Olympus W-10 Review - Design, Operation, and Controls

As tiny as they may seem, the Olympus's controls are very well designed, and similar in style to what appears on their whole new line-up of products. The button layout is very similar to the unit that we had just done a review on – VN-480. (You can find a review on the VN480 here: http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Storage-Devices/
Olympus-VN-480-Voice-Recorder-Review/).

The main controls are located in the middle and shaped around a D-pad type button. Rec and Erase are separate, and the Erase button needs to be hit twice before the file gets wiped out of the memory for good. Volume is analog; the Mic hole is located towards the top of the unit, so it’s still easy to operate while facing the microphone.

The LCD display shows the time/date, folder, and the number of files recorded. I would love to see that screen backlit, but I guess cutting costs was a priority for Olympus when they made the W-10. Camera and included headphones are enough, backlighting is extra. It's extremely annoying in dark areas and at night, which takes away a lot from its ease of use in different situations.

Overall the unit responds very fast to commands and is extremely user-friendly. If you would like to know how much time is left to record, hit the stop button and it will display the remaining time in minutes for you. To record, use a single button tap, same for playback, FF and skip. Overall I was very satisfied with the layout, and the learning curve was miniscule. In my opinion anyone who has ever used a microcassette recorder in the past should be able to figure out how to use the W-10 in a matter of minutes.

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