When I first started in med school, this little hand held Dictaphone by the market leader Olympus came in so handy it was unbelievable. Why buy a Dictaphone when most phones have a recording device built in?

We had a lecturer that hated mobile phones and would insist we turned off ours right in front of him as we entered the hall. So to be able to record not only what he had to say during his lectures, but notes and quotes and statistics and the correct way to pronounce the almost impossible to pronounce medical terms, made this an absolutely priceless tool to have

The play back is crystal clear of course depending on surrounding sounds. But the microphone picks up directly what is in front of it, or the loudest thing around and focuses in on that. This is dew to it's brilliant noise cancelling technology. I also would change the quality of the recordings from high, for my lectures, to low for my own personal notes. This saves a lot on memory space and if you use the headphone jack everything sounds fantastic either way. I also would transfare files to my computer using the handy USB slot.

The blue LCD display is easy to read and understand. Highlighted sections are displayed with a heavy bar through them so knowing where you are on the screen is as easy as can be. You can delete one file at a time or all files at once. As each time you press stop it will put it into an individual file. However if you press pause this doesn't happen. The battery lasts a long time which was great for my long lectures it takes 2 AAA rechargeable batteries.
This is of course small enough to have with you at all times and is simple to use with great sound (especially when on the high quality setting)

If you're creative and don't want to forget your ideas or like me need it for studying this is great.

The Olympus DM-550 can be purchased online at Amazon.co.uk for £130 + shipping.