Cowon S9 launching in the US mid-December with balls to spare

Oh boy, it's almost here (we think). If we're reading the machine translated text correctly, then Cowon's S9, first revealed in August, is expected to land in the US mid-December. No price was listed for the 8GB / 16GB audio and video player with a 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 pixel AMOLED display and Bluetooth. Cowon is, however, pushing the player's BBE technology (like that found in the A2) meant to doctor the sound quality. Nothing official on the rather pathetic Cowon America website, but we'll let you know just as soon as something pops.

[gerbick @ Nov 27th 2008 6:39AM]

Still doesn't seem to have expandable memory.

[skittles @ Nov 27th 2008 7:36AM]

No but order now and you get a set of balls free

(sizes may differ, batteries packs for balls sold separately)

[iEye @ Nov 27th 2008 8:13AM]

It needs 1900,1800,900,850...

Seriously this needs to be a phone. With the correct UI, this could easily take massive amounts of sale from the iPhone.

The little chrome button a the top could be the home button...


THIS NEEDS TO BE A PHONE!

[Patriks7 @ Nov 27th 2008 9:10AM]

"With the correct UI, this could easily take massive amounts of sale from the iPhone."
Well you seem to be forgetting the point that the main reason the iPhone is so successful (as other Apple products) is their marketing and advertisements! I've never seen so many advertisements from any other company than from Apple (at least here in Europe)..

[iEye @ Nov 27th 2008 9:31AM]

But if the iPhone looked like shite, then sales would have been abysmal,

-Am I the only one that thinks this looks seductively minimalistic with premium materials? chrome on the side glass on the front... 1st gen iPhone?

But this does not look like an iPhone... and this is wasted on just an mp3 player that the masses will not hear about...

Heck I would not be surprised if this is what the next iPhone looks like.

[absinthe party @ Nov 27th 2008 2:16PM]

I know that everyone is pretty accustomed to low-ranking iEye, but he has a valid point. The Curve, as a phone, would destroy... everything?

[Nutsy @ Nov 27th 2008 6:59AM]

I have that same HDR Probe image, Used it a few times...

I wonder if the artist forgot to remove the material samples before rendering and the PR people thought... Ohh thats cool and kept it.

[Joe @ Dec 1st 2008 5:38PM]

The different balls you see in the press shots represent the different finishes you can get the player in. This is a deal breaker for me, since I think ultra-glossy players look cheap and are impractical. I really dislike the shiny finishes on the iPods and iPhones, they are nice for press shots but if you actually use them on a daily basis it's abysmal. The ability to get a semi-gloss or matte finish was a superb choice here for Cowon.

[Bob Linger @ Nov 27th 2008 7:16AM]

I like the looks of it. Like to hear the sound.

[Joe @ Dec 1st 2008 5:40PM]

I have the D2 and am a bit of an audiophile, and when paired with my Shure e4cs, it's unbeatable in sound quality. I haven't listened to another player that even compares to Cowon's sound quality and customizability. My favorite part may be that you can actually select which frequency ranges to boost or lower with the equalizer.

[Kris @ Nov 27th 2008 7:16AM]

That is a very pretty looking media player though. Wow.

[ybd @ Nov 27th 2008 7:28AM]

I used to be a Cowon fan AND I've been following this player since it was revealed (well, for the first two months or so) and I gotta ask: am I the only one who thinks this player doesn't look all that pretty?

[Shinigami @ Nov 27th 2008 7:39AM]

Does it only look thick as a brick?

[ipodtouch 32gb @ Nov 27th 2008 7:40AM]

eh.... lame... says while madly playing away with the ipodtouch

[jorvay @ Nov 27th 2008 9:13AM]

you've clearly never listened to your music on a Cowon player. Granted the Touch is a really, really cool device, but its sound quality is commonly reported to be inferior to other iPod models...which aren't exactly stellar to start. Assuming Cowon didn't drop the ball(s) on the sound processing in this device, it'll sound good with the stock headphones and absolutely heavenly with a nice set of cans.

I guess it comes down to a choice between the multifarious iPod Touch and the sound specialist Cowon. I prefer the latter, though I'm sure most would lean towards the former.

[Shinigami @ Nov 27th 2008 7:41AM]

Say... if they make a GMS sneaker set, will you buy it?

There doesn't have to be a phone in everything...

[Digivate @ Nov 27th 2008 7:59AM]

Nice looking player and Cowon are renouned for their sound quality (though their user interfaces sometimes leave a little to be desired) but I bet this is going to be one hell of an expensive player when it's released and the capacities aren't exactly breaking new ground - there are lots of 8Gb and 16Gb players already on the market, and they've been around for ages - when are we going to start getting decent 32Gb or even 64Gb flash players at a reasonable price?

