great/small multi-purpose recorder

I purchased the ws-310 from eBay a couple of months ago and it was my very first digital recorder so it was an exciting change being able to carry it around and use it wherever I go. I find it very practical to use. Here are some of the uses I found and how I rate its performance in each:

1- Memo taking 5 stars
2- Interviews 4 stars
3- Lectures (sitting close to speaker 3 meters) 4 stars
4- Lectures (sitting far from speaker 7 meters) 3 stars

This one was a bit tricky since the integrated mics are omni-directional. I had to set the mic sensitivity to high because I sat too far from the speaker and that unfortunately picked out too much ambient noise like people moving around and even the normally imperceptible noise from the ventilation system etc. This is probably also due to its great fidelity and the wide range of frequencies that the HQ mode can capture (the lower grade modes are no better. they suffer from lower quality.)
5- Lectures (normal, i.e. sitting 5 meters away from speaker) 4 stars

I would recommend a small external microphone with some degree of uni-directionality and noise cancellation (ex: the Sony ECM-DS70P with extension cord worked fine) for
recording lectures at the normal distance.

Overall performance can be evaluated as follows:
1- Fidelity 5 stars
2- Noise cancellation 1 star
The integrated mics have no noise cancellation but do offer 2 levels of sensitivity which is a great feature!
3- Ease of use 4 stars
The buttons can feel too rigid at times but it's to be expected given the small size.
4- Operational Stability 3 stars
I had some bad experience with stability (sometimes the recorder seams to freeze and
needs to be reset by sliding the battery housing out!). The recorder also lacks any form of internal power which means that all settings are lost whenever your battery runs out.
5- Recording features 4 stars
The recorder has book-marking, voice activation features, a stereo mic and a handy small speaker.
6- Mp3 player 4 stars
7- Accessories 2 stars
The recorder comes with poor earphones that are unworthy of the Olympus name. It also lacks a protective cover and a strap. I had to find my own plastic cover (I use a glasses housing I got from a dollar store).
8- flexibility/portability 4 stars
The recorder's nice integrated USB plug and USB extension cord accessory make it quite easy to unload recordings as well as data although the speed of transfer is quite low ( USB 1.1 class) and the recorder was not recognized under Mac 9. Still it seams to work fine with PCs and recordings can be manipulated like any other file (including renaming, moving and deleting) so using it is a breeze.
9- Overall features 5 stars
It's hard to expect more from such small/light device. It's got everything you need for recording/music/and storage including a small speaker and stereo hi-fi mics, which sets it apart from the average mp3 player with recorder pack, and a handy volume/shuffle knob.

10- Overall value 4 stars
I think it's a fair price. It is more expensive than other USB mp3 players with a recorder but it is worth it if you are keen about the quality and ease of recording.
11- Overall satisfaction 4.5 stars

I am very happy with it.