The O2 is an impressive portable video player, but it lacks a few crucial features.

Cowon is known for its high-quality portable video players; and the company's newest model, the O2, doesn't disappoint. With its gorgeous touch screen and crystal-clear sound, the flash-based Cowon O2 ($220 for 8GB; $250 for 16GB; $300 for 32GB) is sure to please customers looking for a fairly inexpensive PVP. But several gripes we've had with previous models--such as lack of ID3 tagging and no support for DRM-protected files--apply to the O2 as well.

Earlier this year, we reviewed the Cowon A3, which offers video-recording capabilities, as well as the Cowon Q5W with Internet browsing. The O2 doesn't provide these frills; it's a straightforward video and audio player. (But for $10 more, you can purchase a cable to hook the O2 up to your TV.)

Like the A3, the O2 supports an astonishing number of video files and has no file size limits. As a result, if your media collection contains files that use various video formats, you won't be burdened with the task of converting them to a unitary format. The O2 natively supports ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, h.264, M-JPEG, MKV, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MTV, OGM, WMV, WMV 9/8/7, and XviD.

Video playback on the O2's 4.3-inch screen is smooth and sharp, with the right amount of brightness and color balance. The 480-by-272-pixel screen isn't as impressive as the A3's 800-by-400-pixel display (or the gorgeous 800-by-600-pixel screen found on the Archos 5), but video on the O2 looks great anyway.

The O2's audio quality and support are as impressive as its video output. The unit's audio player supports AC3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, G.726, Monkey Audio, MPEG-1 Layer 1/2/3, MusePack, Ogg FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, True Audio, WavPack, and WMA. In our PC World Test Center's sound tests, the O2 had a signal-to-noise ratio average (the higher the number, the cleaner the sound) of 85 db--higher than some of the top-ranked players on our chart. The O2 has some great sound-enhancement features too, like a 10-band equalizer and settings for 3D sound quality. In my hands-on tests, audio sounded crisp, with no detectable static or distortion. The included earbuds don't do the sound justice, however, and they were a bit too large to fit comfortably my ears.