No "FLASH" In the pan this !!

I purchased the Cowon D2 flash based mp3 player a couple of weeks back. I am still in the U.S and got it ordered online for $190, taxes, shipping included. I have the 4GB black version of the player from Cowon. I must say, everyday I get back from office, only thing I can think of is, what is the next thing I can try on my Cowon.

An amazing player, with touchscreen. It does have a PDA like feel to it, but with a 2.5" screen, it can play videos and photos as well, without being too strenuous on the eyes. It offers a multitude of features. Here are a few to list :

1. FM Radio/Voice Recorder
2. Video playback/Photos (including slideshows)
3. SD Expansion slot (uses SDHC cards,extensible to 12GB with 4GB version)
4. Plays flash games
5. Notepad facility, to use paint like features.
6. Can read text.
7. Audio setting, allows user to change EQ settings for all modes like Jazz, Rock, Classic etc.

That is a lot of features for a tiny player. The highlight of the product thoug is its battery life. It offers a whopping 52 hours (company tests) of continuous audio playback, and 10 hours of continuous video playback. That is amazing for a player with so many features.



You can use your SD card in the player, and watch photos even as you listen to music (oddly though, not when you listen to FM). I use a Panasonic DMC FZ7 camera, and it takes photos of 2MB size. The player loads them very crisply, but not before pixelising the photo while loading.

The clarity of the screen is something one needs to see to believe. It boasts of 16million color 24 bit LCD touchscreen. I am loading some GILC videos, and converting them using the JetAudio freeware, and it plays them beautifully. And the sound quality is unbelievably good. You can crisply listen to every beat of a song clearly.

The drawbacks of the player are its frequent firmware upgrades, which can be cumbersome. But when the upgrade offers new features with such upgrades, why not take the extra trouble ? All the videos have to be convereted to Cowon compatible screen to play. Also, the touchscreen does not help in blind navigation of songs for some users.

Overall, the player is an amazing purchase. I found it in this online portal for buyers in India.

It certainly is not a flash in the pan by Cowon, who have come out with IAudio 7 which delivers a whopping 60 hours battery life !My suggestion to any mp3 player fan, who is looking for any alternative for the ipod, go for the Cowon D2. This is the player to watch out for ! Go get it !

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