Cowon D2 PMP
Cowon is a Korean brand, established in 1995, which specialise in high quality media players and navigation systems. The company is well known for top-notch quality and sound reproduction in their PMP (Portable Media Player) range, yet their market penetration outside Korea is quite minimal. One reason includes the lack of consumer knowledge of the brand; it's quite often that you'll see novices refer to the brand as 'generic' or 'inferior', purely because the company name is not well known. Nevertheless, Cowon continue to produce stunning PMPs (fueled by their great success in Korea), and I have here the Cowon D2 to pick and prod at!

The Nitty Gritty - Features
Cowon are famous within the audiophile community for their players' strong specifications. The D2 includes support for a multitude of audio formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV and APE. This is great news for people who wish to use their favorite audio format instead of resorting to format conversion. Similarly, several video formats can be played on the D2's 320x240 resolution screen including MPEG4 (MP4), DivX, XviD and WMV - at 30 frames per second!

Smaller size is of growing importance (pun most definitely intended ) to consumers when it comes to portable gear. Suffice to say, the Cowon D2 is quite compact for the features it offers. At 78.0mm x 55.4mm x 16.6mm, the player is small enough to slip into a pocket, and thick enough to feel comfortable about sitting down without snapping it. The screen size is a decent 2.5" and the colour output is a splendid 16 million colours. Weight is another issue which is often inextricably associated with portability, and the D2 doesn't disappoint. The device weighs in at a mere 91g, perfect for a PMP.

Physical size is not the only measure which users seek, there is also the issue of storage capacity. The Cowon D2 comes in many flash based storage capacities including 4GB, 8GB and 16GB variants. If that's not enough to wet your media enticed appetite, then the inbuilt SDHC reader will, allowing another 16GB to be added - a grand total of 32GB of flash storage!

The Cowon D2 is one of the first PMPs to feature a touchscreen interface, and although released in early 2007, still gives modern competitors a run for their money. The best way to describe the interface is to see it for yourself, so here's a video which demonstrates the GUI (grpahical user interface) in all its glory:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Byd_zguHLEg
Video by canabrasileiro.

For those who dislike the default look of the players GUI, you can alter and replace it via Flash based skins. This is quite unique to this particular PMP. The support for Flash extends to applications too - you can upload and play Flash games on the D2.

Audio output on the Cowon is quite powerful, with 37mW of amplification on each earphone and a total of 75mW (16 Ohm) power output! This is great for those with high quality ear/canalphones. As with most media players, the bundled earphones don't do the player justice. The D2 also features a five band equaliser, and music enhancement technologies such as BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, 3D Surround and Stereo Enhance.

Being a device of portable nature, the battery longevity is a concern. Fortunately, the Cowon D2 lasts up to 52 hours when playing music, and 10 hours with video. Impressive! Charging the battery can be achieved via USB, or mains power. USB charging takes about 7 hours, while mains takes only 3.5 hours.

Another useful feature of the D2 is it's picture viewer which supports the popular JPEG file format. It's quite useful when showing friends and family images from your camera - you can stick in a camera SD card and voila!

Extra Features
There are a few extra features which the PMP offers, such as a scientific calculator, notepad (similar to MS Paint), text reader, and lyrics playback. These features often come in handy when you need to jot down a quick note, or work out a mathematical problem.

Performance
Performance when using the Cowon D2 is nothing short of amazing. Skipping to parts of a music or video file are instantaneous, and most Flash games run quite smooth. Even large images react quite fast to zooming and panning when being viewed on the D2.

Value
The Cowon D2 is fairly cheap, and can be found in Australia for $199 (4GB), $239 (8GB) and $295 (16GB) at the only Aussie importer Minidisc. It is priced similar to the iPod range, however the quality of music and video is greater on the Cowon D2. If the larger size and touchscreen interface of the Cowon D2 doesn't bother you, it is definitely the better choice over its competition range.

The Good
- The interface is simple to use, and can be customised using Flash skins.
- The music playback is of the highest quality.
- The five band equiliser and multitude of enhancement technolgies work well to improve music quality
- Inbuilt tools such as the calculator and notepad
- Great battery life
- Very responsive

The Bad
- No playlist support
- No gapless playback
- Not as pretty as the iPod range

Specifications
Specifications for the Cowon D2 are available at the Cowon Global website.



Edited by .:Cyb3rGlitch:.: 9/10/2008 03:40:03 PM

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