kdragon's Full Review: Cowon Systems iAUDIO U2 (1 GB) MP3 Player
I bought the U2 to use at the gym to supplement my iPod, which I found to be cumbersome to carry with me when I ran and which often hindered me when using certain types of equipment.
The U2 is solidly built and the black is very slick looking. It is very small - slightly larger than a Bic lighter. It is light enough that it can be worn around the neck using the included lanyard. The U2 has 2 buttons on top, which can be programmed to perform a couple different tasks. There is also a hold switch on the top of the unit. The 5-way joystick can be pushed left, right, up, down, or depressed. Navigation of the files and features of the U2 is incredibly easy to master.
The U2 has a built-in FM radio which allows me to listen to the television shows while I'm doing cardio. The 1GB of capacity holds more than enough to provide a variety of music for a couple hours at the gym or even a 6 hour flight across the country. Although the U2 lacks playlist functionality, with only 1GB of music to manage, this hasn't been much of an inconvenience.
The U2 charges over its USB 2.0 connection - it takes a little less than 2 hours to fully charge the battery. The internal lithium ion battery provides enough power to play music for almost 20 hours.
Music can be easily transferred to the U2 by simply dragging the files into the player using Windows Explorer. iAudio also provides an application called JetShell which makes it easy to know exactly how much music will fit onto the player.
Besides mp3, the U2 also plays ogg, wma, asf, and wav files. Sound quality is excellent and the U2 provides a whole range of ways to customize that sound. The EQ is highly adjustable and the BBE, Mach3Bass, Mp3Enhance, and 3D Surround features actually do make the music sound better, at least to my ears. I was surprised at how much more I enjoyed the music after I had tweaked these settings.
The display is excellent. The U2 has full ID3 tag support and it displays the album name and scrolls the full song title underneath. You can optionally display the time and date in place of the album name. The display also displays a host of other information, including the number of tracks queued, the number of the current track, sound level, playback speed, battery level, and more. The brilliant blue backlight is awesome.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 170 Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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