Re: Cowon J3 media player review
Inside is the player and the set, hidden in a cardboard box. CD with software JetAudio and guidance in PDF format is attached to the bottom of the plastic packaging transformer. In the box are headphones and cable. Headphones are bad, such as what are bundled with all players, Cowon. Cable custom, flat, 20-pin, the same was with the model S9.
So, look at the appearance of the player. The shape of its more stringent than the S9. The back wall is flat, with predydschey model was rounded. At the bottom of the front panel there is a region that simulates roughly processed metal. With the exception of chrome edging and glass screen, body material - plastic.
The front panel is only the screen. He is protected by tempered glass, which theoretically should not scratch. In the Internet there are videos that prove it, we do not have to do crash tests with a trusted us for a short time player. On the back wall - a speaker, microphone, Reset to force restart in case of deadlocks. Unfortunately, a couple of times they had the same benefit.
On the right side is a mechanical buttons. First, the buttons "forward" and "back" to switch between the tracks. Secondly, the volume control buttons. The third button, Play / Pause. All of them are blocking the screen can be unlocked (there is a corresponding adjustment), which facilitates "blind" control "player. All the most popular functions can be performed without removing the player from his pocket.
The player turns on and off button located on the left side. It also serves as the lock buttons - that is, there is no mechanical slider, you need only click on the button. At the bottom end has a cap, beneath which is hidden slot for USB-cable, it is the same - for the cable. Most likely, the cables are interchangeable with the model S9. Next, without any caps, which is logical, located headphone jack.
Screen :
The player is set AMOLED-display. This means excellent contrast, brightness images, which are rarely seen among the conventional LCD. Resolution - 480 × 272 pixels, aspect ratio - 16:9. When the diagonal in 3,3 inches is not a record resolution, but still it lacks. Yes, the pixels are visible, but the picture remains "alive". Viewing angles, as in all types of screens AMOLED, maximized on all sides. In the sun readability bad at maximum brightness. It is a pity that the player did not install the sensor, through which light would be controlled automatically, as happens in many phones. But there is one widget that allows you not got into the settings, change the brightness. The screen, of course, touch, capacitive type. That is, only responds to fingers, ordinary styli do not perceive. The player is very well controlled with your fingers. But it should be noted that in the infernal heat of the July Moscow screen sometimes refused to handle the touch lightly wet your fingers. Perhaps this lack of firmware. And if you operate your under normal conditions, the sensitivity of the screen leaving only pleasant impressions. Subjectively, the S9 sensitivity of the screen was a little worse. Here, roughly speaking, as in "iPhone" - a very good sensitivity. I almost forgot to mention about the "multitouch" - yes, you have two fingers, for example, to increase the image, text, and font size in the menu. Gravitational sensor allows you to change the screen orientation in different functions. In the menu, for example, change the orientation icon - looks like fun. In video mode the player can be kept in any position - he will determine the orientation in space. In describing the various functions we will return to the G-sensor.
Re: Cowon J3 media player review
Menu :
For the menu, you can safely allocate a separate part of the article, because it is extremely diverse. There are three types - a simple matrix of icons, the triple screen with widgets and the list.
I think if you look at the photos, everything will become clear. Widgets are interchanged as you wish - can be placed on any screen, can overlap each other, in general - complete freedom of action. Their functions are diverse, the most interesting - the inclusion of recording on tape one button (it does not include the usual voice recorder, all the action takes place right there in the menu), adjust the brightness, set the alarm. In total there are 11 widgets. Those who will be on the screen, you choose yourself. Just pulled out on the screen icons of functions - to launch music, videos and so on. You can hide unnecessary and show you want. Change menu type is fast - your finger comes out panel located at the bottom of the screen, and it selects the desired menu.
Speaker :
The speaker on the player is very loud and it even can be called qualitative. The sound is not quite good, there is a hint at low frequencies. Speaker of the congestion does not limit, so when a high volume may appear wheezing. When watching movies, sometimes, the volume is not enough because of the quiet sound track. If you watch the movie in silence, then the dynamics will be enough in a noisy environment - unlikely.
