Photo gallery: Cowon A2Upside
Like the Archos AV500 Mobile DVR, the Cowon A2 has a dazzling 4-inch, 480x272-pixel wide-screen display that makes everything from photos to videos look sharp and bright, even in daylight. The A2 is simple to use, though the Creative Zen Vision is more intuitive. Only five buttons adorn the clean A2 face: a multifunction joystick navigational array; a Back key; and three soft menu keys marked A, B, and C that correspond to onscreen options.
The A2's impressive list of capabilities include an MP3/WMA/WAV/OGG music player; an FM radio; an AVI, DivX/XviD, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and ASF video player, though no motion JPEG compatibility; a JPG, BMP, and PNG picture viewer; a voice and line-in recorder; a text reader; and, best of all, a PVR to record TV programming directly from your cable box, satellite receiver, or TV. What stands out is the number of codecs and resolutions the Cowon can handle -- without video conversion. Unlike the Archos, which requires a separate hub that enables a higher-quality S-Video connection, the Cowon uses the minijack-to-RCA connection familiar to anyone who's hooked up a camcorder to a TV. Cowon's rated battery times of 18 hours for audio and international-flight-friendly 10 hours for video are also excellent.
Downside
Both the Archos AV500 Mobile DVR and the Creative Zen Vision (the A2's direct competitors) are slightly smaller and lighter than the 87mm by 133mm by 28mm, 298 gram 20GB Cowon. The A2 doesn't have a convenient built-in kickstand, but the included carrying case can prop the player up for hands-free viewing. Though the battery lasts a good while, it's not removable, as with the AV500. A 100GB option for the A2 would be a nice for power users.
All content is listed alphabetically in their varying sections, but a lot of material is buried deep in folders that require some drilling, depending on how it was transferred to the device. Unlike with the Zen Vision, you can't sync your Microsoft PIM programs. Though the A2 sounds great, the built-in speaker is not very loud, as it is with the Zen Vision.
Outlook
Portable video players are gaining momentum, and Cowon's first entry can hang with the best of them -- namely, the Archos AV500 Mobile DVRand the Creative Zen Vision. Not only can the A2 do just about anything, it has excellent battery life and is easy to use. The only thing keeping nonearly adopters from ripping these off the shelves is the general lack of legally available video, though the Cowon A2 can play much of what's thrown at it. Look for Cowon's first portable video player entry to be hot -- if not with the general public, then with portable video connoisseurs.
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