Customer Reviews

Franklin DBE-1440 Pocket Spanish/English Dictionary

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I thought I could more easily read Gabriel Garcia Marquez "El General en su Labertino" if I didn't spend so much time turning the pages of a paper dictionary to look up unfamiliar words. Indeed this Franklin product is much faster than paper, and much easier to read than the Univ. of Chicago dictionary I had been using. The Franklin seems to have a larger vocabulary. The conjugation function is excellent. The paper dictionary does have a few pages of narrative describing Espanol and description of regional variations, and the Franklin omits these. I have some minor complaints . The stiffness of the keys sometimes results in missing characters in input words (partially saved by the automatic spelling corrector). The asterisk should be lower case. While easily freed, sometimes the on/off button gets stuck. On the whole, it's a fine product. For my purposes, it is 99.44% satisfactory.

This is one of the best electronic Spanish/English dictionaries I've ever owned. This and other Franklin dictionaries seem to have more "up-to-date" meanings and usage demonstrations than some others I've tried. I really like the fact that you can highlight words in definitions and look them up as well. The games are OK, but I never found them to be particularly useful. Overall, this would be an EXCELLENT choice, but with one caveat: DO NOT TRY TO USE THE BUILT-IN CARD SLOT FOR OTHER BOOKMAN TITLES.

I purchased the Merriam-Webster English dictionary card in order to extend the capabilities of a device that I chose, in part, because it had expansion possibilities, and initially it worked fine. It was really cool that one could switch between the two dictionaries and transfer a word from one to the other.

However, the card technology is POORLY DESIGNED as the data connector is flimsy in that it relies on pressure to maintain contact (as opposed to pins in slots, like most card connections), and these are vulnerable to pocket lint, etc. This seems to be something that Franklin knows about, but isn't answering questions. (I wrote them about future titles for the Bookman series and they said no further ones were being developed, which surprised me, as the expandability of the Bookman products would seem to otherwise be a major selling point. Apparently, they had given up on that technology after only a few titles came out, and now I know why.)

After 3 months use the add-on card became inaccessible, and its presence was wreaking havoc with the built-in Spanish dictionary--erasing word lists that I had created, etc.

I just recently passed the end of the 1-year warranty period, and the DBE-1440 has now stopped working altogether. I checked the batteries and they are fine. The unit has never been in the rain or stepped on, or even dropped on a hard surface. I just doesn't work any longer.

Because I like the way Franklin designs its software for its Spanish/English dictionaries, I would still consider buying a different model in the future. But I would avoid anything based on the Bookman card system. I haven't heard any other negative reports about this particular unit, but maybe people are not adding other cards to the system and leaving the little space-holder that comes with the unit in place. Perhaps if this is never removed the unit would function properly over a longer period of time.

I hope this info is helpful.

Vipal Prem

I just started learning Spanish and this translator has been a very big help. It is easy to use, and it has both a full function calculator and somes games. The unit that I have does have the ability to conjugate verbs in all tenses. You just have to press the conjugate button additional times to get the various tenses.

I have the translator with the LaRousse dictionary. I found it to be PARTICULARLY GOOD, especially in Spain. It not only contained almost every unfamiliar word I came across, it also had a TON of cultural references, which it displayed in italics.

It is an outstanding size. It has a cover for when it's not in use and you need to drop it into your backpack. The keyboard isn't exactly a PLEASURE to use, but it doesn't suck to use it. It has some neat games that help learning the various tenses. The tense translator is worth the cost of admission. It has a slot for bookman cards (not that I've used that or anything...but it could be handy). It took a four foot fall and continues to work well to now.

So why the four stars with the five star review I just wrote above? A couple of my American friends also in Spain bought this product, and that version, my friends, deserves a three star rating. Theirs shipped with the Webster's Spanish-English dictionary. Alas! the cultural references, soooo important for learning a language - Gone! Also, many common words - just not there! Often, one of my friends and I would read CNN Spanish articles and check our dictionaries against the less common words...and the Larousse beat the Webster's EVERY TIME.

So...words to the wise should be sufficient. Franklin, are you listening?

