Cowon Z2 launched in Korea
 

The waiting is over, Cowon officially launched the Z2 "Plenue" in Korea, which is apparently the Cowon D3's successor (of course, the naming scheme is as stupid as always) and comes with a lot of changes.


http://product.cowon.com/product/COW...overview_1.jpg
First off, the Z2 does NOT have Android 4.0 ICS, it still uses Android 2.3 GB. But who knows, maybe we will see an update to ICS in the future?

Anyway, these are the Z2's specs:

CPU/GPU: 1GHz ARM Cortex A8, 800MHz VPU (for FullHD playback), 320MHz Mali 3D GPU
RAM: 512 MB
Screen: 3.7" AMOLED 800x480
OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
WiFi: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth: 2.1 + EDR, A2DP / AVRCP / OPP Profile
Battery: 22h Music / 8h30 Video
Dimensions, Weight: W x H x D - 62.8mm x 116.5mm x 11.8mm; 116g
Available Memory: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB
Other: microSD Slot, G-Sensor, Radio, Microphone, Speakers

Supported Audio: MP3/2/1, WMA, OGG, WAV, ASF, FLAC, APE, M4A

Supported Video Containers: AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, MPG, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, 3GP
Supported Video Codes: DivX, XviD, H.264, WMV 9/8/7, MPEG1

Audio Effects/Enhancements: JetEffect 5.0
> 44 Presets + 4 User Profiles
> 5 Band Equalizer
> BBE+: BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance
> Special Effects: Stereo Enhance, Reverb
> Lossless Mixer
> Playback Speed: 50% - 200%


Prices:
8GB: 259,000 KRW -> 228 USD
16GB: 299,000 KRW -> 264 USD
32GB: 339,000 KRW -> 298 USD


Links:
- Official Product Page

Gingerbread is 2.3 though...not 3.2

but anyways...i wonder what this device will cost....anyone would have a guess?

I found the prices on another site and added them to the first post.

That JetEffect 5.0 is interesting. Makes me wonder if they'll update the J3's firmware to add that too.

WOW!!! that is surprising MUCH cheaper than i thought it would be

Battery life is still a bit low imo, especially with a 1950mah battery on board. The move to a cortex should have offered better battery life over the TCC8900 series in the D3.
I like the cover/stand and it looks like they have moved onto the micro usb that phones use!

Next....can someone explain what exactly is the 'Floating Design'?

It's just a nickname for the design, for instance the S9 has a "curve design". ;)

ohh...I think I get it now....lool...they just saying that it looks like it floating when it's on a flat surface? looool marketing[rofl]

Haha, that would be awesome. :D

Indeed. As far as I can see the three openings are the microSD slot, a microUSB port and a miniHDMI out - I'm very pleased with the move to the new universal ports!

Battery Life and Screen size is the disappointing part for me though..

EDIT: Of course, it could be that Cowon has changed testing environment that gives more realistic battery life, hehe.

Actually, I quite like how they are still keeping their PMPs GPS and 3G/4G free. Keeps the prices reasonable which is particularly important for students and those embroiled in the current economic climate.

Hopefully the creative mixture of (2010)1ghz cpu + gpu + vpu will make for performance which benchmarks well against competitors over the next year.

Personally, I'm now saving for a portable dac/amp combination device (30 hours+ battery life) to pair with my D3 and look forward to a 64gb pmp from Cowon (and others) which runs ice cream sandwich on a slightly larger screen. All that coupled with the increased affordability of 64gb micro-sd cards should make for a viable desktop-replacement imo :jamming:

In light of the 64gb cards, I suppose it makes sense that they might have felt that >32gb isn't required at the moment.

As others have said, 20 hours playback for music (esp if reflected in real life tests) is actually pretty decent. I'm just curious if that's with or without jeteffect and whether it is identical regardless of lossy or lossless playback (ideally the latter).

I look forward to reading the reviews

Also, as someone else said, it would be great if jet-effect 5 was soon included in firmware updates for some of their others models.

^ Nobody said 20h is decent, everyone said it sucks. [laugh] (And if Cowon meased it the same way as the J3's or S9's battery life, you'll never reach that limit)

^I meant for an android device, 20 hours is decent enough (i.e. acceptable, on par with others). I've given up using 'decent' as meaning 'good' or 'amazing' given much disappointment in electronics over the years :P

Okay, compared to other smartphones, 20h is indeed decent. [laugh]
(But the Z2 has no 3G or 4G and you can't make calls^^)

I wonder if it has lost the spdif out of the D3, i use that on my DAC. The old 34 pin usb used to carry the signal, the micro usb probably wont have a pin free for that.

i see a phone icon somewhere on the site though.....wonder what that is about

Probably Skype or another VoIP service.

