Cowon S9 review

On paper, Cowon's S9 is distinct from what most would consider its rivals. It packs a curvaceous design, nary a single front panel button, an AMOLED display and a codec support list chock full of formats that audiophiles admire. Clearly, Cowon is aiming to appeal to portable media enthusiasts who are also sticklers for sound quality, with the core functionality consisting of only the basics that one would expect on a PMP. The sector it's diving into already has a pretty strong list of alternatives on the market, which probably means that you're wondering if it really does (or doesn't) stack up. Follow us past the break as we take a closer look at what the S9 brings (and doesn't bring) to the table.

Design

For anyone who has been following this device since it first broke cover in August, you'll understand that Cowon is unashamedly attempting to catch eyes with the S9. The press shots are sexy, the packaging is sexy and the marketing is just downright seductive. Upon placing this piece in our hands for the first time, we were struck with an almost unhealthy mix of emotions. On one hand, the incredibly lightweight chassis was a real joy to hold; on the other, we were left feeling somewhat deceived. You see, the press shots we've been force fed all feature what appears to be metal chrome sides and a display with practically no bezel. In reality, the sides are merely graphite-colored slabs of plastic and the display most definitely does not actually extend out to the very edge of the front face. Sure, you could say we were getting our hopes up for nothing, but upon conversing with others who've had a chance to hold this thing, we found that we weren't at all alone in feeling this way.

After using it for a few days, our fears were confirmed: the unit did indeed feel more "cheap" than "solid." This no doubt has to do with the thin, plasticky materials that dominate the sides and rear, and while it's certainly not a deal breaker, we expected a device of this nature to simply feel more durable and sturdy in the hand. All those knocks aside, there was plenty to love about the design, too. For starters, the lack of buttons on the front is a stunning approach, and the carefully placed hardware toggles / buttons on the top and bottom are more than sufficient. You'll find switches for play / pause, volume, next / previous track and power / lock, while the USB connector holds down the final slot on the bottom. Speaking of, we were definitely turned off by the proprietary USB connector; in other words, you can forget syncing / charging the S9 without the special cable that comes bundled in. We know, the iPod has a proprietary connector as well, and in our perfect world, it too would be a straight-up USB / mini-USB socket.

The bottom-mounted 3.5-millimeter headphone jack is satisfactorily located, though the inbuilt microphone -- which is situated on the bottom rear, right where your hand covers during normal operation -- could stand to be placed elsewhere. As you can tell, "mixed bag" really is the best way to describe our take on the design. It's attractive though not sexy, and while nothing in terms of functionality is hindered by the build, we still feel the price is a touch high for the decidedly just-above-average construction.

Cowon S9 PMP unboxing

Display

We have to assume that the 3.3-inch AMOLED display is one of the S9's biggest selling points, and for good reason. The 480 x 272 resolution screen is positively gorgeous to look at, displaying rich, vivid colors on everything lucky enough to tickle its pixels. Video looked superb, images were almost unbelievably sharp and bright, and the overall user interface was quite a joy to gaze at. Couple that with the fact that it's a capacitive touchscreen and you can understand why we're pretty much head over heels on the panel. Other PMP makers should definitely give AMOLED a look; it sucks down less juice, it's brighter and sharper in every circumstance and it makes users (or us, at least) actually want to watch videos on it.

Interface

Here's where we resume the whole "mixed bag" theme. At first glance, the S9's user interface looks delightful. The icons grab your attention, everything seems clearly labeled and you're never more than a click away from your stash of audiovisual content. Navigating within the top-level menus is rarely confusing, and there are a fair amount of customization options to keep most everyone happy.

