Olympus VN-480 Voice Recorder Review - Main Screen and Conclusion
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The main screen shows several important details during recording, playback, and stopped mode.
There is no shadow as shown here. This is actually the printing on the protective sticker that you peel off before using.
In the upper left corner you can see the recording quality and the microphone sensitivity. If the VCVA is activated it will appear as it does in the picture, and the alarm symbol works the same way. The large number in the middle of the screen is the "name" of the file you currently have selected. If you hit the record button when stopped this will automatically go the next sequential number. Across the bottom of the screen you have a few options that I spoke of earlier which you can change with the display button. In the upper right corner there is a small battery indicator that works well enough, but it's the last indicator that represents one of the best features of the VN-480.
The small "A" above the file number/name shows you which of the four folders you are saving the current recording to. Folders "A", "B", and "C" all allow for up to 100 files each but the final folder, "S", uses a date system. When recording to the "S" folder you can save to one of it's subfolders. The subfolders each have a specific date and there is one for every day of the year. You can save up to ten recordings in each subfolder but like the other three folders, you can only have a total 100 files in the entire "S" folder. Regardless of that limitation, this is still a very cool feature that would be very useful for keeping recordings organized if, for example, you have a weekly meeting/class that you like to keep recorded for future reference.
Conclusion
The Olympus VN-480 is a compact, lightweight, and intuitive little digital recorder. It lacks a PC interface which is a big deal to me, but as I said earlier it might not be for some people. In the beginning I also highlighted the lack of write protection. It would've been smart of Olympus to incorporate some type of extra protection that the user could place on very important recordings, especially since they didn't include a PC interface to easily extract and store such files. The lack of an off button, or adjustable "off timer" seems a bit foolish on Olympus' part since this unit doesn't have rechargeable batteries.
Now having said all that, would I still recommend this digital recorder? I guess that depends on whether you value a PC connection as much as I do. If so, then go with the VN-240PC; if not, then the 64mb of flash memory is plenty and the great features such as separate folders, simple interface, and quality recordings are enough for me to say yes, this is a product worth your cash.
PROS
- Small compact size
- Featherweight design
- Large 64mb capacity
- Sensitive high-quality microphone
- Very easy to use
CONS
- A case would have been nice
- No PC interface
- No write protection
- No off button
That about does it for the Olympus VN-480. If you want more info you can visit Olympus' website or the product page. If you have questions for me you can click the discuss button on this page to go to the article's blog entry. Don't forget to check out our other hardware articles on the homepage.
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