Cowon iAudio D2 Review

MP3 Players, Music Player Accessories David Peter

The D2 is Cowon’s first ultra portable video player and their first foray into the wondrous world of touch screens. Although similar in appearance to the iriver clix, the D2 sports some significant differences under the hood: things usually not found in this class of players like TV output, support for lossless audio codecs, and an SD/SDHC card slot for unlimited expansion.

audiod2Technical Specifications

 

  • Audio: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, APE, WAV, AAC (only on older firmware versions)
  • Video: MPEG4-SP (DivX, XviD, …), WMV9 – 320 x 240, 30fps
  • Photo: JPEG (no size limit)
  • Screen: 2.5″, 24 bit (16 million) color, 320 x 240, TFT-LCD
  • Dimensions: 78.0 x 55.4 x 16.6 mm (3.07 x 2.18 x 0.65 inches)
  • Weight: 91 g (3.21 oz)
  • Rated battery life: 52 hours for music, 10 hours for video
  • Other features: Touch screen, SD/SDHC card slot, TV-out, FM radio, voice/line-in/FM recorder, BBE sound enhancements, user-configurable effect presets, text viewer, date/time/alarm, bookmarks, on-the-go playlist, deleting files on the player, dictionary (only with Korean firmware)

 

Inside the box you will find earphones (rebranded Cresyn phones), AC adaptor, standard USB to Mini-USB cable, stylus, quick start guide, and a software CD (JetShell, JetAudio VX, Windows 98 drivers). No software is needed to use the D2 on any halfway-modern computer. Being a MSC/UMS compliant device, it works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9/OS X, Linux, and others as soon as you plug it in. Drivers for Windows 98/ME computers are included on the CD. The player and SD slot are recognized as standard removable storage disks.

Price of this multimedia player is around Rs. 6000 Indian Rupees.