Sometimes called the first tape cassette—although the earlier Optaphon was a cassette, its shell was really a container for standard 7 inch reels of tape. The Dictet was the first cassette designed and constructed as a complete unit. The recorder was transistorized and weighed slightly less than 3 lbs. (1.2 kg). Portability was its selling point. A separate device, the Dictet Typer Reproducing Machine, was available for transcribing recordings back at the office (see photograph below). The tape could hold 30 min. of audio per side at 2½ ips (6.4 cm ⁄ sec). The recorder cost around $300 and cassettes were close to $9. Advertisements claimed that its intrepid little mercury batteries would last 20 hours (The Atlantic 1958, 31).

Capital Airlines, a regional airline in the 1950s, advertised the availability of Dictets on certain flights for busy travelling men.