Cowon S9 (16GB)
Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc. Part number: S9-16TB
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Cowon S9 is a sexy-looking gadget with exceptional audio and video quality, but its construction quality and user interface pale in comparison to the competition.
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CNET editors' review
Cowon S9 (16GB) price range: $199.99 - $222.17
- Reviewed by: Donald Bell
- Reviewed on: 01/20/2009
- Updated on:06/24/2009
- Released on: 12/19/2008
The good: Cowon's S9 portable media player offers a gorgeous OLED touch-screen display, long battery life, and features such as Bluetooth audio, voice recording, FM radio, Flash media support, audio and video playback, a photo viewer, and a text reader.
The bad: The Cowon S9's user interface isn't quite as polished as the competition, the plastic construction feels flimsy, and it lacks Wi-Fi, memory expansion, and a standard USB port.
The bottom line: The Cowon S9 is a sexy-looking gadget with exceptional audio and video quality, but its construction quality and user interface pale in comparison to the competition.
The Cowon S9 is the first-touch screen MP3 player of 2009 to give Apple's iPod Touch a run for its money. Available in 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($239) capacities, the Cowon S9 is distinguished by its phenomenal audio quality and OLED touch-screen display.
Hardware designPicking up the Cowon S9, the first thing you'll notice is how incredibly light it is (2.7 ounces), which is nearly half the weight of the iPod Touch. Normally this is the kind of thing we would applaud, but the S9 is so impossibly light that it feels more like a toy than $200 worth of technology. After a week of subjecting the S9 to daily wear and tear, however, we're happy to report the S9 is more resilient than we first anticipated. The 3.75 inches by 4.25 inches of clear plastic that covers the face of the S9 is inordinately scratch-resistant, and the dark-colored back and sides hide nicks and smudges much better than the shiny chrome of the iPod can.
The only glaring weak point we found with the S9's construction is the thin, plastic play button lodged into the top edge of the screen. Mistaking the button for a retractable stylus, we nearly ripped the button off just moments after taking the S9 out of the box (the button has been a bit wobbly ever since). Luckily for us, the S9's play button is duplicated by the onscreen playback controls.
On the same top edge of the player you'll find a track-skip switch (also duplicated onscreen) and a volume switch. If it were up to us, we'd lose the S9's play and skip buttons to lessen confusion, because more often than not we brushed the play button accidentally or hit track skip when we meant to turn up the volume.
The bottom edge of the S9 offers a power-hold switch, headphone jack, and a 20-pin USB jack more common to cell phones than MP3 players. Having the headphone jack smack in the middle of the S9's bottom edge makes it a bit awkward to hold in landscape view, and unless there's a good excuse, we always prefer to see mini-USB jacks on portable devices than specialized connectors.
In spite of all the little faults we could nitpick about, the Cowon S9's hardware scores big when it comes to the screen. Not only does the S9 use a lightening-fast capacitive touch interface (comparable to the iPhone's), but its 3.3-inch screen is made from OLED instead of conventional LCD. The S9's screen isn't as large as the 3.5-inch screen on the iPod Touch, but it comes very close and is noticeably more substantial than the screen on the Samsung P2. If you're picky about screen quality, the S9's 480x272 OLED display does not disappoint: the colors are vibrant, contrast is excellent, and there isn't a single viewing angle that doesn't look great.
User interface
Hardware has always been Cowon's strong suit, but its track record with user interfaces has been hit or miss. For the most part, the onscreen user interface of the S9 is one of the best we've ever seen from Cowon. The main menu is spacious, the touch screen is responsive, and we liked the extra details, such as icon animation and page transitions. Unfortunately, despite being Cowon's best effort, Apple and Samsung have set the bar incredibly high with the interfaces of their touch-screen media players, which have benefited from the parallel development of touch-screen mobile phones.
Our overriding criticism of the S9's user interface is that it tries to do too much. For example, in order to fit controls for shuffle modes, song repeat, play and pause, skip, A-B loop, EQ, and tilt-sensor lock onto the S9's music playback screen, Cowon used a control strip across the bottom of the screen that flips around to reveal a second set of controls. When pressed, some of these controls (EQ, for instance) pop up new menus that overlay across the screen, requiring a precise click to close. We can appreciate the ambitious amount of options Cowon is trying to offer the user, but at some point it just becomes messy--especially on a touch screen.
