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Cowon O2 - 32GB
The previous model that Cowon launched in India was the A3 PMP that fared rather well in our tests. The Korean company’s latest offering in the Portable Media Player segment is the touch screen O2 and here’s how it fared.
Form Factor
The O2 is a little on the heavy side at about 205g so toting it around in your pocket is not really an option. To elaborate further, its dimensions are - 119.5(W) x 73.4(H) x 18.0(T) mm. Its large 4.3 inch, 16 million color, digital TFT LCD touch screen sports a 480 x 272 pixel resolution, which is brilliant. The volume controls are located on the top to one side and a Power on/off slider with a key lock option is located on one of the sides. The player is already equipped with 32GB of internal user memory but also supports SD cards for additional storage.
The slot is neatly hidden behind a panel on one side along with a mini USB port for PC connectivity (doesn’t charge through it) that doubles as a TV out (NTSC/PAL). Sadly no cables are included with the box. A standard 3.5mm earphone socket and 5 volt DC socket are placed on either side of this panel. The O2 is available in white and black and I have to say it’d really be difficult choosing as they both look really good. What Cowon has included, is a small kick stand than can be tethered to the player with a strap. This allows you to neatly prop it up and comfortably enjoy videos. Unlike the A3, the O2 is sans a case with a stand. A Screen protector will be necessary.
Features and Performance
Interface
The O2’s interface is well designed and very touch friendly, hence, no stylus. Even while viewing multiple files; it’s intuitive enough to allow you to select one from the middle without hassle. Of course you could also opt to increase the size of the information from the settings.
On the whole it’s smooth with only a very negligible amount of lag while changing screens. Like all the other Cowon players, a video will still be running and clearly visible, unless stopped, while you access other information, settings etc. from other menus. The display was ok in daylight, but there was a hint of reflection, but thankfully not enough to be a bother.
Audio
One of the biggest drawbacks you’ll immediately notice is the lack of an FM radio, although it does have an excellent voice recorder. The radio would have added to its appeal I’m sure. When it comes to the audio player I have absolutely no complaints except one – the player doesn’t automatically switch to its built in speaker if the earphones are removed.
That setting can only be accessed via the Audio Settings menu that takes a bit of effort getting to. All other settings - and there are plenty of those including JetEffect that covers BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance and 3D Surround - makes for a truly great audio experience. You’ll never need to peak the volume EVER, unless your idea is to go deaf. A 10 Band manually customizable graphic EQ is available to make adjustments to your preference as well and there are also 7 additional presets.
The player supports MP3/2/1, WMA, AC3, FLAC, OGG, WAV and a few other formats. For the full list of all formats and audio codecs click here. The bundled earphones are perfect. They’re comfortable to wear and provide great sound.
Video
With support for AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV, OGM, MPEG, DAT and MTV formats watching videos is a copy-paste job and with USB 2.0 speeds, it won’t take too long either. Since the drives are formatted to FAT32, you won't be able to copy an HD video - though I was able to copy a (1.36GB) .MKV file that unfortunately didn’t seem to play video, just audio.
It comes with DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV, H.264, MPEG 1 video codecs and also supports a maximum video resolution of 1280 x 720 at 30 fps. There are options for stretching videos to either 16:9 or watching it in 4:3 depending on your preference. There’s not much else to mention here. Like I mentioned earlier, it supports NTSC and PAL video out (composite). The cables will have to be purchased as additional accessories.
Other Features
Some of the additional features loaded into O2 include an image viewer (JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW) and the images can also be used as a wallpaper, but I have to advice against this as it tends to sometimes clash with the data onscreen and makes it difficult to read.
The player also has a .TXT reader for eBooks in that format. If you’re worried about the text being small, don’t. It can be adjusted in size and if necessary, color as well. It even comes with a notepad for scribbling or drawing. In case you happen to be one of those mathematically inclined individuals, the O2 is rigged with a full scientific calculator that can be switched to basic with a single click.
Battery
With a battery that ran from a full charge to shut down due to drain, the count was in at 4 hours and 45 minutes for non-stop video playback and 16 hours and 15 minutes for audio. This is quite close to the count that the company claims the player is capable of offering, but is of course lower.
The Bottom Line
All of this is priced at Rs. 21, 000 (32GB) which is just too high. I’m not sure what logic has been used here considering the A3 offers almost twice as many features with a larger screen, TV cables and a carry case included and so much more memory for just a little more money. While the quality of the video and audio is definitely the O2’s finest features, I have to say, it’s worth those couple of thousand rupees more to get the A3. The only offering the O2 comes with, is touch screen capability, a fancy calculator and not too much more.
