Review by Joe Lonergan
Product Description
The Micro-Speak digital recorder is a basic pocket-sized digital recorder that
you can carry around with you to record things on the move. It has a
rechargeable battery.
It has built-in memory, 8GB providing 96 hours of high-quality recording time.
You can plug it into your PC or Mac via USB to add or remove recordings and
manage recordings. It has free audio editing software included called Audacity
for mixing and cutting your recordings.
The product itself has a voice built-in to announce things like battery level.
It announces out loud when it is fully charged. It has a loudspeaker and also
has a 3.5m jack to plug in earphones and it has a built-in microphone. It
supports WAV and MP3 playback. It has a very small digital display. It claims
to have simple to use and easy to use navigation but that is debatable.
Unboxing/What are my first impressions of the item?
It came in a small box about 4 inches square in size, When I first took it out
of the box it felt very light and plastic, like a product with no batteries in
it. But then I found the micro-USB wire for charging it and I plugged it in,
and it announced that it had a low battery. It was fully charged in about 30
minutes. I played around with the buttons and soon found 3 tactile buttons
above the small LCD screen, I guessed the middle one was play, the left was
rewind, and the right button was fast forward.
Below the screen there was another wide tactile button that I found out was
record. When you press this after a couple of seconds you hear a beep, this
means you can start recording, it is time to speak, when you are finished
speaking or recording you press the same button again to stop recording.
Then to playback what you have recorded you press the play button above the
screen. The quality of the recording to me was great. There was a volume up
and down button on the side to turn up or down the volume during playback and
it was fairly loud. You have to wait a couple of seconds before you start
speaking otherwise it will miss your first couple of words, this can be
annoying as you get faster at using the device.
What did I like?
I liked its ease of use for doing basic recordings, I liked its loudspeaker. It
has tactile buttons.
What didnât I like?
I didnât like the feel of the product, it feels cheap and plastic. I would
like a better screen reader experience, what is on it can not be called a
screen reader. It just gives some announcements about the battery level and
lets you know it is ready after you switch it on.
As regards low vision there is some contrast on the buttons and they are large
and tactile, but the LCD screen is very small, and I imagine most low vision
users will not get used to the little screen.
If you have no vision, you will be able to use it with the tactile button after
a little practice, but the LCD screen will be no use as there is no working
screen reader on the product apart from a couple of battery announcements and
sound prompts.
Is there much of a learning curve?
For basic recording there is very little learning curve, but if you are going
to plug it into your PC or Mac you will need to learn how to use Audacity
software.
I would recommend this product to people who would like a very basic digital
recorder for recording high-quality quick memos. If you already have a
smartphone I would recommend you learn to use the voice memos feature on your
phone instead through a voice command or a screen reader.
It is priced around the â¬55 mark.
NCBI Technology News.
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