Digital voice recorders are little more than digital Dictaphones, and they come in many varieties and at many prices. At £80, the Olympus VN-1800 sits towards the top of the budget range and is at its best when used for recording relatively short voice notes.

The recording memory is divided into four folders, each of which can hold up to 100 recordings. You could use one folder for work, another for personal items, one for things to do and save the fourth for data relating to special events such as planning a party.

Making and managing recordings is easy with a multi-directional navigation button and a large Record button. A wheel on the side controls the playback volume - microphone sensitivity is set separately and there's also an 'auto recording' mode which ensures recording kicks in when the ambient volume reaches a preset level.

You can set up 20 messages to issue an alarm: you'll need to think carefully about what is most important to you to make best use of this feature. The Hold button prevents any accidental key pressing. External mic and earpiece sockets sit on the top of the casing next to the built-in microphone. It's actually easier to get to get to grips with than it sounds.

Notes are saved to internal memory and you can use three different recording modes, depending on your attitude to quality and storage capacity.

In High Quality mode you can store up to 45 minutes of talk. Move down to Standard Play and you get 66 minutes. With Long Play mode, you can get 180 minutes of storage. But there's quite an audible difference between the settings, and Long Play is only really okay if there's no background noise to contend with.

The VN-1800 is very small and easily pocketable - the two AAA batteries that provide its power fit into the casing because of a specially constructed bulge designed to accommodate them.

Unfortunately, the fact that there is no way to connect the VN-1800 to a PC means it really is little better than a cassette-based Dictaphone in terms of functions.

Contact: Olympus 0800 072 0070
www.olympus.co.uk