Features
The Cowon S9 handles an impressive array of audio and video formats and throws in extras, such as Bluetooth audio, FM radio, voice recording, radio recording, BBE+ sound enhancement, a text reader, and a Flash media player that begs for games (none are included). If you're willing to shell out an additional $9, you can also buy an accessory cable that enables the S9's video-output capabilities.
From the audio side of things, the S9 offers support for MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and APE and allows you to sort your collection by both ID3 attributes (artist, album, genre) or folder tree. The music-playback screen includes album art, track controls, EQ settings, file information, and options for bookmarking songs or adding them to an on-the-go playlist. Like the iPod Touch, a tilt sensor inside the S9 changes the music-playback screen to an album browser when the device is turned on its side. The S9's ability to connect in MSC and MTP modes allowed us to use it on both a Mac and PC without any problems.
On the video end, the S9 handles MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, and WMV formats, but lacks support for the h.264 files common to video podcasts and popular video encoders such as Handbrake. Most files need to be formatted at 480x272 (video-conversion software is included), however, a few of our higher-resolution test files seemed to play just fine. Like the iPod Touch, the S9 lets users delete videos directly from the device and also bookmarks playback automatically.
If you're a fan of podcasts, Cowon includes MyPodder software with the S9 that makes short work of pulling down new podcast episodes. Unfortunately, as we mentioned before, the S9's lack of h.264 support makes watching video podcasts a tricky proposition.
The photo viewer on the S9 benefits from the beautiful OLED display, but the photo application itself is surprisingly light on format support (JPEG only). The S9's text viewer, on the other hand, is packed with features, including a zoom function, auto-scroll, selectable background colors, and file bookmarking.
The S9's voice-recording, FM-recording, and line-input-recording features all record to the WMA format, with a selectable range of resolutions (32, 64, 80, 96, 128, 256 Kbps). Recordings were clean-sounding, and an automatic track-split feature makes it easy to record multiple songs in a single pass.
The FM radio built into the Cowon S9 offers a large, virtual dial for tuning in stations, as well as an auto-preset feature, selectable world radio bands, and a mono-stereo switch. Radio reception is decent, and the ability to record broadcasts directly to WMA files is a plus.
The Flash and Utility folders found on the main menu of the S9 are empty, with the exception of a lonely calculator application. Cowon is planning to release a public software-developers kit in an effort to encourage people to program their own applications and interface themes for the S9. As far as Flash content is concerned, we found plenty of Flash games and animations online that played nicely with the S9; however, not all games are suited for touch-screen control.
Pairing the Cowon S9 with Bluetooth speakers or headphones is about as straightforward as Bluetooth ever gets. The Bluetooth settings include a button that scans for local Bluetooth devices, a listing of previously paired devices, and a button for switching Bluetooth streaming on and off. Audio quality over Bluetooth is on par with competitors, such as the Samsung P2 or Sony A-Series Walkman, with an operating range of around 20 feet.
Performance
When it comes to audio and video quality, the Cowon S9 hits it out of the park. The BBE+ suite of audio-enhancement effects included on the S9 improves upon the already excellent sound quality of the Cowon D2 and iAudio 7. Thirty sound presets are included on the S9, including four user-defined presets that allow you to tailor the S9's 5-band EQ, stereo enhancement, and BBE+ effects to suit your taste. We can say without hesitation that the Cowon S9 sounds better than any iPod we've heard and its sound-enhancement technology is far more nuanced than the Creative Zen X-Fi or Sony Walkman series. The Samsung P2 (soon to be the P3) is the only comparable MP3 player that can rival the S9 when it comes to overall sound quality and arsenal of sound-enhancement settings.
Thanks to the OLED screen, the S9's video quality is superb: the colors are rich, frame rates are fluid, and there isn't a single angle on the screen that makes for poor viewing. Our only complaint about the S9's video player is file compatibility. The omission of h.264 video support makes us wince a little, and the S9's resolution restrictions have more in common with the iPod than file-friendly products like the Archos 5 or Cowon O2.
Cowon rates the S9's battery life at an astonishing 55 hours for audio and 11 hours for video. Of course, when you crank up the screen brightness, turn on the EQ, and start streaming music over Bluetooth, those numbers likely plummet, but it's still worth a tip of the hat to Cowon for raising the bar on battery life under best-case conditions. CNET Labs test results found the S9 realistically capable of an average of only 36 hours of continuous audio playback (still excellent by most standards), but validated Cowon's claim of 11 hours of video.
