I haven't had a Dictaphone for years but after having Lottie I forget everything and trying to go to lectures is hard. So I got this VN 7600 Dictaphone from Olympus and have had it for about 4 weeks now and have been very pleased with its capability. Here are the features.

It has one gigabyte of memory which is great because it also has three settings which you can change easily from the menu when you click the button on the front of the machine. The lowest setting is the LP setting which apparently records over 500 hours which should be enough for anybody who needs a Dictaphone. The highest setting is a HQ which I have got just over 30 hours of recording material on.

The quality from the 3 different recording styles seems not much at first but it really is. I use the HQ setting in lectures as the background noise is less and it picks up the voices much more clearer. However then I usually use LP setting if its just me in the house as there is a lot less noise (when Lottie is asleep anyway!)

It is so easy to use as there is a massive red button on the front to record and you simply touch it as it is quite responsive and then there is a massive stop button to stop. It is such an easy machine to use which is why I like it.

The quality is really good and I have not missed anything when I have played it back. Even when my lecturer seemed to mutter once it was caught so I have been extremely happy with the quality every time. Also a good thing is that the battery life lasts a long time. I haven't measured it but apparently it can last around 80 hours. All I know and care about is that I don't have to recharge it every minute.

I haven't mentioned the appearance yet but it is nice. Extremely slimline and it measures in at just over 10cm long and just over3.5cm wide. It is lovely. A sleek silver and looks quite smart Just big enough to put in your pocket.

A cool feature is that you can activate it with your voice. This is my only concern because it does not always work for me and Im not sure if its my accent, lol. My husband seems to have no issue with it. You can sort the voice activation via the display menu which is big so easy to use. It tells you what mode you are on, how long you have recorded and how much room you have left to record. It is extremely easy to use.

Now I havent even mentioned the best thing about this which is the price. I am not great with technology so I didn't want to pay loads for it but I paid £30 for it but Im sure you can get it cheaper around £25 which is a great price.I forgot to mention there is also a microphone sensitivity switch so you can really drill down into how you want it to sound once you have recorded. Very easy to use.

Kate