Cowon Systems D2 (4 GB) Digital Media Player

I general...
I got my D2 just in time for a week long vacation. I figured that's the perfect test for the unit. I had never heard of this company before but after reading about their players, decided instead of getting another iPod (I own a 20GB color). The things that influenced my decision were:

*Cowon's support of both open formats like flac and ogg and more "supported" types like WMA, MP3, WAV.
*It had to work with subscription based music services... the D2 does very nicely.
*Extensible memory which it accomplishes with SD or MMC cards (this is sweet!).
*No mechanical parts.
*Size (about the size of a credit card on the face)
*Battery life (manual says 52 hours audio... I got a less than that by 15 hours or so).
*Acts (can be interacted with) as a mass storage device.

The Display/Interface
The display on this device was better than I expected... movies, clips and photo slide shows (just pop in the SD from your camera) were brilliant. The device even provide some elementary image controls like zoom and rotate. For music the display shows you everything you would want to know in a glance including album art and some audio settings which are accessible via the menus.

After reading several reviews of this unit, the only real complaint from more active users was that this unit was touch screen. This complaint made sense to me because I carry my iPod to the gym and its a pain to figure out what part of my pocket (and rotary dial) to hit to get to the next song without pulling the thing out. Turns out the touch screen functions through many fabrics (workout pants, khakis, jeans, etc.). Problem solved. I also feared the display would be too sensitive to accidental touches(like my touch screen phone) when carrying the device in my pocket. The screen is lockable via part of the power button mechanism but I rarely used it anyway. It's just not an issue for me. This may be because I have put a protective case on the unit that recedes the screen surface farther below the seating surface.

The only external buttons on the device are on the top: volume up/down, menu and a sliding power/lock screen button. The unit comes with a stylus that looks a lot like a guitar pick but I find it generally not necessary. All of the functions and menus are accessible via fingertip touch (thank goodness!). The only exception to this are scroll bars when the menu exceeds the screen height. These are a pain without the stylus but the interface designers cleverly put fingertip accessible scroll controls on the right. Again, problem solved.

The interface looks very nice in general, very thought out and is not busy or complicated. One tap turns the screen on, two taps brings up the option buttons and three semi-translucent track navigation buttons: previous/rewind, pause/play, next/fast forward. You can also tap the playback progress bar to jump to whatever part of the song you want. The option buttons are located at the bottom of the screen which expand upwardly into drawer type menus. These allows the user to adjust playback modes and other audio settings. The menus are so easy to navigate you literally do not need a manual.

Bundled software and documentation
The documentation booklet that ships with this unit is basically a quick start pamphlet. The book on the CD is a little better but is very succinct, but it does explain what most people will be using. The management software you can install on your computer for this unit is JetAudio and JetShell. I have only installed and briefly looked at these but together they seem to be much like iTunes or any other commercial media organizer. The software looks really nice and seems to be feature rich. I let Yahoo! manage my D2 for now (except for movies) but after I get some time I'm going to check this out more. I'll edit this review when I have an update.

Nuts and Bolts
Its obvious the designers wanted this thing to do one thing well: play media files. The unit doesn't have games, calendars, calculators, etc. I see this as a plus. Heres an incomplete rundown of some of the features of this device that are not for just playing media files or browsing pictures:

* Supports many file types (more than most other popular players). Check the tech specs on the Cowon website.

* Music lyrics are supported. (I have not tried this feature)

* FM Radio: his actually turned out to be a nice feature, especially while traveling. Interface to this function is self explanatory and pretty nice looking. You can also record from FM radio.

* Text file viewer: pretty much does what it says.

* Recording from line in, radio or built in mic.

* TV out: the unit can output its signal to a TV in NTSC or PAL format with some optional cables. (I have not tried this feature)

* Timer/Alarm: has all of the settings of a modern alarm. Auto off timer, sleep timer, wakeup alarm. You can wake up to your music or the radio.

*Podcast ready. (I have not looked into this yet).

* Sound processors: The player has processing capabilities which it calls JetEffect. These can alter and enhance you listening experience depending on your environment, headphones, etc. These include: EQ, BBE (quality enhancement), MachBass3, 3D Surround, Stereo Enhance, MP Enhance (compensates for missing sound segments), Pan (balance) and play speed from 50 - 150%.

* Customization: The unit is pretty configurable and where it makes sense. Some people like a nauseating level of reconfigurability to the point of being confusing. This player does not provide this. It does provide font color, sound settings (JetEffect), start-up logo, wallpaper, and most of the settings you would expect like brightness, scroll speed and the music player configuration.


Bottom line
I am highly recommending this player. The size and weight are perfect, the interface is well thought through (they really pulled off the touch thing very well) and I have to say, it adds a cool factor to this device I have not had with my *other* devices. The sound is very good when listening through a pair of decent, closed headphones (I am using Bose) although higher settings on the JetEffects make the music sound jumbled. Judging sound quality through ear buds is like reading in the dark. Sound-wise it's comparable to what would come out of your computer. All the features discussed above make this a very attractive player. I really can't find any serious flaws with the device yet, but will be looking. If you are going to blindly operate the unit or are really impatient this device may not be for you. The touch screen is definitely a speed bump for active users which might be well augmented by some external buttons (hint, hint). Touching the screen three times just to forward can be testing in urgent times. All in all.... I'm not missing the iPod.