Cowon S9 PMP unboxing and hands-on

Cowon's 16GB S9 may have just started shipping out yesterday, but we just acquired one of the 8GB models a day before it's expected to hit the rest of America. We're planning on spending a little time with this critter to give you our thoughts, but for now, we figured we'd let you toy around in the gallery below to get acquainted. Our first impression upon cracking open the box was along the lines of "wow, this thing is small... and light!" Maybe that zoomed in press shot we've been drooling over had our proportions all jacked up, but needless to say you won't have a tough time fitting this one in your right front pocket. Check out the images below for an unboxing and UI walkthrough that'll surely bring copious amounts of joy into your life.

Update: Full specifications list now posted after the break for easy reference.

Cowon S9 PMP unboxing

Cowon S9 PMP hands-on / UI walkthrough

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:47PM]

Umm, why exactly would you want to play .AAC on this player? Apple is notorious for their low quality offerings from iTunes, and trans coding all your music from it's original format to .AAC doesn't help much with the quality either, so why would you buy the Cowon S9, a player from a company renowned for it's sound quality, then play 128kbps - 192kbps music through it? A player like this deserves lossless .FLAC/.APE/etc. and I personally can't stand anything lower then 240kbps ogg vorbis.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:23PM]

Damn, that above comment was supposed to go here.

"If this is anything like my D2 - it will play AAC files, you just have to rename them to .mp4."

On another point, it's a real shame they couldn't find room for some kind of expandable memory slot on this. This is one of the killer features of the D2.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 26th 2008 6:33AM]

@Gnormie: Yeah A player with 8 or 16 Gigs deserves Lossless? Hah! One Pink Floyd album in Wav takes up about 1 Gig, so that means you can fit 8 or 16 albums there. Wow, that's really something.
Besides the point, the UI looks really cheap.

[SuicideUZI Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:42PM]

Anyone happen to know what the signal-to-noise ratio is on this?

[letstakeawalk Posted Dec 18th 2008 6:31PM]

The post says 95dB

[dalew Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:44PM]

It's a nice device, and I'm gonna invest ASAP.
It's a pity that this thread will probably soon fall to ruins with a bunch of iFools

[willyu Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:47PM]

Up to now I still don't get the spec and what codecs it plays. Is this suppose to play EVERYTHING you throw at it?

All I want is something that will play all the mkv and avi anime I downloaded without having to run it through SUPER... is that too much to ask? :D (darn those mkv with softsub that doesn't covert very easily... I hope this thing will do mkv with softsubs... )

[idiot Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:49PM]

silly engadget, i keep my keys in my right pocket

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:53PM]

i think it's better looking than the g1.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 1:58PM]

What...no obligatory shot next to anything made by Apple?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:11PM]

this is exactly the pmp i'm looking for. but i love music!! so i'm going to need the 32Gb capacity.
does any1 know when that 1 is making it's way to the states??

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:17PM]

I'm with you!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:52PM]

I believe the current rumor is Feb

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:25PM]

Hey guys, do you know an american online vendor who could ship cowon s9 to germany?Thanks.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:32PM]

How well does the S9 sync up with linux?
Do you need to convert videos before transferring them to the S9?

[musicguy Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:52PM]

It just acts as a mass storage device, so it works on any platform.

[Skobbolop Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:50PM]

you don't have to convert your video files...

[Cahlito Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:29PM]

good thinkning. I purchased a 32GB O2 off of amazon last month. Its a little bulky but totally worth it. Battery life is excellent. The perfect companion to my iPhone!

[UMPCman Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:30PM]

Why can't I find this on the Cowon website?

Does it play .mkv files? h264? 720p? 1080? I know some of these answers are "no", but can it play ANY of the more demanding formats?

I know the O2 was supposed to play .mkv files, but so far the feedback has been that it's pretty poor.

[bluh Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:05PM]

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/s9/

If you are looking for a player that can handle MKV at higher resolutions, you want a Cowon O2.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/o2/tech_specs.html

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:09PM]

I doubt it can accomplish any of those feats.

But I know it does xvid at 720px in width without the need to re-encode. That's a good thing for a PMP of this size and price range.

