Cowon C2 Review

Cowon's latest offering is a little hard to figure out. The C2 looks like a smaller thinner version of their D2. A throwback (after their Android D3) to the basics perhaps. Something new to buy for those wanting Cowon's great playback quality but at a far more reasonable cost than the Android based D3. The C2 is compact and  well built. Mine arrived 7/21/2011 and opening up the package felt a little like Christmas in July. In the (reusable cardboard drawer) box I found:

• Cowon C2-16BS 16 GB Video Player, Black with Silver
• Earphones
• User Manual
• USB cable (proprietary)
• An e-Music offer for free songs
• An Audible offer for a free audio book.

Optional accessories (available at jetmall.net and amazon.com) include:

• COWON Line-in cable for C2
• COWON AV (TV out) cable for C2

Hardware Features:

• MicroSD expansion slot (for up to 32gb cards).
• 2.6" Clear Color LCD touchscreen (240x320)
• FM Radio and radio recording (but with no RDS).
• Speaker.
• Microphone.
• 55 hour battery for music). 10 hours for video.
• Metal back.
• External Volume +/-,  Menu, and Power/Hold buttons.

UI: You have two choices. One uses icons that you may have seen on the Cowon D3. The other is a simpler text-based set of icons that will take a bit to get used to.

Music:  File formats supported include MP3/2, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, and WAV.  I can verify that the C2 will play WMA lossless, which is a challenge for most media players. The only format I haven't tested is APE.  All other play fine and sound great. The now playing screen doesn't sit still.  Instead it puts your cover art on an LP and spins it around to keep you entertained visually.

Music's Now-Playing features are a little more cryptic to find than they were on the J3, and they required an extensive examination to figure out. You can find Favorites and Bookmarks, but not easily. There is an alphabetic search option (limited to 12 characters) as well. You have the typical playback shuffle and repeat, speed and pitch controls. You can also access extensive EQ/JetEffect settings including 4 User configurations, Normal, and 34 unique presets.  The music app is full featured, but far from intuitive to use if you really want to master it.

Videos:  File formats supported include AVI, WMV, ASF (and MP4 unofficially).  The video app is also fairly complete, but given the small screen perhaps not the best excuse for getting a Cowon C2.

The settings in the video app are nearly the same as on Cowon's other players, but again a little bit of a mystery as to where to find. A single tap on the screen brings up the play controls.  Those include Prev/Rewind, Play, and Next/Fast_Forward.  There is a slider to let you move to any position in the video, as well as Position (time) and Length (time) info.  You can tap the lower corners to for "next" or "prev" pages which will take you to more video settings including Subtitle, Display, Playback, and Speed (to the right), with  Loop, Brightness, Capture, and JetEffect (EQ) settings (to the left).

Back to that first tap on the Now Playing screen:  To the right after that first tap is an Open icon which when tapped will bring up a list of the available videos.  From that list a tap on the tiny "next" icon moves you to Video Favorites if you've marked any, and one more tap gets you to Video Bookmarks.  A tap on "Prev" brings you to an alphabetic search page.

Pictures: JPGs appear to be the only picture format supported. You get all the basic features with the Pictures app including incremental and double-tap to Zoom, Pan, SlideShow (with transitions), and Rotate. 

Documents: You can view  .TXT files on the C2 with the Documents app. You can also hand write notes to yourself with the included NotePad app. Lastly, you can type notes with the Typist app.  Both would be fine for making notes to yourself. The NotePad app is limited to 30 pages, and of course there is no printing from the C2. The Typist app has 60 available pages.  I highly recommend using a stylus with these apps on the C2.  Any PDA stylus should work, and you don't need an expensive capacitive stylus with the resistive screen.

Radio:  You'll need to have the earphones plugged in to serve as antenna for the radio. All the expected features are there. A panel to the left (tap ) include region and stereo/mono options.  The upper left corner of each panel has a speaker icon you can tap to silence the radio.  

Games: Flash games are supported on the C2.  No samples came with it, and I didn't have any examples to try.

Clock: There is a timer and alarm in the Settings>Time app, with a Stopwatch (or Countdown timer) as a separate StopWatch app. Very handy.  You can also use it as a simple clock.  It would make a great travel companion. Add a simple stand for greatest convenience. The default theme has it's first page as a clock with inspirational sayings.  Tap on the upper right corner of this page to cycle through them.  I find the clock and related features to be one of the best excuses for a C2.

