Cowon's 16GB S9 PMP ships early to America
By Darren Murph 
posted December 17th 2008 3:36PM
posted December 17th 2008 3:36PM
posted December 17th 2008 3:36PM
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Looks good, and not that badly priced!
Cowon is just awwww.... "mouth watering" good!
consider 8G microSD is just $18-19 (newegg/meritline), I dont think I have to go with 16G internal storage.
Fantastic.
But where do you plan on sticking the micro SD
"Also, why do other companies keep coming out with stuff like this when apple has already come out with the best product possible."
You heard it here on Engadget, folks. The Ipod touch / Iphone are the best, ever. No matter what.
/sarcasm
Ya, pathetic. How about superior sound quality and no dumbass logo on the back of it? I think if consumers would get their head out of their asses, they would be buying this way before an ipod.
It isn't an iPhone, so who cares? Can it play the iPhone apps? Does it have app store? can I use the sweet apple made app shazam to find out what song is on the radio? I need to know these things. Also, why do other companies keep coming out with stuff like this when apple has already come out with the best product possible.
Another person who forgot his [/sarcasm] tag? Wit is so hard to discern on the internet...
Go away!
let's see here...
1. I can load ANY flash app onto the device, including line rider, bloons, etc.
2. see above for app store
3. Apple didn't make shazam, and BTW i had a song ID program on my LG chocolate from 06.
4. Apple doesn't make revolutionary products, however they have a good advertising team.
If you don't like it, and knew right off the bat it wasn't an iPhone, why did you click the link? This isn't a review/comparison you douchebag. Just some information for people who appreciate GOOD SOUND QUALITY from their MP3 MUSIC PLAYERS. Imagine that!
Got that right. You can't even use Shazammmm.... Of course it does actually have FM radio, so...
u probably dont even have balls do u.
I'd be freaked out if my balls started talking... Especially fanboy crap like that.
STFU
JetMall? Is that like skymall? I'm tempted to search it out but if it's simmilar I'd probably also end up buying the slippers with an iPod i mean COWON adapter and my wife would leave me again...
Jetmall is cowon's US retailer.
I've never seen a picture of this phone with the screen turned on.
It's not a phone...
what phone?
its a pmp/mp3.,n this is supposed to kill the apple touch,give me a break,only idiots would buy this r either stupid or cowon fanbois.,tell me how that wifi touchscreen browser is working for u or accelerometer.,IT DOESNT HAVE ONE.,lets see touch $229 with wifi browser or cowon no browser.,hmm hthinking thinking,tuff choice if ur a tech loser.,cowon will tank quick.
is it just me or does this look awfully (in a good way) like Lenovo Android phone?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/12/lenovos-android-phone-for-china-hotter-than-a-g1-with-a-defecti/
Except this one has been out a good deal longer than the Lenovo "phone".
Looks amazing. I hate comparison, but dare I say it looks better than the touch.
In comparison with the ipod, It has an AMOLED screen, is 50% lighter, has way better sound/video quality, has bluetooth, flash support, many codecs support without transcoding, both drag and drop and mtp, fm radio, mic, the battery lasts 55h for audio and 11h for video, has a greater capacity for the same price, it is likely to have a SDK. No contest, i take the S9
It doesn't support AAC. That means no sale for me, and anybody else that encoded their libraries in the best possible recording format that is fairly widely compatible.
I swear, some of the stupid crap that you hear on Engadget... forget AAC and go with lossless. Or just shut up.
"AAC [...] best possible recording format"
BWAHAAAHAHAHAHAAAA. Try lossless. Any kind.
The UI is not polished ...feels rather clunky. Also, its not a true multi-touch interface. The touch interface is rather rudimentary, basically just point, click and occasional slide.
The tech specs are impressive though. But why just buy a PMP when you can buy an iPod Touch with application support and the App store?
Better audio and video quality is worth more than apps probably. Although it does support flash content.
Because some of us can't stand the mediocrity that the iPod Touch sends through it's 3.5mm jack, or the distinctly average/below average battery life. Also this is cheaper (in the UK) and has a much, much better screen.
Though don't listen to me, I'm already a fanboy! It's in stock in a couple of UK online stores and I must admit to having ordered it.
maybe because the Cowon didnt want to ripoff the ipod touch design and rather wanted to improve it's previous players touchscreen interface.
What are you talking about? The UI is very fluid according to the videos that are out so far, and it is the closest thing to the Touch in overall smoothness I have seen thus far. It is still probably not quite as slick as the Touch, but it is close. The App Store is definitely a huge boon in the Touch's favor, though.
