Review on 🎙️ Enhanced Sony ICD-PX720 Digital Voice Recorder with Seamless PC Link Integration by Jared Poinson

I have an Olympus DS 330 and bought a Sony as a fallback when I thought the Olympus needed an overhaul (turned out it was just needed to reformat). I dictate quite a bit, both long and short documents. The Sony has large buttons and is easy to use, in the sense that it's easy to press the right button to dictate, stop or listen to what was previously recorded. It also does a good job of overwriting a previous dictation to edit it. However, it does have one major flaw that, in my opinion, makes it unsuitable for anything more than the occasional dictation of relatively short notes or documents. Using Olympus to dictate uses a simple two-step process: 1) press a key, 2) speak. Using Sony requires a three-step process: 1) press button, 2) wait, 3) speak. There is a time delay between pressing the "Record" button (and hearing a beep) and the moment the device actually starts recording. As a result, the first few words of my dictation are cut off unless I intentionally wait a second or two after hearing the tone telling me the device should record. This drove the typist insane because every time I paused in my dictation, the next few words would not be recorded. This problem can be solved by waiting before speaking, but this forces the user to focus on the time delay rather than what is being dictated to them, which is distracting. There is an even greater delay when using the voice activation feature, making the feature completely useless. So the Sony device is good for very casual dictation, but the Olympus DS 330 is significantly better.