My take on the Cowon X7

[nikko300bhp]

I recently upgraded from my iPod Classic 80GB 6th Gen to the Cowon X7 and would like to share my opinion of the product with you.

 
After (idiotically) cracking the LCD of my iPod Classic, I decided to upgrade to a more sound-quality oriented portable player. My two options were the Cowon J3 and Cowon X7. However, I chose the X7 due to it's big storage capacity (120GB or 160GB HDD + 2GB built in flash memory) and availability in my area.

This review is based on my experience so far, which was about one week away from home in an army training camp (yes, I did have free time to use it after lunchtime and before sleeping during the night). Keep in mind that I'm a newbie audiophile and not an expert so don't expect a very deep analysis on sound quality.
 
COWON X7
 

 
First Impressions (Build Quality/Ergonomics/Screen)
 
Fresh out of the box, the Cowon X7 feel robust and solid. The matte black finish (also available in white) should be far more durable than that of an iPod classic, which is almost impossible not scratch the shiny metal backside. The 4 buttons (M-Button, +/- Volume and Power). The headphone jack, AC-in and USB slot are all located at the bottom. The player is unarguably a relatively big piece of hardware. Measuring 78.6mm x 126.9mm x 14.4mm and weighing over 210g, it's definitely not as easy to carry around as any iPod, definitely not pocket-friendly (if you are wearing tight pants). However, the  4.3" TFT  touch-screen is a big plus, making watching videos a lot more relaxing. Even though the screen has a relatively mediocre resolution of 480x272 (considering its big size), it is very bright and vivid in colours. It's also somehow pretty crisp when coming to image quality. Definitely not the best in class, but also not as bad as some over the net say. The user interface is pretty straight forward after a day of use, while it's definitely not as easy to use as that of an iPod. However, since the touchscreen is resistive and not capacitive, the screen can sometimes be a bit unresponsive compared to that of an iPod Touch and requires some effort when using the X7.
 
Sound Quality
 
This is where the X7 impresses the most. The sound quality is vastly superior to that of any iPod I ever listened to. Using both my Xears Resonance IEM and Audio Technica ATH-M50 cans, the X7 produced much more clear and dynamic sound to the iPod and at last I was able to enjoy the instrument separation that was missing when I was using my ATH-M50 headphones with my old iPod and felt a lot more able to drive them. The BBE+ enhancements present in the JetEffect 3.0 sound equalization/enhancement tool that comes with the X7, do make the sound a lot more clear, especially in the higher frequencies (when using compressed audio files, like mp3). It's also worth mentioning that the X7 supports a wide range of audio file formats, including FLAC lossless audio files. A lot of presets however are pretty unusable as they change the sound to a level where it becomes annoying. There is however, the ability to create 4 custom profiles, and I believe with a bit of work you can achieve your optimal listening experience under any circumstance. I had a very pleasant listening experience listening from electronica, to rock, pop, hip-hop and even classical music.
 
Video
 
This is where the X7 disappoints slightly. The X7 doesn't support the H.246 MPEG-4 video codec, rendering MP4 video files using the codec useless unless you convert them to a compatible format (e.g. AVI) using the provided JetAudio PC software. While you can preserve the overall quality of the MP4 files, file size is quite a lot larger compared to the original MP4 file, taking up space. There is however support for other codecs (e.g DivX) and subtitle support, which is quite useful if you plan on watching movies. The 4.3" screen makes provides a pleasantly large viewing area and provides decent quality. It's worth mentioning that JetEffect has functions that make the sound of movies better through the headphones (like the 3D Stereo enhancement which sounds funny when used to listen to music, but makes movie audio sound a lot more 3D (Surround Effect) and adds soundstage to your headphones.
 
Battery Life
 
Cowon claims a max battery life of 103 hours of audio and 10 hours video. While this sounds to good to be true, the battery life of the X7 is simply outstanding. It might not achieve the manufacturer's claims but it should get close. I got through a week's use and still had plenty of battery left which is jaw-dropping, considering that I rarely managed to get over 6-8 hours on my iPod Classic. The only drawback with the battery is that the battery monitor does not provide an accurate representation of how much battery you've got left as it only presents your battery level in intervals of 25% (100%, 75%, 25%). This shouldn't be a problem however as with such a vast battery life you can feel comfortable as long as the battery is at 25% and above.
 
Extra Features
 
While there is no way to find apps for the X7 like you would on and iPod or an Android device (which I find a bit pointless to be honest since you can use your smartphone if you wish to use apps and games, a portable player is just to listen to music and watch videos), it comes with a few nice features like an FM radio, audio recorder (using the internal mic, line in or even the radio), document and picture viewer, calculator, stopwatch and notepad/typist. The X7 can also run Flash applications, allowing you to play flash games that you may download from the web. There is also Bluetooth support, allowing wireless Bluetooth headphones to be used with the device.
 
Price
 
I bought the 120GB version of the X7 from Pixmania.com for around 250 euros including blazing fast and reliable UPS shipping to Cyprus. The 160GB version costs a bit more, but 120GB should be more than enough for me. You can buy both the 120GB and 160GB versions of the X7 from amp3.co.uk for 205GBP and 240GBP respectively making it cheaper than an iPod Touch of less than half the capacity. However, I believe it would be wrong to compare the two as they are two very different pieces of hardware.
 
Final Thoughts
 
While the X7 is unarguably not as easy to use as any version of the iPod, is big, chunky, has no proper extra applications, is less refined in terms of design and user interface and doesn't support the popular .H264 video codec, it excels everywhere else. It's outstanding sound quality, combined with it's big screen, massive battery and wide audio codec support make it a good value-for-money headphone as it isn't excessively expensive. However you must be willing to sacrifice a bit on the ease of use, and in a short time you'll be most likely very pleased with it just like me. I haven't used the Cowon J3, but from what I read it should be just as good in terms of sound quality, plus it has a capacitive (thus more responsive) AMOLED touchscreen (with Gorilla Glass), and it's a lot sleeker). It's priced at about the same level as the X7 but with a smaller capacity (flash storage). As for me, I have no regrets about buying my X7.
 
If anything worth mentioning happens in the long term I will mention it in the thread