Summary:  For codec support and audio output quality, the C2 gets an A+.  The User Interface and app options are something you'll need to study awhile to get used to.  All the features are there, just hard to find.  I'm enjoying my C2 for its small size, light weight, and great sound.  I'm not using the included earbuds though.  Find a great set of  headphones for the C2 and you'll be in audio heaven.

4D

PS:  If you enjoy reading my posts, please consider clicking on an Ad or two.   Thanks!

Latte Ice Smart Review.

Latte Ice Smart

LatteZone has released an Android-based media player with a 5" screen.  It has been impossible to find Samsung's 5" Android player in the U.S. and the specs on the Latte ICE Smart look impressive on the surface. I decided to give one a look.

The basics include a 5" LCD TFT dual-touch resistive screen showing 800x480 pixels, an 800mHz CPU with 3D accelerator, speaker and microphone, and 8gb of internal memory.  There is a microSD slot for up to 32gb more of add-on storage. There is no camera or GPS or Bluetooth or FM radio. The Smart weighs 0.8lbs, and is 5.2x3.4 inches and roughly 1/2" thick. Pretty hefty and a (big) handful. The battery is rated at 5.0 hours of use on a charge. Not very impressive for a media player, but should get you through a movie or two. The HDMI-output will mirror anything on the Smart's screen to your HDTV.  It comes with a (proprietary) 5v AC charger.  It also appears to recharge when plugged into a powered USB port despite the official LatteZone claim that it won't.

Apps: This tank of a player comes with both the Google Android Market and the Amazon AppStore. You also have both the Gmail email app and the standard Android email app.  Nothing unusual among the included applications.  Of the android apps I've tried only the Google Music beta app and a Mahjong game (for tablets) didn't play perfectly.  The Music Beta app wouldn't stream my own music over wifi from the web, although I was able to associate it with the account and see my music.  All I got was a spinning circle.  The Mahjong game wouldn't display text properly, showing only blank white boxes where text prompts should have been. Angry Birds in all versions plays, but I couldn't get the advertised two-finger zoom to work in those games.

Media capabilities are a mixed bag.  One disappointing flaw was in the gallery app, where some of my photos would show up poorly on the screen. It was almost as if the app wasn't fully decoding the JPG files.   JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF files are all supported.  Although the two-finger zoom worked, it worked slowly and was not as efficient as a double-tap or tapping on the (-) or (+) icons.  Music playback was on par with any other android device. No gapless playback, but that can be remedied with a download of the rockbox app for android.  Several music codecs/formats are supported including WAV, WMA, ASF, FLAC, and MP3.   Audio quality from the single speaker is weak, but depending on the headphones you use Music playback should be satisfactory to most. Only 4 preset EQ profiles in settings and user EQ options. No sort by Genre in the stock music app either. Video playback is a strong feature.  I had no trouble playing AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, RMVB, and FLV video files.  No MPG support out-of-the-box though.  Video playback stands out as a good excuse for owning this player. With HDMI-out you can play the videos on the Smart through your HDTV.

Cons: The firmware appears as if was taken right from a phone.  There are mobile data connection options (Data enabled, Data roaming, Use only 2G networks, etc.) in settings, and one of the largest drains on the battery is Cell Standby. There is also the possibility it is missing some standard android fonts, which may explain why text didn't show up in my favorite Mahjong game.  One of the advertised capabilities is the use of wireless keyboard and mouse, but with no Bluetooth and only mini and micro USB ports on board that would only be possible with at least one USB OnTheGo adapter ($5+ shipping) and the wireless USB dongle from a keyboard/mouse combo.   Lastly, the Back/Menu/Home/Search buttons are afixed to one right-biased spot on the bezel.  They don't rotate with you when you rotate the device.

Conclusion?   At $190 (8gb) this is a bit pricy for the included capabilities.  It works as advertised though.  If you can live without the few android apps that don't work well, and don't mind paying for it, then it'll satisfy your media, PDA, and game needs fine. I'm personally hoping they'll upgrade it to remove the android phone features, but not confident LatteZone will ever get around to that.  There is no firmware update option in the settings.

4D