COWON O2 : Cowon O2, Unboxing and Quick Review

Last October we announced the soon to be released in Korea and Japan Cowon O2, a new PMP that's arguably the most powerful compact PMP yet available.

What's so special about this new PMP?
The most impressive thing is its capacity to accept almost ANY video codec, like DivX 3.11/4/5/6, Xvid, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV 9/8/7, H.264, M-JPEG, MPEG 1 in different file formats like : AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MATROSKA(MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, DAT, MTV. Most surprisingly it will even play (more or less) files that its not supposed to play, like the WMV HD.

Don't get too excited, the overall WMV HD experience is pretty sluggish, but hey, it shouldn't even play at all!

The same applies to audio files with the support of the following codecs: MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, AC3, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC, APPLE Lossless, True Audio, Monkey Audio, MusePack, WavPack, G.726, PCM in the following format MP3/2/1, WMA, ASF, AC3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA(MKA), TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV.

As you can see, it accepts and plays ALMOST everything, including (surprisingly) MKV file format. It's pretty popular when it comes to web HD content, but do not expect the O2 to play MKV HD files, just your plain old MKV files based on a supported codec.

With a simple, very simple design, the O2 has very few buttons; only two buttons, one for volume and one for power (on/off/lock). Beneath a little “tap” you'll find the SD card reader that increases its basic inboard memory (8/16/32GB). Next to the SD slot you'll find the USB 2.0. Also around the tap is the line-out/headphone and the DC in 5V.

So how good is this little fellow?
The first contact with it is very good , the GUI is well done graphically, and once you start to playing around with it, pretty responsive too, the same applies to the touchscreen.

Let’s get down to business... You've been waiting a longtime now, and yes the video player is pretty good, the render quality is perfect, I have absolutly nothing to complain about it. I even found better results than on my iPhone.

Same for the audio player, I'm no sound expert, but the output was pretty good, I just wish the O2 had a remote control to change between songs.

There are two other nice features, an integrated microphone and speaker. As for other features , I didn't play around a lot with them, the image viewer and text viewer are just for fine… What should we expect from them anyway?

Conclusion
I'll say that the new O2 is, even if it doesn't support HD files,a pretty amazing PMP. I love its simple yet elegant design, the fast and easy GUI, and the video quality. If it could have been a little bit lighter it would have made my day.

If you're looking for a nice PMP that plays almost every video format, the new O2 is ONE to buy right now!