Cowon's S9 gets toyed with on video, UI thoroughly investigated

It's one thing to have a look at a new user interface in pictures, but watching someone navigate it on video is just so much more meaningful and soul stirring. Cowon's S9 isn't due out in South Korea for another five days or so, but it looks like someone with a video camera and a YouTube account completely missed the memo. For a likely limited time, the video just past the break shows off five minutes of admittedly responsive UI interaction, complete with the ability to alter the equalizer preset from the Now Playing screen (what a concept!). Be warned, though -- the first album to pop up is Mamma Mia!. Terrifying, we know.

[Via CNET]

[AlekZander @ Dec 11th 2008 9:48AM]

FINALLY an iClone with a UI that hasn't been dipped in molasses. Hopefully this heralds the beginning of a new era.

[novel @ Dec 11th 2008 10:24AM]

fyi moron, Cowon had touchscreen players long before the Touch

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 11:02AM]

Actually the UI from this player has been lifted extensively from the Cowon D2 and not the iTouch. The menu icons are a slightly more colourful version of their predecessors, and everything is in the same place, just on a landscape orientation. Even the music browsing/music playing theme is exactly the same, with the controls in exactly the same place except they've changed the original buttons for swipe controls.

All in all, this is the D2 UI, improved upon for use with capacitive touch, instead of the resistive found in the D2.

[KRIS_C_123 @ Dec 11th 2008 2:21PM]

hey mister, what is molasses?

[Kris120890 @ Dec 11th 2008 9:52AM]

Depending on the price I may just buy one when and if its released in the UK after seeing the video.

[Japan Kiwi @ Dec 11th 2008 10:00AM]

wow this looks pretty impressive...
responsive...

With the exchange rate as it is i may have to get my Korean friend to buy me my birthday present!

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 11th 2008 10:29AM]

Nice, very responsive and easy on the eye (except the Mamma Mia album, of course) Only wish it had more storage though.

[Derek B @ Dec 11th 2008 10:35AM]

Cowon almost always boosts the capacity on their players after they've been released. Sometimes it doesn't take long, but other times they can be real sluggish about it, but it should have 32gb 6 months after its released...hopefully.

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 12:21PM]

@Derek B
It's available for pre order at amp3.co.uk now. £200 for 16GB, £170 for 8GB.

[Tes @ Dec 11th 2008 10:47AM]

Loving the addition of an FM tuner...sorely missing in my iPod Touch

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 10:54AM]

My last worry about the Cowon S9 was firmware, Cowon are legendary for their 'beta culture' releasing firmware which is sluggish and/or buggy. However this video has dispelled quite a few of those apprehensions, of course I'll still be waiting for some proper reviews, but seeing the UI and how quick to react it is, and also all the nice features it has. Means I will almost certainly be buying this player, especially since the 16GB only costs $220ish, though that means it will cost £190-200 over here in the UK, which is a pretty good price.

[Shawin @ Dec 11th 2008 11:17AM]

This thing is amazing. Lovely, responsive UI. All the functions needed in an mp3 player. Did you guys see Flash icon on the screen? Lolz. I won't say more...

[Esat Dedezade @ Dec 11th 2008 11:23AM]

"the video just past the break shows off five minutes of admittedly responsive UI interaction"

Why admittedly?

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 11:24AM]

Because they (along with the rest of the blogging news community) were ready to push it aside as a rubbish iTouch clone?

[brock @ Dec 11th 2008 4:39PM]

because its not capacitive, it's resistive with gesture controls. that was a huge let down for me. what i like about this player is its AMOLED display and file format support (which is big for me) and hopefully better sound but the ipod touch does have a better UI.
i wish i could just build my own mp3 player with ipod touch's capacitive touch screen and and a mix of style between cowon's curve and ipod touch, Samsung's sound engine, AMOLED display, 32 gb capacity that's not expensive, and zune's classy glass screen.

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 4:40PM]

@ brock

The Cowon S9 IS capacitive touch...

[brock @ Dec 11th 2008 4:56PM]

@ Gnormie
My mistake i thought i read resistive somewhere. finding the tech specs on the S9 is very difficult and i haven't seen a direct announcement from Cowon that its anything other then a "touch screen".