Then again, when I see that tiny $99 Western Digital Box that can do 1080p .mkv without dropping a frame I'm thinking it's high time someone started cramming that kind of power into a PMP.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:11PM]

damn page break.. To be clear I'm speaking of the S9.

[x100heads Posted Dec 18th 2008 2:43PM]

This thing is okiee..

[XXLGadget Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:00PM]

Looks great, I can't wait to get my hands on one tomorrow.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:09PM]

Awwww, and I bought the 30GB A3 about 6 months ago, I am sure this one's interface is much better :-(

[pavlindrom Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:39PM]

and I got the ipod touch 4 months ago, and am in deep remorse. Time is money. Could've saved $70 on 16GB...

[Link2877 Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:23PM]

Yea this thing looks nice I'm debating between this and the yp-p3. But seriously five hours to charge through usb??? what the hell

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:33PM]

Seems about right, however considering the quoted battery life for this is 55/11 for audio/video it's not really surprising. I guess it'll just end up like the D2, instead of using it until the battery runs out people will simply use it for a while, then hook it up to their PC to add some new songs/movies and change out old ones then carry on using it without really noticing the battery drain.

[Windhawk Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:31PM]

Compare and contrast the O2 vs S9. Why would someone buy this over the O2, which seems to have all one could want in a PMP. Since the O2 just came out, what does the S9 bring to the party?

[pavlindrom Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:40PM]

beauty

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 3:41PM]

Size difference mostly, 3.3" screen vs 4.3" screen, some people simply don't want to carry around the extra bulk (and compared to the S9 the O2 is pretty bulky). But also there's battery life, with the S9 being more music orientated and offering 55 hours audio where the O2 offers only 18. The screen is also a factor, the S9 has 3.3" AMOLED 480x272, the O2 has a 4.3" TFT 480x272.

Different strokes for different folks really, people who have a large video collection at high resolutions will go for the O2, with it's video playback capabilities and ability to stream high def content to a TV. People who listen to music more often and want to watch the occasional TV show/movie while on a plane or something will probably opt for the S9.

[Windhawk Posted Dec 18th 2008 6:36PM]

@Gnormie: That really helps! Thanks!!

[Biomech Posted Dec 18th 2008 6:16PM]

Wow the interface is really nice, so different from the other touch PMPs out there. A very good (maybe better) alternative to the touch!

[MrAffrox Posted Dec 18th 2008 5:37PM]

Anything that has a reset button is cheap to me.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 18th 2008 5:43PM]

So to accept that things go wrong is 'cheap'? Things without reset buttons crash/get stuck just as many times as those with them. Only that when you have one you can do something about it without taking it to a store/repair service.

[MrAffrox Posted Dec 20th 2008 1:35AM]

@Gnormie

Okay, my comment never got published.

What if I do? They could at least integrate it better or make it so you hold a button for a set period of time to hard reset the device. If a crash requires you to bring a device to a service depot, it's not worth buying. Only alarm clocks have reset buttons.

[kingu Posted Dec 18th 2008 8:25PM]

Linux and FLAC

[franke Posted Dec 19th 2008 6:21AM]

Am I the only one that wants to know what format it records too on the line-in?!?! I'm on the edge of my seat here.

[SuicideUZI Posted Dec 19th 2008 10:26PM]

I was wondering this as well, and if the line-in is digital?

[zexco Posted Dec 21st 2008 2:01AM]

Can I get one in Ontario, Canada? (if so... what stores?)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 21st 2008 10:22AM]

I WANT THIS MP3 player like no other.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 21st 2008 10:46AM]

so does this PMP connect to wifi, and does it have a browser of any kind.... and what about flash capability?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 26th 2009 6:36PM]

This is a real breakthrough for Cowon!Finally!!A user friendly,easily legible navigation! The main reason i returned my Cowon products for this reason.Crappy Firmware!Big fonts,zoom features,AMOLED(new technology) and Cowon's superior sound quality.Many reasons to buy!

[Killacam510 Posted Jan 26th 2009 8:18PM]

I want one so bad