Cowon O2 PVP Review - Features

Though it’s true that many other PVPs have double the memory of the new O2, it’s still pretty difficult to beat the no-muss-no-fuss accessibility of Cowon’s new device -- not to mention the price. The O2 retails for $210 (8GB), $249 (16 GB) and $200 (32 GB). Sure, storage may become an issue even if you do choose the 32 GB, but don’t fret; Cowon’s got you covered. The O2 comes equipped with a SDHC card slot for quickly swapping out content and increasing storage as you need it.

Aside from the ridiculous amount of file support discussed earlier, the new O2’s battery life is also a thing of beauty. As mentioned previously, Cowon’s new PVP is capable of getting up to 8 hours of video playback before surrendering, making it one of the longest playing PVPs on the market.

Just to put things in perspective: If Cowon's right, 8 hours of video playback would put the O2 far beyond the 4 hours of video life on the Archos 5 and ahead of the 6 hours of video on the iPod Touch and even the iPod Classic. Audio battery life isn't as impressive, with only 18 hours, but it's still ahead of the 12 hours of playback time on the Archos 5.

Another thing to bear in mind is that all of the O2's competitors require a proprietary cable to recharge the battery, which can be a huge pain if you lose the cable while traveling. The O2 charges best when using the included AC adapter, but you can charge over its mini-USB connection as well.

From an audio perspective, Cowon blows the doors off again with exhaustive format support, including: MP3, WMA, AC3, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC, Apple Lossless, True Audio, Monkey Audio, MusePack, WavPack, G.726, and PCM. In typical Cowon style, users also get access to tons of audio enhancement features, including the same EQ presets and BBE enhancement effects found on the Cowon D2 and iAudio 7. The O2 goes one better, however, by including a customizable 10-band EQ with independent frequency bandwidth settings that can be switched between narrow and wide.

Then there's the other stuff: a photo viewer that supports JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and raw images; a voice recorder that encodes to FLAC audio; a text reader; calculator; and a notepad. Bonus features on the hardware end include a built-in speaker, an optional composite video output (you'll need to buy an extra $9 AV cable from Cowon that plugs into the O2's USB port), a volume rocker switch, built-in microphone, and an SDHC memory slot.

Next: Performance >>
 

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