Product review: Olympus DS-7000

Priced in the £320 to £375+VAT range on the internet, the new Olympus DS-7000 really is setting out its stall as one of the big beasts of the digital dictation market. The DS-7000 is not for the casual user, given the array of far cheaper and perfectly serviceable competitor (and indeed lesser Olympus) models out there. But, if you need to protect your files, this recorder gives you the comfort of 256-bit encryption as well as PIN-security locking on the unit itself.

The slightly retro-looking DS-7000 is well constructed and light, with a four-button metal menu pad and a set of programmable function buttons below a 2.5 inch colour LCD display; a nice, chunky slider for REC/STOP/PLAY, which bounce-slides for REV as one might expect; and the usual microphone and speaker, as well as earphone and microphone jacks.

While it comes with a nice flip-top leather case – magnetised, so keep your credit card away from it – one slightly disappointing omission is a pair of earphones, but they are pretty inexpensive to buy. A lapel microphone might have been a nice additional touch for the price, too.

The DS-7000 comes complete with a lockable 2GB SD card, which means that you can hang onto a hard version of your dictation, should you wish, rather than having to clear its internal memory.

One handy feature is a button-release battery compartment, which prevents the case from opening in your pocket (as ?can happen with cheaper slide-release mechanisms). The battery is a proprietary lithium-ion one, which promises long rechargeable life.

The version I reviewed has a docking station, which recharges the recorder and has a port for a foot switch to enable hands-free recording. The DS-7000 can also be charged via the USB cable included, which also transfers data from the recorder. The only downside to this is that, if you dictate a lot on the move and want to download recordings to your laptop, you have to carry the cable around with you, compared with some other recorders which have a slide-out USB connector built in and hence just slot straight into a PC.

The DS-7000 includes Olympus proprietary dictation management software for Windows (ODMS) and similar software for Mac. The Windows version seems to have considerably more to offer, including some nifty features such as automatic transmission of dictation files to specified email addresses, automatic backup when the recorder is attached and, of course, the robust encryption system.

The ODMS software allows you to designate your dictation files under different configurable work types (e.g. letter, memo, report), 20 in all, and has a simple folder tree, allowing you to neatly organise your files.

If you use voice recognition software, the recorder interfaces with Nuance Dragon Usually Speaking, though there is no profession-specific (e.g. legal) systems integration as there is on one or two rival products.

The onboard software is well designed, with an easy-to-use four tab menu of functions which are displayed on the DS-7000’s crisp LCD colour screen. Dictation files can be stored in five different folders, made priority and locked as required.

Recording with the DS-7000 couldn’t be easier. I was able to speak normally from 20 feet away and behind a pillar, and still have the recorder pick up my voice quite clearly. In noisier environments – I tested it on a very busy road intersection and in a bustling coffee shop – the unit copes tolerably well, though, as one might expect, it loses some words if the ambient noise is particularly high.

On the technical side, index marks and verbal comments can be added easily while recording, the latter searchable via the ODMS software.

The DS-7000 sits at the top of its price bracket, but it is difficult to fault as a machine. If 256-bit encryption is a vital element on your wish list for a digital recorder, this seems like a solid investment.