My hunt for new multimedia device

Hey,

What I have right now:

1) Motorokr E6 (with 1Gb MicroSD)
2) ipod nano 1st gen (1Gb)

My motorokr really sucks when it comes to music playback and it doesn't have 3rd party apps.

my iPod nano is ready to die. Play >>| (select next) and |<< (select previous) buttons on the click wheel are not working, battery is not giving anything more than 2hr backup.

So, I thought of getting a new device. First I thought of 5800XM but when I tried couple of songs on this, I felt that it's pretty useless to burn 19k on this phone. Even on MDR-EX32LP, which gives very clear audio on my motorokr, 5800XM is giving out too much amount of bass. I turned of the equalizer, tried with every equalizer setting and still. Too much bass is something that I never like. I like to hear to each and every tune/sound made by every music instrument used in the recording.

Then I went to apple store to see how the ipod touch is. And damn, I really liked gaming and the audio quality was also very much impoved.

YES. The audio quality of new gen ipods has increased a lot and they are again worthy buys

Since I have been using Motorokr, I am determined to go only for touch screen based PMP's.

Now, I had to select between Cowon D2 and ipod Touch.

Since, I don't play games and I don't watch that much of videos, I am thinking of going for Cowon D2.
Pay some 7k-8k for 4Gig D2 and then buy 8Gig memory card for another 2k. That means that I get 12Gig of space on the player.

On the other hand, I play lot of games and I do have liked the ipod touch.

I have two days to make a decision and right now, I am inclined towards Cowon D2(thanks to its superior audio capabilities and breathtaking battery life of 52hr music and 10hr video). Once I get hold of one player, I will put up a full review here.

desiibond said:
I am thinking of going for Cowon D2.

Go for it.Much superior sq.

Go for Cowen D2. I saw the specs, it syncs directly with Windows Media Player so you can be rest assured that all your audio will automatically convert to WMA & Videos to WMV while syncing.

I'd suggest iTouch. Doubles up as a computer on the move!

Nah...better let a Multimedia device do a multimedia device's work. If it is a small computer he wants on the move then better buy a good smartphone like HTC Touch pro.

infra_red_dude said:
I'd suggest iTouch. Doubles up as a computer on the move!

I want music player on the move, not a computer.

Just kidding.

Yes. ipod touch is a great buy but there are few things in Cowon D2 that are dragging me towards it.

like these:

1) battery life
2) no need for any s/w to copy songs (though videos need conversion). Drag-and-drop.
3) most importantly, memory expansion (integrates into players playlist unlike that on zen)

ipod touch too has it's advantages like second-to-none UI, gaming capabilities and large screen.

Anyways, I will be going out today to test one more player, Samsun P2.

Here is a little bit of detail about the player:

Memory Capacity 2GB / 4GB / 8GB

Display Type: 3" touch screenTFT LCD WQVGA (480 x 272)

Bluetooth 2.0 enabled and can connect upto 2 headsets. This player can bind to your phone and act as bluetooth headset (included earphone has mic) and hence you need not switch between phone and player when you get a call.

FM Radio with recording

Battery: 35 hours audio and 5hrs video

size: 52.0 x 100.0 x 9.9mm

Weight for Unit 85.0g

File Format Supported MP3, WMA, OGG(UMS only), JPEG, SVI, WMV, TXT

Video:

SVI (Video: MPEG4, Audio: MP3 (44.1kHz 16bit Stereo, 128kbps), Resolution: 480x272, Frame Rate: 30fps)

WMV9 (Video: WMV9 Simple Profile, Audio: WMA9 (Max 860kbps), Resolution: 320x240 or 480x272, Frame Rate: 30fps)

Review: *www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2007/11/samsung-yp-p2-review.php

gxsaurav said:
Nah...better let a Multimedia device do a multimedia device's work. If it is a small computer he wants on the move then better buy a good smartphone like HTC Touch pro.

Ejjactly. For this purpose, I have my motorokr which does most of the things except multimedia.

gxsaurav said:
Go for Cowen D2. I saw the specs, it syncs directly with Windows Media Player so you can be rest assured that all your audio will automatically convert to WMA & Videos to WMV while syncing.

yeap. Also,I think I can do drag-and-drop files to this player. For covertion of videos, this player comes with a s/w that converts the video to Xvid and to fit perfectly to player's display.

