Voice Recorder 8GB Digital Audio Sound Dictaphone HD Stereo Recorder by Cookan Voice Activated, Noise Reduction, Variable Speed Playback Recorder with MP3 Player, Dual Microphone, USB Type-C

I'll hit the pros and cons and list my frustrations accordingly. I hope to get some feedback from the company as their product does not come with a customer service number. I will return it if I don't get some feed back in a week. (((It has been a couple of days since I wrote this review and I got feed back. I will now update this review. I originally titled it "Genuinely Bad Product" and gave it 1 star)))PROS:1. Sturdy sleek build - It feels not at all flimsy or shabby, has a great heft2. Buttons / Switches - it has a super simple and well labeled set up. I prefer the recording switch over a button, and it has a lock key that locks all of the buttons, but not the switches. This is a problem b/c if you are recording and you should bump the record switch on the side and slide it down to the save position on accident, you are done recording until you switch it back to record)3. Charging port - is a usb-c port. this is great for me b/c I have so many of those cables and adapters, but for many this will complicate charging anywhere any time unless you have the included cable4. The electronic selection system on the screen - is compared to the 5 other small recorders I own from different brands the most navigable. granted there is minimal difference but for some reason it is just very easy to figure out. one of those things that seems so intuitive you don't really need to read the instructions.5. Battery life / Storage space - if you are like me and start recording at the beginning of the day until you go to sleep you needn't fear running out of time or life before the day ends, even at the highest bitrates. I haven't neglected to charge it overnight yet but you might get more days out of it.6. Speaker - the speaker is by no means the kind of thing you'd ever want to listen to music on, but it does provide a noticeably better quality than all competitors I've encountered.7. Folders - It has folders so you can have audio books, music, and other audio files designated to separate folders incase you wanted to use it more so as a media player of sorts.CONS:1. Case - it does not come with a simple rubber case to protect it should it drop. (Though I've not seen any that do)2. The "M" button on the front face top left - I can not figure out what this does. I do not see any explanation of it in the instructions and I can't figure it out from experimenting with it either. (OK, corporate got in touch with me and informed me that the "M" button is to be used to delete individual recordings that you have selected. only 1 at a time. I've tried it and can confirm that it works.)3. Line in recording - It flat out doesn't work. there is no option to select "line in" as with many others, but there frankly shouldn't be on any. to be clear, this device does not have in its settings, according to what I've been able to find, any such option to enable "in line" recording which initially pleased me greatly, but then I found it doesn't work anyways. (no personal recorder should oblige you to enter a menu to select line in recording, all of them should operate just like audio from a speaker being automatically rerouted through the aux port when headphones are plugged in. When you plug a mic or an earbud with a mic into the mic port, provided you've accurately matched the poles with whatever adaptive hardware is necessary, it should immediately start recording through there.) (So after back and forthing it with corporate, their spokeswoman told me, after I intensively grilled her about it, that the product's "line-in" recording function can not be used with an external mic. I can confirm this b/c I've tried with 3 and 4 pole aux-jack-mics, and it only records through the recorder's built in mics. I've also used a 4-to-3-pole-aux-adapter with no results. I had initially hoped to put a 1-male-to-2-female splitter in my phone and plug the device into it with a male-to-male extender and my earbuds into the other splitter port. That also I can confirm does not work at all. the only function of the "line-in" aux port is, exclusively, to plug a male-to-male aux extender into the device and into your phone, you then must use the speaker phone to communicate with the other person, and the recorder will only record the other person's voice, and will absolutely not record yours. I've not tried this b/c it sounds ridiculous to me but its what I was told. Frankly I would rather just rather turn on the recorder not plugged into anything, use speaker phone and get both of our voices. But that defeats the purpose of buying this for phone recordings. So I'll be sending this back.Just to recap, this will not record via an external mic and will only record the other person on a phone call and only if you use speaker phone.) THIS IS MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT BY FAR.4. Rattle - an extremely common problem with these personal recorders is that there seems to be, in every single one I've ever owned, a rattling little piece of something that causes one significant problem. it makes recording anything without a line-in microphone (that this device can't use) very difficult to understand if you are moving at all. If you only need to lay it on a desk that's no problem but if you are walking at all the microphone will pick up all of the little rattles, spiking the audio and clipping out any additional detail in the audio/voice you were trying to gain. The companies that produce these things could quite easily fix this seemingly universal problem but they never do and it is a slap to their patrons.5. Micro SD card slot - There isn't one. Several cheaper models have the option to have such a slot which makes this thing much more versatile as a media player, but there's very little need to worry about recording room. you can easily store an entire day of max bit-rate recordings on this, so as long as you dump the files ever 27 of recording or so, you'll be fine.6. Not Water proof - If you live in a place that experiences winter, you'd better never drop it outside. but to be fair none of these things are waterproof.I hate to give this product 1-Star, it would be actually a very good / high quality product but for just those problems. very irritating and ultimately not worth the money. Since you can not use the line in, you may just as well buy a $15 one instead.I am eager to get a response from the company telling me how to fix all of these problems so that I can give them a much higher rating but if this review and my email don't get me assistance I don't know what to do but return it and leave this warning for future customers.Customer service was prompt but not great. Excellent use of spell check in the emails, but the grammar was so bad that it seemed obvious that the company was not interested in hiring people who understood English well. Now it's an international product so take that criticism with a grain of salt, but it did make things difficult. I went back and forth with the customer service agent 4 or 5 times before I got all the info I needed. Not b/c I was vague, but b/c I kept getting the same sort of scripted answer. 1st 2 emails were a/b setting up a password which I didn't ask about or need help with and the next ones disregarded my specific questions and recited the claim that I must plug in the double male aux extender to my phone. It was quite difficult to get the answers I was looking for about the line-in recording port's capabilities and instructions.I will be returning this and it is a pity. If the line in worked with an external mic I'd like to keep it

Will only work with the cable included in the box. I have many usb c cables booth a to c and c to c. However you can only transfer files using the one that came with it. You can charge it with any came

What a great little recorder. I had ordered a different brand but the buttons on it were wiggly. This one here is very, very solid and well made. The learning curve is tough as the manual is not too good. Overall it is a great recorder.

I like that it is metal. I've had some snafus with it and lost some recordings when it had to be reset. It could have been user error but the instruction booklet didn't discuss things like what happened.

I would have given it five stars if the instruction were more detailed.

EXCELLENT, IN-EXPENSIVE and very handy. Highly recommend.

Excelent

Worth the money