The one issue we continually ran into was, paradoxically, a direct result of something we've already praised in this writeup. The lack of a "home" or "back" button on the front panel means that moving back within the menu system requires screen presses, and that means pressing a ridiculously small "M" button rather than just mashing a dedicated hardware control to escape whatever mess you're in. Additionally, some of the icons deep within menus weren't what we would call "incredibly intuitive," though anyone with a hint of patience will quickly grow used to the environment. We also can't leave this section without stating that selecting songs / videos was kind of... odd. Rather than simply hitting a song and watching it spin up, you either have to hold that selection for a moment or double click it. We guess this could be spun as a feature (no more fat fingers accidentally queuing up a track), but our generally accurate digits found it to be a hassle. As always, YMMV.

All in all, the UI is sufficient enough, though it's nothing to write home about. Any media player interface that's even mildly confusing could probably use some work, and while just about any system is tolerable over time, we fully expect a PMP's operating system to be mostly understandable from top to bottom right out of the box. After all, this isn't SUSE Linux Enterprise we're talking about here. On the upside, the ability to tweak the EQ while on the Now Playing screen was much appreciated, and the decent reaction to our thumb flicks (to change tracks) was also right in line with expectations. There was, however, an annoying amount of lag when waiting for the screen orientation to flip upon the twisting of the device to another angle.

Cowon S9 PMP hands-on / UI walkthrough

Audio / Video performance

We didn't run this thing through any sort of super sophisticated audio analyzer, but we did give it a listen alongside PMPs from Apple and Sony. The quick and dirty of all this is that the sound quality from Cowon's S9 is stellar. Lows are punchy and decisive, mids are smooth and highs are distinct without being piercing. We listened to a variety of genres, and across the board we found ourselves thoroughly pleased with the unit's audio capabilities. Cowon knows that you're considering this player for its wide ranging codec support and the outfit's heralded audio quality, and it's evident that company engineers put some serious time into making sure the S9 performed the core task -- playing back audio -- marvelously. If you're into audio above all else (with "all else" being applications, internet access, etc.), you can't go wrong with the S9. Oh, and the integrated support for Bluetooth headsets / BT streaming is downright splendid.

Over on the video side, clips were expectedly phenomenal. With such fantastic audio capabilities, the only question left was around image quality. And with an AMOLED screen, this question pretty much answers itself. We've yet to find a player this small that we would rather watch an extended video on; sure, video-centric players such as the A3 easily trump this with their higher resolutions and larger screen sizes, but you'll have a difficult time finding something this minuscule that makes watching video so enjoyable.

Wrap up

By now, you've probably already decided if this thing is for you. For those into extravagant extras and a perfectly polished UI, you simply will not find what you're after in the S9. For those who view pristine audio quality and delightful video playback as paramount, you're probably willing to overlook the ho hum UI and design flaws in order to possess a pocketable player that won't disappoint your discerning ears and eyes. For anyone still on the fence, it really boils down to your needs and desires. Are you willing to deal with an interface that's troublesome to navigate at times if it means the best possible audio quality when the track finally begins to play? Would you take lightweight over solid? Will you be satisfied with your PMP if it does little else outside of playing back joints and jams?

The S9 has a lot of things going for it -- the 2+ day battery life, gorgeous AMOLED screen, impeccable audio quality and featherlight design (just to name a few) -- but at $199.99 and $239.99 for the 8GB and 16GB versions, respectively, we simply expected more. If these fall by $70 or so in the short term, they'll certainly become quite the bargain, but considering that these are apt to be used in noisy subway stations and on windy bike trails (compared to say, in a dead quiet recording studio), we're not entirely sure the small bump in overall sound quality is enough to warrant a purchase over more fully-featured rivals. Is Cowon's S9 worth a look if you're in the market? Unquestionably so. But unless its unique characteristics are exactly what you're after, we'd hold off until the price slips or the interface gets a makeover.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:15PM]

so i'm in korea... what happened to the originally spec'd DMB tuner?!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:15PM]

Great review!

I hate that companies are wasting all this time developing devices with OSs that have a non-existent ecosystem that isn't going to draw in anyone; Cowon certainly knows how to make great DAPs (I still love my X5L!), but times have changed and it would be great to see them and other DAP competitors move onto Android. If they don't like the packaged media player, then they are welcome to develop a new one! Just don't close down the devices plz.

