Customer Reviews

Franklin DBE-1490 Merriam-Webster Spanish-English Dictionary

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have to admit, I was very hesitant to order this product after reading some of the reviews. I was seriously considering finding the older 1440 model, because one of it's reviews was so positive. But I called Franklin and talked to one of their techs, who convinced me to buy this. I'm so glad he did. My husband and I are serious Spanish students (study several hours per day),and are planning to move to Mexico. We also have several Mexican employees. The 1450 is ideal for us. It is really meant for Mexico, and South America, not Spain. It tells you when a word is appropriate for a certain country. What I love about it is that nearly all the words I have ever looked up for translation have been available, with very good definitions. Also it corrects spelling errors. More importantly, with many words that have variable meanings, it gives examples of sentences to show how variable the meaning can be. This has been invaluable for us, since the tendency in learning a language is to try to translate quite literally, which is often inappropriate.

(Example: Caer;
1:to fall, to drop
2:to collapse
3:to hang down
4:caer bien - to be pleasant, to be likable<me caes bien: I like you>
5:caer mal or caer gordo: to be unpleasant, to be unlikable
6:caerse:to fall down)

In the past, I would have been tempted to use 'me gusta' to say I liked someone; however, this would have implied I had amorous feeling for them (oops!) Who would have guessed?
This info can also be found in the book, 'Breaking out of Beginner's Spanish', which is also highly recommended, but the electronic translator keeps it right at your finger tips.

My husband was a dedicated hard copy dictionary user, who thought I was wasting my money, until he realized how fast, easy, and on-the-mark the Franklin is. He "borrowed" my 1450 so often that I finally ordered another one for him, and another one for my 13-y.o.
Verb conjugations do take a little time,(not long enough to irritate me,still a useful function), but this is not primarily what I use it for. There are so many other good products on the market for that, such as the Warren Hardy flashcards (www.warrenhardy.com), the Real Spanish Path (www.speakspanish.com), etc. I hardly ever use any of the other functions, just the translator. It's very quick to switch from English to Spanish (how do you say?) to Spanish to English (what's that word mean?) If you forget and type in an English word in the Spanish function, one button will automatically switch you over, so you don't have to re-type it. By the way, don't forget to follow the arrows on your display pad. There is always much more info than what you can originally see, so you need to keep scrolling down to read it. Also, be clear about this, the translator does not translate phrases, only single words. Bien viaje!

The DBE-1490 is a very pleasant surprise for me. I've had the DBE-1440A and DBE-1450, but the DBE-1490 is alot more user friendly. I believe this model is the replacement for DBE-1470. I've never used the DBE-1470 so I can't make a comparison between the two.

The DBE-1490 is slightly larger than the DBE-1440A and DBE-1450. They have the same thickness and length, but the width is about 3/4-inch longer. If you're a guy, it's probably too big to stick in your front shirt pocket. The dimensions (my measurement) are 5-1/8 inches x 3-7/8 inches and 3/8 inch thick.

The operation and features of the DBE-1490 are similar to Franklin's other non-speaking Spanish-English dictionary. It has verb conjugations, grammer guide, conversational phrases, my vocabulary list, games & learning exercises, phonetic spell correction, SAT word list, TOEFL word list, crossword puzzle solver, and a English monolingual dictionary.

My major complaints with previous Franklin models are the keys are too small, the keys tended to stick so you had to really apply pressure to get it to register, and the display screen is so small that you always have to scroll down to read everything. The added width of this model allowed Franklin to use bigger and more responsive keys and, best of all, a BIGGER display screen.

This model does NOT have a slot for the Franklin Bookman Card. I've never used a Bookman Card so not having this feature was not important to me.

This model uses two lithium batteries CR2032. This is what my other Franklin models used. I believe recent Franklin models like the DBE-1470 uses AAA, but the downside is that they are bulkier. The upside is that AAA batteries are easier to find and cheaper. The downside to the lithium batteries is that if you're in a remote village in the Andes or Amazon, you better have extra ones because it is going to be difficult to find them.

With this model, you'll need a jewelers philips screwdriver to remove a screw that secures the battery cover. This fixes a complaint that some users had about loose battery covers on previous models.

As an owner of previous Franklin models, I can attest that the improvements with the key and display screen size make this the best one yet.

Though there are some small flaws, this is a great electronic spanish-english dictionary. it makes it MUCH easier to read a foreign newspaper, or any other instance when you'd need to look up words a lot faster than the awkward, slow process of using a book dictionary.

