Cowon iAudio 7

[kombolcha]

I purchased the 4GB version (silver trim) from amazon about a week after it was available. It took three days to ship and i was very happy about it. To give you a general info from the cowon site.

• MP3, OGG, WMA,, ASF, FLAC, WAV, MPEG4 (video) playback,
  
• FM Radio and recording, voice recording, Line-In recording
  
• TXT, JPEG File Viewer (Image Zoom, Wallpaper)
  
• Internal flash memory 4GB, 8GB, (16GB - coming soon)
  
• USB 2.0 Interface
  
• 1.3 inch 160x128 dot, 260,000 color TFT LCD
  
• Up to 60 hours battery life
  

Price

- $169 (amazon.com, jetmall.net)

- $150 (newegg.com)

I got the box and opened it up.. Inside were the following items:

• Standard mini-USB cable
  
• iAudio headphones
  
• quick install guide
  
• warranty paper
  
• CD with Cowon Media Center
  

I had expected an AC adapter, but one was not included, although, it is an option for $12.99 at jetmall.net (what seems like cowon's official online store) Vista users might have trouble and may need to purchase the AC adapter, i will explain why later in the review.

FEEL

For over a week i had been staring at pictures of this player and knew it was very small, but even after i got it, i was still surprised at the size of the player, it is so small. But you will notice that compared to other small players, it is thick. If it was thin like the nano, i don't think it would have a good handle and not to mention the battery life would suffer greatly. For what it is, it's proportional and fits well in your hands and easily operatable with either thumb.

It has some weight to it, so you know it's always there in your hands, i hate when i'm holding things that don't way anything and sometimes i scare myself and think i lost it until i look down. Overall the plastic feels good, the cover for the USB port is solid and fits perfectly. The entire player except for the silver trim is a glossy black finish and you get your finger prints all over it. I'm constantly wiping it trying to keep it as new as i can, i'll eventually stop when i find a slim case for it, until then, the plastic screen cover is also staying put.

USE

When you connect the player it will be instantly recognized and show on your screen. This player allows you to drag and drop, use WMP to sync your music, or what i prefer is to use Cowon's Media Center. I will show you some screen shots of the program later on. It supposedly transfers at a rate of 6MB/sec, but i'm running Vista which is horribly slow with any file transfer, but it seems that this is not affected by it, it's pretty fast.

You can arrange your music in the old file/folder method or use the id3 tag to browse your music, i don't like the id3 method so i didn't bother to try it, i like the old way better, i can name the files myself and arrange the music the way i want. the Cowon Media Center is very good at letting you choose how you want to copy music to the player.

The player features a "swing touch" control. I was able to immediately use the swing touch right out of the box, very easy to use. All it is, is a touch sensitive pad, you can tap it or press and hold. For example, you can tap the next button and it'll scroll a single line or if you're playing music go to the next track, if you hold it down, it'll scroll continuously fast, or fast forward the track. the Play button is to play or pause music, but if you hold the button a small menu will appear, one of the options being to bring up the lyrics (a feature i have not tested as i could not get the lyric database file to install on my laptop) Overall, it's very comparable to the ipod wheel, except you don't have to go in circles or click anything. In the menu it also allows you to change the sensitivity of the swing touch, low, normal, and high. I have not tested the other two settings, it is normal by default. I have noticed though, When i'm looking very close at the player, and i have my finger hovering over just a few millimeters away, it'll activate. I thought that was pretty cool.

Final thought on the swing touch, you will always find yourself putting the player on hold after you've got the music player, whether you're holding it in your hands or in your pocket, it is sensitive, so any part of your skin touching the pad will cause to to pause, skip forward or reverse. But it's not such a big deal since i start playing the music on shuffle and forget about it in my pocket.

OTHER FEATURES

The player also has the ability to view text files, pictures with zoom, and video.

I have tried all three and come on, are you kidding me? on a 1.3" screen? I wouldn't call it a flaw, instead, i just say that it's the standard of any mp3 player, big or small, those features are standard, now, as small as the screen is, i have uploaded a few pictures and a few videos, just some personal things that i can look at from time to time, things that make me smile or remember a certain event or a funny video or two that never gets old. In that sense it is very useful, but definitely not something to be watching a movie on or sorting through albums.

It also has the ability to record voice and i tested that in a crowded and loud restaurant environment, i placed the player at the center of the table and carried on a normal conversation with my dad for about a minute. It does pick up all of the background noise, but you can still hear your conversation perfectly without really having to pay attention to your voice. it records at 128kbps max. in wma format.

The screen features an OLED screen which is great because it works perfectly indoors and just ok outdoors in direct sunlight, i'm still able to read the content on the screen.

Cowon is known for it's great sound quality, since i'm no expert in this area, i can't say much, except that it sounds pretty damn good. It also has the JetEffect menu that lets you manually control the equalizer. There are your standard pre-sets like Pop, Jazz, Rock, Normal, etc.. but you can set them up manually and define your own presets, there are other options like Mach Bass, MP Enhance, Surround, and BBE effects. It also has a pretty amusing feature that lets you control the playback speed, from slow, sluggish deep voice to a fast chipmunk. it's amusing for 30 seconds then you'll probably never use it again.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Battery - Cowon claims that it's good up to 60 hours. This is not something i'm going to test, i just don't have the time to do it. It is also believable since the player is as thick as a dime. Besides that it's been about a week since i got it and have been using it for about 2 - 3 hours a day and i still have full bars.