The market for people who want rather expensive and beautiful devices like this, but have no interest in the software/WiFi connectivity is extremely small. The iPod Touch redefined what a standalone MP3 player can do; it's time for Android to now step up and show people that this new definition is more than just a one trick non-multitasking pony.

[Prestor John Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:04PM]

This wasn't designed to be a religious experience, it was designed to be a good PMP. It appears to have succeeded. Nobody should care what apple did with the ipod touch. I don't care if it is powered by virgin tears, the damn thing doesn't have dedicated volume buttons. THis is a device catered to people with certain priorities.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:26PM]

Err, I can't believe I'm "defending" an Apple product...But the iPod Touch does have dedicated volume buttons :\

[ilh Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:51PM]

Not sure what exactly you're referring to as the device isn't exactly closed. There's already custom parts of the UI out for it (guides pushed by Cowon themselves, not hackjobs).

I wouldn't exactly call selling out in Korea (where it matters to Cowon) within a few hours and number 2 seller on amp3 a small market.

[Invader Par Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:46PM]

There's no lag on the g sensor. The reviewer was holding it horizontally, so the g sensor couldn't tell he was switching orientation. The g sensor senses gravity, or which way is down. The moment he picked up the front end (when he made the machine know there's a "down"), it rotated the screen. It's not supposed to be held flat, or perpendicular to gravity.

[billmiller Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:07PM]

I was waiting for this anxiously to replace my iriver clix2 but this falls short of expectations. I am ready to pay high price but it should be worth it.

I know what videos on an AMOLED look like and also what stellar sound quality is (both these I have with clix2), but the UI doesnt seem too intuitive. Yes, bluetooth will be good, but I wonder if the sound quality on a bluetooth headphone could match with the high quality earbuds I use, no I guess. Also, the build quality is not that great.

Shall still wait for another good PMP. I do not need wifi as I have that on my phone (not iphone btw) which is enough, do not need internet on everything I own yet.

Hope iriver comes up with another sexy piece like clix2 at CES '09. Spinn isn't good enough either.
Nice review engadget. :)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:23PM]

Be carefull what u say u might hurt some cowon fanbois feelings or ipodtouch haters emotions,.I guess we gotta be politically correct we can't hurt French euros Muslims etc,.or they'll call u the "a" word, apple fanboy. It hurts so bad

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:43PM]

The build quality on the S9 is actually pretty good, better then all my previous players barring the D2. It's lighter and more plastic like then previous Cowon players but it's still pretty solid and hasn't got a single scratch on it after I left it in a pocket with my keys and a load of spare change for a few hours.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 7:43PM]

yeah be careful on what you say, because shugg might soon run for his mommy and ask for help to make some counter lines.

btw john doe, i own the clix 2 and the S9's sound quality is far superior than the clix2's.
if you don't like the UI, you can always change it with the UCI function.

[Flix C Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:17PM]

I'm sorry engadget but are you actually complaining about a $239 price tag on the 16Gb version ?
*cough* How much is an iPod Nano 16Gb ? $199
How much is an Apple branded player that can play this much audio and video formats, has a 3,3" amoled screen of this kind of quality ? there isn't.

Do I reckon the $40 price difference is justified : Hell yeah !

(And just so you know the 16Gb version is worth 280 euros in Europe = $400 so stop whining :p)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:29PM]

Oh yeah apple
Touch $199 too much,. Oh yeah no one will ever buy it dee dee deee

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:49PM]

@ Shugg
Can you please point me in the direction of this $200 16GB iPod Touch? The best price I can find for the 16GB is around the $270-300 mark. Unless you're comparing the price of the 8GB Touch to the 16GB S9 which is more then a little erroneous.

[Flix C Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:06PM]

The Touch is $280 so stop the bs.
And still, I was underlining the fact that engadget wants cowon to make its 16 GB S9 $70 cheaper, which is $170.
Although I am not personally against such an idea I find it very bias of Engadget to ask Cowon to make a device not only 10 times better than the nano but also cheaper !

