Cowon X7

The X7 is certainly an alternative device, as Cowon's eagerly awaited replacement for the excellent X5 is basically a portable music player with the looks and dimensions of a full-on portable media player.

Design: we've seen better

With its relatively old-school design, the X7 probably won't appeal to fans of cutting-edge and innovative looks. However, the rather basic approach to design has almost become a trademark for Cowon's products, and the look no doubt has its fans. The plastics are, at least, good quality, and the product feels solid and sturdy to handle, which is a good sign.

On the sides of the X7 are volume controls, an on/off switch and a hold button. There are therefore no physical playback controls (although there is a way round this—see inset).

Although the X7's internal software is a total revamp compared with the ageing software seen in the X5, there haven't been any major changes to the firm's in-house software since Cowon's latest portable music players were released. You therefore still have the choice between two interfaces: one with standard icons and one that's very much like Zune. The menus are easy to browse though despite the screen's low definition. You won't find yourself getting lost in the menus and everything is clear and easy to read.

Files are handled well as they can be managed in folders or by tag.

Finally, we won't hold it against Cowon too much for forgetting to equip the X7 with a microSD card slot, since it has a monster storage capacity of 80 GB, 120 GB or 160 GB depending on which model you choose.

Audio Quality: decent

The X7 has big shoes to fill since, as far as we're concerned, it's replacing one of the three best portable music players ever made. To be honest, it doesn't do a bad job. Although it clearly won't be as iconic as its predecessor, the X7 does have a very good audio output.

The sound is clean, accurate and controlled but the output power is quite weak, and so you may find you need to turn the volume up quite high to listen to your music properly while out and about. Otherwise, we've got no complaints about the dynamic range or the stereo effect.

As usual though, the headphones supplied are just rubbish! It's bad enough seeing low-quality headphones from run-of-the-mill manufacturers, but we'd really expect better from Cowon! In fact, Cowon might as well not even bother supplying headphones at this rate.

Video and Multimedia: fun, functional but not strictly necessary

Although it only has a 480x272-pixel screen, the X7 can play 720p HD videos ... but these are obviously converted to a suitable resolution on the fly. Playback isn't unpleasant, but it's certainly nothing special either. Plus, the screen could do with better contrast and wider viewing angles.

Subtitles are supported, but the really unusual thing about this PMP is that a chapter function lets you create your own index points in videos. You can therefore mark points to come back to quickly and easily, which is very handy for long videos.

On top of that, you'll find the usual host of extra functions typically found in Cowon music players, including a photo viewer, compatibility with Office files, a calculator etc. These are fine for use now and again, but you probably won't find yourself using them regularly. In fact, the FM radio is the only genuinely useful extra (still no RDS), as well as the Bluetooth transmitter.

Cowon's tech specs announce a seriously monster battery life of 103 hours of audio playback ... and it lives up to its claims! In other words, you'd be able to go off camping in the wilderness for several days without your music ever running out!

All in all, the X7 is an unusual product that's very good in some respects ... and not quite so good in others. It's an obvious alternative to Apple's iPod classic if you're looking for high-capacity portable storage—even if only for its impressive battery life. That said, the iPod classic still has the edge for design and handling, and it'd be good to see Cowon fight back on that front before its products start to look seriously out-dated.