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The super sleek iAudio 9 PMP was on the very recent list of players that recently made it out of Cowon. It’s quite the looker as far as the lower-end PMPs go and could easily occupy a space in the iPod’s category. Although the new iPod Nano will outshine it simply because of the camera feature, the iAudio 9 seems to have the capability of holding its own. But here’s what I think. From Factor The PMP is just 8.9mm in depth making it one of the slimmest players out there at the moment. It comes with a 2-inch TFT LCD with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 262K colors making it quite clear and easy on the eyes. The iAudio 9 uses a touch sensitive navigation system. It has a diagonal line running across the touch sensitive area below the display with two buttons on either side. On the side, or should I say ridge, of the device is a switch that can be used to switch the device on or off or lock the keys. Just above that is a Menu key for returning to the main menu system. Volume keys are located on the other side and the 3.5mm earphone socket and proprietary USB ports are located at the bottom.  Features and Performance Interface The UI is smooth and once you’ve got the hang of the navigation system (which can be adjusted to an extent) you’re good to go. It can get just a little tricky sometimes as the keys aren’t very clearly laid out but like I said it’ll take a couple of tries till you get used to it. It’s a very unique UI that uses its diagonal touch sensitive line for navigation. It’s very responsive and there’s no lag even when it comes to opening large files like movies or Jpeg images.  Audio As usual, there’s very little to complain about in the music department with Cowon’s JetEffect v3.0 and BBE+ sound engine that includes Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance, 3D Surround Special Effects like Stereo Enhance, Reverb and a 5 Band Graphic Equalizer which you can customize. That’s plenty as it is. The music enhancement settings can be accessed direct from the No Playing screen so you don’t have to go back though all the various menus to the settings. The iAudio 9 is capable of some pretty steep decibel levels so peaking the volume is not a good idea nor will you ever actually have to. It also reads FLAC and OGG files amongst the long list of other acceptable audio formats.  The iAudio9 also comes with an FM radio that has a recording feature. It took a little while to scan for all the available stations but what’s impressive is that it located most of the channels in an area where I normally get very little or no reception. Recordings made when reception is optimum came out very well. It also has a built in microphone which can be used for leaving voice memos. I wouldn’t use it as a Dictaphone as the range is just under 2 feet, if you’re looking for clear audible recordings. The built in speaker is just about as loud as some of the more basic mobile handsets so although you can’t really dance to a thumping beat at its low volume you can enjoy a more subtle taste in music. Video The device has full support for AVI, WMV, XviD and ASF video formats making it an extremely versatile video player. The screen may be a little too small to really enjoy a full length movie but short clips or TV series are no problem. Videos look really good on the device and you can adjust the aspect ratio to fit the video to the full screen. Aside from being able to just copy paste most videos to playback on the device you can also install the bundled PC media software to convert videos to a more optimized format. It also supports a resume play feature for all videos so you could be watching multiple videos and resume all from where you stopped, just like in an iPod. The I’9 also supports TV out, the composite cables are not included. It supports both NTSC and PAL.  |
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