their convenience. having to move them from where they were and put them in front of your face everytime you want to change the song sucks. Might as well have a 20 pound Ipod the size of a brick as your portable audio player. Along with USER CONTROL...

4.5 ) is the navigation. With any electronic, once you have spent the required time to explore and familiarize the navigation along with the menus, the level of controlling difficulty changes and becomes easy. However, the appearance/color/contrast/design or convenience/size/placement of icons, along with spacing doesn't change. Iaudio5 had a great setup or DISPLAY. I was fine with its appearance, usefulness, ease of navigation. Do these two have similar or the same DISPLAY or MENU/NAVIGATION?


ps.) I didn't get into the battery because theyhave the same and this is a comparison but, i wanted to add my thoughts on Built-in Rechargeable Batteries. THEY SUCK! I believe they are a scam since they don't last as long as they should. Nowadays a year or a year and a half. And if you use your player a lot, then maybe earlier. They only have a limited number of charges. its fact. People are fooled into thinking they last forever. and when it dies (usually conveniently right after the warranty runs out), you have to send it in for repair where you might have to pay for it, and even worse is having to wait for it. OR like most people, you call the thing dead or broke and since its a year later, you want to get the new technology and buy the newer model from the company. This makes them very happy. AAA are the way to go, and the companies know it. But we should know they want to make the most money possible. Well, If there was two version, one with and one without the rechargable battery, then I wouldn't mind paying more for the AAA. However, recently I learned, you can charge them with USB. thats awesome atleast.

 

[Kasp3r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basketballer You can go to the site, www.cowonamerica.com and click on products, and tech specs and look them up and you will see that these two players are almost the same. the only differences I have found are: 1.) U3 is a FLASH drive player and I6 is a HARD DISK drive player. (2GB vs 4GB) (can someone please tell me the difference?)

Why spend 250 bucks for 4 gigs, when you could spend $40 bucks for a 30 gig x5L?

Or even a 20 gig is around 250. And has alot of features.

 

[TenaciousO]

I'm with ^. If you don't feel like taking out the X5 to change songs, pick up a remote.

Unless size is really that big a deal for you, why even consider the iaudio 6? The U3 at least makes some sense because you can be a little rough with it since it's a flash player, but the iaudio 6 seems like it would be subject to all the shock problems of the bigger hdd players. Besides, I agree with you that having a completely touch-based navigation system would be a pain.

The U3 was okay when I had it, but I would honestly go with another iaudio 5 or a G3 if you go the flash player route. It's nice having a color screen and video function, but it's kind of pointless with a screen that small. I also hate the joystick and like the jogwheel system of the iaudio 5 better, if only because I thought it was more accurate. The biggest problem with the U3 though is the small font it uses. This isn't a problem for normal activity, but it presents a huge problem for jogging because text becomes almost impossible to make out while the player is jostled around. You'll effectively have a really expensive ipod shuffle with an annoying joystick.

Added: Just read the part where you're asking about the difference between flash memory and a hard drive. Flash is solid state memory with no moving parts. However, a player like the iaudio 6 has moving parts. With a hard drive, you basically have this little arm hovering slightly above a platter (disk). The little arm reads and records data onto that platter. If that arm touches the platter, you basically risk damaging the hard drive. That's why it isn't a good idea to jog with a hard drive player since jogging might cause the arm to hit the platter.