Photo gallery: Cowon O2 (32GB)Cowon may not be a big-name player in Australia's portable media market, but the Korean company does come up with some pretty decent video-viewing devices, such as the uber capable A3. The latest release is the O2, a portable media player available in 16GB ($495) and 32GB ($589) versions.
Design
Simplicity, thy name is Cowon. Available in black and white, the O2 is a minimalist rectangular prism dominated by a 4.3-inch (10.9-centimetre), 480 by 272-pixel touchscreen. In real-world terms, this means the screen is larger than the iPod Touch's display, but has a lower resolution — the Touch and iPhone both clock in at 3.5 inches (8.9 centimetres) and 480 by 320 pixels.
The buttons on the bezel blend in with their surroundings, but look closely and you'll see dedicated volume keys on the top. A mini-USB socket and SDHC card slot are hidden beneath a protective flap on the right-hand side, beneath the headphone socket. An AC adaptor port sits on the bottom, while the right side houses a combined power/hold switch and a stealthy little microphone.
Switch on the O2 and you're greeted with a cheery menu of square iPhone-esque icons. It's all very cute and user-friendly, but when you tap one and reach the sub-menu, you'll see that files are organised by folder. If your songs and videos aren't meticulously organised and labelled with appropriate filenames, you may find it difficult to locate them within the tree structure of the menus.
Features
Unlike players such as the iPod Touch or Archos' latest offerings, the O2's focus is strictly on multimedia playback. But before you write it off for being a one-trick pony, take a look at the massive list of file formats and codecs it will handle. In addition to the more commonplace AVI, WMV, H.264 and MPEG-4, DivX and XviD video files, the O2 plays ASF, MP4, MATROSKA, OGM, MPG, DAT, MTV, M-JPEG and MPEG-1. Resolutions of up to 720p are supported, and you won't have to spend an age transcoding your files with bundled software — it's a matter of simple drag-and-drop or Windows Media Player.
Audio support is no less impressive. MP3s, WMAs and WAVs are supplemented by AAC, FLAC, OGG, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, MusePack and WavPack files, among others. One filetype it's not compatible with, however, is protected WMA files. That means you'll need to be a bit careful when buying music online — look for files in MP3 format or visit the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Store.
The O2 doesn't have games, internet connectivity, widgets or Wi-Fi. There's no radio, either. But there is one seriously tweakable 10-band equaliser, as well as a built-in speaker, TV-Out capability, support for subtitles and voice recording directly into FLAC format. Beyond the multimedia features you'll find a calculator, text reader and a notepad.
Performance
Sound quality is fantastic through the headphones, and support for all manner of lossless audio formats means you can hear details that would be lost in the muddy mire of low-bitrate MP3s. Audio quality via the speaker isn't so flash, with distortion and tinniness marring the clarity of songs and videos. This is hardly a Cowon-specific malady, though — the speaker on the latest iPod Touch is equally shonky.
Videos look superb, and all file types we transferred played with no problems or irritating "File not supported" messages. One thing that bugged us was that if your video viewing is interrupted and the player turns itself off, it's not possible to resume playback at the spot you stopped watching. Automatic resumption of songs, videos and podcasts is a standard feature on iPods, so it's disappointing to see it excluded here.
The touchscreen display is pretty responsive, and processor lag is minimal, but navigating through your files can occasionally be fiddly. Menus feature small type and track navigation keys are squished next to the bottom edge of the screen. If you've been cursed with chubby fingers, you'll want to use the supplied stylus.
The O2 is built for the audio and video aficionado who doesn't need a bunch of extra crap cluttering up their portable player. Fans of lossless audio will love the laundry list of supported files, while video fiends will appreciate the smooth look of their higher-resolution clips.
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