Is it an MP3 player or a PMP, that was our first thought of prising the Cowon iAudio 6 from it’s packaging. Cowon are no strangers to the Lordpercy.com test bench and this latest offering packs the rather smart 0.85” inch hard drive technology allowing them to pack 4gb into a tiny space and take on the iPod Nano. However the iPod Nano is a super slim sleek unit where as the more rotund 19mm depth of the iAudio 6 is think but is unlikely to draw gasps of surprise down the pub. 

That said the full 76 x 36 x 19mm dimensions of the Cowon are far from big and it sits very nicely in the palm of ones hand, which is about the moment you clock the bright and colourful 1.3 inch OLED screen which has a useable resolution of 160 x 128 pixels. More on this screen and its ability to show video later but we’ll start with getting some media onto the device and basic navigation and playback. 

The iAudio 6 is equipped wit the faster USB 2.0 standard meaning you can push media onto its hard disk at speeds up to 35mbps, in daily use this means its quite possible to completely change the contents of  the player in under 16 minute, perhaps this would be a weekly task? Cowon supply their Jet Audio package as a management tool, we’ve covered this package before and it’s competent enough and far better than Sony’s  Sonic Stage, however being a Cowon you can just drag and drop media over to the unit or even transfer from Windows media Player 10 with DRM enabled. 

With a mixture of files now onboard it was time to test the basic audio playback. MP3, WAV, WMA, Flac and Ogg Vorbis are supported with only Apples ACC missing from the list making this one of the most inclusive players on the market. The iAudio6 also works with DRM or digital rights management so that tracks purchased from online stores can be played. The control interface is familiar to anyone who has used Cowon products, it is understandable and navigable but has that eastern style that always leaves you feeling slightly inadequate like you should have known that option was in the config menu. 

Perhaps the biggest feature is the slider control or “swing touch” as Cowon have taken to calling it, put simply it’s a diagonal slider which can be used for both menu scrolling and playback control, it is very sensitive and is prone to the odd miss-selection as a result. However the Swing touch quickly becomes as second nature as Apples much vaunted click wheel and fits well with the menu style and structure. 

With plenty of tracks on board it was time to do some tests, firstly the listening tests. Perhaps unsurprisingly the audio playback is smooth clean and hiss free, there is a complete lack of background electronic noise which plagues some HDD machines. The majority of track played with a slightly bright sound and a good level of bass, perhaps a little to bright for everyone's tastes but this is common to players from Cowon, the audio level is generous and plenty good enough to battle the London tube. We like the fact that Cowon have included a cross fade making playback of mix albums smooth and gap free, it’s amazing how many payers still lack this option even today. What is noticeable is a pause when you select tracks, this is almost certainly the HDD seek time and we were surprised that it was as lengthy as it is given this is the latest generation of technology, the other time this is noticeable is the initial device power up time.

The two main faults we detected in a weeks use were the lack of album art display given that unit has such a good screen it seems daft that album cover art is not displayed during playback. Perhaps more seriously it failed our shake test after just 45 seconds of vigorous shaking the audio starter to stall momentarily before resuming playback. All hard drive based players are prone to some form of shake problems but it's been a while since we've managed to upset one this easily.

Audio playback is not the only feature of the iAudio 6, it also boasts some video playback features and we managed to get a few MP4 files over the USB connection, these were mostly music videos which looked pretty good on the small screen. Cowon may have ideas about this being a micro PMP but the video playback while stable is not that impressive and the size of screen lends itself only to snacking (viewing short clips) there is no way you'd be happy to watch a movie on the unit or probably fit it on the 4gb hard drive.

The other reason video watching is unlikely to take off is the reflectivity of the screen, we found that even on a cloudy day outdoor viewing was problematic and the screen had to be angled away from a light source in order to be clearly visible. All of this is a bit of a shame as we do really like the vibrant screen.

As one could have anticipated Cowon have packed the iAudio 6 with all sorts of goodies including, direct MP3 encoding, a powerful audio equalizer, lyric engine, voice recorder, FM radio and picture viewer. In fact we even spent a bit of time looking for the taps on the kitchen sink! A nice touch for those who are into ebooks is a bookmark feature allowing you to mark up favourite sections of along tracks making them easier to find, probably quite handy if you have MP3 based revision media. Even the supplied earphones are ok for initial listening, although you may want to upgrade to something a little more comfortable.

Battery life is also pretty good with a claimed 20 hours, we managed just under 18 with a drop to only 12 when we'd played with the video playback and other features like the direct encode.

The 4gb Cowon iAudio 6 is priced at £209 which is a princely sum for a mini mp3 player and we have to say this is its Achilles heel, it's a whopping £40 more than the Nano and despite being loaded with extras and handling video to boot it's just not enough to get our whole hearted recommendation.

Published - 03/06/2006

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