[Work in Progress] Kizune's Cowon Z2 Review

[fpaiy2006]

Originally Posted by Lyrrad

Q1) The Z2 plays mkv files, but nearly all of my mkv files are 1080p encoded with DTS and range from 8 - 15gb in size. I am perfectly happy to use a 32 or 64 gb card and dedicate it purely to films. I know I would not get many on a card but I'm ok with that. It would just be nice not to have to convert films. Can anyone tell me if they have experience running this kind of mkv file on the Z2?

Q2) Also I have just recently bought Sennheiser HD 25-1 II headphones and the match on the J3 was stunning as far as I am concerned. Should the Z2 be just as able to drive these headphones?

Q3)Also I can't help think that the J3 is the finished article and whilst the Z2 may well be what the D3 should have been, my lack of real understanding of how Cowon behave when it comes to supporting a product in EU means that I am unsure if the Z2 will ever get a further firmware upgrade should it be needed.

R1) I have played 1080p avi on the player which works fine.It is basically just codec issue. Not too sure the built in player can support the codec but z2 is definitely able to play the format using a third party software. That is the advantage of Andriod OS.

R2) The power rating for J3 and Z2 is the same with 29mW on each channel so if J3 can power your headphone, Z2 will definitely able to.

R3) Coming from CW300, I must say that so far Cowon has never fail to provide stable firmware for new product until it is reasonably stable before releasing a new product. For example, D3 which is quite an unstable player yet they actually tried to update the firmware until it is reasonably stable before releasing a new product.

[Lyrrad]

Thank you for your input.

I must say that although I am pretty much a newbie when it comes to Cowon, I know my way around android.

To help others Diceplayer is the best AV player bar none. I had tried them all apart from Diceplayer until a few days ago. Diceplayer was unavailable for some time but is now available for free with adds or £3.45 without. It plays everything I have thrown at it on my Samsung Galaxy S2. The only restriction I have at the moment is the S2 doesn't seem to want to play ball with NTFS so FAT32 restricts MKV files to 4gb. However the free mkvmerge software makes splitting a 15gb file into smaller split files a 2 minute doddle.

I am definitely thinking along the lines of buying a J3 again and buying a few spare batteries for my S2 and using that great screen for movies and the J3 for FLAC. I always carry my phone so it's not as though I am carrying an extra item.

My thoughts on Z2 are pretty muched based around my experience with all android products. If you are going to use this unit to it's potential on a regular basis then it is going to need charging once a day. That in itself is not a problem, but the quoted battery life must be severely effected if one is collecting emails etc from their unit.

[mutescream]

I found out about the Z2, while looking up more info about the J3 (something I have been strongly considering purchasing). I am left wondering if I should just wait for the Z2 to be released, or pick up the J3?

1. I currently have a Meizu M6 8GB that I want to upgrade from.

a. I want a larger and better resolution screen. (the M6 has a 2.4-inch QVGA screen)
b. I want to watch more than just xvids on it (and not be so finicky with even those).
c. I mostly listen to music, but want to be able to watch movies on it occasionally (and for it to be enjoyable to do so, as a time killer).
d. Obviously, I am also looking for a higher capacity player now.

2. I read that the Z2 is better for video, and that the J3 is better for music (yes, I did read the thread first. )

a. How much better is the J3 at playing music?
b. How much better is the Z2 at video playback, and when watching videos, how much better does the picture look on the Z2?

I essentially plan to listen to music about 70-80% of the time, and watch vids on it maybe 20-30% of the time. I don't care about a bunch of apps; I am more concerned about being able to figure it out in less than a week, that it provides me with an enjoyable music experience and a relatively hassle free option of watching video (mkv playback is nice, but as long as I can drop "regular" divx/avi files on it and watch them without having to worry about transcoding them... that's perfectly acceptable).

With that criteria in mind: those of you that have access to both a J3 and a Z2, should I hold out for a Z2 or grab the J3 now?

[Kizune]

Nice, my second MP3 player was a Meizu M6 4gb SP.

Originally Posted by mutescream

a. How much better is the J3 at playing music?

The Z2 has some annoying flaws:
1. There's a long delay until the track changes (when you use the virtual/physical rew/ff buttons) which takes one or two seconds
2. When you modify jetEffect parameters (EQ, BBE+, Stereo Enhance,...), the Z2 freezes for a half second which makes it more difficult to find a nice EQ
3. No playlists, no favorites list... only a bookmark list
4. The battery life is considerably worse than the J3's battery life

In contrast, the J3 reacts immediately, there's no freeze when you change jetEffect parameters and there's at least a favorites list (with my UCIs, you can even have multiple favorites lists).

