X-Series vs. Cowon S9 Video

X-Series vs. Cowon S9 Video Transcript

[ music ] ^M00:00:06

>> What's up Prizefight Fans? I'm Brian Tong, and this week we're facing off two stand out OLED touch screen media players that the iPod Touch can take notes from. It's a throw down showdown between Sony's X-series Walkman and the Cowon's S9. Our judges for this fight, our Senior Editor Donald Bell, and Associate Editor Jasmine France, and you know who. Now we'll take all three judges scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round. The final prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system. Who will be crowned king of the ring? We're going 5 deep. First round is sexiness. The Sony X-series has a rock like texture on the sides, and a shiny surface front and back. It has a solid weight and a really unique design. The Cowon S9 has smooth design lines, but it's plastic lightweight body feels cheap and its wobble on a flat surface doesn't help. The X-series gets a 4, and the Cowon gets a lowly 2.7. Next round is navigation. The Sony not only brings a touch screen interface, but tactile playback controls. That means blind navigation and Jasmine loves it. The menus are straightforward and easy, plus Donald likes the big home button. Now the S9's main screen looks simple, but then you start using it. The home button is a small icon in the top corner. You have to flip a bar to access more features. And this pop out quick list on top of the music player, I will pass. Sony takes another round with a 4.3, and Cowon gets a 3.3. So after 2 rounds the S9 has a lot of ground to make up. Next round is compatibility. The X-series does just fine with the major audio formats. The video is a headache. Unless you're grabbing stuff from the Amazon Store you're gonna have a lot of podcasts and standard MP4 files that just won't work. Now the S9 stands out here with major audio support, including flack [phonetic] and OS, but no AAC support. Video can be hit or miss. ABI's, yes, A264 no. This one's close, but the S9 gets this round with a 4 and Sony gets a 3.7. Next up is sound and science. Both of these players have excellent audio quality, and you can't go wrong. So what else are they packing? The X-series shines with its active noise cancellation with the included headsets, plus you're getting WIFI for Youtube and Slacker Radio integration. And its limited web browser doesn't hurt it. Now the S9 brings Bluetooth and video out. Batter life is ridiculous. And having no WIFI probably helps. But it just can't match up to Sony. The X-series gets a perfect 5, and the S9 gets a 4.3. After averaging 4 rounds Cowon has closed some of the gap. But the final round that decides it all is value. Sony might be getting ahead of itself, $299 for the 16-gig X-series? That's iPod Touch pricing, and it feels like a reach even with everything it can do. Now the S9 knows where it is in the pricing game, $199 for the 16-gig, and $270 for the 32. It's one of the best values out there. So in the final round the S9 gets a 3.7, and the X-series gets a 2.7. So let's average out all five rounds. And in a battle where Sony jumped out on top early, Cowon clawed back, hit hard in the final round, but it just wasn't good enough. The Sony X-series Walkman is victorious, 3.9 to 3.6, and is your Prizefight winner. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching. And we'll catch you guys next time on another Prizefight. ^E00:03:41