The COWON D2 is the first ultra portable video player and first flash based touch screen player in its family. It has a similar appearance to the iRiver Clix, and the D2 has some significant difference under the hood: like the TV output, support lossless audio codecs like Flac and Ogg, and an SD/SDHC card slot for unlimited expansion. Recommendation- a protective case and a better set of headphones. The headphones I used along with testing the sound quality of the device are the Ultrasone HFI-2200 headphones.

Quick Overview

• Audio: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, APE, WAV, AAC (only on older firmware versions)
  
• Video: MPEG4-SP (DivX, XviD, ...), WMV9 - 320 x 240, 30fps
  
• Photo: JPEG (no size limit)
  
• Screen: 2.5", 24 bit (16 million) color, 320 x 240, TFT-LCD
  
• Dimensions: 78.0 x 55.4 x 16.6 mm (3.07 x 2.18 x 0.65 inches)
  
• Weight: 91 g (3.21 oz)
  
• Rated battery life: 52 hours for music, 10 hours for video
  
• Other features: Touch screen, SD/SDHC card slot, TV-out, FM radio, voice/line-in/FM recorder, BBE sound enhancements, user-configurable effect presets, text viewer, date/ time/alarm, bookmarks, on-the-go playlist, deleting files on the player, dictionary (only with Korean firmware)

Pros

• Excellent audio quality, very strong amplifier
  
• Excellent video quality, very good screen
  
• Excellent battery life
  
• SD/SDHC card slot can go up to 16GB
  
• TV output (with optional cable)
  
• Huge variety of supported audio codecs Mp3, Wma, Ogg, Flac, Wav
  
• BBE audio enhancements
  
• Preset slots for various EQ and BBE settings
  
• Line-in (with optional cable), FM, and voice recording
  
• UMS Mass Storage Class, works on any modern operating system without any software (but MTP also available)
  
• Audio tracks sorted by file/folder, next to ID3 browsing
  
• Informative screen
  
• Fast, responsive menu
• Standard Mini-USB jack for data transfer and charging
  
• Can customize your own skins
  

Cons

• Touch screen control isn't overly user-friendly or time saving
  
• Not enough hardware buttons for comfortable operation, no remote control available, and also no dedicated play/pause/back/skip button while listening
  
• Impractical stylus/stand design
  
• Records only to WMA, not MP3 or WAV
  
• Absurdly high bitrate for MPEG4, but no bigger video size than 320 x 240 supported (for TV out)
  
• Still no gapless playback
  
• Useless Stylus but good for a stand to support the player
• No Software Video Converter for Macintosh.
  

Accessories- ☆ ☆ ☆
In the box there are earphones, Quick Guide Booklet, an AC Adapter, Installation CD, and a USB Cable. Other accessories are sold separately, such as the TV-out cable, line/mic-in cable converter, cases, and screen protectors. They should give a TV-out cable due to how small the player is.

Design-☆ ☆ ☆
The player itself is small and it could be a problem for people with large fingers. Overall the player is considered to be great. Build quality seems solid, and the weight feels right. It is not attractive comparing to other mp3 players on the market but this player is overall good.

User Interface

Navigation Controls- ☆ ☆ ☆
I find it easy to navigate through songs and with the slide function instead of taping the side to get to scroll down the page. Overall the firmware still has some bugs but with the latest firmware, I recommend it due to fixes.

GUI-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The main screen provides direct access to all major functions of the D2: Audio, Video, Picture, Text, Radio, Record, and Settings. I also liked how many languages this player can take. For me, I like how it shows my music in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai. I was surprised that it shows Thai because not a lot of players really do that. I also flashed the player with the Korean firmware because it has more features than the North American firmware.

Battery- ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
I’m amazed about the battery life. It is very good. I got to the maximum of 50 hours one time just letting it play my music on repeat without charging. I mostly charge my player when I sleep so mostly I don’t have any problems in getting the player to be dead. I didn’t have any complaints and worries about the COWON D2 battery life. Also there are two ways you can charge it by plugging it to a USB or using the AC Adapter. Keep in mind that when using USB to charge, you can’t play music. Using the AC Adapter would be better.

Features

SD/SDHC- Having an SD card slot with the player is important. I thought this was a great feature because when you are tired with the old songs, you can always change SD cards for new music or any other media.

FM Radio- Having a radio built in is a must. I found the reception to be very good and also you can record the radio while listening.

Transferring Files/Removable Disk- You can store files anywhere on the FAT16/32 formatted internal memory or on the SD card and access them on any modern operating system. The only downside is the USB transfer speeds of 35-40 Mb/s, very slow considering USB 2.0 is capable of 480 Mb/s. With recent firmware versions the player can also be switched to MTP operation, a transfer protocol that only works well on Windows XP and Vista.

Other Features

Photo viewer- The supported format for the image viewer is JPEG, and there are no size limits. It is possible to zoom and rotate images, or pan and scan around them. Pan and scan works very well (this is where the touch screen really makes for a useful interface), and it's also possible to run a slide show. The speed of the slide show is adjustable and can be paused or stopped. Music playback continues while viewing images.

Audio- ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
EQ Sound Options- The player gives excellent features with sound options. I like the BBE Mach Bass and the customizable EQs that it comes with. Sound quality is excellent also because it not only supports MP3, it supports OGG, FLAC, WAV, and WMA.

Video- ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Video quality is very good also in using COWON’s converting software. I was amazed the clarity of the screen resolution.

Conversion- ☆ ☆ ☆
Converting videos would be time consuming due to rendering. I mostly put all the videos on a queue list and let it render on its own. I found no problem with the software for Windows other than there is no software for the Mac.

by Parris Milly