Hand held digital recorders are a logical replacement for the old microcassette recorders that many physicians prefer. Some have removable media, others do not. An advantage to removable media is that physicians may fill up a "flash card", then insert another for more dictation. A disadvantage to removable media, of course, is that like micro-cassettes, flash cards can become misplaced. Since the non-removable media units have increasingly larger capacities, physicians may opt to use these over the former. As with dial-in systems, the residing codec determines the type, or compression ratio, of the resulting file format. Great care should be taken when selecting a hand held recorder and consumer research should be done beforehand. For instance, some recorders don't upload sound files to a PC at all. Some create only .wav files, which are too large for efficient transfer, and at least one records an ear-splitting noise when it is handled during recording. Hand held devices come as stand-alone units or as part of a system. A stand-alone unit will create sound files that are ready to transport once downloaded into a PC via a serial or USB cable or a docking station. A "system" requires that sound files first be downloaded into a proprietary system, and the resultant digital files may then be transported, again requiring special software and equipment purchases.

Computer Microphone (wireless and wired):  Similar to hand held digital recorders, wireless microphones capture dictation at the physician site and then digital files are transferred to the transcription service.

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