The trend for blending devices continues with the Olympus DM-1, both MP3 player and digital voice recorder. Long, slim and light, it is comfortable to hold and use, and comes with a cute and hardy case which allows you to clip it to your belt, reducing the likelihood of accidentally hitting a button when listening to music on the move.

The software is easy to install. Each task you complete with the gadget is plain sailing, thanks to the intimidating-looking but really quite helpful manual.

The MP3 side of things is handled by MusicMatch Jukebox software, which is more than up to the job. Transferring songs from PC to device is no problem at all, and the supplied 64Mb SmartMedia card allows you to listen to around one hour of near CD-quality music.

Sound from the DM-1 is meaty, to say the least, particularly when the rich bass setting is switched on. Its grungy tones are good but there's distortion at full volume from both the built-in speaker and earphones, which is something that isn't apparent with most dedicated MP3 players on the market.

At the flick of a switch, the DM-1 becomes a digital voice recorder. The built-in microphone captures up to 22 hours of your voice bright and clear in dictation, and in conference mode very capably picks up a variety of voices in a room.

The DM-1 is also a great way to get digital voice files onto a PC. The software that handles this is a little clunky; it doesn't allow you to click and drag or rename files, but it does the job of getting the sound files on your system.

The DM-1 is a formidable device but its shortcoming is the £300 price tag, which means that unless you're a highly-paid executive, it's unlikely to appeal.

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

ALSO CONSIDER

SONY MUSIC CLIP MC-500
A delightful dedicated MP3 player with great sound and unrivalled portability.
£200 ****
Reviewed in Computeractive, Issue 89.