Home > Consumer Reviews > Cowon O2 8 GB Video MP3 Player (White)

I've always been a fan of Cowon. I think they typically make great mp3 and video players, and their D2 is my favorite mp3 player of all time. When the O2 was announced, I knew I would be buying one. Overall I'm satisfied with the O2, but there are a few rather glaring problems with the player that cannot be ignored.

Cowon has always been better at making hardware than writing firmware to support it, and this trend continues with the O2. Things that should be there aren't, and things that should work better don't. There is a lot to love about the O2 anyway, but it just feels like Cowon keeps just missing. I'm still waiting for that perfect PMP that I know they're more than capable of producing. I'm hoping that as the firmware matures for the O2 that they fix some of the problems and make this a good PMP into a great one.

Before addressing what makes this player good but frustratingly imperfect, here are a few technical details from my experience using the O2:

File upload speed: internal memory, using provided USB cable plugged directly into the computer (no hub) is about 6.5 - 7.4mb/second. I tried large batches of files (3-4gb) and small batches (200mb - 500mb) and they all uploaded at approximately the same speed. Single large files like movies upload slight faster, in the 7.5-8mb/second.

Firmware updates have been made much easier than in previous Cowon players. No more Copy file, reboot device, copy in 2nd file, reboot device, etc... The firmware can be updated with a single collection of files uploaded to the main directory. Reboot the O2, the system loads the new firmware and you're done. Updating from 1.9A (preloaded when received from Amazon) to 1.4b took about 20 seconds tops. This is a great improvement from the D2.

A strange difference between the O2 and the D2 is that when connecting to the computer via USB, you can only access the internal or external memory at one time. When you plug in, the O2 will give the option of selecting internal or external. This is different from the D2. The major disadvantage to the only being able to access internal or external in isolation is that you cannot transfer files from one directory to the other.

Now lets get on with the good:

1. Available with up to 32gb of flash memory. If you're considering an O2, I suggest getting the 16gb or even the 32gb version. 8gb is pretty small these days.

2. Support of many audio and video codecs, including FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) which is what I use for all my music files.

3. Slick, sexy design. Understated cool. The O2 feels solid in your hand and is just quality all the way around. Has a very thin bezel. Almost the entire device is touch screen.

4. Expandable via SD or SDHC card which is PERFECT for a PMP because you can add movies to an SDHC card and swamp them in and out as needed. This is especially nice if you're taking a trip and want to have a good number of movies available.

5. Great resolution and very pretty screen. Movies look nice on the O2.

6. Very fast boot up. My O2 starts in about 8-9 seconds, which is 3 times as fast as my D2. That is an excellent improvement.

7. Simple, intuitive GUI (Graphic User Interface). The O2 uses icons sort of like what you would find on a smart phone to navigate through menus, select media files and play them. There O2 also allows multitasking; you can simultaneously listen to music while using the notepad for example.

8. 10 band EQ. This is simply fantastic, and easily the best EQ I've ever had in a PMP. You can adjust to your hearts content and make your music sound the way it should. I love this feature!

There are some real problems with the O2 however, a few of which are beyond silly in a PMP of this caliber.

1. No support for meta tags. Seriously Cowon, what were your designers smoking when you decided to leave out support for tags? Especially since Cowon has offered support for them in every other PMP they've put on the market! The D2 supports tags (albeit after several rounds of firmware to get it to do it correctly) so why the heck doesn't the O2? Because my media files are all tagged perfectly (download mp3tag if you need a great tag editor) and also organized very logically in files, this doesn't affect me that much, but it could be devastating for someone who keeps their files all in one big mix and relies on meta tag information to keep them sorted.

2. No support for DRM files. While I don't personally own any, this is a bit of a travesty considering how many people have extensive libraries of DRM files.

3. No FM receiver. The D2 has it, and the O2 should as well.

4. Finicky GUI in certain situations. I have larger fingers and find touch screens to be a pain. The O2 is no exception. The size of the some of the menus, and especially those in the audio and video playing area, are small and hard to access.