Since we're on the subject of the battery, i want to talk about how you charge this thing since it does not come included with an AC adapter. The instructions are very simple. When you plug in the usb, it'll be automatically be recognized by the PC and go into "USB Connected" mode, the mode that allows you to transfer files/music to/from the player. To charge the player, you have to go into the "remove hardware safely" and remove it, once you do that, leave it plugged in and within seconds the display on the iaudio 7 screen will change to "charging". This works perfectly on an XP machine, but i have not been able to get it to work on my Vista notebook. Cowon chat support was not helpful, all they said was, hopefully microsoft fixes it.

UPDATE: 7/25/2007

When i did this review i had charged the player the day before, all day yesterday i had been listening to the player, at work for about 3 hours, i turned it off, then later that day i got to school at 3 and started listening to it. after about an hour of listening to music i turned it off, or at least I THOUGHT i turned it off, but it was actually on. I didn't realize it was playing the music until after 5pm today. which means i had it playing continuously for 26 hours, before that the 3 other hours i had it playing, totaling 29 hours, and i also spent about 20 minutes transferring music to the player. The battery gauge has a total of 3 bars and i had 1 bar remaining. the volume was playing at 22 out of a maximum 40 and all of my music is mp3 format minimum 192kpbs on shuffle. I'm beginning to think that i get about 15 - 20 hours per bar. I don't have another 10+ hours to watch this thing, but based on these numbers i have no doubts this player will reach at least 50 hours. That is more than enough for me. Also, if it matters, the headphones i use are the Creative EP-630.

I've continued to let it play since i last edited this post, it's just shy of 4 hours which brings the total to 33 hours. I'm going to sleep so i'll turn it off now and continue in the morning.

7/26 - I continued to play music, this time for a straight 7 hours, it still has one bar, but brings to total up to 40 hours.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So far i am very pleased with this player, i'm very happy with it and i can see myself using this for a long time to come. It's got good sound quality, excellent battery life, good physical feel of the player, good format support, and excellent controls.

I feel like there is something i've left out... if you have any questions/comments i will glady answer them and hopefully update this review.

Screen shot review of Cowon's Media Center coming soon.

COMPARRISON

Here, i'm going to compare this player to other popular mp3 players, but only based on specifications listed.

I will simply list the basic specs of each mp3 player and all the BOLDED words are features/specs that the iAudio does not have.

First, to list the basic features of the iAudio 7:

• 4GB, 8GB, 16GB
  
• 1.3" TFT LCD
  
• 60 hours
  
• mp3, wav, wma, ogg, asf, FLAC
  
• FM Tuner
  
• Voice, FM, Line-in recording
  
• Clock, Alarm, Scheduled Recording, Sleep Timer, Auto Power-Off
  
• $150
  

Sansa E260

• 2GB, 4GB, 6GB, 8GB
  
• 1.8" TFT
  
• 20 hour replaceable battery
  
• mp3, wav, wma
  
• FM tuner (not available in Europe)
  
• Voice, FM (recording)
  
• microSD slot
  
• Metal shell
  
• $150 (4GB)
  

iPod Nano

• 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
  
• 1.5"... "liquid crystal display with blue-white LED backlight"
  
• 24 hours battery
  
• aac, mp3, apple lossless, aiff, wav
  
• $200 (4GB)
  

Samsung YP-T9JAB

• 4GB
  
• 1.8" TFT
  
• 30 hours battery
  
• mp3, wma
  
• voice, FM recording
  
• $175
  

Edited July 27, 2007 by venezian

[NienorGT]

Look really sweet. But I think Cowon players have high cost, how is the price versus other similar players like the Sansa E260?

Oh and does it work only with JetAudio or you can get it as a mass storage disc or WMP11?

[kombolcha]

Look really sweet. But I think Cowon players have high cost, how is the price versus other similar players like the Sansa E260?

Oh and does it work only with JetAudio or you can get it as a mass storage disc or WMP11?

i'll do a cost and small comparrison with other players tomorrow..

and yes, i've already mentioned you can get it as mass storage.. ok, i probably didn't say it on those words, but yes, it's also picked up by WMP.

[NienorGT]

and yes, i've already mentioned you can get it as mass storage.. ok, i probably didn't say it on those words, but yes, it's also picked up by WMP.

Sorry, I must have missed a paragraph, you should put the text then the picture ;) .

It just that I know someone that want a MP3 player, he likes my Zen Vision:M but don't want to use Video nor an HDD player so that one look nice for him.

[Toology]

Look really sweet. But I think Cowon players have high cost, how is the price versus other similar players like the Sansa E260?

Oh and does it work only with JetAudio or you can get it as a mass storage disc or WMP11?

The e260 costs $149.99 directly from SanDisk or $125.99 from Newegg. All of Cowon's players support .OGG and .FLAC which is rare in the market. All also have the BBE sound enhancements which are licensed and are probably factored into the cost of the player. Well worth it, in my opinion. I bought an X5 in 2005 and really don't see myself with another DAP until it literally dies and is unfixable. The screen on the e260 is 1.8 inches while the iAudio 7 is 1.3. I'm not sure about the video frame-rates but with screens that size you should be looking elsewhere for a better video-playback experience.

[PaulCabby]

60 hours?!?!?!?!?!

[Toology]

60 hours?!?!?!?!?!

Yeah, the iAudio 6 (which is essentially the same player, but with a micro-HDD and OLED display instead of flash memory and TFT) only had 20 hours. It's quite an improvement.

[Trauma]

you have huge hands.

[kombolcha]

lol^

updated "accidental battery test" look for red bold text.

[NienorGT]

Yeah, since the iAudio is on memory (Not HDD) it now pass over Sansa right on. (lol at the Nano $200)

[NightCrawler.]

you have huge hands.

:p, kinda freakish - maybe its the way the photo was shot?