In the ninetees the world was overtaken by the minidisc walkmen. Sony, Sharp and Denon producing some extremely cheap ( domestic) unit, but capable of some good quality recordings. They were mostly robust with the major failing being the microphone socket, which often gave way and caused intermittent problems.
At around £125 they were almost considered disposable items although many happy hours were spent repairing them.
One Sony even got run over by a News Car in teh car park, and it still worked!

NAGRA
"E" portable recorder

NAGRA Kudelski - this Swiss company is reknowned for producing top end expensive broadcast equipment. We were fortunate to have a couple of Nagra E's - the basic version but still a superb piece of machinery.
This was only loaned out grudgingly for special missions!
The mechanics of these machines are typically swiss, very small but robust.
Most of the gubbins is located in the top half of the machine as most of the bottom half is a battery compartment!