Cowon S9 Curve portable media player

The Cowon S9 Curve is a mid-capacity personal media player (PMP) and serious competitor to the Apple iPod touch and other high-end players. With Sony and Samsung’s new PMP players due soon, this is one market niche to keep an eye on.

The S9 is an attractive product that’s well designed and built, but it doesn’t quite live up to its image. At 77g, it’s light without being insubstantial, and trimmed with a titanium or chrome effect finish. With a gentle curve at the back, the S9 slides easily into your pocket.

Its most eye-catching feature is the 3.3in Amoled (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. This technology dramatically reduces power consumption, and contributes to a video playback time of more than 10 hours and a music playback time of about 55 hours from one charge. Charging takes about five hours via a USB port or three hours through the optional USB charger.

The screen responds nimbly to touch and there are a number of hardware controls across the top including volume and fast forward/rewind rocker switches, and a protruding play/pause switch. At the bottom, the 3.5mm headphone jack is flanked by a combined on/off slider and hold switch. A USB/external device connector will also take a line-in feed to supplement the built-in microphone.

Without multitouch, the S9’s user interface isn’t cutting edge and left us wanting something slicker. Navigating between folders and individual files after launching music or video applications could be improved; it currently involves juggling menus.

Audio quality is excellent ­ there’s a real sense of air and space from audio files (you’ll want to use higher bit-rate files to take advantage of the audio quality). We also liked the Jeteffect equaliser. It has 26 factory presets and four customised presets. You can specify the frequency of the five equaliser channels and disable Cowon’s BBE+ audio technology and stereo enhancer.

There’s a choice of 24 frequency presets on the FM radio, which is easy to tune, set and record from. The in-ear headphones supplied with the S9 are a cut above Apple’s standard issue, but it’s worth getting a pair of decent headphones to take full advantage of the S9, or you can use a wire-free Bluetooth headset.

Video playback is equally impressive thanks to the 480x272 pixel screen, and 24-bit colour depth will do your videos justice. Tap the flip control to toggle between basic playback controls, bookmark, aspect ratio, and playlist settings. The auto pivot feature means you can always see video (or photos and slideshows) in the correct orientation, although switching between vertical and horizontal could be quicker. To connect to a TV you’ll need the optional video cable.

The USB cable plugs into the same connector, and allows drag and drop file transfer between the S9 and PC. You probably won’t bother with the bundled Jet Toys software ­ most is functionality-limited trial software with no dedicated S9 options in the setup. Jetshell offers device backup and a little housekeeping, but, like the Flash support and text document viewer on the device itself, it seems redundant.

The Cowon S9 Curve is an attractive, well-built PMP with excellent battery life. At £169 it’s expensive ­ the iPod Touch is cheaper, and offers more features and better usability. But if you want hours of excellent quality video and audio playback the S9 should be on your shortlist.