Cowon X5 owners might feel a little like some current Zen Vision:M owners after reading this. You might be wondering what I'm getting at there, so here we go. The Creative ZEN is the replacement for the ZVM. It has the same screen size, and many of the same features. The only problem for current owners looking for a true successor is, it's a flash player. Well, Cowon just revealed the iAudio U5 and from the looks of it, it's very much a flash version of the iAudio X5. It has a similar joystick, similar design elements, and the same screen size. Catch my drift now?

• Capacity: 2, 4, and 8GB
• 1.8" TFT Display (128 x 160, 65K colors)
• Audio: MP3, and WMA
• FM Tuner/Recorder
• Voice recorder
• Battery Life: 20 hours

Like many ZVM owners out there, I'm sure this player comes as a disappointment to current X5 owners. On the positive side, Cowon has not stated that the U5 is the replacement for the X5, so there's still a chance that we'll see an X7 one day. This player is also lacking one key feature that the X5 had and that's video playback (at least according to Cnet Asia). Another oddity about the specs is the lack of support for Ogg and FLAC. I'd have a hard time believing Cowon would drop those formats. Pricing and release date are not yet known, but we'll update you when we find out.

via Cnet Asia