VR80 USB Flash Drive Audio Recorder by SpyGearGadgets

I recently received a new VR80 USB Flash Drive Audio Recorder by SpyGearGadgets. This nifty little device came packaged in a  5 x 4 x 1 inch blister pack container with a display card insert and a one page Quick Start Guide and let me tell you that it was at the blister pack where I started noticing the quality that has gone into this device. I am accustomed to using up 15 minutes or so opening a blister pack of whatever device that just came in the mail. So, when the box arrived I gathered my collection of cutting blades, bolt cutters, and cutting torches that I keep on hand when I need to open said blister pack but to my joy and surprise this one was not that difficult. I thumbed at the tabs that represent two halves of that package and it popped open with little or no fanfare. How novel? Now on to the next pleasant surprise. The quick start guide is a 4 x 3 inch one page insert. That, my friend, may not sound like a big deal until you think back and recall all the times that you had to thumb through fold after fold of an insert looking for the English instructions with a font size so small that I myself had to include a 40x jewelers loupe to my aforementioned blister pack removal kit. The VR80’s instructions were all on one page and did not have to share real estate with six other renditions of the same instructions.

Now on to the voice recorder. It has all the looks and feel of your ordinary USB Thumb Drive, which of course is its purpose, to appear as a normal everyday device and not as a threatening piece of surveillance equipment. It measures in at 2 ⅝ inches x ⅞ of an inch x ⅜ of an inch and feels well made and durable. It has 8GB worth of storage capacity for your audio recordings but can pull double duty and work as an actual flash drive. There is a discreet On/Off switch on the end that activates the recording feature. The led will flash momentarily to indicate to the user that recording has begun. To give you an example of how much recording space that it contains, I have two recording on my USB drive, one recording at 9 hours and 19 minutes that uses 1.99GB of space and another recording at 4 hours and 50 minutes that uses 1.03GB of space. I still have 4,82 GB available. The fully charged battery lasts for 15 hours so you will run out of battery power before you use the entire drive. To charge the device, of course, you plug the drive into your computer via the USB port which, I think is a no brainer in the design of this device. If they made the device with an external power supply, as you might find on other not-so-discreet recording devices, then one might get questioned as to why a USB flash drive has an external power supply that is plugged into the wall. While your drive is plugged in and covertly charging in the USB port of your computer, there is a red led to indicate that it is charging and will turn blue when it has fully charged. The quality of recording is very good, I don’t have any problem hearing anyone that is in the room and sometimes I can pick up on voices in the next room.

Set aside the fact that this is a pretty nifty surveillance device, a practical application for this device has been recording meetings. I worked at a place where meetings were pretty much an everyday experience. A standard voice recorder (one of those not-so-discreet recording devices) works fine for recording meetings but the USB Flash Drive Audio Recorder will record those same meetings. You already need a USB flash drive, if you buy this one then you do not need to fork out more money for a digital voice recorder. When I want to recall the specifics of a meeting I am usually at my desk working on the project. I can pull the file on the drive and advance to the spot in the meeting that I need to review. I can even backup or send the audio anywhere that I may need to access it.

In my opinion, the pros at SpyGearGadget did everything right on this device. They made a great product, packaged it right, made it affordable, durable, and reasonably intuitive for the wannabe spy in all of us. I highly recommend the USB Flash Drive Audio Recorder.