5 Band Equalizer???? why! why!
O.K I Love it!
but I won't pay for it!:D
I think these guys own the Red Dot organization

good... now i am waiting for it to arrive nationally, so that i would be able to have the new jeteefects5. anyway, what effects has the j3?....

anyway, if it prooves to be good, i may look into it

JetEffect 5.0 doesn't introduce any new effects (as you can see in the list), there are just some more presets: The J3 has 39, the Z2 48. Maybe that's all.

or maybe it is about it's hardware audio chip. it maybe supports even more realistic effects. dude, if this comes to sound even a little better than j3, i want it. probably should better wait another 1-2 years to see if there comes a real android player for that moment. anyway, this one is looking good, compared to it's sibiling, d3.

so, i think that it just is the wait before this thing gets into europe, or any english version, and we will be able to see if it worth or not.


anyway, kizu, i have a little curiosity, now that it comes to this, sorry i know that it is in the wrong thread, but you, as you are german, are using your player in german, or english?....

I use it in German of course. o.o

doomlordis, hopefully the z2 does have digital audio out with some custom cowon cable via the mini hdmi port. As you said, it's useful to have the option of using your PMP with a DAC.

I think I saw n-band wifi capability on the Z2 which is an improvement on the D3.

The D3 was a beta product, I agree. But the Z2 looks pretty decent now and obviously, it is made for the international market (the Z2 has a miniUSB and a miniHDMI port).
But I seriously doubt Cowon ever manages to be a market leader. Most people don't know Cowon and those who do are only a marginal group. The majority buys smartphones.
Also, Cowon's managers still practice their weird "we-don't-listen-to-suggestions-from-people-outside-Korea behavior" which doesn't really improve their situation...

Any word on this coming to the US/Europe? Also, what is the typical time between announcement and release?

3 Minutes, 57 Seconds. :p

deleted -

Ah, I see what you mean, thanks for the clarification. :)


Yeah, but this is Cowon... they are always... backwards.
For example, when the S9 was released, Flash 9 was available and when the J3 was released, Flash 10 was there... but both players use an ancient and slow Flash 7 engine.
For the J3, Cowon could have at least updated the engine to Flash 8 since it introduces a lot of awesome improvements and thus would have made the player a great upgrade, but nooo....

I just want to say... you shouldn't expect that Cowon uses the latest hardware.
IMO it's already great that Cowon embedded a Cortex A8 instead of a cheap and crappy Telechips CPU in the Z2. The GHz aren't always a good indicator for performance, it's also the architecture that counts (e.g. compare Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs with older CPUs... lower GHz, but superior performance).


edit:

Huh, you deleted your post? Oo
I'll leave this post here though, it shows my standpoint quite well.

well don't forget that tablets don't have 3G or 4G or Phone radios...and they average 7-12 hours music-only. 20 hours isn't bad for android.

But... many tablets do have 3G/4G and phone radio? Oo

Anyway... you're just comparing tablets with a smartphone-like media player. That's quite unfair. :)

edit: Also, I said that 20h is good compared to other smartphones. You should read my previous posts.

dear Kizune,

no spdif this time? I would like you to confirm me that, because if that is true, I will buy the D3 :) (just want it for audio... no games or what so ever)

I don't know. I didn't notice "S/PDIF" in the specs list, but it's possible that there is a Korean word for it so... there's still a chance that the Z2 has S/PDIF.

I just looked at some photos and there are the micro-usb, the sd-card slot and the HDMI-port. HDMI alone sucks, compared to the connector from the D3. The rest of the Z2 is certainly improved and I like it, really!

I like how Cowon just releases products out of the blue! Haha!

Well, I will wait for reviews on this one. I kinda wanna give my loyal S9 a well-deserved retirement but I need something that's at least as good. I'm afraid the battery life is gonna suck hard on the Z2.

Hopefully someone here or anythingbutipod will have a review available in a few days (weeks?).

well, as for the player 20h for music, is not 20h in real life. cowon j3 has 50-60 hours spec, but it can play at most 20. this with flac, brightness at maximum, but with screen off, and on about 5 minutes at 30 minutes. to be fair, even so, i still consider j3 the best.

for this thing? the only thing that it can offer me more than j3 is the jeteffects.

also, kizu, i asked you in what languace you use your j3, because all of your releases are in english.

In Cowon Support page, for Z2 product; following prices (VAT included) are showed:

* COWON Z2 8G : 259,000 KRW
* COWON Z2 16G : 299,000 KRW
* COWON Z2 32G : 339,000 KRW

All I personally would like to add is this is a WIN!!! for a change from Cowon!!! And, this beats the Sony Z-whatever by the fact it has a microSD card slot on board. Nice job Cowon!!! You FINALLY have my attention,...again!!!

PS: It has the SAME controls as the J3!!! I'm selling my SGP 5.0 now!!!

Hehe, and all his posts are in English, but that doesn't mean he speaks English primarily. Imagine what most of us would go through if he released everything in German - it's not that he uses English over German.

Wow, only 190,000? That's cheaper than my J3. Hopefully I'll see this popping up in stores soon.