Others reviewing this product have said that more advanced speakers should "stick to the book dictionary..." I don't know about that. Only if they're so advanced that they need big, full, dictionary entries explaining every last subtlety! in that case I don't think they would be looking for a pocket dictionary. Basically: if your spanish ability is such that you still find yourself needing to find the word for something, or finding out what a spanish word means -- go for this one. it's good.

strengths:
-- handles the task well -- the interface makes it quick to type in a word and get its meaning, no wasted time dealing with bad menus or anything
-- physical design is good -- they were really smart and made the top cover of the thing have a double hinge so it can fold around the back, very convenient.
-- has some nice built-in games and grammar guides and data/calculator/clock/audio-book functions, none of which I've used much (the games aren't that good. I really wish they had created a built-in flashcard function, so it would just quiz you on definitions that you had pre-selected... they have a "spelling" game which maybe could be used for that function... i don't know.)
-- puts itself to sleep to save batteries-- cool.
-- good size/weight/general convenience. i've used it much.

weaknesses:
--keyboard is OK but could be better... buttons are a bit spongy and don't click in any nice way.
-- would be nice if it was SUPER rapid in its response... but need to wait maybe half a second sometimes for response.
-- games / "quiz me" functions could be better.

I just bought this from a store, and I reading up to make sure it was the right product. I'm mainly writing in response to a previous review I read:

"and the conjugation feature -- a feature that was a selling point for me -- is a joke: it only conjugates in first-person singular indicative mood."

This just isn't true. It looks that way if you only hit the conjucation button once. However, if you hit the conjugation button a second, third, forth, etc time it cycle through the following tenses:

present indicative

present progressive

preterite

past progressive

future

present perfect

future perfect

pluperfect

present conditional

past conditional

imperative

and it has the 1,2,3 person singular and plural.

This is an extremely useful device, for me at least!

The LCD screen on the DBE-1450 is much less legible than on previous models. I have owned seven models, all of which were much easier to read.

I adjusted the contrast on the DBE-1450 to get it the best I could, and I got it in the best light that I could find. Then I compared it to an old Model DBD-440 that I have. The old DBD-440 was light years ahead of this new model in the legibiity of the screen.

Why would Franklin put out a screen so much less readable than the older models? I believe the problem is the touch screen that the company has chosen to put on top of the regular LCD screen. Bad choice. The touch screen replaces buttons, which did a better job, takes up one line of the already limited screen, and reduces the legibility to barely, in good light.

Franklin makes the best of the electronic dictionaries that I have tried, but this screen is a pain. My advice is to get some way of trying out the screen before you buy this model, and see if you think it is as bad as I do. Another alternative is to seek out a model without the touch screen.

My initial review of this was negative in regards to the verb conjugation this unit provides, but now it appears that the fault was in me, not in the unit. Now that I have been using it for awhile I have discovered that it does indeed conjugate verbs in most tenses, including the present and imperfect subjunctive. It is compact and faster to use than a book-style dictionary and has at least as many words as my paperback diccionario, although not as many as my big (huge) Oxford Spanish Dictionary. All in all, I am liking it better than I did at first. I'd like to go for five stars on it, but I can't figure out how to change my original star rating.

I am currently a 3rd year Spanish student and bought this item to help me in my more advanced studies. I think the main reason I bought it was because of its ease of use and ability to look up verb conjugations. However I was disappointed because it was slow and it takes many, many slow page flips to find the correct form of a verb in the correct tense. The easiest way to to it is to guess what you think the word is spelled and let the spell checker correct you.

PROS:
*Good for looking up words fairly quickly
*Large number of words and definitions
*Gives example sentences in the definitions
*Has calculator, measurement conversions, games, and money converter
*Many other features
*Ability to add expansion cards
*Small size
*Good as a spell checker
*Games can be fun/educational

CONS:
*Verb conjugation features takes too long to use
*Not very durable, its easy to break
*Keypad keys are too small
*Fairly slow response

Overall I think that this product is very helpful in translating basic verbs and nouns, but I wouldn't recommend this to advanced speakers because sometimes it's unable to retrieve specific words. For beginning and intermediate users, I do recommend it; it's small, cheap, and relatively useful.

I wasn't sure whether to get this or the BES-1850 talking one. I ordered both. I would say I prefer this one because it is thinner, and the talking feature of the BES-1850 wasn't that useful to me, and the screen harder to read on the BES-1850 without the back light. Also, the buttons on this model are easier to press and it seems faster looking up words.

I asked my friend to buy this gadget for me as I am now learning Spanish and hate to look up words in the dictionary. I think it really serves me well when I am reading magazines and newspapers in Spanish. Without it, I can not understand them as there are so many new words for me and it is impossible for me to look them up in the desk dictionary. Explanation is clear and in detail, which helps me to know how the word is used. Some useful phrases are also included. Now challenging articles in Spanish will no longer be discouraging and I do not avoid reading them as I used to do. All of my classmates who are now learning spanish with me want to get this fantastic gadget. I think I will buy it on amazon for some of them when it can be shipped to China.