IFA 2008 Preview: Cowon O2 and S9 Curve

Cowon is set to introduce the Cowon O₂ (Oxygen) pmp at IFA 2008. The O₂ features a 4.3-inch touch-screen, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage, SD/SDHC card slot, video/audio player, TV-Out, DMB-T, dictionary, voice recorder, 10 band EQ and EQ filter, image viewer, text reader.

It supports MP3, WMA, AC3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, Apple Lossless, WAV, G.726, PCM, True Audio, Monkey Audio and MusePack audio; and DivX, XviD, WMV, H.264, M-JPEG, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, MPEG1 video. Battery is estimated at 8 hours for video and 18 hours for audio. It comes in black, white, and pink.

Cowon also has a new mini-pmp, the S9 Curve, featuring a 3.3-inch 480 x 272 pixel touchscreen, a curved design, a 500MHz Dual Core processor, DMB-T tuner, FM radio, a microphone, Bluetooth, voice recorder, dynamic dictionary, all Flash UI, a G-Sensor, and TV-Out. Whew!

Battery is estimated at 40 hours of audio.

[gmp3, gmp3]

A Sense of Touch: Cowon iAudio P5 PMP

Cowon iAudio P5 pmp features a 5-inch 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen, RMI Alchemy AU1250 700Mhz processor, FM radio, voice recorder, AVDic, dictionary, UI support for Widget and Haptics, T-DMB, Bluetooth, TV OUT and a 40GB, 60GB, or 80GB hard drive.

It supports MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC, and WV audio; MPG, OGM, WMV, DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, WMV9, AVI, ASF, MP3, WMA, and AC3 video; and JPG, BMP, PNG, and RAW images.

Battery life is estimated at 14 hours for audio and 9 hours for video playback. Not bad.

It comes in red, platinum, and black.

[Cowon via Ubergizmo]

CNET Review: Cowon Q5W versus Archos 705 Wi-Fi

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CNET pitted the Cowon Q5W to the Archos 705 Wi-Fi in a head-to-head competition. Why those two devices? Well, according to CNET, supersized Wi-Fi portable video players such as the Cowon Q5W and the Archos 705 WiFi feature large screens, full Web browsers, incredible file support, plenty of storage, and enough features to make your head spin. The devices were compared in five categories: Navigation, Sexiness, Compatibility, Sound and Science, and Wallet Factor. See the details here.

And the winner is... the Archos 705 Wi-Fi!

I wonder if the result would have been different if CNET had factored in that the Cowon Q5W now has a SNES emulator? Check out the video:

TPEG Plus Navigation: Cowon N13

Cowon released its premium navigation in Korea. The Cowon N13 features Samsung's 7-inch digital WVGA TFT LCD (480×234), Alchemy AU 1250 600MHz for improved video playback, SiRF III chip for GPS reception, two SD card slots, DMB-T tuner, speakers, and AV input/out. It also supports overlay, PIP(Picture in Picture)/NIP(Navigation in Picture) and includes TPEG (Transport Protocol Expert Group) service that brings the most recent traffic information.

The N13 supports MP3, WMA, ASF, and WAV audio; AVI (MPEG-4 Simple Profile, 480×234 px @ 30fps) video; and SMI, JPG, BMP, PNG images.

[AVING and gmp3]

More than a PMP: Cowon N3

Once again Cowon takes the pmp one step further. The N3 is the newest portable media player from Cowon. While the N3 doesn’t have the connectivity of the Q5W, it features the same Alchemy AU 1250 600MHz processor running Windows CE 5.0. It has a 7 inch 800 x 480 pixel resolution screen and measures 7.5 x 4.7 x 1.0 inches.

It has 32MB Flash and 128MB RAM and has SD/SDHC ports. It features a built-in DMB TV tuner which can be run simultaneously with navigation software thanks to the Picture-in-Picture frame. It features a SiRF Star III GPS, an FM tuner and A/V out.

Supported video formats: DivX, Xvid, AVI, MPEG-4, OGM, and WMV
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG and FLAC
Supported image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, and RAW images.

The N3 is scheduled to ship in early 2008.

[Source: PMP Today and Ubergizmo]

Check out other Cowon products in the webstore.

More than a PMP: Cowon Q5W

The Cowon Q5W 60 GB is more than a portable media device. It’s actually more of a UMPC than a PMP. The Cowon Q5W is just 3.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches sporting a 5 inch (diagonal) LCD with 800 x 480 resolution. As a portable media player, it plays movies, TV shows, music, and photos but it does a whole lot more.

The Cowon Q5W has built-in Wi-Fi, an Internet browser, e-mail, voice enabled MSN messenger, and Bluetooth. In addition, it features a touch sensitive interface, an FM tuner and recorder, a voice recorder, built-in stereo speakers, wireless remote control, and TV-out supporting component, S-video and composite connections. It runs Microsoft Windows CE 5.0.

The Cowon Q5W has an optional GPS navigation package using Cowon Navigator cradle equipped with GPS receiver antenna (SirF3 internal), FM transmitter switch for audio playback on vehicle radio.

The Cowon 40 GB Q5W comes with a 40 GB hard drive.

Supported audio formats: ASF, MP3, MPC, WAV, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 Audio, MPEG 2 Audio, MPEG 2.5 Audio, APE (Monkeyís Audio)

Supported video formats: ASF, AVI, WMV, DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, OGM (Ogg Media)

Supported image formats: BMP, PNG, JPEG; Audio features: VBR, 5 band EQ, ID3 tags support.

Check out other Cowon products in the webstore.

Comparison Chart: 30 GB PMPs 2

This comparison chart compares four more 30 GB portable media players: the ibiza Rhapsody H1A030BK Wi-Fi/MP3 Player by Haier, the Creative Zen Vision W 30 GB Widescreen Multimedia Player, the Cowon A2 30 GB Portable Multimedia Player, and the Coby Portable Media Player. Click on the chart to see it actual size.

You can find comparison chart comparing four other 30 GB PMPs here.



Check out the following in the webstore:

--- ibiza Rhapsody PMPs
--- Cowon PMPs
--- Creative Zen Vision PMPs
--- Coby PMPs