Cowon G3 (1 GB) MP3 Player
Out of stock |
Similar in MP3 Players
- Number of Songs: 250
- Usage: Music Recording
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 1.8 inch
- Main Storage Type: Hard Drive
- Storage Capacity: 1 GB
- Overview
-
Reviews
-
Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Superior MP3 Digital Audio Player
Pros
Five function joystick, excellent sound, AA battery, display, file transfer.
Cons
Folder limit, only one playlist, USB connection wire, slow startup, lanyard pin.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Cowon's iAudio G3 is an excellent flash memory Digital Audio Player (DAP). It is easy to use, provides excellent audio, battery life and convenience, uses standard file transfer methods.
Cowon's iAudio G3 is an excellent flash memory Digital Audio Player (DAP). It is easy to use, provides excellent audio, battery life and convenience, uses standard file transfer methods. These advantages outweigh a few negatives: only one playlist, slow start up, limits of 650 song files and 50 folders.
Pros:
Five function joystick: The 5 function joy stick is great. It lets you adjust your volume, or skip songs forward or reverse. I was concerned that the fact that the joystick can be clicked in 5 directions could result in errors, but it has a positive feel that has been problem free for me. I never clicked it inward, activating the menu, when I meant to click it upward or downward to adjust the volume, or leftward or rightward to skip songs.
AA battery: If your battery goes dead, you can buy one almost anywhere 24/7. If you are going to be in the jungle, you can take a few spares along. Furthermore, you can buy a charger and rechargeable AA batteries which will save you money in the long run, and you can still use your player with a different battery while you charge a depleted battery. Of course, the rechargeable AA's often do not last as long as the disposable ones, but the G3 battery life is still very good. Finally, the AA battery helps give the G3 a much longer battery life than other players that use the smaller AAA battery. Many other players use a proprietary rechargeable battery in order to get longer battery life or to satisfy battery shape requirements. To me, having find a computer or carry a proprietary charger around is a very undesirable shortcoming.
I ran 2 informal battery life tests on my G3. I just turned it on, and left it on, checking it occasionally, and using it occasionally until the batter went dead. One battery lasted 16 3/4 hours. the second 18 1/2. I used freshly charged AA Nickel Metal Hydroxide (NiMh) rated at 2000 mA hours.
The G3's battery strength meter starts at 3 bars. Each time, the battery went to 2 bars after about 5 hours, 1 bar after about 10 hours, zero bars after about 15 hours, and flashed for 1/2 to 1 hour before going dead at about 17 to 18 hours.
Sound: I was surprised and delighted by the excellent audio sound produced by the G3. It has great bass. The volume is adjustable from very low to very high. I can hear it on a New York City Subway, which is a challenge for many DAPs. Since I am hoping to use my ears for many more years, I have not even cranked it up to is highest volume. If you ever use a radio plug splitter so you can listen to your DAP with a friend, the G3 provides plenty of output power to drive 2 sets of earbuds.
Display: The monochrome display is excellent, easy to read and informative. It shows the artist name and scrolls the song title. It also shows the time length of the song, the elapsed time or remaining time, and a progress bar which makes it easy to see how much of the song has played, and how much is left.
File transfer: The G3 is recognized as a standard disk drive by Windows when you plug it into a USB port. This allows you to drag and drop files, and organize your folders on the G3 by using Windows Explorer. Of course, you can also use Cowon's JetAudio software, or Windows Media Player (WMP).
Cons:
Secret 650 file / 50 folder limit: I find that the folder limit is a significant disadvantage, but the file limit is not too bad. I refer to the limitation as "secret" because it is not mentioned in the G3's user manual, and it is apparently not know by some of Cowon's tech support staff.
If your average song file is 5MB, 650 files would use 3.25 GB. So you would fill a 2GB player's memory capacity before you hit the 650 file limit.
However, if you like to organize your music files by making a folder for each artist which contains a subfolder for each album by the artist, you can easily bump into the 50 folder limit. If you use Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 to transfer your music files to the G3, its default is to organize the files and folders exactly that way. If you transfer 25 songs, each by a different artist and in a different album, WMP will create 50 folders. Bam! 50 folders, not including the 6 system created folders which my G3 started with. Your done. You will be able to transfer more files and create more folders, but the G3 will show that the folders above 50 that you create are empty. You will get the "NO FILE" message, famous to G3 owners, but unknown to some at Cowon tech support.
If you are adept at using Windows Explorer (WE), you can easily fix the problem. Move all the songs into the Artist folders, and delete the Album subfolders. This will put you back to about 25 folders. This is still close to the 50 folder limit, so you may have to do something like create a "Various Artists" folder move songs there, and delete some individual Artist folders. All this can be a PITA, but, considering the advantages of the G3, it is worth it to me.
Playlists: As far as I can determine, the G3 only allows you to have one playlist. Suppose I want to have a playlist of slow music, another of Beatles Music, another of Hip Hop, another of Country Western? Tough, you cannot do it. Basically, you can have one playlist of your favorites, and that is it. As far as I am concerned this is a major disadvantage for a 2 GB player which could contain 500 songs.
USB/MiniUSB PC connection: A small disadvantage of the G3 is that it needs a cable with a USB "A" Standard connector on one side and a USB "B" Mini connector on the other. This is a standard cable which is supplied with the G3, and many other USB devices. My camera also uses one. However, it is slightly less convenient than the few MP3 players that have an integrated USB connector which allows you to plug the player directly into PC USB port without any cable. If you are traveling, and want to transfer information from a PC to your G3 as if it was a thumb drive, you can do it, but you will have to find the needed cable. This will probably not be too hard since so many devices us the same standard cable.
