Acceptable but not great
Pros:
Decent recording quality.
Convenient to carry.
Easy to download from, and upload to device.
Cons:
Controls are hard to use, especially when in case.
Uploaded files stored in randomized order.
The Bottom Line:
It would be perfect for my student purposes if the controls were easy to use - but they aren't. For now, it's worth putting up with.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I've used one for about 6 months, for school and business.
It's great for recording lectures, and for making voice notes from my reading. One of my study habits is to listen to voice notes while driving, doing household chores, treadmill, etc. (I actually don't listen to entire lectures over again, usually, but I love having the recording when going over my written lecture notes, to double-check sections I wasn't sure about). All these school uses are much easier with the Gateway gadget than with a microcassette player, which is what I used before.
It's very easy to download the audio files onto my PC.
Loading audio files from the PC back onto the 4-in-1 is a little strange, however; the files seem to be reassigned random order. There is also no option to see a list of the audio files to choose from; you just have to scroll through one by one to find what you want.
The controls are not easy to use, especially when the player is in the case.
I've never used the fm radio feature.
If you only want to load audio to listen to, there are no doubt better players out there like the iPod. But if a digital recorder is an important feature, along with easy download, at this point I don't know of a better product. I do hope somebody comes up with a better one!