It's like saying "hey Dell you cant to kick the Macbook air ? just make a 0,1inch thick notebook with a $300 price tag and we'll talk about it"
No you don't have to be 10 times better than apple to kick their ass, once is enough.

Did I mention Apple sells about 10 times more nano than Cowon will sell S9, and therefore Apple can make HUGE economy of scale?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:18PM]

Just a quick question for you guys. How responsive is that touch screen compared to some of the other ones out there? In the video it looked like it was sort of hard to use.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:46PM]

It's actually much better then the majority of other players, it doesn't match the iTouch and is perhaps edged out slightly by the P2, but overall it's much better then the video would have you believe. As the video was a first impression I doubt the reviewer knew how to use the player and turning the player on the horizontal axis doesn't work for an acceleromter.

[ilh Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:55PM]

I'd say it's in between the Touch and P2 (I find the P2 much more sluggish).

[Wwhat Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:06PM]

I think the reviewer was holding the camera while using the GUI, and if so it wasn't too badly done actually, of course a simple stand for the camera would have avoided the display of skill in using multiple devices at the same time.

[moochy Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:39PM]

Please! I'm not going to jump ship(apple love child) b/c of this. there is nothing new to the game by these lil units.
Ever since the ipod, the industry has been competing not with Apple but with themselves. They figure they'd jump all over Apple's tech swag, bell and whistle the shit out of it and say, "who's your daddy". Not working, at least not for me.
Apple hasn't changed the ipod(except for the one with the buttons in a row) in almost ten years and they have dominated the market and won converts with well executed design and hardware/software. Same for their desk tops and notebooks.

[Dummy00001 Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:44PM]

Question: is there any text/PDF reader? widescreen mode? zoom/reflow?

[ilh Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:59PM]

There's a .txt file reader (no PDF).
If you're still referring to text reader then unfortunately not even though it'd make the most use of the g-sensor after video orientation switching.
Yes there's zoom on many parts of the interface from the menues to pictures, to the text reader. Don't know what you mean by reflow.

[Dummy00001 Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:08PM]

> reflow

ability to properly reformat text to fit display.
normally applied to PDF viewer (reflow of plain text by now is standard feature) but since there is no such thing on S9 then it is not applicable.

thanks for the info!

[Wwhat Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:03PM]

From the pictures I gather it has a radio, and a text reader (with unknown capabilities) and a calculator amongst others, all in all I found the review hugely lacking in information on the device's basic capabilities, a simple small list would be nice, but that's something you often see on engadget, the writers seem to think you read every article and memorized all details from every device from the personal press package the company mailed us all, except they don't do that.
Not that the review was awful, I've seen a great many much worse ones, in this one you did get some usable info and views, it just had gaps.

[ilh Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:23PM]

Yep there was a lot of missing information and misinformation, e.g. the double tap to play a track is because there's other options at the bottom of the screen that you need to select a track first to use those options. A hugely helpful part of the UI (that I could see he could've used in the video) is the ability to adjust the size of the menues as well as the ability to create custom interfaces. No mention of some of the other UI abilities like the quicklist either. Then there's the file browser (I like not having to enter a certain part of the UI to open a certain kind of file - I can enter through the music player and watch a video if I want) and flash player as well as those you've mentioned, some of which i'd call extravagant extras.

[Flix C Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:07PM]

Can it run crysis and play 1080i through a HDMI port it doesn't even have ?
Because if not, I rather my iPod touch.
/sarcarsm

[doubleofive Posted Dec 29th 2008 4:50PM]

nice choice of music. anberlin rocks

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 5:22PM]

People keep on saying this is an iPod Touch competitor. I don't think so! Just looking at it you can tell it isn't going to be as polished as an Apple product. Yes, it has some very nice codec support but honestly I'd rather convert my videos than use that interface.