I'd consider getting the S9 if it was available in 32Gb, it's not ridicuously priced, and I hear good things about it's GIU ... but I've got a feeling that's not going to be the case for quite some time.

[noodleman @ Nov 27th 2008 8:48AM]

Do you get to choose the sex & age of the GIU?

[Félix @ Nov 27th 2008 9:00AM]

I agree !
When they stoped making awesome HDD-based players because flash was so much better and we could have so much more battery life with this, I knew this sucked..

Come on 6 or 7 years ago my Archos was already 20Gb and now you want to sell me High-end stuff with 16Gb ?
I beg your pardon sir, this shit can play .Flac ?
AWESOME I might be able to fit 2 albums in there !

Some people sell video player with 1Gb of memory .. I just don't get it ?
Do you have fun emptying and then filling up your player again and again?

[Barron @ Nov 27th 2008 11:09AM]

This will be available in 32gb later but im guessing it wont be cheap

[Joe @ Dec 1st 2008 5:46PM]

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of expandable memory or a 32gb option especially considering how well implemented the expandable memory was in the D2 and how much I relied on it. I've been following the Cowon rumor mill for a while now, and when I look back to the days when the S9 was just a little bit more than a dream, it was originally going to be the D3. Word on the street is, the D3 is coming out next year with higher capacities and more features and will be the true follow up to the D2 while the S9 is somewhere between a new a fashionable new model and a stopgap for those waiting for the D3, because, let's face it, the D2 is nice looking, but it isn't all that pretty. It adheres more to the function > form philosophy. Again, just a rumor.

[Félix @ Nov 27th 2008 9:02AM]

Btw I might have missed it but : no Wifi ? seriously ?
100% pur PMP ?

[gad get @ Nov 27th 2008 10:15AM]

What are you smoking? Since when is a new MP3 player expected to have wi-fi?

[tekdroid @ Nov 27th 2008 9:05AM]

Seems like the type of device that will attract fingerprints and scratches and will need to be babied everywhere. Not my type of device.

The metallic bling I'm guessing is plastic coated with silver paint; always something that wears away tackily with enough use. I'm definitely not the market for this device :)

Credit to Cowon's usually above-average codec support, including FLAC
http://flac.sourceforge.net

If it doesn't have a removable battery (a la PSP), or the removable flash (again, a la PSP), then consider me totally uninterested, despite superior screen and quite likely great codec support and possibly good sound (who knows).

I bet it's:
1) expensive
2) hampered by minimalist design 'aesthetics' like nearly all devices that place 'sleek' above usability.

[Joe @ Dec 1st 2008 5:50PM]

You may be right as Cowon seems to be heading in a different direction with this player, but I can assure you if anything, their other players' GUIs suffered due to /lack/ of minimalism. They were very stuffed with all sorts of settings and customization options, as if an engineer and a human factors specialist were fighting over the design and the engineer won out in most cases.

As far as the glossiness goes, it will be available in different finishes of varying glossiness for those who prefer their mp3 players to look good after they come out of the box.

[iEye @ Nov 27th 2008 9:40AM]

Yes, at least 10 pairs...

[Raphael Salgado @ Nov 27th 2008 10:20AM]

I like the design of the media player, but those wireless headphones look difficult to stick into the ear canal. Are they assuming my ears are different sizes?

[XenoX101 @ Nov 27th 2008 10:33AM]

I would gladly have sex with this.

[johnny @ Nov 27th 2008 10:59AM]

so long as it has a standard 3.5mm jack?

[ridestowe @ Nov 27th 2008 11:50AM]

ahahahaha i love the hdri image they used for the lighting in the product shot: http://www.debevec.org/probes/uffizi_probe.jpg

[Jimmy Jones @ Nov 27th 2008 12:02PM]

Funny enough..I'm currently deliberating between buying the O2 or Archos 5 60GB (infact close to clicking 'purchase button' on amazon before seeing this post) May be this is good chance to have all these geeks like me here dissect the nitty gritty of both devices i'm considering...

I originally wanted the O2 cuz of numerous codec supports but I quickly realized I won't mind a bit of web browsing every now and then (may be at home, def. not at hotspots ii.e Starbucks, McDonalds, etc). So after reading gazillions of reviews on cnet, amazon, and the rest of the intertubes, youtube) I decided I'll go with Archos 5 because the UI is a bit more up to date and it's got wifi and includes n Opera.

Besides, Archos is thinner, has more capacity (yes it's standard 1.8 hdd and not flash hdd as O2) but it has better res (800x480) while O2 has (480x272) which is still decent...but I decided to still go w/A5 because all of my music files are in standard format .mp3 and my videos are all in SD avi 480p which A5 plays without the need to purchase a plugin. Besides, I can always convert with various programs out there like HandBrake or so w/o having to go thru much hassle and worse is purchase the $20/$30 H.264 plugin but that'll be for later..

