Cowon brings the flash-based O2 PMP stateside: starts at $219.99

Atta boy, Cowon. Before we Americans even had a chance to forget about the O2's Korean introduction and the overseas hands-on, the outfit is going ahead and bringing the unit to US soil. Hailed as the company's first flash memory-based PMP with a 4.3-inch widescreen display, this simple-yet-classy media player packs an SDHC expansion slot and a Power Management System that helps it eek out 18-hours of audio playback and 8-hours with video; you'll also find a revamped user interface and world class codec support. Those who've discovered their dream machine can snap one up now from JetMall, Amazon, NewEgg or a variety of other e-tailers for $219.99 (8GB), $249.99 (16GB) or $299.99 (32GB).

[Rotaryfan @ Oct 28th 2008 6:11PM]

first! I think.

[iEye @ Oct 28th 2008 6:13PM]

You think, therefore you are!

I ranked you up just for that.....
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I lied I gave you a '-'

[phanbouy @ Oct 28th 2008 6:17PM]

rotaries suck

[Stefan @ Oct 28th 2008 6:51PM]

Dont be too harsh on him ,he has tourettes syndrome . It's a serious illness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome

[Reader @ Oct 29th 2008 12:33AM]

Is there someone reading this that needed the link to understand your 'joke'?

' ' to imply unfunniness

[iEye @ Oct 28th 2008 6:11PM]

Whoa! those icons look awfully familiar....

[Juxterium @ Oct 28th 2008 6:14PM]

Errm who cares? As long as it's functional it really doesn't matter and it being a Cowon it's most likely easily customizable.

The fact of the technology industry is everyone copies everyone (yes, including Apple), people take the best or most popular ideas (best =/= most popular) and sometimes try and improve upon it!

[Cal @ Oct 28th 2008 6:28PM]

ive never seen those.

[Dave @ Oct 28th 2008 6:37PM]

Surprisingly, Apple didn't patent rounded corners OR reflection. I looked it up.

All Apple ever does is innovate. You'd think they'd be better about holding on to their IP.

[josh @ Oct 28th 2008 6:25PM]

Not First!
sorry i always wanted to do that. anyways, even though i've never heard of this, it looks pretty cool. I'm the kind of guy who likes to check out things that nobody's ever heard of, so if i didn't already have a good pmp, i would definatly check out this one.

[phanbouy @ Oct 28th 2008 6:26PM]

still trying to figure out whether the second part or the first part of your comment fails harder...

[al @ Oct 28th 2008 6:30PM]

who the hell never heard of cowon?

[noyp @ Oct 28th 2008 10:27PM]

Every non-geek at my school....

[Casey @ Oct 28th 2008 11:35PM]

Sadly it doesn't make you any cooler than "first" does.

[Stu @ Oct 29th 2008 1:39AM]

Your mum never heard of Cowon.

Sorry, just needed to get that out of my system. Especially as I have just bought a Cowon D2.

[Baba Booey @ Oct 28th 2008 6:31PM]

This would be a GREAT replacement for my Cowon D2. The increase in the internal storage space(from 8gb on my D2 to 32gb in this) plus the 8gb SD-HC card I got would be great. Sure you lose battery life, but it's not that bad.

[Evan @ Oct 28th 2008 6:55PM]

480x272 TFT

fail

[Joshua Susmarski @ Oct 28th 2008 7:17PM]

At least its 16:9, with takes it a step above the horrible aspect ratio on the ipod touch/iphone

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Oct 28th 2008 7:11PM]

that ugly thing reminds me my iphones better as steve jobs is heaven

[digitallysick @ Oct 28th 2008 7:13PM]

These are great , they also support osx and linux! woo hoo

[Henry The 8th @ Oct 28th 2008 7:31PM]

I think I speak for everyone here who loves great sound quality and open source codecs when I say, "marvelous."

[Amol @ Oct 28th 2008 7:33PM]

Woohoo 32GB! Take that, SPINN!

[anthony @ Oct 28th 2008 7:33PM]

What a beautiful piece of production!


And what's that you say? It doesn't come with zombie fanboys?


I'll take twenty!

[Joe @ Oct 28th 2008 7:44PM]

"...and video output capable of delivering HD video (up to 720p resolution) using an optional composite cable"

Is that possible with composite?

[Al @ Oct 28th 2008 7:53PM]

Until you realize you can't just drag or drop any video you want onto your device with out converting it first.

[Al @ Oct 28th 2008 7:54PM]

That was suppose a reply to OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th

[Jeebus @ Oct 28th 2008 10:06PM]

From http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10074842-49.html

"On the video end the O2 can play back AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, OGM, DAT, MTV, DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, WMV 9/8/7, H.264, M-JPEG, and MPEG 1. The O2 is also agnostic when it comes to video resolution, accepting files all the way up to 1,280x720 at 30fps".

[neihprome @ Oct 28th 2008 7:58PM]

I do think the 32GB black one will be in my hands soon. Yes... I will order one.

[rudy @ Oct 28th 2008 8:00PM]

So when is the review, even though i'm prob going to buy this any way.


I'd like to see a head to head vs the spin

[BigD145 @ Oct 28th 2008 8:26PM]

Meh. I prefer the Archos. You get double the resolution and almost as many codecs.

[holycow @ Oct 28th 2008 9:24PM]

you have to pay additional for those codecs on an Archos, and with a Cowon you don't. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[ChillyCatz @ Oct 28th 2008 9:36PM]

simply put....You are W R O N G !!

[ChillyCatz @ Oct 28th 2008 9:37PM]

Holycow.....

yes, ALL codecs are included with Cowon[s]

[Jeebus @ Oct 28th 2008 10:04PM]

From http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10074842-49.html

"On the video end the O2 can play back AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, OGM, DAT, MTV, DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, WMV 9/8/7, H.264, M-JPEG, and MPEG 1. The O2 is also agnostic when it comes to video resolution, accepting files all the way up to 1,280x720 at 30fps".

[dmblit_M @ Oct 28th 2008 10:26PM]

Same can my A3, according to specifications. Hope this one would _really_ play H.264

[KaiBeezy @ Oct 29th 2008 2:43AM]

.
"eke" is the word to describe barely accomplishing something
"eek" is what you say when you see a mouse
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[Prince Ali @ Oct 29th 2008 9:09AM]

at 4.3 inches, how pocketable is this? I'm guessing this wouldn't be that great to take for a jog.

[Alex @ Oct 29th 2008 12:51PM]

Any word on the cowon S9 32GB coming to the states?

Anyone know what the signal-to-noise ratio is on either of these players?