Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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116 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once you get out of the iPod hype you really start to discover gems like this mp3 player, August 14, 2007
First of all I want to state I am no Ipod/Apple fan boy or hater, I am just an engineer that is quite fond of music and tries to get the most out of his hard earned money.
What can I say about the iAudio 7, hmmm
First of all for context, I've had (or someone in my family) an iPod Shuffle, and iPod Video 80Gb, a creative zen video 30Gb, a Sansa 8Gb,a sony Ericsson w800i (it's basically a mp3 player we all know that) and now a Cowon iAudio 7 so I can say I have been around always keeping an open mind, just looking for the best purchase money/features.
The iAudio 7 is a very small flash based device, albeit thick like a sony ericsson phone (believe me it is not bad at all, don't listen to nano owners, thin is not everything) it has quite a fast boot speed and as most flash based players (8gb) it has fast access between songs.
I have been looking thoroughly for my next mp3 player since my iPod video died I took a while and went over most of the mp3 players on the market trying to outsmart the consumer advertising hype and looking for real facts.
I decided to give cowon a chance and after a few solid days this is my opinion
Pros:
Multiple format support, ogg, FLAC (I'm an open source guy this is a must for me) plus all the standard ones
Supports podcasts, DRM music (Haven't actually tried this one out as I don't believe in DRMs I buy the music CD I want and rip the whole thing)
Lite, compact and small yet fells sturdy (as sturdy as a small precision electronic device can be)
Connectivity through mini USB
Radio, customizable radio recording, voice customizable voice recording
Video and photo support (Though it needs conversion for videos, that is a minor thing for me, videos looks great, and let's face it an mp3 player with a screen an inch or so shouldn't be bought to watch videos, you can though and they look great)
Music playback supports lyrics
Text reader
User programmable buttons
Awesome sound quality (Best amongst all PMP I've had)
Decent, above average earphones provided
Interface, needs time to master but is quite accurate and natural (This could go as a Negative feature, depending on the owner, controls are great IMO)
Outstanding battery life (Might be wrong but I feel it outlasts iPod and creative 3-1 in battery life 2-1 at least)
Great and extensive equalizer settings.
Cons:
Device is a fingerprint magnet
Few peripherals and add-ons available (iPod fans)
Thick (Some might say this is a Con, if feel it has adequate dimensions, still depends on the owner, might go either way)
Graphics, it reminds me of the 90's computer games or SNES games, other mp3/video devices have much nicer and impressive graphical interfaces)
Jet Audio is it's "itunes" to put it in a certain way, as much as I like it and it gets the job done great, it is not as flashy as Itunes, just as solid IMO
Videos are a bit uncomfortable to watch in such a screen.
As usual it depends on what you mainly intend to use the device for.
For me it is mainly a flash based, multi-open-format support with good sound and battery life, because this little device handled my needs so well I can't think of any more flaws.
I just tried to be as straight forward with the facts as I could.
If you look for a video player, look elsewhere, hope this review helps
Cheers
Update: Under heat it just goes berserk, the heat kinda activates or messes up the controls and it needs time to cool down. Not good for a tropical country.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
not perfect, but definitely close, October 23, 2007
Since the early days of 256MB flash mp3 players, I've owned and used plenty of different types of mp3 players before (>20 different types) and I have to say that iAudio mp3 players have, by far, impressed me the most. I was looking for a small, versatile, flash-based mp3 player with superb audio quality and features such as FM radio, voice recording, and line-in recording. Though I don't use the latter two functions often, it is nice to know that the option is there if needed. I was deciding between getting an Apple iPod nano (the 2nd generation: short, stocky, and unbelievably thin with a large screen) or the Cowon iAudio 7. My co-worker has the iPod nano and let me check it out for a day. I flipped through songs, tested the features, and watched videos. It is an impressive unit. However, I had used two different iAudio mp3 players in the past (the iAudio U2 and the iAudio U3) and felt nothing but sheer satisfaction with them. I had found out that Cowon/iAudio had released a new 8GB flash-based mp3 player (a direct competitor with the 8GB flash-based 2nd generation iPod nano) and was automatically drawn to it as the company has released great products in the past.