The only thing that i'm mooting over is whether to:
1. wait to get full specs on S9
2. Just buy A5 and be done with it (but i'm still waiting for the real daily usage reviews on the battery usage compared to what Archos claimed ofcourse they claimed the new firmware did some magic of video to 7 hours..)
3. Some people has issues with Hotspots connections while some claimed the wifi part doens't work with protected wifi (so this has been thinking twice)
4. Also, some said it takes 4-8 hrs for A5 to fully charge.. and uses proprietary usb (doesn't have regular adapter...

So if any of you Engadgeters has any pointers as to where I should focus before clicking on that 'order now' button...which has been sitting unclicked for some time now...

[FILA @ Nov 27th 2008 12:37PM]

Man they make all these PMP's with measly fucking space to do anything with. Fucking through in a 120gig, jesus. I like the archos for that reason and the larger capacity's they have but there so expensive, that and i would like to see more options rather then archos and zune have 120gigs. and im not a macfan, so no one suggest ipod. "AntiPod"

[Gnormie @ Nov 27th 2008 12:59PM]

Me want! Will probably end up being just as expensive as the iPod Touch, but I have no need for WiFi and owning a D2 has spoiled me for sound quality, I seriously just can't stand listening to what Apple passes of sound anymore. Plus this comes with potentially a nicer screen, most certainly better format support and a more powerful processor and flash GUI!

[ducky @ Nov 27th 2008 3:36PM]

Err... How do you navigate? Touchscreen?

[ilh @ Nov 27th 2008 3:44PM]

About time. Was meant to be out in Europe in October, then November, guess this means December here too given it was supposed to be here first.

[derealtopatoppa @ Nov 27th 2008 7:51PM]

I have waited for years for a Cowon upgrade from my 4 1/2 years old IAudio X5. Since then Cowon has not released a large capacity mp3 player (32 GB and over) thatat has iD3 tag browsing (with the option of folder browsing), or in the case of flash memory, sd expansion slot, and of course a great ui with good controls. When will they get it?! I'm not buying any mp3 player, especially from cowon, that doesn't offer these specs. I guess I'll have to keep using my 20GB X5 for a little bit longer (the battery only holds a charge for 3 hrs now)

[Jimmy Jones @ Nov 28th 2008 3:45AM]

Wow, your mp3 sounds like an antique for a second but then I completely understand where you're coming from. Among the reviews I read on amazon and elsewhere are the issues with id3 tag browsing for music files. In addition, people also complained Cowon has bad support service as well as not dev' a great UI or atleast to the par to compete with the latest competitors..

Well, after commenting earlier above, I finally bought the Archos 5 250GB w/some incredible 20% online coupon w/free shipping. I was tempted to get the Archos 7 but I doubt that will be compact to carry [I know it'll be nice 2 watch movies] but may be not as portable to carry around w/o scratches n dents cuz of the size.

Anyhow, good luck with your wait. I've waited for a long time and wasn't an Apple fan either.....altho I love their products...just didn't like the idea of being tied to their monopolized way of managing user's music library. I'd like to have complete control over what music library w/o having to jump so many hoops to transfer btw different media players.

[Joe @ Dec 1st 2008 6:02PM]

I feel you man. I wanted to buy an X5 for the longest time but they were already about a year and a half old when I thought about it and I figured I'd just wait for the followup. It's no replacement, but I've been using a D2 with expandable memory and since you can get the D2 in 16gb and add at least another 16gb, it's worked pretty well for me while I wait for the true X5 followup.

On the other hand, I'm starting to think it's impossible for me to get an mp3 player that will hold all my media like my Creative Zen Vision:M did at one point, as my mp3 collection grows faster than player capacities do (at least in recent times), except for the iPod or Zune, which aren't right for me. The DAP market has taken a bit of a reboot it seems in terms of memory trends. The HDD is seeing its last days, I mean after a certain point I just won't care how many hundreds of gigabytes an iPod has at $250, I just want 30-60 GB of flash. So until then, we'll just have to be patient because it seems like most manufacturers are putting their eggs in the flash basket and are waiting until flash will catch up with the HDD players of old, rather than dividing their attention between the two. There just isn't much of a future for HDD, while flash's is shining bright.

[rhymnoceros @ Dec 1st 2008 7:52PM]

oh man, iaudio X5 owners UNITE! cowon's sound quality has always rocked my socks but their UI always seems to be rather clunky and complicated. I'm also rather unimpressed by the build quality of my X5; the joystick has broken once through normal use and the headphone jack stops outputting stereo sound every once in a while (loose connections inside the unit...) So my experiences make me wary of dropping serious lettuce on the S9 if it's gonna break down on me like my X5...