Cowon D2+ review

The problem with video on the D2+ is that the supported formats -- AVI and WMV sized at 320x240 pixels -- aren't as common on the Web as the H.264/MPEG files that are standard for most video podcasts and work natively on the iPod. More often than not, you'll need to convert video to play on the D2+ (conversion software is included), which feels like a tedious extra step just to watch video on a 64mm screen. If Cowon had included H.264 video support and some extra wiggle room on the 320x240-pixel resolution, the D2+ would be a more compelling product.

Features such as FM radio, photos, text and voice recording work well, but also remain unaltered from the original D2. Extra utilities, such as a calculator, notepad and a Flash game player, came to the first-generation D2 by way of a firmware update, and are offered on the D2+ out of the box.

Last, but not least, one of the more understated features of the D2+ is a memory-expansion slot that supports SD, MMC and SDHC cards. Instead of treating memory-card content separately from the files stored on the internal memory, the D2+ merges all the content together for a seamless experience. Most people prefer to have content merged this way, but only a few MP3 players pull this trick off -- most notably, the SanDisk Sansa line.

Performance
When you boil it all down, the outstanding feature on the Cowon D2+ is its sound quality. You'll need to upgrade Cowon's bundled earbuds and switch on a few of the player's sound-enhancement settings to really appreciate the sonic supremacy of the D2+, but the effort is well worth it for anyone looking to take their listening experience to another level.

Settings for five-band EQ, Mach3Bass, BBE enhancement, 3D surround, stereo enhancement and MP3 enhancement can all be adjusted independently and saved as a single group preset. You can even drill down into the EQ and adjust the frequency ranges for each of the five bands, if you're feeling very particular.

The interface of the D2+ looks more modern than that of the D2, but functionally it's the same

If you're the kind of audio purist who wouldn't be caught dead slathering artificial audio enhancements on your music, then the D2+ isn't a great pick. In fact, when we switched off all of the EQ and enhancement settings and put on our trusty Shure SE310 earphones, we preferred the sound of the fourth-generation iPod nano and Samsung YP-P2 to that of the D2+, finding they offered a warmer and wider default sound. After juicing a few settings, the sound of the D2+ quickly takes the upper hand, but not everyone enjoys fiddling with EQ to dial in the best performance.

Video quality on the D2+ is bright and crisp, and supports playback up to a smooth 30 frames per second. Unfortunately, if you're converting your videos to get them on the D2+, you will inherently encounter some loss in video quality. Just like the original D2, the video player on the D2+ supports video bookmarking and auto resume, and lets you apply audio-enhancement settings to video audio, as well.

Cowon rates the battery life of the D2+ at 52 hours for audio and 10 hours for video, under best conditions. The original D2 tested out at 50 hours of audio and 10 hours of video playback.

Conclusion
Overall, the Cowon D2+ is a great portable media player, with impressive sound and a long battery life. Still, we're slightly disappointed that Cowon didn't do more with the D2+, considering they had two years to hash out a redesign after launching the original model. For better or worse, the D2+ is practically the same as the D2 we saw in 2007 and will probably prove something of an anticlimax for Cowon fans.

Additional editing by Charles Kloet