Final thoughts
The Cowon S9 has plenty to brag about: an OLED touch screen, long battery life, exhaustive format support, Bluetooth audio, and enviable sound quality. But it's not the only game in town when it comes to iPod Touch alternatives. Sony, Samsung, Haier, and even Memorex have announced their new touch-screen MP3 players for 2009, which, like the S9, are made to compete directly against the award-winning iPod Touch.
In spite of the Cowon S9's strengths, we still recommend the iPod Touch for the majority of users, because of its superior construction, intuitive user interface, and breadth of features. That said--if your sole concern is having the best audio and video quality you can comfortably fit in your pocket, the Cowon S9 is hard to beat.
User reviews
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Fantastic sound quality with amazing durability.
by sacramentobon on February 17, 2009
Pros: -Sound Quality is the best I've heard personally from a portable music player.
-The video quality from the AMOLED screen is amazing.
-Strong but light.
-CORNING GORILLA GLASS covers the screen, not plastic. Incredibly strongCons: -Default user interface is poor in places (coverflow, but that can be disabled now) and good in others. However, there are many user interfaces being made by owners and designers already, so they can be changed.
-Propriety USB.
-Plastic back.Summary: First off, the looks.
Looks really nice, it's light. Now some people have said it is too light for it's size, I find it fine. It's all ...Summary: First off, the looks.
Looks really nice, it's light. Now some people have said it is too light for it's size, I find it fine. It's all plastic(apart from screen), though I like it quite a bit. The back is this curved dark brown/black matte finish which is pleasant looking, it features the reset button and the microphone hole. The sides are also curved titanium looking finish. And if you haven't seen the front, it is an extremely attractive looking device, the 3.3" screen fits flush with the rest of the body. Bottom left is the hidden USB connection, bottom right, is your ON/OFF, HOLD buttons and in between these is your headphone jack. Top right is your skip track buttons, and top left is your dedicated volume buttons which are all very welcome in this design.
Dedicated buttons are a huge plus since you can disable touch screen controls when it's in your pocket and simply skip songs using the tactile ones without taking it out. The top middle protrusion acts as a pause/play button, very nice touch.
Next up, the interface.
There has been a huge amount of complaining in some reviews about the UI. I can see some of their points, but only if your a complete novice to the device, after that, it's very easy to navigate and I find myself flying through Artists, albums and songs in seconds flat. The double tap works just fine and takes very little time to get used to.
The look of the interface when browsing files is simple but effective, though it's not mind blowing. One of my favorite things about this PMP, is the "Now Playing" Screen. I have album art on all my songs, and the such is the quality of the AMOLED screen, that they really jump out at you if you've used a high quality picture. There are many ways of skipping through tracks, all of them easy to do and very nicely planned, except the cover flow, which I have disabled (I'll come back to that). My favourite is the swipe left or right over the album art to skip songs, it works very well.
The way people are complaining about the interface gets to me a bit. The main complaint seems to come down to the fact that it doesn't mimic the Apple Touch's UI in every way. If you want to compare it to the touch, fine, but realize that the Cowon gives better sound and plays video more clearly, I have put them side by side, same video, same music, using the earphones that came with each of them. Cowon wins in that department.
The sound and equalizers are hands down, the best of any mp3 player or pmp I've used. Now I work in a place that sells Ipods, Creatives, Samsung, Sandisk, Archos etc, you name it, we got it (except for Cowon players). I've used them all. The sound on the Cowon S9 genuinely out performs all the ones I've used in my shop. The BBE equaliser setting are especially recommended. I use the BBE Mach3Bass currently. And for those who want to know how loud it goes. I put a song onto an Ipod touch (Go with the flow by Qotsa) and the same one onto the S9. I could listen to it on full volume on the Apple, but 36 out of 40 on the S9 is the most I could bear. Now that's a comparison! Use high quality music on your player. I'm a fan of 320kbps on mp3 or wmv. Or I sometimes have some FLAC too.
The video is of such a high quality. Most of my videos are Avi (Divx), so they all went straight on, no conversion needed. The video screen as the player is upright shows the video near the top, with the bitrate and quality info and equalizer settings underneath it. Flip it on its side, and it's fullscreen and widescreen. The quality must be seen to be believed, as clear as a bell. It's the framerate that impressed me so much though, no blurring. Incredibly smooth. I knew it would be good, just not that good!