Those are the reasons why I still prefer my J3 for music playback.

Originally Posted by mutescream

b. How much better is the Z2 at video playback, and when watching videos, how much better does the picture look on the Z2?

- The Z2's video app is fantastic and lets you change many settings. The J3's video app lets you change many things, too, but not as much.
- The Z2 supports more video formats (especially MKV)
- Colors looks worse on the Z2 because it has a Pentile AMOLED screen which is known to look worse than an RGB AMOLED screen (which the J3 has). On the other hand, the Z2's resolution is better than the J3's (480x800 vs 272x480) and the screen is slightly larger. I didn't notice a major difference in quality (regarding colors), so I prefer my Z2 for video playback.

Originally Posted by mutescream

I essentially plan to listen to music about 70-80% of the time, and watch vids on it maybe 20-30% of the time. I don't care about a bunch of apps; I am more concerned about being able to figure it out in less than a week, that it provides me with an enjoyable music experience and a relatively hassle free option of watching video (mkv playback is nice, but as long as I can drop "regular" divx/avi files on it and watch them without having to worry about transcoding them... that's perfectly acceptable).

Sounds to me like the J3 is the better choice for you. Especially its way better battery life and the absence of the flaws I listed above is a clear win against the Z2. Videos look fantastic on the J3 as well.
Sometimes it might be necessary to transcode your videos, though. The J3 is not as flexible and doesn't play videos which have a way higher resolution than its screen. (I.e. watching full HD videos on it without transcoding is impossible)

[mutescream]

Originally Posted by Kizune

Sometimes it might be necessary to transcode your videos, though. The J3 is not as flexible and doesn't play videos which have a way higher resolution than its screen. (I.e. watching full HD videos on it without transcoding is impossible)

How high of a resolution will the J3 handle, before it has issues with being able to play a video? I guess I'm just trying to gauge if the J3 will be as difficult as trying to get movies to work on it as the M6 was (which I eventually gave up on).

[Kizune]

Hehe, I still remember how difficult it was to get videos to work on the M6. I basically had to transcode all my video for it.

Don't worry about the J3, it handles videos way better than the Meizu M6. I don't know the threshold, maybe someone else knows it.

[jastep]

By any chance do you know if headsets with controls are supported this is kind of a deal breaker for me

[CarTMan]

Great work Kizune!!!!

waiting for the Android & Performance part review.
any chance you would make a video review?

[NonApplicable]

Do you guys think a follow up to the Z2 will be released next year?

[Enzyme]

How high of a resolution will the J3 handle

i think i read it was 1080p on some formats, never use anything like that so i cannot say for sure.

also i dont download and drop files directly, anything that goes on my j3 is converted via handbrake, which works flawlessly on every file tested. it's fast to convert and the very most i have to do is launch it and click convert (thats if watchfolders is off).
ive had issues with divx and some other of the "supported formats" not working, but luckily for me the unsupported mp4 video works perfectly ><

it's a nice easy habit to get into and it'll save you lots of space on your player.

[mutescream]

Since making that post, I've received my J3 and done some experimenting, I've dragged and dropped some fairly large Xvid and DivX files onto it (some approaching 2GB in size). The J3 has handled them all flawlessly. I'm very impressed with this little player so far, and glad I went with it.

Especially in light of the fact that it seems all players are going android right now (and that seems a waste to me, since I don't need all of the stuff that comes with android, or the seemingly inherent problems that come with it).

[Milic]

Quick question: what about using 64GB microsd card? and if it works, can we use file format (e.g. NTFS) that support files over 4GB? (FAT32 wont)
thanks

I am a happy owner of a J3, I wondered, despite Kizu's remarks, if it will play flac at the same quality, even with these little inconveniences (I wont change equalization every day) and if battery capacity is that much smaller?

[snakebite2]

Originally Posted by Milic

Quick question: what about using 64GB microsd card? and if it works, can we use file format (e.g. NTFS) that support files over 4GB? (FAT32 wont)
thanks

I am a happy owner of a J3, I wondered, despite Kizu's remarks, if it will play flac at the same quality, even with these little inconveniences (I wont change equalization every day) and if battery capacity is that much smaller?

I don't know if the battery capacity is smaller or not, but the Z2 cpu is much faster and thus consumes more power.

[Enzyme]

im guessing just on the size of the player that they stuck with the 1200mah battery.

so who is screwdriver enabled and feeling brave? ><

[Rianu]

You mentioned a considerably worse battery life, how much worse? How long does it last?