Digital Trends

Cowon A3 60GB

February 19th, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin

Extra Features

The FM radio tuner uses your headphones' cord as an antenna, though we found that turning the device itself with the power button end up worked best for tuning in fringe stations. Stronger stations came in loud and clear, and FM recording (WMA, max 192Kbps) works very well. Voice recording (also WMA up to 192Kbps) via the built-in mic also works well, though we could hear hard drive whine in our test recordings. 

Battery

The A3's rechargeable battery is not removable and takes about 5 hours to charge via the AC adapter. 7 hours of continuous video playback per charge is better than most other PMPs out there, but it's not quite up to the A2's standard of 9-10 hours. Most disappointing is the dismal 9-hour playback time for audio. Of course, your mileage will vary greatly depending on screen brightness and sleep settings, as well as what audio format you're listening to (higher quality generally means more processing power, which drains batteries quicker).

Conclusion

The A3's main rivals are the Archos 605 WiFi and the Creative Zen Vision:W, and the A3 trumps them both in most respects. Archos comes out ahead in DRM support, wireless capabilities, and storage capacity, and Creative's interface is way better. But the A3's built-in AV recording features and file-format flexibility remain huge plusses in our book, so if those are your priorities -- as opposed to the Archos 605's touchscreen or wireless features -- the A3 delivers. Still, we hope Cowon will address the navigation controls in a future version.



Pros: 

• Stellar file format support
• Built-in video recording
• Beautiful LCD
• Very good audio and video quality




Cons:

• Joystick navigation is difficult
• Interface can be confusing
• Battery life is shorter than predecessor
• No Bluetooth or WiFi
• No DRM support