This 2gb model is certainly neat measuring just 34.8 x 72.9 x 16.7mm and weighing only 40 grams it easily out Nanos the iPod Nano in terms of style and form. It looks more like the kind of mobile that Benq and Siemens have been trying to produce for the last 2 years than an MP3 player. The 1.3" LCD screen while smallish is very bright and colourful and used to good effect by the Cowon firmware. With the Cowon F2 firmly in your mitts you feel more like an extra on star trek than an ordinary commuter on the London Tube, admiring and inquisitive glances from fellow travellers confirm that the F2 is the must have piece of tech right now.

The 2gb flash memory is relatively small and this is the largest F2 model available and no official word yet on a larger 4gb model (perhaps we'll hear at CES?). You can copy MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, ASF and WAV audio files onto the disk which represents almost all the valid formats excluding Apples own ACC iTunes files. Cowon have ensured that this model adheres to the "plays for sure" standard from Microsoft which is ironic given that Microsoft haven't done so with their own Zune player.

Control of the Cowon F2 is a little off beam and the company claims dynamic matrix controls are the thing of the future. In short this is an clear icon based on screen display which is mirrored by the 9 mobile phone style keys below, with a few button presses you can easily navigate through the menu system, browse music and select and play tracks. The context sensitive menu buttons occupy the lower corners of the keypad with 4 direction buttons with a central ok or select key. It take a bit of getting used too and it could be tricky for those with chubby fingers but after a days use we found the system quite natural and quick compared to many players.

The combination of simple on screen icons that are highlighted as you toggle around and good context sensitive menus makes driving your F2 child's play. After a weeks worth of use we can only say that this is to small MP3 players what the click wheel is to large Apple iPods. Once playing media the screen does look remarkably like a mobile phone interface with icons at the top of the screen and the lower centre taken up by the album name and track name which will also scroll if they do not fit the 128 x 160 pixel display.

Getting media onto the iAudio F2 is achieved via the base mounted USB 2.0 port which is speedy enough to fill up the 2gb flash memory using the jet audio software or via drag and drop. Battery life is a claimed 22 hours and we managed over 20 during a few days use, charging is rapid at 3 hours from flat and is via the USB port. Better still the F2 works not just with Windows but also with Linux and Macintosh operating systems too.

Playback quality seems to be as good as you could expect from a player of this size and our 192kbps encoded MP3 files and Ogg files sounded great with a full range and meaty bass. In the gaps between the tracks there is some very slight electronic noise but no real hiss or other mechanical sounds. We tested the full range of files including WMA, MP3 and Ogg and have to say the Ogg files sound the best for their bitrate and they can be compressed to 128kbps and still provide acceptable quality. The supplied earphones aren't that good so we ditched them and finished out testing with a set of Shure E2C's plugged into the top mounted earphone jack.

The F2 does also try to make the most of other multimedia formats by acting a photo viewer and video playback device, it will play MPEG-4 videos in landscape mode but the small screen really isn't up to the job making video replay nothing more then a gimmick. One nice touch is you can set the JPEG files stored on the unit as a wallpaper for the main screen, again another mobile phone like feature.

As with most Cowon kit, there is a list of extras as long as your arm, with a very good FM radio which can be recorded onto the flash memory, line in recording, resume playback, fade in, equalizer and alarm clock. Most of these go unused by most users however it does show the number of features that the mainstream players are lacking and those you get for standard when you buy a lesser known brand.

Perhaps that is the attraction for us of the Cowon F2, it is a lesser known model and yet looks fantastic, it performs faultlessly in its basic features and has all manner of extras and configuration options should you be brave enough to play with them. This is a good choice for the everything but iPod campaigners as it illustrates what can be achieved without having the might of Apple behind you.

Priced at £115 at launch it is also very good value for money when you consider the feature list, audio quality and style. The Cowon iAudio F2 is a unique MP3 player which is good to use despite being quite small and offers features iPod owners can only dream of. A best buy, for Christmas 2006 we'd say yes!

Published - 19/11/2006

More MP3 Player Reviews-

[ Up ] [ iRiver IFP ] [ MuVo2 mini MP3 player ] [ Rio Nitrus ] [ Philips HDD070 ] [ Zen Micro Review ] [ Sony NW-E99 MP3 ] [ Aiwa HZWS2000 ] [ Rio Carbon Review ] [ iRiver IFP 899 ] [ iPod Nano Review ] [ Archos XS100 ] [ Samsung YP-U1Q ] [ Cowon iAudio 6 Review ] [ iAudio U3 Review ] [ Creative Zen V Plus ] [ Cowon iAudio F2 ] [ Oracom UB890 ] [ iPod Touch Review ] [ 3rd Generation iPod Nano ] [ Sony NWZA818 Review ] [ MobiBlu B153 ] [ New iPod Nano 2G Review ] [ iRiver S10 Review ] [ Sandisk Sansa E200 Review ] [ iRiver U10 Review ] [ iRiver H10 Review ] [ Sanyo HDP MM3000 ] [ Philips HDD084 Review ] [ MPIO HD200 Review ] [ M:Robe MR100 ] [ Monolith MP3 Player ] [ iRiver IFP-599T ] [ Ipod Mini Review ]