[chris @ Dec 11th 2008 11:39AM]

No wi-fi I suppose?

Oh well, I'd still get it in a heartbeat. Looks amazing!

[superchan @ Dec 11th 2008 12:22PM]

they should make this into a phone!!!

[erwin @ Dec 11th 2008 12:42PM]

still...its too thick

[Gnormie @ Dec 11th 2008 1:01PM]

ummm.... seriously? It's 12mm thick, not exactly the slimmest DAP, but are you seriously saying that because of this you wouldn't buy it? Personally I think it's a pretty good trade off for almost double the battery life of the iTouch. And considering the heavily curved profile (more so then the iTouch) is the 3mm difference (at thickest points) between them really a deciding factor?

[Félix @ Dec 11th 2008 1:59PM]

too thick to fit where exactly ?
I don't see a massive difference between 8,5mm and 12 mm thick.
You probably had a iPod 2nd or 3rd or 4th gent for ages and it was much thicker but no problem at the time..

ahh but of course your jeans got much smaller too during that time, and the pockets won't hold anything bigger than :
110*61,8*8,5

Holy sh*t it's like they were made for your iTouch actually ! that must be sign..

[erwin @ Dec 11th 2008 4:51PM]

i'm sorry...i didn't read till now the specs of the device, i just saw the video and compared to the dude's finger, it seemed to be quite thick. Actually the ipod touch 2g i own now is my first ipod.

[gnarayan @ Dec 11th 2008 1:52PM]

It is a much slicker UI than the X5 had. If they do come out with an S9L with more capacity then screw the Archos 5 I'm currently using. Wireless be damned, the Cowon's sound better.

[Félix @ Dec 11th 2008 2:00PM]

Looks sexier too.
And is much smaller.
actually I don't see why you compare them :p

If only you (and by this I mean me of course) were rich so you could buy both...

[electron @ Dec 11th 2008 2:47PM]

admittedly responsive UI interaction ?!?!?!?!
ur kidding, right? with a dual core 500MHz CPU, the thing better be responsive!

me want :D

[G.Koski @ Dec 11th 2008 3:02PM]

What we need to know is can this player do xvid at a width of 640 pixels? My guess is that anything over the screen res of 480 must be re-encoded.

[Alex @ Dec 11th 2008 3:28PM]

Make a 32GB model and consider it bought.

[wjm911 @ Dec 11th 2008 4:43PM]

Alex, word on the street is that this will be offered in 32 gigs sometime in Feb.
I still am not sure if I should sell the p2 or just buy this and keep both. they both so purrrty. the brightness of the screen on that thing is rediculous with the oled---cant wait

[Big Al @ Dec 11th 2008 8:30PM]

Mamma Mia is big in Korea right now. The movie did really well here and now the musical is out...

[naganim.com @ Dec 11th 2008 10:07PM]

I'm so glad to see this player coming out. The better the market gets, the more demand for competition will rise. It will only make DAPs better. My friend has been waiting for it for ages, but I don't think he's seen this yet... Wait 'till he sees this...

[Phoenix @ Dec 13th 2008 8:20PM]

Kris, typically Cowon players have limited store releases in the UK but are easily obtainable through advancedmp3players.co.uk
Selfridges is the only store I've seen with Cowons which is nice if you want to toy with them in the flesh, but the prices are much better through the site above. I've bought two Cowons from them over the past couple of years and have had no problems at all.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 11th 2008 10:36AM]

I've noticed that they are limited to being on-line too. I will check in a month or two. I was going to buy a D2 a couple of weeks ago. Depending on the price I may buy it form advancedmp3players.

[dale1v @ Dec 11th 2008 3:13PM]

The S9 costs £169 on advancedmp3players.co.uk. Time to buy, I think.

[Zul @ Dec 19th 2008 11:35PM]

Cowon S9 player available in New Zealand from ibuystores NZ 16GB: http://www.ibuystores.net/product/5694/ - 8GB: http://www.ibuystores.net/product/4197/:

[machrsx @ Dec 21st 2008 12:27PM]

Ever since my Cowon M5 broke I've been waiting for another slim DAP like this from Cowon. It's no secret that Cowon has the best sound quality out there.