I use mine to listen to audio books where the small speaker some times comes in useful. It is pretty limited in volume and not fit for music I think. The screen is nice and clear unlike many Sony model, similar to the Sharp ones I have. For audiobooks or other spoken recordings there are 2 sound choices that boost spoken word clarity ( as you might expect from a machine that is aimed as a dictophone ) The battery life seems to be very high as you would expect from using 2 AA batteries where most portables that use them only have one. Recording is done by one touch pressing the large record button firmly, I find this useful for recording phone calls from my hands free phone using the internal mic. Fortunately the menu system is easy to use as many of the main choices have their own buttons rather than a menu option eg mode of recording / erase track/erase disk. re buying one of these - look for a record button ( the big one bottom middle ) that dont have its silver paint worn off, probably means the device hasnt spent a lot of its time recording with possible wear and tear on the record head ( this DOES touch the top of a mindisc when recording)