#COWON A2 REMOTE PORTABLE#
#COWON A2 REMOTE PLUS#

The soft keys are convenient, but weвЂ™d often look down at the similar buttons to confirm the selection. The background image (ours was soothing blue waves) is customizable, with tiny icons for the volume, the time, and the battery in the upper-right corner, as well as three contextual choices in the lower sliver of the screen that correspond to the A, B, and C buttons. The main menu is gorgeous and very PDA-like, with menu items such as Movie, Music, Photo, Text, and Radio, each represented by colorful icons. On the bottom spine is a triposition switch for LCD, hold, and A/V out. Identifying icons for these four jacks are embossed on the inside of the latch and are difficult to read.

Headphone and power-adapter jacks flank a hatch covering dual A/V-in/out and USB jacks on the left spine. On the right spine is an indented power button, and on the top spine are the widely separated stereo speakers, with the mic falling in between. Other controls and connections are arrayed around the Cowon A2вЂ™s perimeter. The buttons flank the Cowon A2вЂ™s centerpiece, its magnificent 4-inch-wide screen. The latter includes a Back key and three soft menu keys marked A, B, and C that correspond to onscreen options. Controls are minimal and austere, with only five buttons adorning the clean A2 face: the familiar Cowon minithumbstick and the four cascading metallic buttons. Both the Archos and the Creative players are slightly smaller and lighter than the 5.2-by-3.1-by-0.9-inch, 10.5-ounce 20GB Cowon, but the playerвЂ™s curved rectangular shape is easy on the hands and the eyes. While both the Cowon (20GB and 40GB) and the Archos AV500 (30GB and 100GB) offer 4-inch-wide LCDs and PVR capability, CreativeвЂ™s Zen Vision does not record video or audio, and it includes only a 4:3, 3.7-inch screen. The Cowon A2 enters a l uxury PVP domain currently dominated by the Archos AV500 and the Creative Zen Vision, and it fits right in.

#COWON A2 REMOTE PLUS#

On the plus side, the A2, which is available in 20GB ($380) and 30GB ($420) capacities, boasts excellent audio and video playback and recording quality, as well as solid battery life. While the A2 can play a huge number of audio and video formats, it does not currently support Windows Media DRM 10. We really dig some parts of the interface, but we were annoyed by others.

#COWON A2 REMOTE PORTABLE#

The Cowon A2 is a sleek, attractive, and all-encompassing portable video player with video-recording capability that suffers only when compared to the similarly appointed Archos AV500 Mobile DVR.

Cowon a2 remote