Gadget hoot for year 2012

For year 2012, I didn't spend on computer nor handphone. So my investment went to get a MP3 player and a camera.

Cowon J3

Mentioned this in a previous post already, but not as detailed as this one lol..

On 12 May 2012, after much consideration for the past 1 year plus, I decided to get Cowon J3 MP3 player at Amazon. Thanks to HWZ forum for letting me to get to know Cowon. Cowon is quite well-known for its portable MP3 players as it offers much more room for equaliser customisation. In other words, the sound quality is the best in user's opinion. For some reason, Cowon never make it big in SG. Don't know why. Perhaps the iPod influence is much more prominent. Sony also has its own lineup of walkman players, however I still prefer Cowon as it's more wu hua than Sony lo. Made in Korea vs Made in Malaysia/China.

After hearing news that J3 is going to be discontinued, I became a bit more rushed to get J3 as soon as possible. It's quite hard to get its product in SG. However, Amazon do sell them at very competitive prices, hence I decided to buy from them. The 16GB black version cost US$199.45. Add on shipping cost of US$16.48 to it makes $215.93. Finally, UOB charged me S$281.75. Less than $300 still not too bad.

The J3 is considered the legendary 'flagship' model from Cowon. It was released in 2010. Why people love it so much is because of the following points:

1. It supports storage expansion via microSD card, in a sense that it increases MP3 player's 'longevity' when in future, the MP3 collection got increased by a big amount. This one already knocked out Sony and Apple, because their MP3 players cannot expand storage space.

2. Super long playback hours. Cowon claims up to 64 hours of music playback. While I do not get 64 hours, somewhat around 40 hours is considered very good already. The newer models like Z2 only offers 22 hours playback, but it has better hardware and running on Android.

3. AMOLED screen. AFAIK, Apple and Sony doesn't employ AMOLED technology onto the screens. So Cowon wins here!

4. Simple hardware. Simple software. Simple to use. J3 doesn't have very powerful processor and GPU, hence the long playback hours is guaranteed. And it removed the plague slide button configuration found on its predecessor, S9. So buttons are made as simple as they can get to maximise duability. Since I have a smartphone to handle tasks, pure music listening rely on J3, so I only require J3 to perform well in playback music can le.

包裝很獨特

發揮一點點創意就能賦予這盒子新的用途

The package arrived on 1 June and I was quite happy to see the innovative package Cowon has provided. When inverted, the plastic cover could act as a small pot! The rest would most likely give you a normal package box. This shows Cowon paid attention to small details. Kudos to them!

Also, I ordered screen protector (US$7.99) and a casing (US$16.99) from RearthUSA (I suspect it's a Korean brand) to protect this jem - it looks fragile though! The quality was very very good, especially the casing - the unique surface texture tell me that it can last quite long.

韓製的屏幕+機身保護膜，質感很好

First impression with the MP3 was very good. Now I don't have to turn on the screen to change song, everything can be done with the dedicated physical buttons on it. SQ was perfect as I tune it to my liking. It's not buttery smooth like iPod, but I can bear with some jerkiness and laginess. Afterall, I do not keep scrolling up and down on J3.

Panasonic LX7 digital camera

I already made plans last year to buy a DSLR, most likely to support my grad trip to Korea/HK. However, once again, people at HWZ were quick to share the offer on Amazon - Panasonic LX7 going for US$299. Considering it goes for at least S$600 in SG, it's really a steal! Here's the catch, Panasonic doesn't honor international warranty.

This LX7 was released in September 2012 and feature the fastest lens available on a non-DSLR - F1.4. The camera sensor is newly developed so I suppose everything about this LX7 is as good as it gets. Also, I have been pondering whether should I get LX7 or Olympus XZ-1 (older 2011 model) as it was also on offer at Amazon.

Without much consideration and based on the fact that me (or kz a bit, my family) doesn't have a proper camera, I went to order LX7 and had it delivered to SG by ComGateWay (CGW) as it has promotion for the month of November 2012. So total I only spent S$382 for this awesome camera!

So this was my first time buying something during exam period =X While studying for the exam, I actually kept looking at the delivery status. Tsk, really waste my time unecessarily. T.T

12月2日下午2點送到，剛好當天傍晚有考試=.=

一時興奮起來就沒心讀書了

對它的功能，拍照效果都很滿意

跟以前擁有過的Panasonic DMC-F2，差一個天一個地