We may have unboxed it last week, but was it really worth all that unwrapping effort? Find out our first impressions on Cowon’s touchscreen pimp of a PMP, the O2, after the jump.
Size wise, it has almost the same dimensions as the first video iPod, though it does weigh a chunk more. Still, that’s because it’s got 32GB of flash memory and an SD card slot to boost capacity into the stratosphere.
Turning it on, we’re presented by the touchscreen interface. It’s simple and responsive, but it’s far from pretty. A movie clapper icon is about as colourful as it gets and certainly doesn’t compare to the iPod experience on iPhones or the iPod Touch. It does get the job done though, with no signs of crashing while we played with it.
Launching straight into the video player, Cloverfield looked fantastic on the O2′s 4.3 inch screen, in a luvverly 16:9 ratio, but we decided to make it break a sweat by chucking different file formats, resolutions and codecs at it. In this respect, it’s flawless. It buffers the file in two seconds flat and resizes between aspect ratios on the fly instantly, and that widescreen is great for watching American TV shows on (Yes, that’s Deadwood you can see in the images below). Full marks for video.
It may not be its selling point, but the Cowon O2 does do music too, and the ability to bring up tracklists in front of the screen is a nice touch. No album art options put this far behind the iPod as a record spinner, but that’s not what you’re paying for.
On to the downsides: There are two semi-gripes we’ve spotted from our first play with the O2. One: you can’t charge from a USB port while using the O2 at the same time. There are plenty of media players which can do both, so we’re not best pleased about that one.
Secondly, the touchscreen. It’s not multitouch, you don’t need to type in letters as you would if it were a phone – is there any real point to it? Especially when you’re smearing your paw prints over the viewing screen, which is rather the point of the whole gadget. A trackball would get you around the interface just as easily, and keep it clean too.
Finally, where’s the WiFi? Creative’s latest Zen totes it, as do Archos’ recent efforts. It’s clear the O2 handles shows at non-native resolutions well, but how about putting that to good use, with iPlayer compatibility say? Still, with that memory onboard, you shouldn’t run out of shows to watch anytime soon, so if you can look past that, the O2 is the biggest bargain this side of Alistair Darling’s tax cuts.
Out now | From £209 | Cowon
