Others say...

"Not worth the cost!"
I purchased the ICD-UX70 because I need a way to take quick notes at work and my wife wants a recorder that she can use while she teaches from time to time.

Pro: Small, light weight, good close up audio recording, Stores as MP3 files, audio files have good sound when played on a computer.

Con: Integrated speaker, screen size, user interface.
The speaker on the unit is worthless!! The only way to hear playback is to be in a quiet room and put the recorder to your ear or use the supplied head phones. The recorder will also pickup each time you touch the device. Simply pushing the stop button will be picked up on tape and over power what is being recorded.

Summary: I would not recommend this recorder unless you are only going to listen to files on your computer or with headphones and never touch it while recording.


"Expectations Met & Exceeded."
The Sony ICDUX70 Digital Voice/MP3 Recorder has met and exceeded my
expectations. I used it to record stories being told by Old and Distant relatives about the life and times they've experience. I've transfered these audio files to my computer and likewise copied MP3 music from my computer to the ICDUX70. It is a joy and user friendly. The small size makes it convenient to put in your shirt pocket to record casual converations or sales pitches for later review. However the small size, for me, has two drawbacks. I have to wear my glasses in order to use the device and it is too darn easy to loose it. I lost one, bit the bullet
and got a 2nd one. Love it.

"Depends on your needs"
I think your reaction to this recorder will be based on your needs. I bought an Olympus (which I LOVED!) but I could NOT get it to transfer the files to my Mac - actually I tried with three different Macs. I don't listen to the files from the recorder, so I don't care about the internal speaker at all. I am reading teacher recording lessons for listening back to for instructional purposes. I also agree that the file naming and organization lacks, but as far as the recording, use of plug-in and transfer files and use of the functions that I need, the recorder works fine.

"Junk, Junk, Junk"
Piece of plastic cr*p. Purchased it at Staples and decided to return it within two minutes of playing around with it

You can't hear anything

The buttons are cheap and will fall off quickly

The sound is horrendous

The microphones can't pick up anything outside of a foot.

The menu is unreadable and a disaster.

If you touch the main control button the recorder goes into another mode

Save your money. Do not buy this! You have been thoroughly warned!!!

"A very nice little recorder"
I've been a heavy user of digital voice recorders in the past for noting down ideas when I'm in bed (and the lights are out -- no paper), and for when I'm driving. I don't use it for much else, but when I do use it, I tend to use it a lot.

I started out with Sony, then went to Olympus, and now I'm back to Sony again.

This little unit is my favorite so far. Transferring sound to my Mac couldn't possibly be easier. The size and weight are the best yet, as is the recording length.

Where I ding this little marvel is in a few areas: The buttons are too tiny, and too similar. The first Sony I use had a large and square record button, compared to small round buttons for everything else. Based on everything I've used so far, this is the "right" design; why Sony used all tiny round buttons for the UX70 I'll never know, but it forces me to check and recheck myself to see which buttons I'm really pushing.

Battery life is absolutely terrible. The worst I've ever used. And I don't mean continuous recording length (which is probably what the unit is designed to excel at). I mean the situation where you leave a fresh battery in the unit for a month, and then pick it up hoping to quickly jot down a voice note. I'm using high-capacity (2500 mAh) rechargeable AAAs, and these things can't even last *two weeks*. And that's with the unit on "Hold" the entire time!! This makes it completely useless as a "there when you need it" recorder, and I think it's going to make me get rid of it. My only option right now is to carry about the battery separately, but since the startup time for this unit is so long, it means I'm almost sure to forget the idea that I wanted to jot down in the first place.

The Olympus DS-2 shares this "passive life sucking" trait, whereas my first Sony did not. I bought this Sony thinking that I could count on them, but I guess my usage pattern is not very common?

The last negative is the internal speaker. Basically you should plan on never using it, or using it merely to confirm the fact that you did actually record something. However, the poor sound quality is unrelated to the quality of the recording itself, as playback on a computer will show.

If I could have long battery life (my first Sony would go 6 months without having to change two AAAs), then I would love this little guy. But in reality it just frustrates me that nearly every time I reach to use it, the battery has been completely drained. And this when it was supposedly "off" too. Leaving the display on, it doesn't even make it much longer than a week.