Cowon ships S9 PMP to US soil

Remember those off-the-wall delay rumors? Yeah, Cowon just put 'em to bed. All of 'em. As of today, the luscious S9 PMP is off to America, bringing with it a 3.3-inch AMOLED display (480 x 272), 500MHz processor, capacitive touchscreen operation, Bluetooth 2.0 (for stereo headphones), a battery good for 11 hours of video (55 hours for audio), BBE+ sound enhancements, inbuilt microphone, line-in recording and enough codec support to make a grown man weep for joy. The device should be available on December 19th at a variety of e-tailers, and given the $199.99 (8GB) / $239.99 (16GB) price tags, we'd say a certain touch-friendly rival has a lot to worry about. Full release is after the break.

COWON Ships the Ultra-Stylish COWON S9 PMP

COWON's Most Stylish PMP Shows Off Its Sophisticated Design,
AMOLED Touch Screen, Exclusive GUI System, Advanced Video Functionality, Bluetooth® 2.0 and Long Battery Life

COWON S9 is First to Feature "BBE+" Sound Enhancement Technology

IRVINE, Calif. – December 15, 2008 – Delivering on its promise to satisfy both the design-conscious gadget seeker and digital media enthusiasts, COWON America, Inc., today announced the shipment of the new COWON S9 portable media player (PMP). The COWON S9's innovative design features a titanium/black face and a curved-back casing surrounding a 3.3-inch Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) touch screen display. To complement its sleek form design, the S9 features an exclusive GUI system boasting capacitive touch screen operation, advanced video functionality supporting transcoding-free playback of most DVD-quality MPEG-4 videos and TV output, Bluetooth® 2.0 support for stereo headphones, G-sensor accelerometer for auto-pivot display, and extended battery life of 11 hours for video and 55 hours for audio. The S9 is also the first COWON player to offer next-generation JetEffect 2.0 audio technology with improved EQ filter, stereo enhancement and BBE+, which includes upgraded BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround and MP Enhance audio processing.

Developed for the U.S. market by COWON Systems, a global leader in digital multimedia solutions, the COWON S9 is available with 8GB or 16GB internal flash memory and priced at $199.99 and $239.99, respectively. Customers can order the product starting December 19, 2008, through JetMall (www.jetmall.net) and at select authorized U.S. retailers Amazon.com, Newegg.com, B&H Photo-Video, ZipZoomFly.com and eBay.com.

"The COWON S9 is by far the most attention-grabbing media player we have introduced to the U.S. market. Users looking for the next 'must-have' fashion gadget will be impressed by the S9's streamlined design, while digital media aficionados will appreciate the S9's amazing video and sound quality," said Francis Choi, senior marketing manager, COWON America. "Thanks to its dual next-generation portable media technologies, AMOLED display and BBE+ audio, advanced GUI system and extended battery life, the S9 ushers in a new standard of portable digital media excellence that most other PMPs simply can't meet."

COWON S9: Sleek and Fully-loaded PMP
The COWON S9 is loaded with exclusive features including a 500MHz dual-core processor, widescreen AMOLED display capable of 16 million colors with 480x272 resolution, and capacitive touch-screen operation of COWON's new advanced GUI system with Zoom UI, video clip preview, auto pivot, and Quick List functions. The PMP also supports "user created interface" to allow users to develop and share the S9's unique interface. The S9 also supports a wide array of video/audio formats and codecs, including:

Video file formats:
AVI, WMV

Video codecs:
Xvid, SP/ASP, WMV9 SP/MP


Audio file formats:
MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, APE



Audio codecs:
MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC

In addition to the next-generation JetEffect 2.0, the S9 offers audiophiles a five-band custom equalizer with 30 presets (four user presets), built-in microphone and line-in recording functions, and an FM radio. Completing the S9 is a JPG photo viewer, text viewer, Flash player and calculator. The COWON S9 measures 2.2 x 4.17 x 0.5 inches and weighs 2.7 ounces.

[Kyle @ Dec 15th 2008 11:29AM]

"The device should be available on December 19th at a variety of e-tailers, and given the $199.99 (8GB) / $239.99 (16GB) price tags, we'd say a certain touch-friendly rival has a lot to worry about."

No, it doesn't, and it won't until someone can can top Apple's user experience and ecosystem. Hardware is worthless alone.

[aceley @ Dec 15th 2008 12:01PM]

and your name is Kyle :)

[wom @ Dec 15th 2008 11:41AM]

I personally would buy it to AVOID apples media ecosystem. Who likes being locked in?

[sjdurfey @ Dec 15th 2008 11:49AM]

wom, exactyl! if i wasnt a poor college student i would totally drop my ipod and buy one of these beauties!!

[Rollins @ Dec 15th 2008 11:50AM]

To be fair, the iPod touch doesn't have much to worry about at all. It's not because of the UI or ecosystem though. It's because of the strength of Apple's marketing machine versus the non-existent nature of Cowon's here in the States.