Slow start up: A very small disadvantage of the G3 is that mine takes about 16 seconds from the time you press the play button to turn the unit on until you hear the first song.
Lanyard pin: The pin on the G3 to which you connect the lanyard is small and has a very small hole. Consequently, the G3 dangles from a thin ring which can easily be broken. If it breaks, as mine did, you can only replace it with another thin wire or string. I don't use the lanyard, but I often use a carabiner clip attached to the lanyard ring to clip the G3 to a belt loop. The flimsy attachment has been a minor inconvenience for me.
Pros:
Five function joystick: The 5 function joy stick is great. It lets you adjust your volume, or skip songs forward or reverse. I was concerned that the fact that the joystick can be clicked in 5 directions could result in errors, but it has a positive feel that has been problem free for me. I never clicked it inward, activating the menu, when I meant to click it upward or downward to adjust the volume, or leftward or rightward to skip songs.
AA battery: If your battery goes dead, you can buy one almost anywhere 24/7. If you are going to be in the jungle, you can take a few spares along. Furthermore, you can buy a charger and rechargeable AA batteries which will save you money in the long run, and you can still use your player with a different battery while you charge a depleted battery. Of course, the rechargeable AA's often do not last as long as the disposable ones, but the G3 battery life is still very good. Finally, the AA battery helps give the G3 a much longer battery life than other players that use the smaller AAA battery. Many other players use a proprietary rechargeable battery in order to get longer battery life or to satisfy battery shape requirements. To me, having find a computer or carry a proprietary charger around is a very undesirable shortcoming.
I ran 2 informal battery life tests on my G3. I just turned it on, and left it on, checking it occasionally, and using it occasionally until the batter went dead. One battery lasted 16 3/4 hours. the second 18 1/2. I used freshly charged AA Nickel Metal Hydroxide (NiMh) rated at 2000 mA hours.
The G3's battery strength meter starts at 3 bars. Each time, the battery went to 2 bars after about 5 hours, 1 bar after about 10 hours, zero bars after about 15 hours, and flashed for 1/2 to 1 hour before going dead at about 17 to 18 hours.
Sound: I was surprised and delighted by the excellent audio sound produced by the G3. It has great bass. The volume is adjustable from very low to very high. I can hear it on a New York City Subway, which is a challenge for many DAPs. Since I am hoping to use my ears for many more years, I have not even cranked it up to is highest volume. If you ever use a radio plug splitter so you can listen to your DAP with a friend, the G3 provides plenty of output power to drive 2 sets of earbuds.
Display: The monochrome display is excellent, easy to read and informative. It shows the artist name and scrolls the song title. It also shows the time length of the song, the elapsed time or remaining time, and a progress bar which makes it easy to see how much of the song has played, and how much is left.
File transfer: The G3 is recognized as a standard disk drive by Windows when you plug it into a USB port. This allows you to drag and drop files, and organize your folders on the G3 by using Windows Explorer. Of course, you can also use Cowon's JetAudio software, or Windows Media Player (WMP).
Cons:
Secret 650 file / 50 folder limit: I find that the folder limit is a significant disadvantage, but the file limit is not too bad. I refer to the limitation as "secret" because it is not mentioned in the G3's user manual, and it is apparently not know by some of Cowon's tech support staff.
If your average song file is 5MB, 650 files would use 3.25 GB. So you would fill a 2GB player's memory capacity before you hit the 650 file limit.
However, if you like to organize your music files by making a folder for each artist which contains a subfolder for each album by the artist, you can easily bump into the 50 folder limit. If you use Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 to transfer your music files to the G3, its default is to organize the files and folders exactly that way. If you transfer 25 songs, each by a different artist and in a different album, WMP will create 50 folders. Bam! 50 folders, not including the 6 system created folders which my G3 started with. Your done. You will be able to transfer more files and create more folders, but the G3 will show that the folders above 50 that you create are empty. You will get the "NO FILE" message, famous to G3 owners, but unknown to some at Cowon tech support.
If you are adept at using Windows Explorer (WE), you can easily fix the problem. Move all the songs into the Artist folders, and delete the Album subfolders. This will put you back to about 25 folders. This is still close to the 50 folder limit, so you may have to do something like create a "Various Artists" folder move songs there, and delete some individual Artist folders. All this can be a PITA, but, considering the advantages of the G3, it is worth it to me.
Playlists: As far as I can determine, the G3 only allows you to have one playlist. Suppose I want to have a playlist of slow music, another of Beatles Music, another of Hip Hop, another of Country Western? Tough, you cannot do it. Basically, you can have one playlist of your favorites, and that is it. As far as I am concerned this is a major disadvantage for a 2 GB player which could contain 500 songs.
USB/MiniUSB PC connection: A small disadvantage of the G3 is that it needs a cable with a USB "A" Standard connector on one side and a USB "B" Mini connector on the other. This is a standard cable which is supplied with the G3, and many other USB devices. My camera also uses one. However, it is slightly less convenient than the few MP3 players that have an integrated USB connector which allows you to plug the player directly into PC USB port without any cable. If you are traveling, and want to transfer information from a PC to your G3 as if it was a thumb drive, you can do it, but you will have to find the needed cable. This will probably not be too hard since so many devices us the same standard cable.
Slow start up: A very small disadvantage of the G3 is that mine takes about 16 seconds from the time you press the play button to turn the unit on until you hear the first song.
Lanyard pin: The pin on the G3 to which you connect the lanyard is small and has a very small hole. Consequently, the G3 dangles from a thin ring which can easily be broken. If it breaks, as mine did, you can only replace it with another thin wire or string. I don't use the lanyard, but I often use a carabiner clip attached to the lanyard ring to clip the G3 to a belt loop. The flimsy attachment has been a minor inconvenience for me.