Radio. This is something I've struggled to understand about some reviews since I got the player. I would have been forgiven in thinking that it would be useless based on them. However, I used it while travelling from Clonsilla to Maynooth (in Ireland, by no means a fantastic reception area) on the train and it scanned and stored all the stations just fine. It is clearer than my Zen Vision :M (R.I.P) and my Samsung YP-k3. So where did all the negativity come from about the radio? The interface for it is so cool, the virtual dial is so much fun it actually makes me use the radio more than I usually would.
Coverflow, I promised to get back to this, now I will. When on the "Now playing" screen in music, if you flip it on it's side, (given that you have this function enabled) it will go into cover flow mode. Now it is utterly pointless in my view, and poorly done. It doesn't do coverflow between different albums, it does it between all the songs in the album you have currently selected! I have no idea why they did this. Since the picture is just the same for all songs in an album, however it does give the song name. I disabled the accelorometer in music mode. It's just pointless. Once I disabled it though, I didn't need to worry about it.6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not in your dreams, Donald...
by BMNot on January 21, 2009
Pros: Brilliant, multimillion-color AMOLED screen blows away others
Superb sonic characteristics w/custom equalization/enhancement
Management of many file types, via tags or folders in MSC or MTP modes
Updates and bug fixes via regular firmware upgradesCons: Slick but sometimes slow UI still needs more refinement
No support (yet) for non-DRM AAC (iTunes), Audible.com, or h.264/MP4 videoSummary: ... is the "plastic screen 3.75 x 4.25 inches." Try more like an active area of 2 7/8 by 1 5/8 inches, or 3 1/3 inches ...
Summary: ... is the "plastic screen 3.75 x 4.25 inches." Try more like an active area of 2 7/8 by 1 5/8 inches, or 3 1/3 inches diagonally in widescreen format. Otherwise, your review was pretty fair, although I might suggest that music-lovers who buy iPods tend to not know what they're missing due to limited experience beyond iPods.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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One of the best media players I have ever used
by darkproteus66 on January 10, 2009
Pros: Amazing screen with bright vibrant colors and smooth action in videos. Touch controls are spot on. Good menue system. Amazing audio quality. Flash support. Great battery life
Cons: Flash support is so so, video can occasionally stutter on non optimized files, some occasional slowdown between menu screens.
Summary: This is by far one of the best portable multimedia devices I have ever used. The video quality is great and even though there is an occasional slowdown or sputter ...
Summary: This is by far one of the best portable multimedia devices I have ever used. The video quality is great and even though there is an occasional slowdown or sputter in the frame rate (it's very rare I've only see it happen once or twice) the over all experience is well above average. Did i mention the screen? Amazing color gamut from this screen and great deep blacks, crystal clear whites, and bright vibrant colors from everything in between. If this is what oled technology (amoled specifically on this device) has to offer I can't wait for it to hit the home theater market. Thanks to the low power requirements of the display the battery life on this device is great. I spent the better part of the day listening to this device then sat down and watched a feature length film and still had more than 75% power left on the system and this was with the display set to the max brightness. The audio quality is simply amazing, I am a big audiophile and have had 4 mp3 players over the last 3 years and have used and tested countless others from various brands including apple, iriver, creative, and archos and this bests them all in audio. In movie and music playback the sound is great and crystal clear through the entire range (I am using the koss portpro headphones). Great audio codec support which is the main reason I purchased this player and plays almost anything you can throw at it audio wise.
Meant to give this product a 4.5 star rating not a 4
This player is stellar but not without it's downsides. Though it's nice to see flash support on an mp3 player it is a bit of a bust as many flash files either run poorly or actually lock up the system. The menue system isn't as intuitive as it could be but is still easy enough to learn. As stated earlier the video can sometimes slow down but it's not a deal breaker and doesn't happen often. Has bluetooth but doesn't offer an option to synch via it, though it could possibly be added in a firmware update it's still a letdown to not have that from the get go with this player.
Other than that not many complaints about this system, great all around performance sleek sexy look that is still easy to identify with it's curved back to stand out from the rest of the ipod touch clones. Minor gripes aside (many of which may be fixable via firmware updates) this is a great player that is just shy of perfection. This is the first cowon player I have owned but probably won't be the last and I am very much looking forward to the follow up to this player. (wifi and browser please)
Updated on Jan 10, 20092 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Simply the best media player money can buy
by whywisteria on April 15, 2009
Pros: AMOLED! Spectacular sound quality! What else to say! Well, there's also the light weight which can be construed as "cheap" to some. Bluetooth compatibility, a text viewer, flash, and an ever-improving number of firmwares.