Music Player :
The player supports standard Cowon's variety of formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE. Coupled with high-quality sound, which we will talk again, this set will satisfy demanding audiophiles. Tags are displayed correctly in all encodings. The album cover is also present on the screen, looks very nice. It is visible not only in the case "enclosing" in the tag, but if the image file is in the same folder with the album and is called cover.jpg. Maybe even allowed some file names, but cover.jpg read for sure.
Music players are very similar in J3 and S9. Nevertheless, the difference is, basically - in the design. J3 is more practical. Buttons «Play», «Forward" and "back" large, easy to push. Also, you can simply sweep their finger across the screen to change track. Menu options are invoked by clicking on the top bar, which displays the song title and artist name. Following options. First, is changing the playback mode. Setting occurs sequentially. First, specify how to play: in a circle or one time. Then - mode: sequential or mixed. Then - what to play: a folder, all the songs, one file. Ibid adjustable playback speed: as a plus or a minus. The timbre of voices at the same time distorted. Next come the vast equalizer settings. It is possible to create four custom settings. Each includes a fivefold equalizer. All this can work simultaneously. Setup is very convenient. Each band is adjusted. In other words, you can set the lower limit of 60 Hz, but can - in 175. Plus, is governed by the width of the transmission (on what frequency range will extend your setup). The branded Cowon's - BBE + and SE (Stereo Enhance). These branded stuff - some of those which sometimes pleasant to use. In the other players like less, but Cowon have worked quite interesting. From the combination of "EQ + BBE + SE» also composed several dozen presets for different music, you can create and own.
If you click on the album art, prints additional information about a file - bitrate, album title, frequency, number of files in a folder, the current mode equalizer. At the top there is also a thin strip, which shows the status of the playback mode, a clock, battery level, volume, state of Bluetooth. The screen play has a band progress, which, of course, "clickable". You can click in any of its place and immediately in the appropriate place track. Rewinding can be done using the buttons and forward / back (sensory or motor, that the right side player). The library is the same as that of S9, and with other players, Cowon is similar.
Re: Cowon J3 media player review
Video :
Aspect ratio 16:9, contrast, bright AMOLED-screen, support for multiple codecs, which means play most files without conversion, video to the TV - all this makes J3 excellent player to view video on the go and not only. Ah yes, yet not forget about capacious battery. It is a pity that there is no cable included for video output, it will have to be purchased separately. He inserted a 20-pin flat socket - at the same place as USB-cable. Thus, the player can play video formats AVI, WMV, ASF. We have prepared a table, which identifies the formats and codecs supported by the player. In fact, the majority of the player plays AVI files without conversion. And plays them smoothly, without jerks, which is very important. After all, many players can open different video formats, but plays them with frequency is clearly lower than 24 frames per second.
The player has lots of options. So, in order. The player can display subtitles in a format SMI. Setting up their position on the screen, font size and color. If there are several subtitles in different languages, you can choose any of them, or else all at once. There is a setting to mitigate the colors. At the sound of the equalizer can be applied to the original audio gadgets. You can adjust the aspect ratio. For the video player adjusts the screen brightness, which does not affect other functions of the player - there will remain the same brightness as it was. With video you can take screenshots. They are saved in a folder with pictures in the player's screen resolution - 480 × 272 points. For video, you can add a bookmark. Also, to facilitate the search for the right moment in the film, you can use partitioning video into small pieces, whose number may reach 24. This forms a "screen" with pictures. If you click on the picture, it is "alive", starts playing the movie. As you can see, opportunities abound for all tastes. Not all of them are necessary, but very important and necessary, too much. Video player for this player is very convenient and good.
Bluetooth :
The player Bluetooth version 2.0 is used only to send audio to the headset. Protocols are supported A2DP, AVRCP. Unfortunately, the file transfer is not supported and will be supported - not known. During a short acquaintance with the player at hand was not stereo.
