I just recently bought my second one of these. I've been very happy with the performance of the 3-5364B Cassette Recorder.
What I like about the recorder is that it takes full-sized cassettes that can be played in your car cassette player. This is good if you're weird like me and read to yourself and want to hear your own homemade audiobook in the car while you're driving. I also use it to tape my phone messages before I erase them, because I may like the sound of their voice, and because maybe future kids will want to know what their grandmother sounded like. I also liked the fact that it fit so well in my hand.
It has a headphone jack, so that if you wanted to listen to an audio book and had a PROPER AC adapter (3V) you could go to bed with your favorite book. Don't expect Dolby noise reduction and stereo sound with this guy. It's very basic.
My first one was VERY good on batteries. I had it over a year, and I hadn't changed the batteries since I bought it. I used Duracell Alkaline AAs. These same batteries are now in my new one and doing fine.
The variable speed playback seems a useless feature since it does have a fast forward button which works better. The mic has two sensitivities low and high...it's got a pause, which I suppose works better than the STOP button. Again, my uses for the recorder are fairly straight forward so I rarely use these features.
There is one design flaw, in my opinion. When you load the tape, realize that the side that you can see through the window is the side you are playing. Looking at the device that way the buttons are below the window facing you. You're fine if you go strictly by the symbols on the buttons for rewind, play, fast forward, etc. However, you quickly notice that if you use it that way, the lettering that goes with the buttons is upside-down! This could be disastrous if you didn't realize this and flipped the recorder over, rewinding instead of forwarding! They really need to fix this if they make a new model.
I mentioned that this is the second one I've bought...I'll explain what happened to the first one.
The first one died by accident...I fried it using the AC adapter to my desktop paper shredder. Potential buyers should know this little recorder doesn't come with its own AC adapter. In and of itself, that wasn't a big deal to me, since I used mine for over a year without ever needing one. It's just this ONE TIME I wanted to not drain the batteries by going to bed with a new relaxation tape a friend sent me, and I thought I could use one the myriad adapters from portable CD players I have lying around to fit it, but the shape of the adapter fittings on all of them were just different enough to not work. Except one. The one to my shredder WAS the right shape, but, alas, wrong voltage! OOPS! Lesson learned: make sure the adapter is set for 3 volts and not higher! Not knowing whether I could revive the old one, I just bought another one since it was my fault it was no longer working.
But, all in all, I liked the device enough to buy another one, so there you go. It might also be noted that both recorders cost about a twenty percent less than what they're selling it for at Amazon.com. I hope this is helpful.
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GE 35364 Mini Cassette Recorder (Silver)Product Description: Do you have a great idea you don't want to forget? Or do you simply want to "jot" down some audio notes for an upcoming project? Then look no further than the GE 35364 Mini Cassette Recorder. This recorder features a compact, slim design and is a perfect choice for your electronic notebook. The 35364 features quick, handheld push-button operation for both recording and playback. Plus, with Automatic Voice-Activated Recording (AVR), the device will sense sound and start/stop recording automatically, so you'll never waste valuable tape on dead air.
The five-button design features record, play, rewind, fast-forward, and stop/eject functions and the device is built with an automatic, end-of-tape shutoff feature. The built-in microphone helps assure optimum recording quality and battery operation (two AA batteries) means convenient taping even when you're away from home or office.
Buy cheap GE 35364 Mini Cassette Recorder (Silver) now
This product is used educationally.It is light but rugged; a nice color blue.The sound of the recordings is a good quality.
Memorex MB1055 cassette recorder--The speaker is too small & thus doesn't pick up the sound sufficiently to be heard clearly. When you turn the volume up to hear the music it sounds like it is vibrating. The lid to close the battery compartment is missing.