Form Factor
The O2 is a little on the heavy side at about 205g so toting it around in your pocket is not really an option. To elaborate further, its dimensions are - 119.5(W) x 73.4(H) x 18.0(T) mm. Its large 4.3 inch, 16 million color, digital TFT LCD touch screen sports a 480 x 272 pixel resolution, which is brilliant. The volume controls are located on the top to one side and a Power on/off slider with a key lock option is located on one of the sides. The player is already equipped with 32GB of internal user memory but also supports SD cards for additional storage.
The slot is neatly hidden behind a panel on one side along with a mini USB port for PC connectivity (doesn’t charge through it) that doubles as a TV out (NTSC/PAL). Sadly no cables are included with the box. A standard 3.5mm earphone socket and 5 volt DC socket are placed on either side of this panel. The O2 is available in white and black and I have to say it’d really be difficult choosing as they both look really good. What Cowon has included, is a small kick stand than can be tethered to the player with a strap. This allows you to neatly prop it up and comfortably enjoy videos. Unlike the A3, the O2 is sans a case with a stand. A Screen protector will be necessary.
Features and Performance
Interface
The O2’s interface is well designed and very touch friendly, hence, no stylus. Even while viewing multiple files; it’s intuitive enough to allow you to select one from the middle without hassle. Of course you could also opt to increase the size of the information from the settings.
On the whole it’s smooth with only a very negligible amount of lag while changing screens. Like all the other Cowon players, a video will still be running and clearly visible, unless stopped, while you access other information, settings etc. from other menus. The display was ok in daylight, but there was a hint of reflection, but thankfully not enough to be a bother.
Audio
One of the biggest drawbacks you’ll immediately notice is the lack of an FM radio, although it does have an excellent voice recorder. The radio would have added to its appeal I’m sure. When it comes to the audio player I have absolutely no complaints except one – the player doesn’t automatically switch to its built in speaker if the earphones are removed.
That setting can only be accessed via the Audio Settings menu that takes a bit of effort getting to. All other settings - and there are plenty of those including JetEffect that covers BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance and 3D Surround - makes for a truly great audio experience. You’ll never need to peak the volume EVER, unless your idea is to go deaf. A 10 Band manually customizable graphic EQ is available to make adjustments to your preference as well and there are also 7 additional presets.
The player supports MP3/2/1, WMA, AC3, FLAC, OGG, WAV and a few other formats. For the full list of all formats and audio codecs click here. The bundled earphones are perfect. They’re comfortable to wear and provide great sound.
Video
With support for AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV, OGM, MPEG, DAT and MTV formats watching videos is a copy-paste job and with USB 2.0 speeds, it won’t take too long either. Since the drives are formatted to FAT32, you won't be able to copy an HD video - though I was able to copy a (1.36GB) .MKV file that unfortunately didn’t seem to play video, just audio.
It comes with DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV, H.264, MPEG 1 video codecs and also supports a maximum video resolution of 1280 x 720 at 30 fps. There are options for stretching videos to either 16:9 or watching it in 4:3 depending on your preference. There’s not much else to mention here. Like I mentioned earlier, it supports NTSC and PAL video out (composite). The cables will have to be purchased as additional accessories.
Other Features
Some of the additional features loaded into O2 include an image viewer (JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, RAW) and the images can also be used as a wallpaper, but I have to advice against this as it tends to sometimes clash with the data onscreen and makes it difficult to read.
The player also has a .TXT reader for eBooks in that format. If you’re worried about the text being small, don’t. It can be adjusted in size and if necessary, color as well. It even comes with a notepad for scribbling or drawing. In case you happen to be one of those mathematically inclined individuals, the O2 is rigged with a full scientific calculator that can be switched to basic with a single click.
Battery
With a battery that ran from a full charge to shut down due to drain, the count was in at 4 hours and 45 minutes for non-stop video playback and 16 hours and 15 minutes for audio. This is quite close to the count that the company claims the player is capable of offering, but is of course lower.
The Bottom Line
All of this is priced at Rs. 21, 000 (32GB) which is just too high. I’m not sure what logic has been used here considering the A3 offers almost twice as many features with a larger screen, TV cables and a carry case included and so much more memory for just a little more money. While the quality of the video and audio is definitely the O2’s finest features, I have to say, it’s worth those couple of thousand rupees more to get the A3. The only offering the O2 comes with, is touch screen capability, a fancy calculator and not too much more.