Cowon D3 Plenue

Cowon D3 review

Cowon's D3 Plenue media player runs the Android operating system, supports a tonne of audio and video file formats, packs 32GB of storage space, and offers Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can use it to access the Web. But, priced at around £280, it's slightly more expensive than Apple's 32GB iPod touch, which costs around £250, so is it worth the extra moolah? The D3 looks more like an Android smart phone than a traditional MP3 player. Its all-black case is fairly dull, although Cowon has added a tapered edge at the bottom where the three touch-sensitive controls sit. The front is dominated by the 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen, but there are a few physical buttons around the edges, including three playback controls on the right-hand side that sit above a volume rocker switch. The left-hand edge houses a power button that doubles as a lock switch and, beneath this, there's a microSD card slot. This allows you to add up to another 32GB of storage on top of the built-in 32GB.Annoyingly, the 3.5mm headphone jack is positioned on the bottom of the device, which makes it awkward to put the D3 in a pocket. The D3 also uses a proprietary USB port for syncing with a PC. It doesn't charge over USB, though, so you can't easily top it up from a laptop when you're travelling.