Cowon S9 vs Ipod Touch

[elaine89]

Cowon S9
+ smaller
+ AMOLED
+ UMS device
+ better SQ
+ supports many audio formats
+ bluetooth
- no multitouch
[- (maybe) no apps?]
[- (maybe) no games?]
- more expensive
- no accesoires
- no WiFi

Ipod Touch
+ wide choice of accesoires
+ wide choice of games
+ wide choice of applications
+ supports multitouch
+ more favorable
+ mini speaker
+ WiFi
- mediocre SQ
- no AMOLED
- MSC device
- Itunes necessary
- bigger
- no bluetooth


I also think the touch has got a better UI. Please correct me if i'm wrong. If somebody has got a pro/contra argument please post it.

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Sound quality on the Touch isn't so bad... it's mediocre but not bad. Of course there's no user EQ and no BBE enhancements on it.

It's not an MTP device... iTunes actually uses MSC transfer. MTP is a Microsoft protocol, Apple would never support it.

[elaine89]

okay but it's not possible to transfer files to the ipod with for ex. windows explorer, isn't it?

[dfkt]

Yes you can, same as MTP, but maybe a little more complicated, and iTunes of course has to be installed on the computer. I'm no iPod/iTunes expert, though.

BTW - I wouldn't list MSC as a negative, since it's the standard every USB mass storage device uses, including Cowon players... It's just that the iPods doesn't use "normal" MSC for audio transfer, due to the locked down iPod/iTunes monoculture. Anyways, that's waaaay off-topic for this thread.

[Andreas]

The S9 is for music only, maybe a little video - its not suited for anything else. The touch is more like a game boy suited for all audio needs except music (if you want something that sounds good straight out of the box). The two devices can't even be compared because they dont have any overlapping feature (not counting a touch screen as a feature). The S9 wouldnt do me any good since i use audio books and podcasts and a bit of radio before music, the best the s9 can do in that area is "o hai i haz bookmarking". As a result, none of your negative points has any usefulness to them and comparing the two devices is utterly pointless just like the old tiresome "p2 vs itouch" debate. Heck, if anything, compare the S9 to the P2.

[EnzoTen]

Ipods use a proprietary transfer protocol not MSC iirc... The file system is also HFS+ on them and i dont know if MSC handles that.

[no9]

Originally Posted by Cptnodegard

The S9 is for music only, maybe a little video - its not suited for anything else. The touch is more like a game boy suited for all audio needs except music (if you want something that sounds good straight out of the box). The two devices can't even be compared because they dont have any overlapping feature (not counting a touch screen as a feature). The S9 wouldnt do me any good since i use audio books and podcasts and a bit of radio before music, the best the s9 can do in that area is "o hai i haz bookmarking". As a result, none of your negative points has any usefulness to them and comparing the two devices is utterly pointless just like the old tiresome "p2 vs itouch" debate. Heck, if anything, compare the S9 to the P2.

The S9 with a 3.3" screen will be perfectly fine for watching video, just as the touch is. They both have plenty of the same features and should very well be compared since they are being sold in and to the same markets. People looking to buy a player with that middle of the road screen size definitely will be comparing them soon enough.

[-matt-]

The s9 is cheaper than the iPod touch.

[sketchy62]

how much is the s9?

[walker]

16gb S9 for 219$ US. i dont know how much the 32gb is though im guessing slightly less than 300$ US

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by no9

The S9 with a 3.3" screen will be perfectly fine for watching video, just as the touch is. They both have plenty of the same features and should very well be compared since they are being sold in and to the same markets. People looking to buy a player with that middle of the road screen size definitely will be comparing them soon enough.

Neither of the two supports unconverted video and so they arent full blown PMPs, difference is the touch doesnt have as restricted video resolutions. Cowon included h264 but restricted it so that it either has to use podcasts that cover half the screen or not use them at all. They dont have any of the same features except for the absolutely basic ones and so the only people that would ever have a choice between one and the other are people that dont know what they want to begin with. One have good sound quality, the other doesnt. One have wifi, the other bluetooth. One has apps, the other doesnt. One uses itunes, the other doesnt (itunes being a - for some, + for others). Battery life. Accessories. There are nothing but differences on those two. Your logic is like saying that a ferrari and a cabin cruiser is the same because they are the same size and both have a similar stearing wheel. If you combined th touch and the S9, you'd get a hell of a player, but as is the better comparison would be s9 vs d2 or vs p2.