Finally I got Cowon D2

Great! Hoping to see a review from you soon

After looking at the specs of the Samsung device, I would have opted for it instead cos it has 3" screen & supports bluetooth headphones. But since U don't need video, cowon D2 is good enough.

What was the cost of Samsung P2? It also supports MTP so WMP 11 will auto sync.

8Gb P2 costs 11k. But instead of buying P2 for 11k, it's better to get Cowon S9 curve for 2k more.

Moreover, after seriously checking specs, I felt that it doens't have anything specific to rival ipod touch that costs 1k more and the only extras in P2 are bluetooth and radio. there is no voice recording, no memory expansion, no FM recording, not the best in audio quality.

And even ipod touch and cowon S9 couldn't match the audio quality D2 and so I went for D2.

And S9 is superior to ipod touch when it comes to audio/video playback and customizations.

Review on P2's Sound Quality:

The P2’s sound quality is very good and will work well with higher end IEMs and headphones. Sound quality will impress the majority, but for those who are listening to their P2 in quiet listening environments with an ultra high-end setup, I will go into a bit more detail. Being overly critical on sound quality, I find the mid bass is lacking clarity, running into the lower end bass. The highs tend to be very bright, stating this not as a good or bad aspect, but more of a personal preference of sonic characteristics. Again, that was for the audio snobs, the rest of you will be very happy with the P2’s sound quality.

I was almost tempted to go for S9 curve but then since you know audio quality was on priority, I went for D2.

Finally here is what I think:

1) Good media player for a budget of 5k: Creative Zen 4Gb
2) Good media player (priority being audio) inside 10k: Cowon D2/Sony NWZ-A728/B
3) Good media player (priority being video) inside 10k: PSP
4) Good media player (priority being video) inside 15k and with gaming: ipod touch
5) Good media player (priority being video) inside 15k and that can play most of audio/video formats: Cowon S9 curve
6) Good media player inside 20k: Cowon A3/ Archos 5

I am trying to write a review of my player and once you see the amount of audio customization that I can do on D2, You will accept that buying this one is better than Samsung P2 (and sacrificing on screen size is good for this)

K

see it depends on what u do most ... if ur quest is for better audio , go for the cowon ... no doubt ... cheaper , better ....

but ipod touch has many more capabalities like W-lan , support for 3rd party apps and games ... but the more u use any of these features , the lesser battery u will have for audio playback .... so think bout it ...

if i were u , i wud stick to the cowon D2 ... cos once the novelty factor of the ipod touch wears off , u'd be really pissed wid its not so impressive battery backup ...

^^ yeap. Totally true. And I bought Cowon D2 yesterday

I have used both the Cowon D2 and the S9 and both sound the same. You should've gone for the latter instead.

ah okay. I couldn't get a chance to test the audio quality of Cowon S9 as it was a new entry and the store didn't have a demo piece. But it sure is one hell of a player.

Highly recommended!!!

But anyways, saved some 4.5k

and btw,

Cowon S9 4Gb: 12k
Cowon S9 16Gb: 16k

I had the S9 with me for a few days and it is totally awesome. However despite having a capacitive touchscreen the sensitivity isn't as good as the iPod Touch.

It is the one on the extreme right.

*img113.imageshack.us/img113/431/dsc01130ip5.jpg
*img113.imageshack.us/img113/dsc01130ip5.jpg/1/w600.png

The more u see, the more confused U get. What is the point of having so many features in a device which is supposed to only play video & audio? Do u really need a browser in PMP???

Cowen S9 with 16 GB for 16K is a good deal I would say. Enough space & good screen size.

Is there some phone with 3" touchscreen & Symbian/Windows Mobile along with good camera, catered for multimedia use other then Nokia 5800XM

gxsaurav said:
Is there some phone with 3" touchscreen & Symbian/Windows Mobile along with good camera, catered for multimedia use other then Nokia 5800XM

Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch HD.