I've bought two of this gizmos for Spanish and one for French. They're a great way to carry the equivalent of a medium-sized dictionary around while travelling. Also, once you get used to it, it's a much faster way to look up words while reading than a regular dictionary, and recognizes many misspellings. Overall, a good product, and since (as far as I know) there's nothing quite like them available, in terms of size, ease of use, and number of words. I wouldn't have bought the spanish one twice otherwise (first one freaked out after about a year and a half of use) Of course the "2 million translations" number is a little misleading, probably including all 75 or however many forms there are for each spanish verb, etc., but whatever.

They do tend to have glitches every once and a while, particularly when the batteries are starting to run low, and sometimes you have to remove the batteries and reinsert them to get the thing working again. Also, while the dictionary does store a complete set of verb conjugations for all tenses, access to the conjugation tables is a little slow and awkward. The dictionary does have the nice feature of recognizing a verb by any of its conjugated forms, which can be a big help for the beginning Spanish student, but then it jumps to the definition with infinitive. A student who's not sure of the tenses then has to press the "Conj" key repeatedly and wait to get to the desired tense. Also, when the verb in question corresponds to more than one word in the translation language, the dictionary forces you to perform an additional and unnecessary step before viewing the conjugation tables. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you use the thing heavily, as some students will, those little details can slow you down, and I'm sure they could be fixed.

Also, key stiffness seems to vary between units... my French dictionary has a real problem with this, and it takes a bit of attention to key a word correctly, but the Spanish ones have both made it fairly easy to type rapidly.

...I had some problems with the bookman system.... I bought a french/spanish card and it caused both my french and spanish dictionaries to crash frequently. Too bad, cause it could be such a great feature, two dictionaries in one, and the ability to carry more in such a compact form.

One tip -- if you think the unit is broken, just replace the batteries. Rather than displaying a message like "low battery", it does all kinds of other crazy stuff that makes it seem like it's broken.

I just opened this unit 30 minutes ago and I've already written three new emails in Spanish using precise verb tenses and abstractions. And it was easy.

I'll try to illustrate.

When I type in 'want' as a word it pulls up Spanish translations. If I press CONG (for conjugate), it lists an Overview of all the common uses. Pressing CONG again slides through, take a breath, present indicative, present progressive, preterite, past progressive, future, present perfect, future perfect, pluperfect, present conditional, past conditional, and imperative. And the term is bold and stands out in the display so your eyes don't squint.

Another nice feature is the way the LANG button works. It makes it easy to bounce between entering English words and Spanish words when changing direction when searching for a word. Great for those of us who change our mind a lot using gadgets.

Here's an example: If you type 'want' and then change your mind, you can type 'gusto' and see if that means 'want.' The dictionary will say it means 'to taste' or 'to like.' Then you can decide, hum, if 'to taste' is the first definition maybe this isn't the word I want if I'm trying to say 'want.' Virgos rejoice. So I press clear (guess who's a Virgo), cuz I'm nosey still, press LANG, then enter 'want' to see if gusto comes up as the Spanish word for 'i want.' And it doesn't. Querer or Desear (to want or to desire) appear as better matches. So the dictionary doesn't simply shovel out the common perceptions of the words it actually has the deeper definitions and if you really want to use the right word, with the right connotations, you can. And that's saying a bit for a tiny, not-so-expensive gadget like this.

I like the thing. That's my two cents. Hope this helped.

Note:
Since all my references to prices were stripped out,
let me just say that the DBE-1440A is a whole lot
less expensive than the DBE-1450 (two for a bit more than
the price of one DBE-1450). The interface is different
but the functionality and content is the same.

A month ago I bought the DBE-1450, for [$$$] new
at [a local store].
It is great. I was planning
to get my daughter the same model, went back and
bought the dbe-1440A new for only [$$$].
The box for the 1440A says "New and improved"
and on the back of the case it says DBE-1440A

Compared to the DBE-1450, the differences aren't
worth it, unless you will use them.
The DBE-1450 has a touch-screen,
and the DBE-1440 has buttons next to the window

for the exact same functions. The 1450 has a jack
for an ac transformer power supply (not included), and
a jack to connect to a PC, neither of which I have used.

