Cowon J3 Review

Cowon takes a new look at the Personal Media Player market. A year after they introduced the gorgeous S9 they brought out it's better looking better working younger brother. The Cowon J3 is a more typical looking touchscreen device, yet it has a refined user interface, apparently faster processor, and a sturdier build than the S9.

This is part one of my J3 review. The second part can be found HERE.
Cowon now sells an Android-based D3.  You can find my review of it HERE.

Included in the box you get the J3, a typical Cowon>USB cable, a CD with the owner's manual and MyPodder software on it, some inexpensive earbuds, coupons for free songs and an audiobook, and a paper quick guide.
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Once the J3 is on you'll see a tab on the lower right of the screen. Slide it left to reveal 3 UI choices. The default is an icon array (above). Second is a vertical graphic list shown here,and 3rd is an option with three screen views using both icons and widgets you can place wherever you want. Using the icon array the icons cutely turn when you change the J3's orientation. A few features the J3 has over the S9:
- It includes a microSD expansion slot under a tab on the bottom edge. Up to 16gb microSD HC cards accepted. The new 32gb card from Sandisk may work as well. - includes a built-in speaker (on the back).
- features two-finger pinch/spread zooming in the photo application.
- 3mm thinner than the S9 (12.9mm) at 2.2 x 4.19 x 0.39 in ( 56.0 x 106.5 x 9.9 mm )
- weighs 1 gram less at 76g.
- 64 hours music playback vs 55 for the S9.
- Recharge time using a USB port on your PC: 3.5hrs vs 5hrs for the S9.
Music: The J3 will play MP3/2, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE, M4A, and WAV formats. It has a 95db Signal/Noise ratio (very good). The music application is very complete. You get:
- full screen album art display,
- A position slider bar,
- quick access to the music play options,
- Song file info with a tap on the art
- large play/pause and track buttons to tap on.
- play mode,
- A-B marking,
- JetEffect equalizer choices.
- a toggle to lock the screen rotation, allow the album array in landscape view, or turn on shake to shuffle.
- You get gapless playback by default.
- You can change the speed of playback, with the pitch changing or not.
- move the audio balance left or right.
- and even have it fade in at the beginning of each song.
·How the music sounds will depend on the headphones you use and the compression ratio used to create the files. I give music playback an A.
· Videos: The J3 will play AVI, WMV, ASF (and the occasional MP4) files at 480 x 272 pixels or slightly larger. Shown above is a shot from UP, an MP4 file playing on my J3. The video player is almost complete and has the most extensive list of settings I've seen. You can change nearly every aspect of how video plays on the J3. You can tweak subtitle syncing, expand the video to fill the screen or not, bookmark more than one position in any video, or even pause the video from your bluetooth headphones. Video can be output to a TV using an optional cable. Movies look fantastic on the 3.3" capacitive screen. I give video play an A. Just be sure and read the manual. You'll find it on the included CD.
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Bluetooth: I'm a fan of wireless headphones, and the J3 has a good implementation of bluetooth for that purpose, with both A2DP (2-channel stereo) and AVRCP (remote control) profiles. You can listen to audio over bluetooth from the music and video apps, but not the FM radio. There is no file transfer or network sharing, so bluetooth gets a B.

Photos: The J3 will display JPG files. There is no resolution limit, although larger images take longer to load. I transferred some photos directly from my 12mp camera (above) and they did display on the J3. I strongly recommend reducing photo sizes to something closer to the screen resolution though. My 12mp images were very slow to load, but sample photos that came with the J3 displayed quickly. You can easily rotate photos to best fill the screen. Zooming in on a detail is easy with a two-finger spread. I give the photo app an A.

· Text: Simple TXT can be displayed on the J3 (above). You have a few options to improve how they appear, including color of text/background and size of the text. No fancy flipping of pages though. Text gets a B.
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FM Radio: The FM radio relies on the headphone cable for an antenna, so the quality, position, and length of that cable will effect reception. You can record from the radio app. You can toggle between fine tuning and stepping through auto-tuned stations. The radio app is simple, but worked reliably on my J3. I'll give FM Radio a B.

Flash: The J3, like the S9, can play flash games and apps (SWF files) found on the web and copied to it's memory. Not all games play. Some that play don't play well. You can find FLASH files to test in the Cowon S9 and J3 forums around the web. While this capability has great potential, the difficulty in finding flash programs created specifically for 480 x 272 touchscreen devices makes this a token capability at best. That may change in the future. For now I give the J3's FLASH capabilities an average C.
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Games: The J3 comes with one Hunter game that is a good demonstration of the graphic and g-sensor features. It's a decent distraction. Look for Hunter in the Utilities section along with a simple calculator, graphic notepad, and typist app. These utilities are token distractions, and worth no more than an average C.

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Summary: At $190 and $220 respectively for the 8gb and 16gb versions, the J3 is more expensive than comparable touchscreen players. The very comparable Cowon S9 is $30 to $40 cheaper for the same memory configuration. The added speaker is a nice touch, but hardly worth the premium up charge. The J3 is very new to the market though, so expect the prices to come down in a few months. I like the J3. It has a smoother UI than the S9. Media capabilities are just a little better. The flat body should be easier to find an assortment of cases for, but only time will tell if case manufacturers decide to support it. Video and photo display is stunning. Music sounds great (with decent headphones). The media apps are thorough. If you don't mind being an early adopter and paying that early adopter fee then the J3 is a worthwhile purchase.

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4D

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