The HTC Touch HD is indeed a be all end all phone specification wise & the Touch Flo 3D UI is also really easy to use. How much does it costs & how is the 5 MP Camera is has? Is it better then Nokia N79 or N82 or at least similar in quality.

I searched on Naaptol.com. HTC Touch HD costs approx Rs 54k & Touch Diamond Rs 25k. That is insane price for a phone. In 54K I would rather prefer to buy a Dell XPS with bigger screen then a mobile phone.

I remembar, when K750i came I bought it for Rs 10.5k 6 months after releasing & it was the flagship camera phone at that time. Today the falgship camera phone costs Rs 30k approx....to hell with the high cost

.

gxsaurav said:
The more u see, the more confused U get. What is the point of having so many features in a device which is supposed to only play video & audio? Do u really need a browser in PMP???

Cowen S9 with 16 GB for 16K is a good deal I would say. Enough space & good screen size.

Is there some phone with 3" touchscreen & Symbian/Windows Mobile along with good camera, catered for multimedia use other then Nokia 5800XM

Not sure.

Seriously, I felt that 5800XM is a great phone and a worthy buy till the minute I tried it. My colleague bought this phone and music on this phone is not so great. I felt that music fom Samsung i450 (priced at 12k) is much balanced and clean than that from 5800XM. And the touch too is not that great. Not a worthy buy for 20k. I would pay around 12k for this phone!!!

gxsaurav said:
The HTC Touch HD is indeed a be all end all phone specification wise & the Touch Flo 3D UI is also really easy to use. How much does it costs & how is the 5 MP Camera is has? Is it better then Nokia N79 or N82 or at least similar in quality.

I searched on Naaptol.com. HTC Touch HD costs approx Rs 54k & Touch Diamond Rs 25k. That is insane price for a phone. In 54K I would rather prefer to buy a Dell XPS with bigger screen then a mobile phone.

I remembar, when K750i came I bought it for Rs 10.5k 6 months after releasing & it was the flagship camera phone at that time. Today the falgship camera phone costs Rs 30k approx....to hell with the high cost .

Say thanks to Nokia(N-series) and Apple (iphone) for creating the trend of insanely pricing the flagship models.

At one point, spending 10k for a phone seemed idocracy and now you will find 10k-15k phones everywhere and spending 30k for a phone doens't seem to be a big thing.

My friend is thinking of buying Blackberry phone (in India) for 30k and he doesn't even know what email push is and what actually Blackberry means. He just want to buy if because it's Blackberry. And if you think he is rich, no, i he buys BB phone, he will be left with few hundred bucks for whole month.

At one point, spending 10k for a phone seemed idocracy and now you will find 10k-15k phones everywhere and spending 30k for a phone doens't seem to be a big thing.

All thanks to the release of iPhone at 31k.

. Seriously, if I have to spend 30k for a mobile phone then I would rather like to buy a Netbook instead.

I paid 19k for my N79 & already I am feeling why I bought something this costly. But then again, the plethora of features & Symbian OS has spoiled me & I now use it like a small PC

.

HTC should decrease the price of Touch diamond to 15k & do some aggressive marketing. They will clearly be dominating the market with a powerful phone having 2.8" touchscreen & Windows Mobile with such a sleek UI. Touch screen phones are all the rage these days & Touch Diamond has a seriously balanced hardware & software to bo sold in mass quantity at 15k. Infact, if it has a 5 MP camera at 20k, I would have purchased it

desiibond said:
My friend is thinking of buying Blackberry phone (in India) for 30k and he doesn't even know what email push is and what actually Blackberry means. He just want to buy if because it's Blackberry. And if you think he is rich, no, i he buys BB phone, he will be left with few hundred bucks for whole month.

Lolz....help him, put some brain in him & tell him (read:lie) that blackbarry's multimedia capability are pretty low.

gxsaurav said:
Lolz....help him, put some brain in him & tell him (read:lie) that blackbarry's multimedia capability are pretty low.