Otherwise they have the same features:
same vocabulary (5,000,000), [the biggest reason to buy it]
same traveler phrases (2,000),
same full conjugation,
same learning exercises,
same games,
same save word list capabilities,
a grammer guide (never used it),
a rolodex (never used it).

The screen size is the same: 5 lines.[another big reason]
The keyboard layout puts the Enter button in
the corner, maybe a better place for it, because
I tend to hold it with my left, and do 1 finger
typing with my right.

I could have bought 2 of these for only [$$$] more than I paid
for one dbe-1450. I would have if I had seen them.

For [$$$], you get a great dictionary that fits
in a shirt pocket. At first you'll squint at the screen because
it has no backlighting, but that really saves on the
battery, and you'll get used to it.

If you want it to learn English, there are pronunciation
symbols for the English words.

If you are studying English OR Spanish (it can also be configured with the help of a slot card, to learn Italian, French, etc.), if you need to take the TOEFL, if you just need to look up a word you ran across in a book or an article, THIS product is for you!

It is handy and complete, it's only defect being that it can be hard to open at times, but given its usefulness, this is a minor forgivable "defect".

I found it useful for the first week, though I found looking up verb conjugations a bit tedious, as one is forced to scroll through every conjugation to reach the desired one. At the end of the first week, the screen of the unit, which I had in my pocket, broke when a moderate amount of pressure was accidently applied to it. It seems to me that the company could spend 2 or 3 cents more in manufacturing costs to make a sturdy cover that will withstand a small amount of pressure without the screen cracking. I mean, like, they don't know that people will put it in their pockets? I hope to get it repaired, but as I am abroad, it is quite difficult. I will think twice before buying any other product from this company.

I Bought this unit in a shop over here in Switzerland. That was round about September time last year ie : - Sept. 2000.

Long before that i had been using the English Dictionary/Thesaurus from the company -(still works fine too) it's about 5 years old now ,come to think of it.

Possessing a keen intrest in languages , having a compact mobile dictionary is priceless to me. Here in switzerland they speak at least 4 native languages : French, Italian, German, Swiss German-(trust me,...there's quite a difference between the two).

I purchased the French - English(vise-versa) Professor, Originally and it still remains an incredibly invaluable tool ; boasting of 2'000'000 translations, 350'000 words, and 2'000 idioms . You'll agree its quite an arsenal .

I bought a Spanish card slot off the lines ,a couple of months after. My only beef with it, was that it was geared for the BookmanI series , so didn't boast of quite as many Words & translations as i had taken for granted to be ubiquitous for all items in the Bookman series...(you see ,BookmanI card roms have less as many words available to translate compared with the capacity card roms for the Bookman II series harness, so be careful and buy the Bookman II card slots instead, if you end up buying this unit .This is not a thumbs down, its just telling you that there is less as huge a words database within the BookmanI in comparison to the BookManII card slots . Thus this basically relates to the size of their database of words.

Makes sense anyway, since the BookManII series is new.

I have just purchased the German-English BookmanII CD rom card slot and it boasts of the same functionality as what was available on the Main unit i had originally bought. Truly brilliant.

I recommend this product, because : (1.)It posesses a robust Word database -(350'000 words) (2.)It provides a great(2 way),"Dictionary quality" of translation (3.)It hosts verb conjugation facilities (4.)It boasts of a plethora of useful phrases (5.)It is flexible in that you can engage a different language by introducing a different language card Rom in the card slot which lies on the reverse side of the Unit. (6.)It is Light and Compact;this Pocket size version fits in a shirt pocket without any worries. (7.) The company is quite known for its products and innovations in this area and it has been in this market for a rather substantive period of time. (8.)The batteries last quite well-(I engage my unit for @ least a period of 3 hours ,daily!) and the companies product line is replete with other cards you can bring to your use anytime -(without any backward compatibility hassles to contend with). (9.) It represents good value for money.

German is the 4th language i am learning. Still the unit is definately a holiday (carry-along)item , with ; A calculator, currency converter utility , weight, height (etc) conversion facilities Plus(+) a number of Games to boot.

They've done a rather good job, by my Reckoning.

I easily put stock in this product.

cheers