Radio :
The radio in the player is good. It takes a well-FM-signal, at least, no worse than others. Stereo can be disabled.
There autosearch, the station can be entered into the list manually. Depending on the country selected in the settings, changing configuration step - may be 0.1 MHz, and may be 0,5 MHz. It's very interesting that the radio can be applied effects EQ! Rarely is see. I can not say that this opportunity waiting for millions of users, but it's a nice change. Of course, there is a recording from the radio in WMA format and bit rate up to 256 kbit / s, more than enough for the FM-signal.
View Text :
The player is able to open files format TXT. Viewer has a bunch of settings. You can change the font size using the "multi-touch" - two fingers to push or diminish, respectively, and changed the font size. You can do this same thing with the slider on the screen. There autoscroll - text on the screen is replaced with a specified frequency. Text background and font color, too, are setting up, among those represented in "sets" is quite digestible. And finally, what can we say - the text can expand to full screen, so garbage does not take up much space.
View images :
The player can open a picture format JPEG. Large files he "chews" fairly quickly. Folder images presented as a set of thumbnails.
Any picture can be set as the background in the menu. G-Sensor can automatically rotate the image, depending on the position player in the space, but this feature can be turned off, right in the viewer is not distracted by the general settings of your player. There is a slide show. Pictures can zoom in like with the slider, and the "multitouch" - pushing his fingers in different directions. The player shows good image, you can quickly move through sections of the enlarged image. For example, you can by dragging the image on the screen with your finger, read the scanned lectures or any other information provided in the form of pictures. This slowdown is practically no.
Re: Cowon J3 media player review
Clock, alarm clock, stopwatch :
Under one roof "compiled function in some way related to timing. This set the clock, alarm clock, and stopwatch and timer. Watches are always displayed in the top line, it's convenient. Alarm clock - quite a useful function in this player, given a sufficiently loud speaker. On the call can be placed any melody. And finally - a stopwatch and timer. The stopwatch can do serifs. Interestingly, after turning off the record in the stopwatch is still preserved.
Applications :
Individual menu items are "Applications". Calculator normal program is an example.
Notes can be collected using the virtual keyboard, which was convenient enough, but the language keyboard layout - only English. Risovalka - a fun application where the finger can draw anything. Adjustable color, thickness, type of drawing a virtual object. All these applications can not be called necessary, they are present in the player rather "just in case."
Flash :
Support for the player SWF files can be useful, for example, for games or small flash-based applications. There are many who normally "go" on this player, but there are others which have not been used. The forum is archived Cowon fans with games that normally operate at J3.
Connecting to a Computer :
Player is determined by the system as a removable media, and inserted into the slot STICK - as a separate storage device. In this regard, use proprietary software is not required. But it is - it is mighty JetAudio. Speed of copying files to the memory of the player is about 4,5-4,8 MB / s, which looked very good against the background of his contemporaries, whose speed is often not higher than 2.5 Mbps.
Battery :
Unfortunately, the player was tested in a very short time, so the full test battery, we have not carried out. Perhaps it will be later. But the manufacturer claimed a fantastic 64 hours of music playback and 11 hours of video. If this is true (and the figures declared by Cowon, usually confirmed by tests), it is very, very good.
Output :
The player is a kind of evolution of the model S9. By the model was added card reader for memory cards microSD, through which the memory can be extended up to 64 GB. Also added was the speaker, the screen become "multi-touch", and there are positive developments in the design of the menu, music player and other functions. The player is for those who want "all at once" - and a good music player and the ability to watch videos without the need for pre-conversion, and a good text and image viewer, voice recorder and a receiver. All these functions are implemented in this player very well - perhaps better than any other of the considered by us. About bonuses in the form of flash and various applications will not even talk. What may be an obstacle to buying this model? Unfortunately, the price - it might upset Ignition idea to buy this model. At the time of this writing, it was about 8,000 for a model with 8 GB of memory. Given the availability of opportunities to expand this memory card can not be considered a model with large internal memory.