I tried a lot to put some sense into this mind. Recently, He wanted to buy mp3 player. Told him to try zen stone but instead he went to apple store and bought ipod shuffle (and is really struggling to use it)

Tried to explain that if he wants a phone for office use, E71 is the best bet for him or else he can even get HTC touch if he wants touch screen but still he thinks BB and iphone are the best in the market and when my other colleague bought 5800XM, which IMHO is much much superior to iphone, he said that it's like iphone.

I now know why Apple is making so much money these days

gxsaurav said:
All thanks to the release of iPhone at 31k. . Seriously, if I have to spend 30k for a mobile phone then I would rather like to buy a Netbook instead.

hehe

gxsaurav said:
I paid 19k for my N79 & already I am feeling why I bought something this costly. But then again, the plethora of features & Symbian OS has spoiled me & I now use it like a small PC .

Any product is worth for the money if the product is priced properly and is utilized to it's full extent. 19k may be heavy but it's price will never fall beyond 14k. Right?

gxsaurav said:
HTC should decrease the price of Touch diamond to 15k & do some aggressive marketing. They will clearly be dominating the market with a powerful phone having 2.8" touchscreen & Windows Mobile with such a sleek UI. Touch screen phones are all the rage these days & Touch Diamond has a seriously balanced hardware & software to bo sold in mass quantity at 15k. Infact, if it has a 5 MP camera at 20k, I would have purchased it

Agree!!

BTW, I said bye bye to iTunes finally, but am really really struggling to get used to Jet Audio

krazzy said:
Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch HD.

These two are really amazing devices

Why r u using jet audio? Isn't WMP11 Working

For video conversion (of my DVD's to Xvid). Haven't tried WMP11 yet as I did drag-and-drop for music.

Let me try WMP11 now for audio as It's much more easier to use.

Thanks for reminding

I do hope that my device will work in Device Stage.

@Krazzy, what do you think are best presets (BBE, mach, stereo enhancer etc) for cowon D2?

Jet Audio is good as it comes bundled & is the legit way but it depends on which player you like. I just like the way WMP11/12 works in Windows. Cowon D2 surely supports MTP so syncing with WMP should not be a problem. Also, you can have a look at TMPGEnc Xpress for your video conversion needs.

^^ I normally use TMPGEnc whenever I had to convert videos or to extract audio from video.

The advantage that I am having with Jet Audio here is that I can just select "covert for Cowon D2" and it takes care of everything and it ripped a dvd to 450MB when I selected normal quality (without me changing doing any encoding settings)

Yes, D2 will definitely work with WMP11.

K

desiibond said:
^^ yeap. Totally true. And I bought Cowon D2 yesterday

cool ... good buy

gxsaurav said:
Jet Audio is good as it comes bundled & is the legit way but it depends on which player you like. I just like the way WMP11/12 works in Windows. Cowon D2 surely supports MTP so syncing with WMP should not be a problem. Also, you can have a look at TMPGEnc Xpress for your video conversion needs.

I am facing a minor trouble here. In WMP11, I have added my entire music collection but if an album has 6 songs and each song has different album artist name, these six songs are listed as six different albums. Any way to put them as one??

*img240.imageshack.us/img240/2262/41322027ty0.th.jpg

gxsaurav said:
The HTC Touch HD is indeed a be all end all phone specification wise & the Touch Flo 3D UI is also really easy to use. How much does it costs & how is the 5 MP Camera is has? Is it better then Nokia N79 or N82 or at least similar in quality.

It costs 42k and has a very good camera, on par with the N79 but not as good as the N82.

desiibond said:
@Krazzy, what do you think are best presets (BBE, mach, stereo enhancer etc) for cowon D2?

Use any combination that you like. I preferred to set BBE at 2 and Mach3Bass at 4 with MP enhance and 3D sound switched off.

@ desiibond, do you know telugu???

I am facing a minor trouble here. In WMP11, I have added my entire music collection but if an album has 6 songs and each song has different album artist name, these six songs are listed as six different albums. Any way to put them as one??

Select 5 of these songs & drag it on the 6th song either in list view or in Icon view. In Icon view you will see 6 albums with 6 singers. Drag 5 of them to the 6th one & WMP11 will ask whether it should move to a new album or not.

