Olympus - WS-300M Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player Review

I bought this tiny voice recorder to record class lectures and conversations with clients. The interface is easy to figure out and use. At first, I was dismayed because there is a lot of static if you touch the machine while recording. The microphone accessory (not included) seems to make this worse. For my purposes, I find that not using the mic and not touching the machine once it is set alleviates the problem.

I did not have much luck with (or trust in) the feature that allows recording only when someone is speaking. The pickup did not seem sufficiently sensitive, so if that is a feature you need, this may not be your machine. For straight voice recording, though, this little guy picks up even quite faint sound clearly.

What I really needed was an easy way to transfer my recordings to a PC so they could be recorded or emailed to others...and that, this machine does superbly, with a built-in USB port. It couldn't be easier!

The model I bought has 256 MB, which is hours of recording time. Models with more memory are available. Battery life is unbelievably excellent. Accessories are available (case, mic, telephone recording device).