Review on Advanced 8GB Voice Recorder Watch: Sound Activated, Built-in Speaker, 1536kbps Bit Rate, Noise Cancellation, Privacy Protection, MP3 Player by Matt Tebow

I'm at an age where I have a hard time remembering things by the minute and I've wanted something like this to help me for a long time. A few weeks ago I decided to use the Notes app on my phone to take notes for myself, but it wasn't practical because my phone wasn't always at hand. The voice recorder on the watch is perfect, not because I want to record people without them knowing (like they won't notice you're pressing all those buttons), but because I can put it on in the morning and have it handy throughout the day. Getting Started: 1. As soon as I took it out of the box I wanted to charge it but I couldn't find the charging port. The watch has a solid body with a few buttons but no port. I made unsuccessful attempts to pry the bezel off the watch. My wife, who is less concerned about forcing things, went the opposite of what she saw in the manual and removed the case from the front of the watch and there was a port. It took a few minutes to put the case back on to make sure it was ok. 2. On first launch you need to select a language, so I chose English. After a few minutes trying to get it working I decided I needed to read the manual, but when I returned to the watch I kept seeing text that was definitely not English. Figuring out how to change it back took quite a bit of learning. When the manual is fully expanded, the instructions are on the bottom half of the 3rd page.3. Making test recordings was less confusing when the menu was in English and there could be more than one way to start the recorder, but in the main menu I selected the record icon by pressing the second button. The first menu item in the "Recording" section is for voice recording. Press the second button to start recording. Say something. Press the power button on the side to stop. Press the 2nd button to play the recording and press the power button again to stop it. Once paused, press the power button as usual to return to the main menu.4. The screen is quite dark, which I think is due to the watch not needing constant charging. You can crank the brightness all the way up in the settings menu, but it'll still remain dim. Once you get used to how the voice recorder works, you may not need to look at the screen as much.5. The "speaker" is about the size of a straight pen with microscopic holes through which the sound comes out. The volume and sound quality is barely enough to play notes yourself, so it's hard to see what all the "musical" features are for. There isn't even a headphone jack. Again, the limited audio is undoubtedly a concession to the longer time between charges. When connected to a computer, the sound is pretty good and you can probably copy music files to the watch, but I don't know why you need that.6. You may want to "Clear All" if you create a series of test files when you first get the watch. The instructions are at the bottom of the first expanded page, but they didn't suit me and it was a pain to remove them one by one. The best way is to plug the watch into your computer's USB port to charge and open the file explorer and the watch will look like a USB drive. From there you can easily delete, copy and rename files. If the screen turns off, it can be restored by pressing the power button if it hasn't been too long; Otherwise, hold down the power button for a few seconds and it will go back to where you were. In menus you usually use the 1st and 3rd buttons to move up and down and the 2nd button to select, but in some places the volume up/down buttons on the left are used to select . typical Asian pseudo-English (no offense), not too bad, but it was a chore to rummage through to find the information I needed. This is because these 4 initial menu categories open up to 10 options that have more options so there is a lot to learn. I could have deducted a star for my problems, but then I would have had to deduct a star. almost every product I test because this guide was better than many others. With the Apple Watch, I could probably take better voice memos and a lot more with me, but at 15 times the price and with the added problem of not always having them on hand. (I know - this is heresy.). No thank you. This watch suits me. * * * * * Обновление: после того, как у меня было больше времени на его использование, я снижаю свою оценку до 3 звезд, и даже это дает презумпцию сомнения в том, что продукт более ценен для других, чем для меня ( 1 звезда to me). The problem is that a dimmed display - at maximum brightness - is too dark. What's more, the actual text displayed only takes up a small percentage of the front of the screen, and the text is almost unreadable. In normal room lighting, this isn't possible unless I hold my hand over the display to block out all light. Another problem is that when you want to record something you can't just press a button (though I can't find it). You have to hold and press the power button, but then it doesn't always take you back to the same place in the menu. So you have to press more buttons to read the blacked out screen to get back to where you can finally press the button to start recording. There are two buttons on the device to adjust the volume, but even at max volume it's very difficult to hear so you'll likely leave it on high all the time, meaning the volume control could be menu options, and one button was used to start recording immediately. Then another button could be used to display the time/date immediately. After all, it's supposed to look like a clock, but it takes over 30 seconds to show the time.