It costs 42k

No thanks. I can buy a Nokia N79 & Acer Aspire One in that money

Coool said:
@ desiibond, do you know telugu???

yeap. Am from a town that became famous after one chiru's movie

gxsaurav said:
Select 5 of these songs & drag it on the 6th song either in list view or in Icon view. In Icon view you will see 6 albums with 6 singers. Drag 5 of them to the 6th one & WMP11 will ask whether it should move to a new album or not.

great thanks. will check this once I reach home.

Update : Go to icon view of sorting by Album. You will see 6 albums with 6 singers, now drag 5 of them to the 6th one & WMP11 will merge them together in one album

Hii,, desibond,,,im also planning to get a D2 for myself, but before buying i want to ask u some questions..plz help
1. how is the quality of the stock headphones provided with the D2. is there a need to upgrade?
2. for how much did u got the 4gb model? is there a 2gb version available?
3. If my budget is 8-9k..then is the cowon the final choice for the best sound quality?
thanx in advance..

PCWORM said:
Hii,, desibond,,,im also planning to get a D2 for myself, but before buying i want to ask u some questions..plz help
1. how is the quality of the stock headphones provided with the D2. is there a need to upgrade?
2. for how much did u got the 4gb model? is there a 2gb version available?
3. If my budget is 8-9k..then is the cowon the final choice for the best sound quality?
thanx in advance..

1, if u want to enjoy high quality muzik then, u have to upgrade...

2, leaving it for u desiibond

3, yes.

PCWORM said:
Hii,, desibond,,,im also planning to get a D2 for myself, but before buying i want to ask u some questions..plz help
1. how is the quality of the stock headphones provided with the D2. is there a need to upgrade?

I have been using in-ear quality headphones (Sony MDR-EX32LP) for about a year and I felt that cowon stock earphones are really really really pathetic.

PCWORM said:
2. for how much did u got the 4gb model? is there a 2gb version available?

not sure about 2gig model. Paid 8.6k for 4Gig and along with it bought 8Gb SDHC card for 1.2k and total was around 9.8k

PCWORM said:
3. If my budget is 8-9k..then is the cowon the final choice for the best sound quality?

If you are not much inclined towards touch screen, you can get Creativer Zen 8Gb for some 7k and it has the same features that Cowon D2 has (except the heavy audio customization)

gxsaurav said:
Update : Go to icon view of sorting by Album. You will see 6 albums with 6 singers, now drag 5 of them to the 6th one & WMP11 will merge them together in one album

Absolutely spot on. Awesome!!! Thanks a thousand ton

^^ but cowon D2 has better SQ then creative zen na?
Correct me if i'am wrong.

^^You are wrong!!!

not better, it's LOT LOT BETTER

Have been playing with this a lot and boy oh boy, I can get audio outpue exactly how I want it to. If I want loads of bass, I increase Mach2bass. If I want loads of clear audio, I reduce bass and increase BBE.

There is lot to play with this. I have not yet started installing Flash games, audiobooks, podcasts

Try playing the Video converted by this & let us know how it is.

thanx 4 those inputs cool and desibond...

Cowon D2 is the Only one thought .

many pmp reviews had listed the best PMP with 15K , the winner is Cowon D2

Here's my review:

Part 1: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1045295#post1045295
Part 2: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1045296#post1045296

R

desiibond said:
And I bought Cowon D2 yesterday

Dude
Where did you buy it from?
E-Zone Electronics Bangalore.
If yes,from which branch?

Because i am also planning to buy one.

bought if from Glasgow computers in brigade road. you can check in croma store too

desiibond said:
^^You are wrong!!!

not better, it's LOT LOT BETTER

Have been playing with this a lot and boy oh boy, I can get audio outpue exactly how I want it to. If I want loads of bass, I increase Mach2bass. If I want loads of clear audio, I reduce bass and increase BBE.

There is lot to play with this. I have not yet started installing Flash games, audiobooks, podcasts

I own crative zen 4GB....

^^then you should try out Cowon D2 once to find the difference

Creative is different and it not much comparable to D2

D2 is god out there which makes even apple an unworthy against it

desiibond said:
^^then you should try out Cowon D2 once to find the difference

I'll try when i find it at stores...none of my friends got it.