5. Firmware bugs. Even the most recently released firmware has bugs. Check out the official O2 forum (google search iaudiophile) for details. Since Cowon changes firmware for their players like most people change socks, it would be pointless to point out the current bugs. As time goes by, they will evolve. Fortunately, Cowon also has a history of steadily improving their firmware, so if you have a bug now, chances are it will be fixed in the future.

6. Flap that covers the SDHC card slot and USB access is connected by two flexible plastic bands. I hate when phone makers do this (Razr2) and its even worse on a media player. They always wear out, especially since they have to be used ALL THE TIME when charging the device, and once they break off they are impossible to repair. They should use steel bands (or anything other than plastic!) to make sure these covers don't wear out!

Conclusions:

The number of files supported, over all excellent GUI, sexy design, and high quality audiphile touches like the 10 band EQ make the O2 a great PMP option. Sadly, it isn't perfect, and while firmware updates may improve it, they can't add an FM receiver nor replace the plastic bands that hold on the SDHC card slot cover. If they manage to fix my other complaints and provide support for meta tags, tweak the GUI, and add support for DRM files, the O2 would be unchallengeable as the best PMP on the market. Here's hoping that happens.

Additional thoughts:

I've added a few photos to the Amazon page. One is a size comparison to several other PMPs (Ipod 4th generation, Cowon D2, Iriver Clix), on of the included accessories, and the last a picture of the SDHC and USB port and its cover.

I purchased this Item for a trip to Europe. It worked perfect for my needs. I put 8 movies on it, and watched one while waiting in the airport for my plane, one on the plane, and the rest in the evenings at my hotel, no English television where we were. I read a lot too, but this video player really came in handy. Not only was it nice to watch movies, but all the pictures we took on our camera were saved on an SD card. We would take the card out of the camera and slip it into the O2, and view our pictures on the bigger screan.
The video and sound on this thing are better than I could have expected. We also found that it is pretty close to the exact same size as our Garmin Nuvi navigator, so all the little carry cases that are sold for under $10, fit this O2 pretty good. The seller shipped in just a couple of days. This was an excellent purchasing experience

I bought the Cowon O2 because I was looking for something with a good size screen (4.3 " in this case). I previoulsy had a sankey player with a 2" screen.When I got the cowon O2 I was amazed at the quality of the picture at 480 by 272 resolution.It was crisp and clear and when they say 16 million colors, they mean it !!

The features for music was terrific. Cowon has MAch3bass, 3d surround, BBE enhancement and MP3 enhancement and each feature has 10 levels of adjustment. Also there is a 10 band equaliser and for each band there is a 2 level adjustment for frequency and a 3 level adjustment for bandwidth. Putting all this together, this little device really does a whole lot of sound processing and thus it sounds excellent. i was really surprised and absolutely pleased with the sound and not to mention the awesome audio codec support, including lossless formats.

The video is awesome. Cowon supports a whole lot of video codecs. In general if you like encoding your own videos and words like "virtual dub", "subrip", "mkvtoolnix","xvid","dvd decrypter","H264" and "matroska" sound familiar to you, then the O2 will meet your needs happily.
I played matroska and avi files with no problems.The O2 will not allow you to access subtitles or chapters embedded in the mkv container,but it will play the movie. However if you have the subtitle ( in srt format) saved in the same directory as the movie and with the same name, The subtitle is loaded with the movie and you can adjust the size, position and color.I find this to be a very good compromise.If you have multiple audio tracks (up to 8 tracks ) embedded in the mkv, ogm or avi container, the O2 recognises it and allows you to choose which to play.

The O2 has decent battery for a 4.3" lcd device. It is about 6 to 8 hours when watching videos. The touchscreen interface is very cool. My suggestion is to dabble with it a little so you can get a feel for it.

Overall the O2 is great especially if you're a video buff. I haven't checked all the music features, but if you like good quality music, then I do think that the O2 and (I guess) other Cowon products do a whole lot more audio processing than other portable audio products out there. The sound is amazing.You will not be disappointed.

I was given this as a birthday present and it has been perfect! I put movies and music on and right away everything worked. The screen is big enough to enjoy but the player is still small enough to carry around, the screen is also very clear and brilliant. The menus are easy to use and the touch screen works well. My only complaint would be the stylus is a little too big but there are so many on the market now, who cares? Every thing about the player is great and I would recommend it to everybody.