- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 64 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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10 out of 10 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Apple, Sandisk, Samsung, Creative, Microsoft, Toshiba, and Iriver be ashamed, Cowon has crushed you."
Pros: Amazing sound, beautiful screen, clean interface, solid build, SD expansion, text is well done, folders are simple and easy, and EQ/Jet Effects are great and the bass doesn't distort at higher volume.
Cons: Jet Audio is not very well made and is frustrating and clumsy, back smudges easily on the black version. That's about it.
Summary: To those who believe this player weights a lot, it does not and if it does then you must be three years old and in horrible physical condition, just one of the grievances I have about Cnet's review of this amazing player. The next is the price, which is equivalent, even cheaper than the Iriver Clix, which had no mention of the price being too high, also yes the Creative Zen V Plus is cheaper, but has a screen almost half the size, does not sound as defined, and personal, and the video is very hard to watch for any length of time. Lastly the Cnet review mentioned that the touch interface is not ideal for active users, another misconception. I walk to town and from town with this player and find it great with my Etymotic Er-6 earphones, which because of the lack of external sound may be the only conceivable drawl back to this equation. The player is easy to use on the go, with practice it is possible to switch tracks while walking, though make sure to glance ahead of you especially if you are using noise canceling earphones, a mistake I have made. The very important hold button works great and stays in place while in motion, another testament to this player's master craftsmanship. The only real problem with it is the screen can become hard to read if faced directly at the sun, in this event I have found that if you look at it at eye level most glare is gone and it is easily readable.
Now that we have cleared that up let me share my experience with this player to you, my reader. The player has been dropped from varying heights many times and has not shown one symptom of my clumsiness. Also the screen attracts fingerprints constantly, and suffering from a slight case of OCD I clean it after every use with a jewelers cleaning cloth, I do not use a screen protector. The interface is great and fluidly moves from menu to menu without delay and has no perceivable lag time between commands, even switching tracks. Also the music is divided into artists, then to albums, and then to tracks, rather standard and simple to use. The video looks amazing with every pixel exploding with life and color with absolutely no lag or lost frames. The pictures also are rich and even on a pure white back ground you would be hard pressed to find any pixilated areas. The Fm radio works reasonably well and does what every radio should. The text viewer is one option that I liked for the lyric possibilities, but as of yet I have been too lazy to do anything with it, but the text is of large font, another thing I was worried about, and is easy to read. Finally the sound, it is simply amazing, especially with my Etymotic Er-6's. Also with my last MP3 player the Creative Labs Zen V Plus I could not find any difference between the Er-6's and the much more expensive Er-4p's, but with the Cowon the difference was deafeningly clear and prominent, which has forced me to upgrade my earphones, and no this is not a con, to use the Er-4p's a lot of power is required of the player. The only problem is Jet Audio can be an annoying program, but is ok for light use and the Cowon D2 works fine with Windows Media Player.
In the end, this player is everything a player should be and suffers from very little, and basks in the golden glory of its quality, performance, and beauty. A must have for any sentient being looking for a great MP3 Player for any purpose.
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