I took a chance and purchased the iAudio 7. It arrived in the mail a few days later and I tested it out. First, I plugged it in using the included USB cable, and proceeded to fill up all 8GB of capacity with around 1,200 songs (256kbps). I started listening to a few tracks. Then I got disappointed. It took an agonizingly long time to load up, and then each time I switched to a new song, there was a 4 second delay pause. This started to get irritating, and I started to feel remorse towards my purchase. The next day, I looked online for any firmware updates. My firmware version at the time was 1.13, and I had found that a new firmware version 1.15 was available. I downloaded and updated the firmware to my iAudio 7. After it completed the update, I loaded all my songs again (a word of caution, all files will be erased from the iAudio 7 when you update the firmware) and checked it out again. WOW. It was much much MUCH faster. The response time to switch songs, even at random, was instantaneous. Load time to power up the little player was about 2 seconds. The firmware did it! Cowon has made me a true believer. I will never doubt this company's products again. The iAudio 7 is UNTOUCHABLE (no pun intended). Excellent audio quality (the signal-noise ratio is even better than the U3 (far surpassing the iPod), the battery life is amazing (it can last me a week without a recharge), it is loaded with useful features (FM radio, voice recording, line-in recording, FM radio recording, video, etc), and I really like the fact that you don't need proprietary software to upload files to it (whether it be music, video, or whatever). Want to know something else that's cool about this? You can change tempo. Yes, you can increase the speed at which an audio file plays, or slow it down. If you have it, try it. It's a very cool feature (though you probably wouldn't use it much, unless you're trying to analyze the audio).
So overall, my grade for the iAudio 7 is an A. A superb little player. The only shortcoming I see with this player is the touch-sensitive controls. I prefer tactile buttons/controls, and if you slip your fingers or fiddle around with it, you may accidentally go to another track or fast forward or start recording. I'm aware other users have voiced how this is a drawback for getting this player, but everything else more than makes up for it in my opinion.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good stuff, August 30, 2007
first, this will run forever it seems. i usually listen to it all day at work, commuting, and at the gym. it only needs to be charged every week or so... pretty impressive.
i'm not an audiophile but sound quality was the most important requirement. i listen to a lot of technical death metal, and i don't want any slop getting in the way when i try to follow a particular instrument. experience with their A2 media player convinced me that cowon might live up to expectations. the iAudio 7 definitely sounds amazing when paired with some bose headphones. still playing around with it, but i really like the 5 band eq with adjustable band frequency and band width.
i do hate drm with a burning passion, so any media player i buy won't saddle me with ANY proprietary encoding or protections. the iAudio acts just like any usb key. wonderful! i only use the software to re-encode movies as all my music resides in a meticulously organized directory structure.
it has plenty of power to give a good signal when plugged into the car stereo, receiver at home, or some quiet comfort 2 headphones.
the swing touch takes a little getting used to. i found it to be over-sensitive out of the box but the sensitivity can be turned down. now i'm used to it and i have no complaints.
i did have it lock up on me once. i think it had to do with a combination of inputs being activated simultaneously. luckily there is a reset button which took care of the problem. no settings were changed after a hard reset, which is good.
the whole device is very configurable... from the music effects and eq, to timers (alarm and sleep), to display, play list behavior, 2 programmable "buttons" (a longer press activates the programmed function)... the list goes on.
it has a small screen, so pictures and movies are not it's strong suit. the screen is beautiful though, i was impressed.
8gb is plenty of space for me, especially because the musical phases i go through never involve that much music at once. if i were going on a long road trip, i'd bring the A2 along. it holds everything and i could transfer music from the A2 to the I7 if that 8gb was getting boring.
everything i needed was included in the box, which is very nice. the I7 charges off a usb connection (pretty quickly it seems). i didn't even bother plugging the included headphones in, so no comment their quality.
overall, very satisfied. in any specific area, also satisfied. this is a great product and i highly recommend it.
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