I brought this dictaphone as a way of recording my lectures at university so that I could listen to them in my own time and pick up on things which I missed in the lecture. I brought mine for £66.35 on amazon.

The dictaphone is a plain black colour with a silver border around the screen. On the screen text is in large black print which is easy to read. Below this are two large circular buttons which are clearly labelled. on the left is the record/pause button and on the right is the play/stop/enter button. Underneath are three smaller buttons which allow you to rewind, forward wind or stop. The speaker is located under this. The whole dictaphone is very lightwieght and fits snugly into bags so can be carried around no problem.

It is is incredibly easy to use. You can easily have it out and be recording something in seconds if you need to. There are different settings for sensitivity dependign on whether you are recording in a small room or a large lecture theatre. The smaller the area the lower the sensitivity needed. If you don't use a high enough sensitiy you risk not catching what the lecturer is saying but if you go to high you will get a lot of background noise and a it will be much louder, so it is advisable to familarise yourself with the settings at the beginning. Sound quality is great though even if you are a fair distance from the speaker.

Aside from the buttons you can also use the voice operated recording feature which allows you to start or stop recording by starting or stopping talking. If you make a mistake there is also a correction feature which allows you to edit out the mistake and place the new recording on top.To playback you simply scroll through the recordings until you find the one you want. All recordings are organised by the date they were recorded making it easy to find a specific one.

It has a 2GB memory and can store 535 hours of voice recoring so has masses of space. You can also move the files onto a computer to create more space. The battery life is brilliant with about 30 hours and so lasts more than enough time to record lectures.

Overall a very useful, simple device with some great features, all packed into a compact little shape. I would definitely reccomend whether you want to record lectures, make your own voice notes or even pick up gossip it is a very handy appliance to have on hand.