This is NOT an iPod Touch competitor. It is a nice PMP. It in no way competes with the iPod Touch.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:49PM]

the interface is simple to use. i dont know whats with people and moving their thumbs.
ipod touch just apps/wifi. video and sound quality doesn't even match with the S9. i dont even think itouch users even know what sound quality is.

i agree with you. it's no ipod touch competitor because it's so much better and excels so much farther in what PMPs and MP3 players were supposed to be made for.

[Wwhat Posted Dec 30th 2008 12:07AM]

They compare with the ipod touch because of the asking price.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:41PM]

damn, i wish it had wifi, oh well, i guess i'll be getting an over priced mp3 player from Apple.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 30th 2008 8:49AM]

This is more of a "how much is this device like an iPod" review than a "how nice is this device to use" review. I cite the whinging about the lack of a dedicated button to return to the home screen and the comparison of the connector cable to that of the ipod.

In short, this review could have consisted of one line: "Save your time and buy an iPod."

[vetiog Posted Dec 30th 2008 10:29PM]

The review doesn't point out the transfer of music and movies...on my now dead D2 you have to move the folders with a cover.jpg in order to view the art of the albums and in collections with more than one disk it made a mess (Pink Floyd: The Wall for example) how does it handle it?...still for the majority of people is ok with 16gb but for me it won't cut it, the sound on cowon products is much better than the ipod and with external speakers with no external power the D2 blows the ipod out of the water with no decrease in battery life... creating playlists for this S9 is another issue, if any which formats does it handle?, I still use my ipod classic because is more organized in terms of searching but it seems that in the real world you can't have everything...sigh...

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 1st 2009 8:51AM]

You don't have to have cover.jpg in folder. You just embedd the album art into the id3tag with a program like mediamonkey and mp3tag (noth can download album art automaticly from the internet I think). I got a D2 and used cover.jpg til I found out about embedding album art in tags and have used it since then. I will see if firmware updates will fix the small bugs in the UI, if I know Cowon right, most of the things will be fixed soon. And about that it doesnt look like in press shoots, I have to second another reply earlier here. You got the other version engadget! There's two ones, one more brownish and one black and metalllooking.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 31st 2008 4:24AM]

I currently have a 1st gen iPhone and I got a S9 16 Gb for Xmas, still have to receive it though :-( , but considering the superior sound quality of Cowon's in general (I will use it with a pair of Westone 3's), the vastly superior codec support, the inclusion of BBE+ and the AMOLED screen; I don't really see it competing for the same market share as Apple's players and the price is pretty decent too considering the qualities of the device.

I gave my wife in return a iPod Nano and she likes it because it's easy to use, syncs easily with iTunes and is small/looks nice. Ease of use and looks are the main drivers here, she doesn't really know and/or can make the difference between FLACs or MP3s files, EQ settings and thinks the Apple earbuds are just fine sound-wise.

What I will miss from the "iPod World", is the actual ease of use of getting/synching video podcast with iTunes.

[G I Posted Dec 31st 2008 6:04AM]

No gapless playback: p. o. s.

[Tohe Posted Jan 17th 2009 11:36AM]

Put it on a diet, make it do some exercising, become more agile, then give me a holler.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 27th 2009 12:47AM]

I love it.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 3:35AM]

Cowon is my favourite! Great Flac players.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 15th 2009 2:54AM]

I have been browsing reviewes and forum comments on MP3 players for about 2 days and none of the reviews bring out answers to important (personally important anyway) questions. I am writing as a Sony NW-A3000 owner who is now looking to replace the old girl.

In considering Cowon S9, Samsung P2 or P3, Creative Zen and X-Fi and iPods
1. Battery replacement? Does anyone make this possible or even encourage it? It was a ball-ache on my Sony but at least it was possible
2. Line Out? When using in-car does the headphone socket double-up as a line-out, I mean with a menu change so that the line-out output is higher gain. It's a feature of the Sony I am keen to retain

If you only dip into the market at replacement time then you approach it neutrally and without the emotion for or against brands as seen in this thread and generally elsewhere.

Any answers much appreciated.