Cons: The design of the curve makes it hard to use it on a flat surface. The S9's user interface could use a little work; it's not as polished as the competition...namely the bitten apple.
Summary: The Cowon S9 is great if you want a portable player that can do everything media. It reigns supreme in audio and video - it supports a lot of different ...
Summary: The Cowon S9 is great if you want a portable player that can do everything media. It reigns supreme in audio and video - it supports a lot of different codecs for videos and many music file formats. It is well worth the modest ~$210.
It has a great battery life because of the amazing AMOLED power-saving display - which many other players could do with.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Quality Multimedia Player And Durabiltiy
by ozato on March 22, 2009
Pros: -Best Sound and Video Quality ever.
-55 hours music, 11hours video
-Bluetooth
-unscratchable glass
-great design for especially chrome-black oneCons: -menu transitions are slower than ipod
Summary: great player.. great value for the price
Summary: great player.. great value for the price
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A great player but it won't fit everyone
by Waveblade on January 14, 2009
Pros: - Great Sound Quality
- Plays xvid natively without conversion
- OLED Screen is impressive
- Various skins can be made in Flash as to improve the interface
- Bluetooth audio out
- Build is light, yet not 'cheap'
- EQ is great
- AMAZING battery lifeCons: - Could be more intuitive
- No H264 support
- Some of the menus such as "coverflow" and the like are slow (can be improved with custom skins fortunately)
- Can only save Playlists with MTP mode (MSC mode deletes it; firmware upgrade needed)Summary: I'm using Shure SCL3s with this player and it complements it rather nicely. Sound quality is great, coming from a Zen Microphoto. The hardware itself is lightweight but does ...
Summary: I'm using Shure SCL3s with this player and it complements it rather nicely. Sound quality is great, coming from a Zen Microphoto. The hardware itself is lightweight but does not feel cheap, feels better in the pocket than the iPod touch (the latter is a tad weighty in comparison).
I forgot the address the issue of lack of WiFi. I think it would be nice but the screen in my opinion is not large enough and probably would kill the battery life on the device. If you are coming from an iPod touch you might miss it but those people who already have data plans with their smartphones probably won't see it as a big issue as the iPod touch and smartphones overlap in some cases. Summary: You can't miss what you never had.
f WiFi is a big deal to you, perhaps this device is not for you. Lack of saving playlists is kind of a drag, not a dealbreaker but Bluetooth capability seems to be rather focused for speakers/headphones and not used for file transfers (and unlikely to be updated in firmware imo).
There are a lot of great skins available that fix a lot of the personal nuances with the player such as slow coverflow or more menu options. A big flaw is obviously noted and that's playlists can only be saved in MTP mode when synced. MSC mode deletes it when connected to a computer. Cowon NEEDS to fix this asap via firmware update.
Battery life is
FM transmitter has a neat interface and autoscan is nice. Not much else to say. The equalizer is great and doesn't distort the bass (like the Creative Zen (new one)/Microphoto.
Battery life is pretty much awesome considering how much it can be used for. I was surprised with the 55 hours audio. Even if it were to be like 48 hours it's still amazing.
In my opinion this player is a niche player but fits very well. There is more potential to this player (Don't expect h264 period, the Cowon O2 might be a better player for videos otherwise), especially with its interface that can be written in Flash.
Updated on Jan 21, 20091 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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best sounding mp3 player ever!!!!!!!
by Meme3198 on August 2, 2009
Pros: Great sound quality and amazing oled screen
nice sleek design.Cons: not as many apps as ipod touch.
Summary: this is a great music and video player
Summary: this is a great music and video player
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Best sound quality of ANY media player!
by adapada on July 30, 2009
Pros: Fully User custom interface
Excellent Sound Quality: EQ's use BBE+ and stereo enhance.
Screen: BRIGHT and VIBRANT
Firmware: updated every month
55 hours audio playback, 11 hours video playback (in actuallity, I got 53hrs audio, and 9.5 hrs of video)Cons: If you mistake the play/pause button for a stylus, you have to have NO COMMON SENSE. I'm looking at you, Donald Bell.
