The RR-US430 has to be the worst human factors of all the Panasonic digital voice recorders I have owned.  I don't like the current series and it looks like this will be the last Panasonic I will own.  I owned two previous Panasonic recorders (one being RR-QR160) which were pretty good and the best on the market at the time.  With each release, the human factors has gotten worse.  With this one, I can't really tell where I am at without constantly looking at the recorder to confirm.  It seems very easy to delete a file or playback one you were not expecting.  The joy stick is the worst idea for this type of device (period).  There is no tactical feel to find the buttons or determine where you are at (bad for fat fingers and you need long nails).  With a good recorder, you should be able to use it in the dark and I was able to do pretty much that with the QR160, but definitely cannot do that with this one.
 
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I like the concept of a diction folder with a means that forces you to stay in that folder, with a recording that doesn't pick up a lot of the back ground noise (the US430 does not do this, but the QR160 did).  I like the idea of being able to pause while recording (VOR is OK) and dividing a recording.  I like buttons that you can feel where they are and a tactile feeling that you have pressed the button.  I like the concept of moving recordings to different folders.  I do all my recordings in the dictation folder and later categorize them into one of four folders.  When moving recordings, I wish it would return to the folder I am moving a recording out of (the QR160 at least returned to the dictation folder).  I don't like the idea of using two different buttons, along with a two second press, to move or delete recordings.  The rotation wheel needs to allow more rotation before changing to another recording (too sensitive).  An older version had a little wheel in the corner and was a much better use.  I like the secure folder, but don't like the idea of getting locked out for 10 minutes if you screw up.
End SOAPBOX.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 40