One of the main selling points that Cowon has managed to stabilize is the copy-paste media option wherein users won’t need to waste time converting videos for playback. While I believe that to be true, I also believe that one of the drawbacks to their franchise is the fact that their players, brilliantly large displays and all, are rather heavy and generically designed. The Cowon S9 seems to be a horse of a different color however and here’s exactly why.

Form Factor
The S9 is a very trendy looking PMP with a classy feel. The curved back panel gives it a smooth finish unlike any of the other players the company has brought to the shelves so far. A set of volume and canning keys are located on top and what may look like a strap loop in the middle is actually a Play/Pause button. At the bottom is a slider for switching the power on or off as well as locking the display. A proprietary USB port is located on the same end after the 3.5mm earphone socket. The 3.3-inch AMOLED (16 million colors 480 x 270) capacitive touchscreen display is simply brilliant.


Here are the issues I have with the design – Firstly, why have a proprietary USB port when other models have standard mini USB slots? If the cable is misplaced, it may not be easy getting a replacement, but mini USB is a standard across the range so if you’re a techie you’ll probably have some device that uses a similar wire. It’s also easily available.


Secondly, and I know that other reviewers share the same sentiment, the press images of the product give off a rather metallic, steel like impression of the device. It looks like it could be a sturdier player as well. This image is quickly wiped clean from your mind when you have the product in sight. Although I’m still a fan of the design and I’m quite happy that it’s so light weight and easily portable, the jury’s still out on the overall build quality.

Features and Performance
Interface
The main menu is designed with extreme simplicity. The player offers two themes to add a little spice if that’s what you need. The internal menus provide small but still accessible options for settings, scanning etc. To save space, the main menu bar usually located at the bottom of the display is dual sided with a small ‘Flip’ option at the end to reveal more settings. While the accelerometer is smooth with no transition effect, the touch sensitivity is a bit erratic sometimes in some conditions. When it comes to scanning files, the status bar was, for some reason not very easy to use, so the buttons on the top will work out very well here.


I do wish that the entire Flash UI worked with the accelerometer. It seemed like there were dedicated menus that worked with screen rotation. So if you’re watching a video and come back to the ‘List’ menu you’ll have to flip your hand to portrait and back again when resuming the file. A quick menu option to select files is available on both the audio and video playback screens.