[Kamokazi @ Dec 15th 2008 11:59AM]

Newsflash:

You are not everybody. Believe it or not, one company does not make a product that everyone will like above all others. People are different and like different things. There are people who would use this if it was a plastic brick with a command line UI, because the the audio quality and file support.

Personally, the biggest thing I dislike about the iPod Touch is Apple's user experience and 'ecosystem' (I actually like it pretty well other than that), iTunes is an abomination on Windows, and the only other player close to being as locked down as an iPod is the Zune. I'll take drag and drop, with any desktop media player I choose, thanks.

[dale1v @ Dec 15th 2008 12:25PM]

This comes with bluetooth. Therefore S9 > iPod & iPhone as a media player.

[dhc82 @ Dec 15th 2008 1:25PM]

Hate to break it to you, but some of us buy other pmps to AVOID the "Apple ecosystem." I've never had an iPod b/c I just don't like iTunes; with most other players you can drag-and-drop (call me old fashioned, but I often still prefer this method; cutting out the middleman, so to speak) or use the media player of your choice to sync files; Media Monkey, Winamp, WMP, many of which are much more customizable to your liking than iTunes.

[sjdurfey @ Dec 15th 2008 1:46PM]

i became a stereotype today. i was in starbucks listening to my iPod. i need to make some changes. :(

[lawyer bird @ Dec 15th 2008 2:32PM]

uh, last time I checked there is no need to use itunes with an ipod. I use winamp, I can drag and drop onto my ipod, manage playlists, etc with no problem. i don't even have itunes installed on my laptop

[jorvay @ Dec 15th 2008 2:53PM]

Ecosystem or not, I want an mp3/media player to enjoy media. Until Apple puts a decent sound processor in their players, there will always be a market for well designed alternatives with good audio results.

[Kamokazi @ Dec 15th 2008 5:19PM]

@lawyer

You can also load Linux on it too. The point is, neither of those options are supported or intended operation of the iPod, and some difficulties are bound to arise sooner or later (Also, while Winamp makes it easy for you to do that, Apple makes it quite difficult on the Winamp devs to open it for you). With the exception of the iPod Touch, the UI and feature set of a standard iPod is nothing spectacular. It's good, easy to use, and functional, but there are plenty of other players that meet or exceed the iPod in those categories. So my point stands, that the iPod is, by default, a rather locked down player when there is no reason it couldn't be more flexible and open, other than Apple doing their best to lock people into iTunes and milk more cash out of them (And as I stated, MS does the exact same thing with the Zune).

[who? @ Dec 15th 2008 6:26PM]

This conversation makes me feel good about buying my iPod Touch... Engadget, what's happening to you?!?! Not the commenters too!!!

[Tes @ Dec 16th 2008 3:35AM]

@lawyer bird

You can't use Wimamp or anything on Linux on an iPod Touch...the device everyine was talking about before you decided to be smug and wrong all at the same time.

[Blaine Oliver @ Dec 15th 2008 11:31AM]

I want this so badly, give us a UK release.

[y3k.nik @ Dec 15th 2008 11:33AM]

hehe,, RROD

[matt @ Dec 15th 2008 11:41AM]

Pretty sure the UK release date seems to be the 19th as well according to this

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Cowon_iAudio.15/S9-16GB/Cowon_iAudio_S9_16GB_MP3_Player.3580.html

[chris @ Dec 15th 2008 11:32AM]

Shame it isn't a gaming device.

[joe23521 @ Dec 15th 2008 12:07PM]

It's no iPod touch for sure. *wink *wink

[Jeremy K. @ Dec 15th 2008 12:14PM]

It has flash support, so you can play touch screen flash games on here!

Personally I think this is an awesome device and if you don't mind recoding your video files to 480x272 or lower, then this is for you.

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 15th 2008 12:15PM]

Shame it doesn't pretend to be a gaming device.

Corrected.

[ilh @ Dec 15th 2008 2:04PM]

@Jeremy

...except there's no reencoding required unless you just want to save a bit of space.

[joe23521 @ Dec 15th 2008 2:55PM]

I see that subtle sarcasm doesn't work any more. Will use "/sarcasm" tag in future.

[cwj @ Dec 15th 2008 3:06PM]

you'd have thought the double wink would've been enought, right?

[Hung @ Dec 15th 2008 6:08PM]

That's what the wink meant? I thought that was the "go" signal.


Uh-oh.

[voodoo @ Dec 15th 2008 11:34AM]

This has two possible trump cards:
-OLED screen. This has the potential to be awesome, though we will have to wait for the reviews
-File and codec compatibilty, which is usually very good with Cowon products.