A genuine throw back to the 1970's, the RQ-2102 is a quality portable recorder. Using 4 D cells or AC, this is a heavy unit by today's standards. Features old fashion slide in or out plastic carrying handle. If you need a rugged unit that will be used on a table and need to do a lot of recording or playback this would be a better choice than Panasonic's mini cassette recorder such as the RQ-L31 which is also an excellent cassette recorder. Unlike the mini cassette recorders this model will fast forward and rewind faster. The buttons feel solid so when you push you get a good response. Has an excellent pause control by releasing the capstan and pinch roller from the cassette removing that awful low whine found in mini cassette recorders. Has que, review and tape counter and can use external microphone or earphones. Larger speaker provide better and fuller sound. This is the last and best of Panasonic's shoebox style units so if you like this 1970's style recorder get this and you won't be disappointed.
This is the same item as the FX-290, now with a W added. Only difference is the absence of the TV audio band, which will be irrelevent next February. I ve had three of these walkmans in the past couple of years. One shattered upon impact to the ground. I didn't have the case on it, and with the other two the fast forward button, which I use quite a bit fell off. 
This is a specialist item that excels at doing one thing: portable mono recording to broadcast quality. For a roving reporter, there simply isn't another item of the type to touch it.The only alternative is to go digital, which will give you smaller size and easier editing, but for traditionalists who like the sound of analogue, there really is nothing else.
The product is advertised as a MINI cassette recorder, however it is in fact a STANDARD cassette recorder.
Half of the cassette tapes played would snag & could not get out without breaking. Some were snagged so badly the broken peices that would not come out prevents player from playihng a new tape. Worst I have ever had in lifetime.
I really urge everyone to stay far away from this product if you value your cassettes. The one I purchased mangled the first cassette I put in (an irreplaceable one - how could I have been so silly as to put it in without testing the player?). In any case, this product really is a piece of junk. But then, you get what you pay for. 
I've had one of these since 1993. It's perfect. It's a tape player and recorder, and that's it. 
I would give this product a 5 simply for existing! I had a hard time finding a similar product in stores. When I would stumble onto one, the price was often ... more than what I could get it for here. I don't know if this review praises ... or the product more. Nevertheless, I'm very happy with it. Sure, it's a bit antiquated in this era of digital gimmickry. But for what I need it for, it works great. Easy to use controls, big speaker for playback and it doesn't eat tapes! What more do you want?
This is pretty much the perfect tape recorder for interviews, whether live or phone -- sturdy but light for carrying, with plenty of bells and whistles but a snap to learn to use. (However, inserting tapes isslightly harder than in some other machines.) You can choose slow-speed recording to double the length of your tape (e.g., get two hours of talk on a 60-minute tape), which minimizes interrupting the flow of the interview to change sides or tapes. On playback, a speed-control dial lets you control speed and tone of speech -- you can slow down a fast jabberer to transcribe, or speed up to chipmonk-voices past the less useful chatter without missing anything. Plugging in the adapter spares the batteries when transcribing, i.e. when hitting the "pause" button instead of "stop" for interruptions that last longer than anticipated. Sound quality is fine for talk. Not much machine-hiss, and even less on slow speed than on regular speed. Much easier to change batteries than on my previous tape recorder(another Sony which finally died after 25 years of service). Haven't tried this machine for music.
I'll preface my review by stating that if I were searching for a high quality voice recorder I would have gone with a brand other than RCA.However, I needed an inexpensive unit which my two young children could operate without much difficulty, and one that played music cassettes. This one does the trick.It is light, compact and easy to use, the sound is decent, the microphone keeps them entertained since they can record their own voices on tape, and the unit operates on both battery or A/C which means I can tote it along in the car to keep them busy. I searched all over for the actual toddler tough versions of these tape recorders which were sold a few years back, Fisher Price or Playskool I believe, but it seems that technology caught up to even the little kids' toys and the units are all CD or MP3 now, which my children don't yet use.This cassette recorder suits our needs just fine for now, and at an affordable price.
The Sony TCM-150 is about the cheapest cassette recorder on the market at this time.For five to ten bucks more you get voice activation, an external microphone jack, a tape counter, and extended play/record.The models with these features are the Sony TCM-200DV (without the tape counter) and the Panasonic RQ-L31.Of course, in all these cases, you're getting a cheaply made recorder intended for lectures, notes and inteviews.If you want something for music or that's built to take some punishment you'll have to pay more.