If you don't upgrade the firmware, you miss out on all the fun of m3u playlist support, improved responsiveness and gapless playbackSummary: The iPod cannot compare! Where on your beloved iPod is there an equalizer? The S9 has bluetooth, AMAZING battery life, and the most vibrant screen I have ever used in ...
Summary: The iPod cannot compare! Where on your beloved iPod is there an equalizer? The S9 has bluetooth, AMAZING battery life, and the most vibrant screen I have ever used in a portable device. The Sony x1000 series has noise canceling capabilities with only the stock headphones. Get some comfortable 'phones and enjoy the experience.
The build quality is not "flimsy" at all, and the screen uses Gorilla Glass, a scratch resistant screen.
Did you know that iPod Touches have a bootup time 10x the speed of the S9?
Anyone that actually wants to listen to Real music must get one of these as opposed to an iPod. For the same price, ($200) the S9 gets you twice the memory of a iPod Touch 8GB.
The experience of listening to a concert recording with the EQ settings sends shivers down my spine, and I forget that I'm at home, and it sounds like I am right in the concert hall.
As the bootup suggests, this Cowon S9 really is the Ultimate MP3 Player. -
Are you guys actually that stupid?
by exodusiii on June 29, 2009
Pros: It's not flimsy, it's light - thats the whole point of the OLED screen. Try and scratch the screen, I bet you can't. If you don't wan't the best quality sound and video you can get for £200 then buy an ipod - you f*****g deserve eachother!
Cons: I am very unhappy that this product does not get the credit it deserves. It is the best PMP on the market, the best MP3 available and yet the sheep still buy ipods.
Summary: Stop buying into the ipod brand, why do it - there is nothing they do better than anybody else, you are paying extra to look like an idiot that has ...
Summary: Stop buying into the ipod brand, why do it - there is nothing they do better than anybody else, you are paying extra to look like an idiot that has no clue about audio or video quality. I laugh at you all.
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Best Player I've Ever Owned or Used
by n8dog021 on June 7, 2009
Pros: - Amazing Sound Quality
- Large Wide-Screen with Unbelievable Quality
- Unbelievable Battery Life
- Responsive Touchscreen
- Bluetooth
- Flash Player allows any flash (.swf) to run
- Comes with easy-to-use conversion software
- more belowCons: - Price is higher than some other players (still lower than the inferior I-pod touch), but you get what you pay for!
Summary: I've owned the S9 (16GB) for about 6 months now and I love it. I have no major complaints. The price was at the top end of what i ...
Summary: I've owned the S9 (16GB) for about 6 months now and I love it. I have no major complaints. The price was at the top end of what i wanted to spend, but looking back I'm very glad i chose to go with this player. If you're looking for one of the best mp3/video players, look no further. It does not have Wi-Fi, which would have been a nice perk, but that was not important to me in making a decision.
First thing i noticed was how light-weight the thing is. It still manages to feel solid and has proven to be sturdy while being lighter than any player I've held. The second thing i noticed that it was comfortable and fit nicely in my hand, making it easy to use with one hand.
Turning it on, the AMOLED touchscreen was immediately impressive, and is a major reason the battery life is so good (more on that later). Millions of colors for a brilliant display. The touchscreen is plenty responsive, with very few instances of any lagging at all. The screen is large enough to watch videos on it (supports AVI format, which is great).
Sound Quality is Unmatched in my experience. This was something i found in reviews before buying, and i was still very impressed after buying it. I would recommend buying some nice headphones/earbuds to take advantage of the full audio experience. I was amazed to hear such "new" depth and nuances in songs I'd listened to for years. You don't even need to turn it up more than halfway to hear all this depth. There are a ton of "Jet Effect" preset equalizers (EQ), plus 4 FULLY customizable 'user' presets. The additional options (beyond standard EQ) of 'Mach3Bass', '3Dsurround', 'MP Enhance', 'Stereo Enhance', and 'BBE' settings have allowed me to customize my ideal personalized sound setting.
Battery life will blow you away, as it did for me. I recently visited a friend in Seattle from Chicago which is minimum 4 hours each way. I watched movies for about 8 total hours, and listened to music for my 2-hour delay on the way home. I continued to use the player listening to music for 2 weeks after the trip before the battery needed to be recharged. I rarely worry about if i need to charge this player.
