Voice Recorder - Road Test
Well here, are my thoughts on the Olympus VN 5200PC Digital Voice Recorder, having only tested it over the last three days there are several conclusions I have come to. I can tell you that this small compact machine does bounce, not that I would recommend trying it at all. It is just at times I am a bit of a careless person, who drops things for no apparent reason as I did with this machine. Being only 3 inches long, 1 inch wide and around ¾ inches deep it is a compact item, one main feature being no tape to insert or rewind. I found all the buttons on it simple to use, which is good for someone like me who takes a lot of time usually to come to grips with technology. Switching to and from each file is simplicity in itself, needing only to watch the small screen and click one side or the other to get to the file you need. As my eyes are also not the best it is important that the screen is easy to use, I can confirm that this one is. It does have one small USB port on the side to download the contents or part of them to a computer, which I think is handy enabling your notes to be spoken in the background whilst you type them up. This also saves the batteries on the small recorder, hey, I cannot help it if I hate buying batteries - which I should add this requires two triple A to run. The simple one button touch to record and stop makes this small item a pleasure to use, being used to holding one button down whilst pressing another is now a thing that belongs to the stone age ( Now you know I am old). Now comes the crunch part - the recordings I have found is clear, and can be paused and continued by a simple switch on the side. It does sound like me when I played back what I had recorded (this is somewhat unfortunate - I wished I sounded like Richard Burton). I did try recording while the machine was sat in my inside pocket and found to my surprise it worked a treat. Conclusions: This very well made, rather compact smart looking gadget does everything I could have asked for with the exception of actually typing out what I recorded. Very easy to use, as I have proved I can use it - all the controls work without fuss. Only one thing remains is the cost - well as it was a gift I do not know what it was but personally, to me I would guess it is worth $100 - 125 for me to have bought it. I can on my short road test of this item recommend it, and point out it is easier than carrying a small notebook and pen/pencil.
