Caveats:
1) In reviews and forums, each person is expressing his opinion.
2) Each person’s experience with a PMP depends on the musical taste, preference, headphones, listening habits and even the shape of your own ears. So, what applies for one does not apply to all.
3) The feel of the player and the sturdiness depends on how each one uses it. So, mileages always vary.
4) Always read a lot before you buy especially the negatives, though you may not experience any of the problem listed
Why choose Cowon over other brands?
I was looking for a player which plays audio very well.
I could do without Wi-Fi and applications, but needed lot of hours of playback.
I preferred a touch device for easier operation
Lots of space too since some of my music is in lossless format.
The choice was down to Cowon S9, Samsung YP-P3, Sony X-1060 and iPod Touch 3G. Sony X-1060 was unavailable. Price wise, P3 was a bit cheaper, iTouch equal. I hated being tied to iTunes. So, that left P3 and S9 in the fray. In the end, I went for S9.
Pros
It comes with more than enough battery to test it around a bit. So, you need not rush to charge upon unpacking.
Weighs less at 79 gms(iTouch - 115 gms)
Great File format support. Apart from MP3, supports OGG, FLAC, WMA, APE.
The Screen is 3.3" AMOLED. AMOLED is even better than OLED. It consumes less power and the color reproduction is better than LCD screens.
It has a Capacitive Touch screen a la Apple iPod Touch. Resistive touch screens need pressure, while Capacitive touch screens detect changes in temperature. But you have to touch with your finger, not finger tips.
Constant updates for firmware. In the initial release, the touch UI was not responsive and support for gapless play was not present. With the latest 2.41 update, it supports gapless playback and UI is said to be more responsive(I have only used the latest).
The Video despite the specs in their web site can play higher resolutions and also supports SRT subtitles.
Longer battery life. Though rated at 55 hours, be aware that it is for playing 128kbps MP3 files only. So far, I have only listened to FLAC(Lossless format) and Variable bit-rate and 320kbps MP3s. 3 days of 4-5 hours music and still going strong(Battery indicator has not come even come close to 50%)
Supports both browsing by folders and by tags -> Artist, Genre, Album, Year etc., and also an album matrix view.
Plenty of EQ support. I am not a fan of sound enhancements in general. But, BBE+ seems to do a lot to improve the quality. There are 40+ presets. And if it does not work for you, there are 4 custom User EQ settings to play with.
The glass is claimed as scratch proof and is not a finger print magnet at least for my usage.
Supports MSC mode and MTP mode. I use only MSC mode.
Cons(Some are not issues at all for me, but may be for others)
The USB cable is a Korean standard and not a Mini USB.
Out of the box, the UI is not intuitive. It was very easy to understand and navigate for me. So, personally I disregard the negative reviews of the UI as "apple infected":) However, there’s no multi-touch and sometimes, touches do not register at all.
Manuals? No luck there. Be sure to download the latest version of the manual from the Cowon’s web site(https://cowonglobal.com/). Here you will also find the latest firmware. While some of the UI elements are self-explanatory, you still need to figure out a few icons with the help of the manual.
Picture Browser is slow to load
The rotate from "portrait" to "landscape" is a little slow at times.
If you are the type who buys a player, unpacks and uses it and does nothing else, you may not like the work that Cowon S9 can extract out of you. I am more used to it. I suggest:
1) Join iAudiophile(https://iaudiophile.net/) and ABI (https://anythingbutipod.com/forum/) forums.
2) Install the Claw UI and all it’s patches
3) Download and Install some Wallpapers, Icon Themes and a few widgets. I am not a widget fan or a games fan though.
Supports M3U playlists, but there are some glitches(which can be solved by a firmware update)
The EQ settings are great. But, if you do not come from Audiophile territory, it takes some time and effort getting used to. I resolved it by starting with recommendations given at https://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=25138
Update: Position of the Headphone jack is at the bottom, which can be a discomfort to some. You got Play, Vol+/-, Track+/- at the top.
*Others:
1) Do not drain the battery and charge often.
2) Allocate more for a Headphone or an IEM to get most out of the player.