While a touchscreen is not exactly cutting-edge, it does offer the merit of cutting through the learning curve usually associated with a new MP3 player. Often enough, having to relearn button placement and a new UI would jar the out-of-the-box experience. The D2 makes learning a breeze.

Design
A touchscreen is familiar. It is also intuitive. You don't have to fiddle around with the mess of buttons at the back to hit Play. There's a juicy green button onscreen. If a player can get any more intuitive than this, it would probably be telepathically linked to your head.

	Cowon iAudio D2: Looking svelte.

At the end of the day, you would probably be using your fingers to prod the onscreen menu. We would suggest a screen protector to ward off grime and anything else you are likely to stain the display with. But new users would be taken with what Cowon calls the Touchpen. It's a triangular stylus that can be neatly grasped between the thumb and index finger. Some people may call it a guitar pick. We don't suggest you strum your Yamaha with it.

What's not cool about the Touchpen is that it's connected to the D2 by a piece of elastic cord. Sort of like a leash. Compared to a tablet PC that keeps its pet pen in a built-in enclosure, the Cowon solution is positively vulgar. Mobile phone users who like to dangle a circus of too-cute charms on their handsets would think otherwise.

The stylus serves a secondary purpose, however. By slotting its end into the back of the D2, it props up the player like a stand. There's a choice between a 50 and 75-degree angle for the stand.

Cowon obviously designed a new user interface just for the D2. We think it looks gorgeous. A floating translucent control bar manifests in the middle of the screen when this is touched during playback and disappears after seconds of inactivity. Context-based menus are situated at the bottom of the panel. Pressing one will serve up a vertical bar of options. It's a pleasure to use and easy on the eye.

Cowon tries to keep things simple with large, cheery graphics. It also takes advantage of the touchscreen with a point-and-click UI. Pressing on the playback progress bar, for example, will allow the user to quickly zip through the song with a click of the stylus.

While we noted in our previous first take of the D2 that it was missing a scroll bar for content navigation, Cowon have since rectified the omission in its recent firmware version 2.2. That's pretty prompt. We also found firmware updating on the D2 to be a snap.

The construction of the D2 is sturdy despite its plastic built. Buttons are well-constructed with good tactile feel. There's also an SD/MMC slot for a bit of memory expansion if you are so inclined.

Feature
As with all Cowon products, the D2 is jam-packed with features. Voice recording, FM radio, picture/text viewing and playlist creation are standard. Portable audiophiles would also be pleased that they are getting lots of audio format support with MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, APE and WAV. Cowon also throws in a slew of audio-tweaking functions like preset equalizers, BBE, Mach3Bass and 3D Surround.

	Even smaller than the iriver X20.

But the real surprise in the audio basket is the 10 configurable user profiles. Edit the settings just so for your jazz tracks and save it as a JetEffect Preset profile. Do the same for the rest of the music you typically sample and load the correct profile when the need arises. Though there is no option to rename each profile for easy identification, it's still a simple and time-saving alternative to reconfiguring your settings each time you listen to a new music genre.

The 4GB player has its own SD/MMC card slot, so its memory can be upped to 8GB with a 4GB card. Contents on the external memory card can be accessed and played via a Windows Explorer-like interface, though playback from the card will expectedly result in extra battery drain compared to playing natively from the player's built-in flash memory.

For video, both AVI and WMV formats can be played and, if you do not have a video conversion app, the packaged JetToys has a neat conversion tool that caters specifically for the D2's screen and auto uploads the video to the D2 once it's completed. There're 10 brightness levels which at maximum intensity is good enough for viewing in bright daylight.

For most purposes, the 2.5-inch QVGA screen should do your videos justice. But if you are a mega-incher like our TV reviewer, you ought to be pleased that there's a TV-out option.

Performance
In our radio reception trials, the D2 performed admirably by capturing most of the stations in autoscan mode. However, it fudged on some stations with noisy static in our test location.

We like the video display on the D2. Despite the touchscreen, it's crispy and sharp. However, the color display may appear a little light if you prefer more vibrant reds. But those looking for natural colors would like the D2. The same characteristics apply to the picture viewing mode, but during the slideshow mode we detected slight pixelation before the full picture materialized.

Battery life on the D2 is astonishingly good at 46 hours 23 minutes which is definitely enough to last us a good couple of days. We are also impressed with the drag-and-drop transfer speed. Playing with 240MB of assorted files, the D2 zipped them through at a very speedy 5.33MB per second.

We auditioned the D2 with Massive Attack's Angel and found the bass to be roomy and tight. On Diana Krall's You are Getting to be a Habit with Me, vocals were effusive and rich.