Finally, the user interface. Since i bought mine shortly after the product was released, the OS and firmware was fine, but nothing special or flashy. Now i've recently updated the firmware to the newest release, and must say they've made a lot of improvements (see link below, using copy/paste). I expect and look forwards to more in the future.
http://www.cowonglobal.com/download/Firmware/COWONS9/GUIDE/2_30b/en_s9_guide.html
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc.
- Part number: S9-16TB
- Description: The Cowon S9's innovative design features a titanium/black face and a curved-back casing surrounding a 3.3-inch Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) touch screen display. To complement its sleek form design, the S9 features an exclusive GUI system boasting capacitive touch screen operation, advanced video functionality supporting transcoding-free playback of most DVD-quality MPEG-4 videos and TV output, Bluetooth 2.0 support for stereo headphones, G-sensor accelerometer for auto-pivot display, and extended battery life of 11 hours for video and 55 hours for audio. The S9 is also the Cowon player to offer next-generation JetEffect 2.0 audio technology with improved EQ filter, stereo enhancement and BBE+, which includes upgraded BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D surround and MP enhance audio processing. The Cowon S9 is loaded with exclusive features including a 500MHz dual-core processor, widescreen AMOLED display capable of 16-million colors with 480 x 272 resolution, and capacitive touch-screen operation of Cowon's advanced GUI system with Zoom UI, video clip preview, auto pivot, and quick list functions. The PMP also supports "user created interface" to allow users to develop and share the S9's unique interface.
General
- Device Type Digital AV player
- Key Features FM tuner, Voice recorder, Digital audio player, Digital photo viewer, Digital video player, Digital audio recorder
- Width 2.2 in
- Depth 0.5 in
- Height 4.2 in
- Weight 2.7 oz
- PC Interfaces Bluetooth, Hi-Speed USB
- Features Text viewer
Display
- Display Type AMOLED 3.3 in - Color
- Display Form Factor Built-in
- Image Aspect Ratio 16:9
- TV Standards Supported PAL, NTSC
- Display Features Touch screen
Memory / Storage
- Integrated Flash Memory 16 GB
- File System Supported FAT 32
Still Images
- Supported Still Images Formats JPEG
Digital Audio
- Supported audio formats MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, APE (Monkey's Audio)
- Signal-to-noise ratio 95 dB
- Audio output Headphones
- Microphone Built-in microphone
- Digital audio features 5 band EQ, ID3 tags support
Radio
- Tuner frequency range 87.5 - 108 MHz
Video
- Video Playback Formats AVI, WMV, XviD
- Features Subtitles
Connectivity
- Connections USB, Headphones, Composite video/audio output, Audio line-in
Battery
- Required Qty 1 day(s)
- Rechargeable Battery Rechargeable
- Battery Enclosure Type Internal
- Technology Lithium polymer
- Battery Life Details Audio playback - up to 55 hour(s), Video playback - up to 11 hour(s)
Software
- Software Included Drivers
Environmental Parameters
- Min operating temperature 32 °F
- Max operating temperature 104 °F
System Requirements
- Operating System MS Windows ME, MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows Vista
- System Requirements Details Windows 2000/XP/Vista - Pentium III
Miscellaneous
- Firmware Upgradable Yes
- Included Accessories Stereo headphones
Product series
-
Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc.
Specs: Digital AV player, 2.2 in x 0.5 in x 4.2 in, AMOLED 3.3 in - Color, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, APE (Monkey's Audio), AVI, WMV, XviD, 2.7 oz
-
Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc.
Specs: Digital AV player, 2.2 in x 0.5 in x 4.2 in, AMOLED 3.3 in - Color, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, APE (Monkey's Audio), AVI, WMV, XviD, 2.7 oz
-
Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc.
Specs: Digital AV player, 2.2 in x 0.5 in x 4.2 in, AMOLED 3.3 in - Color, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, APE (Monkey's Audio), AVI, WMV, XviD, 2.7 oz
-
Manufacturer: Cowon Systems, Inc.
Specs: Digital AV player, 2.2 in x 0.5 in x 4.2 in, AMOLED 3.3 in - Color, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, APE (Monkey's Audio), AVI, WMV, XviD, 2.7 oz
Manufacturer info
- Cowon Systems, Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Cowon Systems, Inc. products on Shopper.com
-
- Website: http://www.cowonamerica.com
- Address:
448-2 (STX bldg 7F) Dogok-dong, Seoul - Phone: 82-2-3460-8282
- Email: service@cowon.com
- Fax: 82-2-3460-8222
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