Product Review: Cowon A3 Widescreen Handheld PMP Media Device

Most mp3 players on the market today offer video playback as one of their big features. This is a good thing, with the options for obtaining videos online has become more robust and easy to access. The only downside to these players is the battery life - the average flash-based mp3 player will only be able to play about three hours of video before dying.

If you need a portable player that offers longer battery life than average mp3 players, then you need to look at small PMP - personal movie players. These devices are intended specifically for playing videos, and as such, they have a longer battery life to make them worth while.

One long battery life PMP is the Cowon A3 digital movie player. This device offers battery life of about seven hours, which is quite long for a portable movie playing device. If you're looking into purchasing the Cowon A3, read on. Below is a review of this device, as well as information on any issues or problems you should be aware of.

Body

The body of this player is widescreen, unlike it's previous version, the A2. This works better for modern movies and TV shows, which are being filmed in a 16:9 format.

The player itself is sleek and minimalistic, with a black body and silver bevel. There are four hard buttons located on the right side of the device, and one metal directional wheel in the upper corner.

Features

This device features a large 4" LCD display with 16 million colors, which is bright and clear. Videos look vibrant and bright, and make moving watching a pleasant experience.

The device features a user replaceable battery, so you don't have to ship anything off to a factory to get it replaced.

The device has an integrated FM radio, and it can play mp3's as well as videos. It can record videos from a TV or DVD player and store them on the internal memory. It has a built in microphone for impromptu recording, and a line-in port for higher-quality recordings made with a microphone.

This device can play DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV, H.264, and MJPEG videos. It can also play OGG, mp3, FLAC, and many other lossless audio formats.