[davidw89]

Cowon S9:
Support a real company
WAY better spec wise

iPod Touch
You will be following the crowd and buying poor value for money and way freaking overpriced product

I think the UI would be similar for both products..

[renatok13]

Hi all
I like cowon s9, but it's much slower than whom ipod interface/flash animation...
cowon UI run rather jerkily... (When he leafs through something between the albums.) I hope for it the cowon will repair on this... How do you see it? Ipod is very fast system.. s9 is not yet.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by davidw89

Cowon S9:
iPod Touch
You will be following the crowd and buying poor value for money and way freaking overpriced product

The only thing i hate more than uneducated people with ipods that think its the best thing ever without actually having tried anything else is people that are so fundamentally caught up in their own ipod hating universe that all they do all day is piss at the apple logo. While a lot of people use ipods because they are just following the crowd, you can't make that generalization any more than I could call everyone on abi ihaters because there are people like you here. I have prob owned or used more DAPs than you have seen, still I use an itouch. I dont do it because other people do it, and I certainly don't think its the best music player out there, however with my needs its the best option right now. The road the sheeps walk isn't exclusively for sheeps.

[_Perfection_]

Originally Posted by Cptnodegard

The only thing i hate more than uneducated people with ipods that think its the best thing ever without actually having tried anything else is people that are so fundamentally caught up in their own ipod hating universe that all they do all day is piss at the apple logo. While a lot of people use ipods because they are just following the crowd, you can't make that generalization any more than I could call everyone on abi ihaters because there are people like you here. I have prob owned or used more DAPs than you have seen, still I use an itouch. I dont do it because other people do it, and I certainly don't think its the best music player out there, however with my needs its the best option right now. The road the sheeps walk isn't exclusively for sheeps.

Well put sir. I agree completely.

[mgz]

Cowon S9

+ probably will be cheaper
+ much greater format support
+ click and drag song adding
- UI will probably need updating via cowon to be where it should be
- cant wander into bestbuy to purchase or any other massive electronics store
- Not currently available
+ Better options for tweaking the sound to your liking and better audio quality

Apple ipod Touch

+/- Wifi - many think of it as a plus but it burns through batteries and is useless IMO

+ Multitouch - you can use the things involved with multitouch most of these being convenient for non music/video involved things so not that big of a deal for me

+ TONs of accessories and manufacturers for accessories to choose from

- VERY limited codec support

- stuck with itunes or using plugins for programs like winamp which arent supported by apple

-/+ Apple app store, yay you can buy apps and waste more money for your player for your thousands of stolen songs

- Overpriced - its apple ...

+ Currently available at just about every electronic store known to man

[Lawliet]

So much hate ;_;

iTouch isn't a bad device. I mean it's over priced as hell but besides that it's a very slick little device that'll literally do ANYTHING you need. Video, music, dictionary, web browsing, radio, fake lightsabers, whatever!

[controllerboy]

It's pretty cool to say you are different than the rest and that you are so much smarter I would've bought one for sure if I had other priorities, for me sound quality and "messing with my device" is very important and that's why I don't really like them. I wonder if people will start bashing Cowon if/when the S9 becomes a device bought by millions.

All we can make in this thread is kind of assumptions. As the O2 proved even with a ton of nice features all can be ruined by one small defect (ie firmware). I'd wait until some of you have got their S9 then we can start to compare.

[Juxxy]

Originally Posted by controllerboy

It's pretty cool to say you are different than the rest and that you are so much smarter I would've bought one for sure if I had other priorities, for me sound quality and "messing with my device" is very important and that's why I don't really like them. I wonder if people will start bashing Cowon if/when the S9 becomes a device bought by millions.

All we can make in this thread is kind of assumptions. As the O2 proved even with a ton of nice features all can be ruined by one small defect (ie firmware). I'd wait until some of you have got their S9 then we can start to compare.

If Cowon started selling players of sub par quality, average sound quality and extremely expensive considering the spec list then yes I would start bashing them. However as it is the S9 is turning out to be of fantastic sound quality (build quality tbc) and an extensive spec list for less then Apples most similar offering.

[The DarkSide]

Add the upcoming Sony touch based player to this mix, as it's touted to have wi-fi as well. This is starting to get interesting, ain't it?

BTW: Moved to the appropriate forum!