Cowon J3 Review

I recently got my hands on the latest MP3 player from Cowon. For a MP3 player, the Cowon J3 boasts many features. It is smaller than the iPod Touch but larger than th Zune HD. It still fits comfortably in your hand but accessing the 3" touch-screen with your thumb only might be a little difficult. The J3 comes in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. The 8GB can be found on Amazon for around $200. It's certainly more expensive than the iPod Touch, so is it really worth it? For one thing, if you're tight on money, it might be a good idea to get the 8GB. Think the memory isn't enough? Never fear! The J3 has come equipped with an expandable memory slot for MicroSDHC cards that can run up to 32GB. It's much cheaper to get MicroSDHC cards than to get a new MP3 player with a larger memory. Now, let's take a look at the J3's features:

Touch-screen: The J3 has a 3.3" touch-screen. It's smaller than the screen of the iPod Touch, which is 3.5", but it's larger than the Zune HD's 3" screen. The touch-screen is very intuitive. I only need to tap once for the system to respond, though there can be a lag at times. The screen beeps every single time you touch the screen as confirmation that you have actually pressed a button. Don't worry, this setting can be turned off if you want to save a little battery life or you're in a quiet place. The screen is AMOLED, which can display a beautiful range of 16 million colors and has a resolution of 480 x 272. The screen is just absolutely beautiful and has the best display I've ever seen among MP3 players.

Battery-life: Battery life is a very important feature for any user, whether you're watching movies or listening to music. The J3 boasts a battery life of 64 hours for audio playback and 11 hours for video playback. This certainly outclasses both the Zune HD and iPod Touch, which only have maximum battery lives of around 30 hours. This super long battery will be great for trans-Atlantic flights or for anyone that just hates charging their device.

Charging: Speaking of charging, the J3 can only be charged via a USB port connection to the computer. The USB cable included in the packaging is proprietary so make sure that you don't lose that cable! It takes only 3.5 hours for the battery to fully charge. There's also the option of a wall-charger. Charging via a wall charger will take 3 hours.

User Interface: The J3 begins to lose its worthiness as a competitor to the Zune HD when it comes to the user interface. The J3 gives you three choices for an UI. The first one is a grid that contains most of the buttons needed. The second option is a list that will also show you the number of files or battery life left. Last, but not least, the third UI is perhaps the best out of all three. It's customizable, meaning that you can arrange your icons (and widgets) whichever way you like across three menus. But, perhaps the best function of the J3 is that you can customize your own UI. There are tons of customized UI available online for you to download and use to make your needs easier. When it comes to smoothness, the J3 lags quite a bit when going from one menu to the next, particularly when you have a lot of files or when you're trying to load pictures.

Browsing: You can browse through files using menus. You can search for music via album, artist, song, year, genre, or time added. Unfortunately, there's no way to quickly go to one part of the alphabet so you'll just have to go by scrolling. However, one quick flick can quickly bring you from one end of the alphabet to the next. If you are having trouble finding the file you want, you can always do a search by typing in the name of the file on your player, which I find to be handy is slow at times. If you tilt the player sideways, you can browse for music via the Matrix mode, which is a compilation of all your album art. If you want to browse for pictures, then you can do it by thumbnail, though it does take a few seconds to load all the art.

Sound Quality: The J3 has some of the best sound-quality I have ever heard. Music coming through the built-in speaker is absolutely wonderful. There's no static or noise or anything to interfere with the music. However, do note that the sound quality in the stock earphones seems to be horrible. The first time I wore them I heard static. However, this disappeared when I went outside for a stroll. I wonder if it was just a connection problem. I haven't used them since since I haven't gotten a chance to test out my J3 outside yet. The J3 is known best for its BBE equalizers. However, I have yet to understand how to use them so I haven't been able to test them out yet.

Games and Apps: Perhaps no player can compare to the iPod Touch when it comes to apps. The Cowon J3 only has one game equipped: Hunter. Hunter is a game that utilizes the player's gravity sensor. The player has to tilt the player around in order to move an animal head around the screen. The goal of the game is to see how long you can last without being hit by one of the countless black dots floating across the screen. There's also a few handy-dandy apps (called Utilities) installed. These are a four-function calculator, a notepad, a keyboard, and a little memo pad.

Buttons: Unlike most touch-screen players out there, the J3 does not have a hardware home button. Instead, the home button can be pressed on the touch-screen. However, there are buttons for power/hold, volume adjustment, play/pause, and fast forward/rewind. These buttons can be found on the right hand side of the player and are readily available when searching for them in your pocket.

Overall I am very satisfied with this player. However, for a price this expensive, I was hoping for a little more, particularly for the quality of the case, which feels cheap when holding it in your hand. I've had very few bugs with this player so far (Hopefully, it stays that way). I just wish that there was a better way to organize my files so that, when I change the ID3 tags, I won't have to redo the lyrics all over again. I'm also finding my gravity sensor to not be sensitive. It often takes me several big tilts in order for the screen to go into Matrix mode when browsing for music. Again, it's not too much of a bother for me since I rarely use the Matrix mode anyhow but I can see where this might be a bother if you like to browse via album art.