It packs a touch screen and video playback in a package smaller than a stack of post-it notes. Will it deliver, or wind up with the rest of the nano-killers?
Review summary of the COWON D2:
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 The Cowon D2 is an all-around solid device. Music sounds great, video looks clean, it plays a variety of formats and does pretty much everything expected of a PMP. It suffers greatly from a poorly-designed interface, but almost makes up for it with an extremely well-made and responsive touch-screen. Much like most of the low-capacity (less than 8GB) PMPs that play video, it is primarily a music device, but short videos (like music videos) seem like a perfect fit. It delivered all that it said it would, it just did so rather clumsily. In short, a solid non-iTunes option for Windows users. Release: March 2007. Price: $190.
Pros: Size, ability to play lossless audio formats, easy file transfer process, glorious touch-screen
Cons: Capacity, awkward interface, lack of accessories
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Full COWON D2 Review:
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Design - Very good
The Cowon D2 is a little smaller than a post-it note. It fits within the palm of our (admittedly large) hands, the breast pocket on our shirts or even the change pocket in our jeans. It has a little bit of weight, but it doesn't feel heavy. Rather, it simply seems well put together.
The player is packed with 2GB of flash memory, which is both a positive and a negative. Flash is nice because it offers much higher speeds, no moving parts and better battery life than a comparably sized HDD. However, to be taken seriously as a video device, capacities higher than 4GB (or 6GB with a 2GB SD card) need to be offered. The SD card slot helps some, but not enough to ameliorate concerns about low capacity. In addition, while 2-6GB may be acceptable for the casual music fan, listeners with considerable music libraries will find the size inadequate.
Interface and Transfer - Good
For a small device, the touch-screen's on-screen buttons are decently sized and we have yet to experience missing a button, even with our aforementioned large hands. We loved the customizable EQ. With slots for up to 10 customizable presets, it offers as much EQ control as we could ask for.
But that's where the positives about the interface end. With the extremely responsive touch screen, Cowon could have done so much more with fluid movement between screens, but for the most part, it's very boring and very blue. It's easy enough to pick up, but it's not convenient to navigate, and former iPod users used to the streamlined Apple interface might find it to be a deal-breaker. The dynamic playlist allows you to create playlists directly on the player, and works fine enough. But it suffers here because of the interface. In a word, we find it awkward.
On the other hand, the transfer process was a breeze. Since the D2 acts as a removable flash drive when connected to your computer through the USB port, we were able to drag and drop files into the player with windows explorer, and organize the folders as we saw fit. In contrast to dealing with the interface on the device, it was no sweat.
Audio - Very good
The D2 is compatible with the standard MP3 and WMA, and the open-standard Ogg Vorbis compressed formats, but takes things a step further by supporting the lossless FLAC and WAV formats. While the lossless support is fantastic, most FLAC files weigh in at five times the size of an MP3 file, leaving room for only 3 or 4 albums of worth of music on the 2GB D2. The sound quality on the Cowon D2 is decent, and we experienced no static issues with the headphone connection.
The included FM radio feature is certainly a welcome addition, as some devices require a 3rd party accessory to use this feature. The ability to record FM radio transmissions and save them as WMA files (from 32kb-256kb) is pretty sweet. The ability to schedule radio recordings on the device is key (it's a DVR for your radio), especially because it keeps us from missing Angie Martinez while we're working. Our only beef with the radio recorder is the filing system. It would be nice, for example, if the player would insert the date, time and station of the particular recording, as opposed to going through after the fact and making the changes on your computer. Not to mention it would make it a lot easier to find later. The D2 also includes a recorder, which records through a built-in microphone.
The text viewer and the photo viewer all work while music is playing on the D2, but again, the interface makes features seem difficult to use. Lots of backtracking through menus is required to find the photos or text. So while it is certainly possible for you to browse the lyrics of that Bob Dylan song you're listening to, or to play a photo slideshow of your vacation to the ozarks on your television while Whitesnake blares through your speakers, it's certainly more complicated than it needs to be.
Video - Good
For its physical size, the D2's 2GB capacity seems acceptable. But since this is a video player, it definitely falls short. Its capacity seems ideal for music videos; short videos with music that are ideal for situations in which a PMP is used (train, plane, bus stop, the line at the burrito place on your lunch hour, etc.). But with a 90 minute AVI movie clocking in at 700MB, it's slightly inconvenient to be carrying one movie that takes up almost half of the space on the device. The D2 is also capable of playing media on a television set with a TV output, but the proper cables are not included.
While the D2 plays mpeg and divx movies, you must convert them to 320x240 first. The process is relatively painless, however we recommended closing all other programs while the conversion is in progress, and we set the priority of the video conversion to at least 75 percent, preferably 50. Its default setting is 100%, which easily dominated all of our computer's processing power and other resources, and caused our machine to crash.
As with all of the multimedia content we've played on the D2, video looks great. Proper aspect ratios, clear picture and almost no lag when scrubbing forward and backward through the video makes for as pleasant viewing experience as you're going to get from a 2-inch screen.
Accessories - Good
The accessories included with the D2 are few and seemed mainly like an afterthought. The earphones, software and USB cable are necessary, of course, but the stylus is ill-conceived. It's convenient to use as a prop for the device while displaying photos or videos, but the excellent touch-screen does away with the need for a stylus. If it worked with our meat claws, it will work with yours.
We lamented the lack of an included clip for the player. We found ourselves wanting to clip it to the shoulder strap of our messenger bag as we traversed the New York streets and tunnels, being so light and tiny, but we were forced to hold it in hand, or worse, put it in our pocket. Possibly the worst thing about the D2's accessories (or lack of them), is that the most useful ones (SD memory card, line-in cable converter, TV-out and AC adapter) are pictured in the manual, but not included with the device.
Price and availability
The COWON D2 is available immediately with 2GB and 4GB models that cost $190 and $220 respectively.
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