After reading a few reviews myself, I decided to pick up the (lesser known 4gig model) Cowon S9 media player, billed on Cowon's website as "Ultimate MP3."

On that point, I have to agree. It supports every single type of music in my collection (though I've got no DRM protected music), and plays that music for an exceptionally long time. I don't think I've charged mine in a month, and I still have about 50% battery showing on the indicator.

Video support is very good. Most things that I download, I can play. Hopefully future updates to the firmware will allow other formats (all I really want is MPEG-4) just so it all remains easy to use.

Flash support is a little iffy, which is unfortunate, but luckily there have been a number of people seeking flash games and such to run on the S9, and that has helped a fair bit.

The screen is gorgeous, and the player feels like it's barely there when you slip it into your pocket.

With every firmware update, Cowon seems to add new features and functions to the device, which is quite nice to see. Sometimes a game, sometimes not, but either way it's good to see that they're continuing to work on this.

It has a lot of nice little features that I've found useful, especially FM radio and voice recording.

My only problem with the device is in the design itself. The buttons are sometimes difficult to distinguish from one another, and that sometimes leads to improper navigation. The headphone jack is placed in the middle, which can cause some sets of headphones to simply not fit properly (if at all).

Overall, I'd say that the Cowon S9 is a solid buy. I just wish I'd gotten one with the DMB receiver built in.