Customer Reviews

Excalibur NY21 The New York Times Deluxe Touch Screen Crosswords

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this for my husband for his birthday. It is alot of fun to use and has great features. Perfect for use at home or while traveling.
The puzzles are quite challenging - even the 'easy' level and if you want to, it is easy to cheat - answers are just a click away.

This puzzle toy is well designed and now has a light to enable the user to easily see what letters they are using. It also comes with a case which will definitely protect the game while traveling.

I bought the NY Times electronic crossword puzzle for my eighty year old grandmother who is always carrying around the paper crossword puzzles. She thought it was a great concept, but it took three of us to figure out the easy level crosswords! I can't imagine the higher levels of difficulty on this little machine! My grandmother said she was used to having a crossword puzzle that already had some letters in the boxes to help here solve the puzzles quicker and easier. Overall, it is a good product and if you have a problem solving one of the crosswords, you can push a button and it will solve it for you! I would recommend it because it is a great brain exerciser!

Regardless of age or skill, the "Excalibur NY21" has been a welcome addition to our family. Although originally intended for my father, a real crossword enthusiast, other members of our family have also started playing it as well. Different skill levels and the ability to cheat make things much easier for novice and younger players. The carrying case makes it ideal for road trips and the built-in light allows for play in the dark. My sole complaint would be that the light only helps when it is completely dark, it doesn't seem to provide much assistance when it is just partially dark during the waning evening hours.

I had the original version of this product for many years. As I got older I had trouble seeing the screen, especially during the day and in airports.
This newer version is backlit and does my eyes good and can be seen in all light levels. Also, the improvements in the layout of the screen and ease of operation have improved tremendously - to my enjoyment. Highly recommended!!

I love amazon but this product is a waste of time.The first one I ordered you could not read the screen.I returned the first one and the second one had the same problem.I called the manufacturer and they stated that they no longer make the product.As always,Amazon customer service was very helpful and they gave me a full refund.

The many options for different puzzles is nice and once you get used to the interface it works really well. The letters down at the bottom could be a little better/easier to press. Touch screens are nice for navigation but buttons still out perform lowergrade touchscreens.

First, this device is only a crossword game, no other thing. With this in mind, I must make some advices about the overall design of it.

1. Light is not working. Well, defective unit.... Ok. I live in Spain. Not easy or cheap to send back to repair this fault. Ok. No light.
2. Screen brights too much, reflects light as a mirror, so.... if you don't use light (I must suppose) it's impossible to read nothing. Contrast control is available, but not helps in this situation.
3. It's huge. Thick as a cheap device, no other thing. But it works well.

In the game view, I must admit, my English is not perfect, far to be... but.... clues are very cryptic, short and difficult to get it for a non-English person. I don't mention it as a fault, only as an advice for other non-English speak persons that, like me, want a device to practice language.

I will buy it again? Perhaps.

The product served its purpose, I used for a long trip and it kept my mind occupied. The puzzles are right out of newspaper, there are really easy puzzles to mind boggling hard. The keyboard was too small, which made it difficult to do the puzzle in a timly manner.

The product is in the closet now, but the next long trip I take without a newspaper, I will bring it along.

Overall not what I expected but it do serve the purpose that I bought it for.

Lots of fun, full-featured and the backlit touchscreen is great for low light. Nice case. This is an excellent value! It's the same one Restoration Hardware gets $[...] for!