The F2 has an extensive range of options to muck about with, from play speeds and dynamic EQ settings down to the display options and recording bit rates. It's definitely one of the most customisable MP3 players we've ever seen.
Sadly the menu takes a bit of getting used to. Instead of navigating up, down, left and right like on the majority of players, the positioning of the nine buttons corresponds to an item on the main menu. These functions change between modes, so becoming accustomed to this style of browsing will take a degree of patience.
Performance
Sound quality is lovely, though some may scoff at its flatness. Adding the Mach3Bass EQ on its highest setting made an enormous difference to the bass reproduction -- something dance fans will love -- though doing so takes some clarity away from the high end and makes the mid-range sound quite muddy. The 3D surround option makes an odd difference that seems to over-emphasise the mid-range by making other frequencies quieter and more distant.
All supported audio formats sound great, though FLAC, the lossless format, sounds noticeably better. We did notice that highly compressed FLAC files -- ones coded at the highest FLAC level, 8 -- crash the player. This is odd because Cowon states this encoding level is supported. Tracks ripped at FLAC level 6 or below play fine.
Video playback can hit an acceptable 15 frames per second (fps). Considering how small the screen is, 15fps is fine for the short clips you'll be able to fit on to the maximum 4GB capacity. Pictures rarely fill the whole screen because of the odd resolution dimensions, and when they do they're pretty poor quality. We don't like being reminded of what inferior LCD screens used to be like, Cowon, thanks all the same.
Files can be dragged and dropped through Windows Explorer, so no additional software is needed. 1GB of music took six minutes to copy using our office machine and the simple little app, mentioned earlier, handles video conversion. A 30-minute clip took ten minutes to transcode, and came out at 100MB -- this is MPEG-4 we're talking about, and 100MB is stupidly large for a 128x160-pixel video file. We threw on a few episodes of Crave TV's Space Bubble and found it reasonably watchable. In fact, videos look better than still images. The mind boggles.
Battery life is rated at 22 hours. We actually got just over 22 in our general usage tests.
Conclusion
Aside from its crude menu structure, the F2 is an excellent player. The huge sets of options and customisable playback features are incredible, plus support for FLAC and OGG files adds a further level of usefulness. We were impressed with sound quality overall, too. The main problems of the F2 lie with its design and interface -- the buttons are badly positioned and require more effort to use than we like in a player.
For very little more dosh, Creative's Zen V Plus offers superior sound, easier controls and a much, much better menu system. Or, if you're just after great audio and want to save a bit more cash, perhaps consider the Zen Stone Plus, also from Creative.
Supplier: Advanced MP3Players.com
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield
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