At the top of our list yesterday was Cowon iAudio since we had heard rumors of a new MicroDrive based player, the iAudio 6. Sure enough, they had it on display and we were able play with it for a few minutes. It's amazingly small for a hard drive based player, hardly bigger than the iAudio U3 (a flash memory based player). In fact, I believe it's the smallest player of this type we've ever seen, due in part to the new 0.85-inch hard drive that it uses instead of the more common 1-inch type MicroDrive.

Features:
• 0.85-inch hard drive, 4gb
• 1.3-inch OLED display (260k colors)
• Plays MPEG-4 video
• Plays MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, & WAV audio
• Supports WMA10 DRM (Janus)
• JPEG pictures viewing
• Text file viewing
• FM radio, recording
• Voice recording
• Line-input audio recording
• USB Host (USB OTG)
• Touch-sensitive and mechanical controls

Build quality is very solid, typical of iAudio players. The screen is bright and easy to read, with a resolution of about 160x120 (a guesstimate). Exact details were not available but it looks much like the screen on the iAudio U3. Also of note is a slick new GUI/menu system and the main controller, which is the first touch-sensitive type control on an iAudio player. It works nicely - the sensitivity seems to be well tuned.

In case you were wondering, the iAudio 6 is meant to be held horizontally, with the screen on the left side. The diagonal orientation of the touch-strip is perfect for the natural arc of your thumb. The volume controls on the top edge fall within easy reach of your forefinger.

We asked about the MSRP of the iAudio 6, but nothing is set yet. They said it will be available for sale in late February. We also asked about the iAudio X5 - whether a new version was in works, as it's getting kind of old - but they couldn't tell us anything. It's pure speculation, but we think it might follow the same design as the iAudio 6.

Update: Added some features that I forgot to list.