If this plays all my movie files straight out of the box (with no ridiculous Archos style 'add-ons' or transcoding) and has an awesome screen, I would definitely consider buying it. Looking forward to reviews

[Jeremy K. @ Dec 15th 2008 12:23PM]

Here's a preview of the interface/screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIUVkS1j_0Y

[Jeremy K. @ Dec 15th 2008 12:25PM]

Sorry, here's a higher quality version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIUVkS1j_0Y&fmt=18

[Félix @ Dec 15th 2008 5:22PM]

the ridiculous add-ons style isn't ridiculous at all...
it's called custom but I wouldn't asked from someone who shares it's nationality with steve Jobs to understand this concept.

You pay for what you use, if you don't use you don't pay.
that's the reasons why the Archos 5 is MUCH MUCH cheaper than the Cowon Q5W which is the only one to compete with him right now.
If you pay for the additional codec you end up with a HD compatible player, and that's not very common sir.
So Yes you pay for this stuff, and it's because this codecs are protected by a patent.

Again I'm not gonna try to explain why not everyone needs this additional codecs, and why they are therefore not included (understand you don't HAVE to pay for them if you don't use them) to someone who believes that a mp3 players should ome with your on-PC media player and the place where you buy your music from.

PS : what players plays MPEG-4 ASP 720p, h.264 and MPEG-2 in DVD quality except Archos 5?

[Kris120890 @ Dec 15th 2008 11:35AM]

UK please. I really want this.

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 15th 2008 1:43PM]

I wonder which will come first: this in the UK or Arsenal win the Premiership?

[iKurt @ Dec 15th 2008 1:50PM]

burn

[Anku @ Dec 15th 2008 2:03PM]

so.................... pretty, yet functional. Gimme 55 hours of audio, 11 of video, as well as the 480x272 AMOLED screen... capacitive touch screen... ahhh, AVI, etc :D

[Xenios @ Dec 15th 2008 11:45AM]

It's available in the uk here: http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Cowon_iAudio.15/S9-16GB/Cowon_iAudio_S9_16GB_MP3_Player.3580.html
Not really available (out of stock) but at least it's there with pricing.

[Hotrod @ Dec 15th 2008 11:46AM]

Definitely sleek for a PMP, but the Archos 5 is where my heart is at.

[Jeremy K. @ Dec 15th 2008 12:20PM]

Ah, but does the Archos 5 have an AMOLED screen, 11 hours for video and 55 hours for audio battery life, support for nearly every codec out there and an arguably better interface?

They're quite different devices though, since the Archos 5 has wifi and a larger screen.

[Félix @ Dec 15th 2008 5:58PM]

Yeah very different but you know at the end of the day it's all about how thick my wallet is and it ain't thick enough for both of them...

[mark @ Dec 15th 2008 8:44PM]

If Slacker G2 has a larger screen (3"+), traditional radio capability (because sometimes I do enjoy listening to NPR and local radio stations), and video playback, I'll definitely get the Slacker. I think Cowon and Slacker should really sit down the talk.

[Nigma @ Dec 15th 2008 11:48AM]

Any ideas which processor is in this ?

[Dewayne @ Dec 15th 2008 11:51AM]

Please include cell phone guts, I'd love to whip this out to make calls on!!!

[Kali4 @ Dec 15th 2008 1:46PM]

Excuse me while I ... whip this out.

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 15th 2008 11:49AM]

They'd probably get more attetion and likely steal more of the market share with this sweet little number if they hyphenated their name along the lines of "COW-ON"

[grabbydad @ Dec 15th 2008 11:52AM]

Put a wireless chip and a sim card in this package and I'll fly anywhere in the world to get one.
On another note. PMPs like the above could really set themselves apart if they had 2 microSD slots. One of the slots could house your regular micro storage card, and the other would be used for uploading photos/movies from your digi-cam/cell phone. That would minimize swapping and would keep the local storage from getting topped off.

[cwj @ Dec 15th 2008 11:54AM]

So.....what you're *really* saying is that engadget will be surprising one-or-more lucky meet-up attendee(s) with some TUI love...?

[Geoff @ Dec 15th 2008 11:58AM]

Am I the only one who glanced at the title and thought it said "$9 PMP"? Maybe I am. Just wondering.

[iCandy @ Dec 15th 2008 12:16PM]

If only this was a phone....

[cwj @ Dec 15th 2008 12:37PM]

um.

please send the person in your avatar to:
363 w.16th St.

This Friday.

Say.....9-ish?

[RemDX @ Dec 15th 2008 12:25PM]

Why doesn't it have wifi? I mean, it's technically perfect with that exception.
And has anyone seen the screen in action?

[TJ @ Dec 15th 2008 12:28PM]

I'll wait for the 32GB version to come out, then I'll pick one up to replace my Zune (who's battery is begining to die).

[Alex @ Dec 15th 2008 4:24PM]

That is what I am waiting for as well, if they had a 32GB version out at launch i'd def be ordering one. Any official word on when we might get one?