Yes, I saw the youtube demo videos. Are you serious, smooth? Have you seen that big arse scroll bar to increase screen size? Hello Cowon? It's call multi-touch gestures. This is just one example. If you know what to look for, there is no comparison.
@ Sy
Hello! It's called APPLE PATENTS. The S9 is perfectly capable of multi-touch as are all other capacitive and most resistive gadgets. And although Apple doesn't own multi-touch per se, they own all the gestures they have used, so they have effectively locked down the market (oh what a surprise...) so that other PMP makers can't use them without Apples permission and do you think that would be forthcoming? No...
And also are you blind? It is really smooth! Not in the way of the iPod where everything has a fancy and largely pointless animation that makes everything take longer but in that it reacts quickly and responsively with very little noticeable lag, which believe it or not is the kind of market Cowon targets. And people buy Cowon because of sound quality - just to iterate this point
Apple CEO - Mr. Jobs, known to be slightly deaf as he made first generation iPods louder so he could hear them
Cowon CEO - Mr. Park, who worked for LG for many years and earned himself the nickname 'golden ears' (the ability to distinguish between tiny differences in sound)
Looks sweet. Too bad I already got my iPod Touch, or as I call it my cheap little Stanza ebook reader.
Mmmmm... 11 hours video, 55 hours audio.
I would really like to see a comparison between this, the Samsung YP-P3, and the iPod touch. The app store is a pretty cool thing to have, but I've managed to use my PMP's without it thus far, so it's not really a deal breaker for me.
Looking at some of the video previews of the P3 so far, I wouldn't get my hopes up. The screen is definitely improved as far as video quality (brighter and clearer colors). They have removed the stupid light blip at the bottom, front of the player, and the transitions have been improved. But the touch response still seems incredibly slow compared to the Touch, and the s9 looks much better as well.
actually I have the demo vid for all three players on my YP-P2... the iTouch has a better demo video, but a worse product...
Superior sound quality? Maybe some people actually use it for listening to "stuff." Silly people, don't they know music/PMP's players are meant for playing video games, not for watching video/listening to music in excellent sound. Barbarric people with their equalizer settings and the like. Anything not Apple is so, sooooo, properly used, not down with that.
He does, they say "Property of Steve Jobs"
@ Sy: People get cursed out so much for saying what you just said yet you keep crawling out of the wood work to spew garbage out again and again.
Apple makes great stuff yes, but they are almost never revolutionary, just well advertised. You, who frequents gadgets sites such as engadget should know this.
People buy stuff other than Apple's crap when they don't feel the need to keep handing Apple money whenever they want a new game/ song/ app and then not be able to use it elsewhere other than on the device bought from Crapple.
They don't like the fact that you get 'the greatest mp3 player' out there and they come bundled with the worst earbuds money can buy.
They don't like that any accessory that has the letter 'i' a ridiculous price tag for no other reason than the fact that they didn't need to use use any pain because all their shit it white anyway.
For these and many more reasons, people are thankful that other companies still try to offer consumers a choice!
Also the development cycle with Cowon is a huge plus point for me, Apple generally refreshes their line up every 6 months to a year, whereas Cowon's last major release in Europe of a PMP was 2 years ago with the D2, and it still graces the top of many charts as it is still an excellent little player, and Cowon have continually supported the D2 with (admittedly buggy) firmware updates and new features.
What was that? Didn't I say the tech spec was impressive? Did I say something that was not true? Are you saying the UI is better and more polished than the iPod Touch? The S9 supports multi-touch?
I do appreciate companies like Cowon. They push the envelop on the technical side. Hopefully, Apple will eventually ante up and update their hardware to keep up. There will be a major hardware refresh come 2009 with iPods I bet. Apple needs to increase screen resolutions, battery life, etc.
At the end of the day, most will gravitate to what is familiar and well supported by 3rd parties whether it is in software or hardware accessories. The iPod family have no competition in this regard.
To bad it doesnt have atleast 80GB, these little 16 players suck, you would of never heard that talk thou 7 years ago.
PMP with 80GB flash memory? I didn't know they were available yet
well i mean HD, they make small HD's, and really they could do 80GB in flash they just dont, although it would be expensive
Expect that the PSP is better and cheaper
I sure hope that there is a missing /sarcasm after your comment.
The Lenovo OPhone looks a bit like this Cowon PMP...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/16/more-shots-of-lenovos-android-powered-ophone-love-on-the-rock/
The concepts of this have been floating around for much, much longer. And the oPhone was developed in China, the Cowon S9 was developed in S.Korea.