Cowon ships S9 PMP to US soil
By Darren Murph 
posted December 15th 2008 11:25AM
posted December 15th 2008 11:25AM
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.
Wifi? Gapless? DAB?
No?
Forget it
I don't suppose they are going to add AAC support anytime soon, as otherwise, no sale (90% of my music collection is in AAC)
ewww. How did you end up in that unfortunate situation?
I agree. Whoever encoded your music in such a lossy format really screwed you over. I'd stop being their friend.
pair this Cowon S9 with Motorola S9 Stereo Bluetooth headset
I currently have a Cowon D2. My device's touch-screen isn't really useful - I often have to use the stylus to perform certain tasks. The Flash gaming ability is not useful at all. Actually one of my favorite things about my device is the SDHC slot - buying your own flash memory cheap FTW. Also, a simple card reader has much faster write speeds then the device itself. I know the video specs you need to have to watch video on the D2 are very stringent and a real pain get right - certain FPS, resolution, and so on, which can make it hard to get the audio and video in sync. Hopefully this device improves on its predecessors, but for now I'm skeptical.
The S9 has a capacitive touch screen, which means it should be significantly more responsive.
But you're right about the expansion slot. It's a shame there's no place for a microSDHC slot on this thing. It'd be my ideal player if I could swap 16GB cards on the occasion. Beats having to load and delete files all the time.
Which brings us to the question : why the hell did they decide NOT to put a microSD slot in this beauty ?
anyway make in 32Gb cowon please and make it fast...
No Wi-Fi? Really?
Until someone comes out with a similar priced PMP with Wi-Fi, the iPod touch is a better choice imo.
The bluetooth on this thing is almost enough to overlook the wifi...
But not quite.
Get a fucking smartphone already ....
kyle, you must really enjoy encoding/transcoding your videos that take hours and hours and hours on the iCr@p. I personally dont have the time or the nerves to do that for every video that i would wanna watch on a pmp.
Nice. But I'm going to opt for the O2 instead (as an upgrade to my A2) and to complement my Samsung P2.
Sounds like u iphone/ touch haters n zune/winmo fanboys have another lousy gadget,. This will fail miserably here in the us. It's priced $29 lessthan touch,.it'll be years before zune can even come nearthe touch,.
The 16g is $60 less.
Let's not forget better battery life, better screen, better audio quality, full flash support, drag and drop, bluetooth, etc.
I could go on forever. You guys have the app store, however considering i could get full flash game such as line rider and put it on the device.
Had you taken the time to *read* before making such an uninformed comment and in turn ruin the blog, you would've seen that this media player has better battery life, better sound quality, and a better price than any iPod Touch. And it supports stereo BT headphones. Furthermore how the hell did you move from cowon to Zune?
Sounds like a certain Shugg didn't get his facts straight and ended up sounding like a fanboy himself.
Give.Me.A.Break.
Did Cowon switch places with iRiver? I thought Cowon only made fugly little things with excellent features and sound quality while iRiver made sexy little things with excellent features and sound quality.
Man, that looks sweet! If only I could find some decent use for it, but I'm afraid if I get it'll just end up collecting for the most part :-/ (I listen to music in car or on pc and I watch movies on tv or pc, no real need for those on a mobile device)
Argh! of course I meant "collecting dust"...
Engadget, add a darn edit function to your commenting system, it's almost 2009 for crying out loud!
T.T its...so...beautiful...
*put iPod touch on eBay*
Cowon products are great, but I don't see this being unique in the sea of DAPs. For video, its codec support is laughable considering the excellent A2/3/O2. For an audio player, it has pretty UI, but no real advancement from other DAPs except the touch screen interface. In fact, it's kinda a step back with the lack of expansion slot (even the O2 has an SD slot). Maybe Cowon will add features with firmware updates.
The only reasons this won't replace my D2 are as follows:
Lack of expandability. My D2 is 8gb and I have an 8gb SDHC card on top of that, and I can expand even more in the future.
Lack of buttons I can program. I know my D2 and if it's in my pocket while the lock is on, I can fast-forward/rewind/pause and play. If I flip the lock switch I can change the volume.
As far as I know, it has more/the same amount of buttons as the D2. I can't remember where the diagram was now.
I really like the look of it. The interface is a lot nicer than my D2 and apparently it sounds ACE (I think it was advancedmp3players.co.uk who'd commented on that). Can't really complain about the battery life either.
Having just picked up a Sansa Clip for out and about, I think (not sure) I want a larger PMP for at home. This ticks most of the boxes but not all... I do want to be able to stream media off of my network at home. I might just pick it up for shits and giggles!
I have a 2gb red clip, it's very good but I'm likely going to replace it with a Sansa Fuze.
I have a 40gb Archos 504 at home and I have the DVR dock for it which I can record all the TV with :D
Sounds like cowon spent the time to make sure their firmware is up to snuff this time. The S9 already has the advantage of an AMOLED screen, and appears to not suffer the interface problems of other pmps. Unfortunately, however good the S9 is in comparison to the touch won't matter, because the touch is somewhat of a fashion accessory.
And of course I managed to just buy a D2 yesterday. Well at least the 8gb D2 is a good $70 cheaper than the S9 (130 on amazon).
