Sony ICD-UX512RED Digital Flash Voice Recorder

I use this in my line of work as a police officer. The recorder picks up my conversation with people no problems at all. I do have a quiet voice, yet it still seems to work fine. Even better when I hold it closer to my mouth, rather than hanging from my lanyard.

The recorder works exceptionally well in a quiet room when conducting an interview.

It is easy to playback files both on the computer and on the recorder.

Overall, a good little recorder. I like it.

The recorder is much smaller than I originally thought it would be. It came with the recorder, a USB data cable (in addition to the slide out USB that slides out from the device), a battery and a small battery case that I thought was a nice touch. Also included is a pair of Sony earphones but I prefer earbuds so I don't have any use for them, as of now. The charging time is a little long at three hours but compared to the recording time, it's really no difference at all. It's a great product for your money and the red color is especially flattering, not cheap paint at all.

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I bought this for college and it does great, I sit in the back of the classroom and it picks up the professor's voice very clearly. I highly recommend this digital flash voice recorder. A+!

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I'm not sure when I bought the first one, I think it was about 10 years ago. I still have it and used it 2 weeks ago (Model: ICD-P320). It works great but I wanted to update to get the noise-cancellation feature. It appears the new model (ICD-UX512) has also enhanced the "divide" feature my old unit has. Before the user would interactively decide (either during recording or playback) exactly where they wanted to divide a file. Now, its a 2-step process. First the user creates a "T-Mark" (track mark) and then uses the menu option to divide the file at that mark.

SIZE: The unit is "thinner" but a just a tad wider than my old unit. Standing it up, the new unit is also much shorter. So the overall dimensions are great and actually rest in a shirt pocket much nicer than the old one. More inconspicuous.

BATTERY: There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the unit, including the fact about the battery. There is ONLY ONE battery. Sony includes one rechargeable battery in the packaging. Recharging is only done through the USB connection so unless you already have a universal USB charger, you will be left to charging the unit from your PC. Fortunately, the battery charger I bought for my mobile phone came with a USB connector built in, so I'm covered.

MANUAL: The user manual is 126 pages long! But that includes a friendly 3-page index. The front matter (all the legal mumble jumble) is only 4 pages long. To it's credit, the unit is, for it's basic operations, fairly intuitive, so unless you need to get into managing folders, listening to MP3 music or podcasts, managing records beyond record, play and delete, you can be up and running in very little time. I was able to set the date & time on the unit without reading the instructions.

SETTINGS RETENTION: Regarding the date/time function. On my old unit, once you replaced the battery, you have no other option than to reset the time. With the new unit, IF you need to replace the battery, you are given 60 seconds to do so and the unit will retain the time. However, after 1 minute, the memory will fail. However, seeing as this is a rechargeable battery, I do not anticipate needing to replace a battery that often. What MIGHT occur is that I kill the rechargeable battery on an extended session and need to insert a non-rechargeable battery to continue whatever I am recording. But note, this is only for settings. User recordings are NOT affected. The recordings will still be there even if you waited a much longer time before inserting a battery.

DISPLAY: I almost forgot to mention this: I do not know why all the images I see for this product show an orangish looking display. It is not orange. It is a light green and I've uploaded an actual image. (The fake display sticker that is normal for most digital products is even orange, but it makes no sense.)

MISC: I've always enjoyed reading reviews by others that have a pro/con list. Since I just got the unit and haven't had a chance to test it out, I can't really comment on that right now. But I hope the above provides you ample information to make an informed decision on. BTW, I want to thank those of you that have written me as a result of other posts I've made. I feel good about being a valuable resource to others. Take care.

Addendum: January 18, 2012

Here is somewhat of a "con"....

PLAYBACK VOLUME: The newer (UX512), at its maximum volume, is considerably softer than my older P320 model. To test this, I had both units side by side and equal distance from the sound source (my voice). Recording simultaneously, I provided an equal playing field for both units. In fact, I actually disadvantaged the older unit because I faced the mic away from me, whereas, per the instructions on the new one, I had it's mic facing me. Also, due to age and use, I noticed (after the recording) that the mic on the old unit was partially blocked from dust. So the older unit really out-performed the newer one in providing a clear recording and playing it back loud and clear.

NOISE REDUCTION: This seems more of a gimmick than useful functionality. It does NOT record using noise reduction. Instead, in playback, it does what it can to eliminate the noise(s) that it recorded. Since this is a lower-end recorded for the average consumer, I can't really be picky about this. It is just that when I read what I could find about the product, I thought it was interactively reducing noise while recording. Since I regularly move recordings to the PC & subsequently cut CDs for distribution, the implementation that Sony chose for this device is useless to me. (I haven't searched sourceforge to see what may exist for fixing noise on the PC after uploading.)

I have yet to try this in a auditorium setting. I'll have that opportunity very soon.

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I received the product on time as expected. I've started to use the product though I'm not in school yet. I especially like the CD that comes with it, it allows you to upload the files and even burn them to cd if you want. I will be burning to cd to use in my car because the volume on this device is not as loud as I would like. Great product all around though.