Wow. Sounds like dave1v looking for members for new cowon fanboy club. At least he'll have alonger battery life.,.,. I wAs wrong thought he was applehater or zunefanboi , but he's. Cowon fanboy,.,.hope u have extra $200 to waste this xmAs on mediocre device,.
i fail to see how this is just a "mediocre" device... It doesn't have any fruit logos on the back i realize but it is still a very good competitor in almost every way to the ipod touch. In fact it beats the ipod touch in every way except for 1, factwise. You can't say that 1 ui is better then the other, because thats all matter of opinion. Battery life? better. Sound quality? better. Video quality? better. Price point? cheaper on all counts. Bluetooth for headphone support? better. Yes the touch has wifi, which this does not so righ now we are standing on 4:1 S9 vs touch. If by your reasoning that makes the S9 mediocre, then the touch is just a horrible pmp. Unless you have some unheard of, unseen specs on the ipod touch...
Now that you mention it, we need a third partner to assist in administration and letter writing. We need someone with intelligence, foresight, and most of all, good punctuation. Of course, this means you are not eligible to join, but do you know anyone?
Sweet. I have the Cowon U2 and the Q5W, and they never dissappoint. They are reliable, quality products, and a nice alternative that Other PMP you sometimes hear about.
Go..... Cowon
Finally Apple has some competition!!!
http://www.MJDhitekgear.com
So now brian is a cowon fanboy, with his battery life,.how's that wifi browser working out fir u,,?maybe u n dave1v can start official cowon fanboy club,.
Interesting how someone who wants to blow Steve Jobs thinks everyone else is completely obsessed with a single electronics company and also neglected to mention how a cheaper device with more features is somehow a mediocre product.
Do you realize that portable devices need batteries? Even ipod's have them, so they must be the best thing in the world. And who would want to browse the internet on a pmp? It seems completely pointless to me.
this is really nice, its just messed up how they always limit to measly capacity. what the hell is 16GB, i had that 4 years ago in my Dell DJ, except it was 15 but still. I need atleast 80, come on. Im only limit to like 4 players, i dotn do apple so there goes one, zuen i like but no EQ, archos i really love, but i hate the lack of inputs without a dock, and cowon, the higher end model with 80GB has a shitty battery, so i dont know, ima wait till CES to see if anything is gonna be brought out. Im pissed off at Creative since not making anymore HD based players.
so goat is saying the apple touch is pointless due to that it has one of the best touch browsers on any device out there besides a pc that is.,so now that weve established that ur a cowon fanboy.,and iphone/touch/macbook/apple hater ,curious were u ever molested by Jobs n ticked off cuz he didnt call back afterwards., device ur backing will tank hard here in the usa.
Did you read my comment or have you never learned to read? I never said that the ipod touch was useless. I said i couldn't understand why you would want to have the internet on an mp3 player with a 3 inch screen. And I know the S9 won't sell well at all in the US. That in no way makes it an inferior device. That's just a marketing thing, and Cowon will definitely outsell Apple in Asian markets.
Shugg, use "reply" next time, please.
$239,99 !!!!!
that's 175 euros ! damn cheap !
In france the iAudio 7 is 190 euros !
And the S9 is over 280 euros !
I might start crying...
Bye, bye, my potential iTouch. This one seems to be cheap AND awesome.
Admittedly, the lack of a browser and wifi is a hard blow to its merits...
Depending on whether you have a Smartphone (and therefore don't care about the browser cause you only want a media player) or not (and you will want an all-in-one media player and MIT ( iPhone/Cowon Q5W/Archos 5).
It's getting really confusing, now that phones are turning into media players, MP3 players are turning into MIT....
There are some nice Combo out there at the moment, I just wish I was rich.
Nice device, my eyes re still on Cowon iAudio D2. Decisions Decisions
Browsing on a PMP is not such a big deal for me, i ll use my smartphone if i become desperate to access information (Screen is just darn too small to ve a decent browsing experience; dont try go tell how great a certain browser on a PMP or Phone is the best thing since slice bread)
Too bad no MP4 video support. AVI audio tends to drift out of synch. Hardware decoded H.264 would also be nice. Does it have a built-in speaker? It doesn't have to be great but sometimes I just don't want to bother with headphones.
Nice. Wouldn't mind if the next iPhone looks like this!
Then why not buy this? Or are you suggesting that Apple "copies" this device's look?
Let me say I own a D2 and am a fan of Cowon products, but if this device is anything like D2 flash performance could be atrocious and transcoding will be necessary for any video above the screen's native resolution. Don't count on being able to play many flash based games or watch xvid directly from P2P sources.
The video showing the UI off is playing a video that's a different size to the screen resolution. I think we may be fine with this player since they've just given the profiles it supports rather than resolution/frame rates.
I agree though, it was a pain on the D2. Fingers crossed it wont be a problem on here.
In case anyone was wanting official details, I just came across an overview of the S9 specs on the Cowon America website.
http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/s9/
Damn that's how much I paid for my 16GB D2. Good value even though no memory slot.
Sold! To the gentleman rambling on about Flac support.
WANT WANT WANT ! Damn nice device...
If this thing had WiFi, I'd be all over it. (Don't like the iPod touch's ecosystem, Archos 5 is big/heavy and apparently has a few problems including Archos' reputation for not delivering promised features) Well, I think the Samsung Omnia should do the trick, and hey, it's a 3g smartphone as well. So many devices to choose from, and none of them completely satisfy me.
Im getting this. Even if I have to cut off my left nut, shave my neighbors cat, go to jail for it, and then swim to the West Pole, I'm getting this.