Customer Reviews

Franklin Electronic Publishers BES-1890 Speaking Spanish-English Dictionary

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've had this dictionary about a month and a half and the few reviews I could find prior to buying it were not overly positive. But I bought it anyway and couldn't be happier with it. It is intuitive, very fast, and translates almost all the words I have entered. I have used it almost every day since I am attempting to move up from a high beginner to a strong intermediate in Spanish by month's end.

I have been in Buenos Aires for 11 days, with 20 to go, taking a 3 week Spanish course in a language school. I am in a low intermediate class and we have homework assignments and lots of exercises and speaking each day. I use the Franklin dictionary constantly when I don't know a word or need the equivalent in Spanish. The best part about the little computer in my opinion is the conjugations.

I have had and will have more class lessons in conjugations, so far only the present tense. When I am stuck on an irregular or any other verb I enter it into the dictionary, hit the conj key and bingo, aqui esta. Successively hitting the conj key takes you through all the tenses in all persons. While my classmates are fumbling around with their Spanish-English translation books, I have the verb, its meaning, and have already conjugated it, if applicable. It's my favorite feature and really helps me to learn the verbs and their forms.

The negatives are the rather poor audio for some of the translations (not all) and the fact that the screen is not backlit, although I have had absolutely no problem seeing it in normal or even somewhat low light.

I use it in restaurants here in Buenos Aires while I'm waiting or eating and can practice Spanish by inputting words or reading and translating phrases. It fits easily in the pocket of my shorts and I'd replace my BES 1890 immediately if anything happened to it.

If you're serious about learning espanol, or simply need a new translator, I recommend it. For the serious estudiante, it's more than worth the cost.

Received this product a few days ago and my daughter (who is a sophmore in High School) says it helps her learn Spanish. Overall, I found the product a little expensive once I had it in my hands. I was not able to turn the volume up very loud. I even saw my daughter putting it to her ear to hear the words. Second, it did not have a Backlite for ease of reading. To read the words on the screen, you had to put it under a light. For the amount of money it cost, I assumed it would have that.

On the good side, it does come with many applications. She was able to put her vocabalary words in the unit and it would help her spell and translate each of them.

Overall, I am a little disappointed with the product. The sound could have been better and a backlit LCD would have been an improvement. However, as long as my daughter is happy with the product and she is using it for her Spanish class; then I am happy and will not tell her how disappointed I am with it.

Summary: This is a rugged, highly functional English-Spanish and Spanish-English translator that has worked flawlessly for me over the eight months I have owned it. I recommend it highly for anyone with a beginning or intermediate level of Spanish who will be visiting a Spanish speaking country. The most common negatives raised in the comments are true: spoken word quality is poor (but volume is fine), and the screen is not backlit. In my daily use of the translator, I have not found these to be a problem at all.

I am an American who is currently living near Madrid, Spain for a year. I have a low intermediate level knowledge of Spanish. As a result, I frequently find myself running into unknown words I see on food packaging, menus, advertisements, newspaper articles, etc. The ability to whip out the translator and quickly get a translation is invaluable, and I now make sure I have the translator with whenever I leave the house. I would replace it instantly if I were to lose it.

There are two big advantages of this translator over a small pocket dictionary (which I also have). First is speed. Almost always I can look up a word faster using the translator than using the dictionary. Second is looking up conjugated verbs. With a dictionary, you need to know (a) that the word you're looking up is a verb conjugation, and (b) what the root verb is. For irregular verbs, or more advanced tenses, this can be a challenge. Type in "tuve" on the translator and you get "tener". Look up "tuve" in the dictionary and it's not there. In a similar vein, the translator will suggest a long list of possible words if you misspell a word (great for typing in a word you heard on TV).

That all said, this unit does not replace a full dictionary, which can provide more subtle shades of meaning. I own both, and find that each has its uses. However, I use the Franklin translator many times a day, while the more complete dictionary is used much less often.

Typing on the keyboard is easy. The keys are chiclet style, and have a spongy feel. When held in both hands, it is easy to use both thumbs to quickly type in words. Occasionally the unit will miss a key due to fast typing, but misspelled word correction feature means the unit will typically let you pick the word you intended without having to got back and correct your entry.

The Franklin translator isn't perfect. The further you get away from mainstream words and into specialized vocabulary, the more frequently the translator will not have a good translation or will not have the word. Like any translation, you will need to exercise personal judgment when using the provided translations. Additionally, the translator has a bias towards South American Spanish. For example, translate "restrooms" and you will receive "servicios" and "baño" but not the common (in Spain) "aseos" (for which it doesn't have a translation).

The translator has a ton of features, including an English dictionary, thesaurus, unit and currency converter, clock, calculator, flashcards, and some learning games. I don't use these features very often, though they all appear to be quite solid.

As other reviewers have noted, the screen is fairly small, six lines of text using default settings. It is possible to make the text smaller, and cram more information on the screen. I don't use this feature, since it's harder to read when I'm out and about. There is a page down feature that lets you scroll through materials quickly. The screen is also not backlit, which I have not found to be a major problem. Yes, it will be hard to read in dark places, but so will a pocket dictionary. It is possible to adjust the screen contrast, which might help in low light situations.

The ability to have the translator speak a word from the dictionary seems like it should be useful, but it really isn't. Spanish has very regular pronunciation rules, so once you have those down, word pronunciation is usually not an issue. I just don't find myself wanting to use this feature that much. The pronunciations I have heard are very mechanical sounding, and not especially good. I like the earphones that came with my unit.

Battery life is excellent -- the unit seems to run forever on just two AAA batteries. I have operated the unit successfully using NiMH rechargeable AAA batteries (some electronic gizmos don't like the lower voltage levels of NiMH batteries).

The unit is a little larger than I would prefer, but still fits nicely into an adult pants pocket.

I have found the unit to be very rugged in daily use. It has traveled in my pocket on many excursions, been played with by my young kids, been dropped on the floor a few times, and still keeps on ticking.

I bought this unit before there were any reviews written. I figured I would take a gamble since this is the BES-1890 (i.e. has a higher model number than the rest). There are some good features of this model and there are some bad features. I will skip these for now though and report on one feature that is an absolute showstopper:

There is a bug in the hardware that repeats the first line of anything written in italics. This is really really annoying and is very common. I have no idea how this made it past Q&A.

For example, I have the unit in front of me now. I type in "arte" into the Spanish dictionary. Here is what I get:

arte nmf (usually m in singular, f in usually m in singular, f in plural)

1: art <artes y oficios: arts and crafts>

The part in parenthesis sounds confusing doesn't it? That is because it is writing part of the line and suddenly starting over again. I would say that I encounter this in 1 out of 3 words I look up.

This bug is enough of a reason to stay away from this product. If I knew this before I bought it, I wouldn't have.

Convient yes.

But not as good as having a standard dictonary.The major drawback is that it can not translate idiomatic phrases neither you can hear any sound(spoken)of a word combined with another one.

On hind sight,perhaps a less costlier version of this will serve the learner equally & cheaply.

On the whole average(THREE STARS).

This is my second Franklin Spanish<-->English Dictionary. The first one, the 1850, served me well for over 5 years. Loved it. Unfortunately, it was lost in a move back to the US. I chose the 1890 because it was the newer model. First the good points: Bigger screen, bigger keys, larger font...

The attribute that brought this dictionary down from a 5 star to a 3 star is that there is no hard cover that folds over to protect the keys and screen. The 1850 has this cover, the 1890 has only a soft pleather pouch. The on switch keeps being clicked on, resulting in rapid battery drain.

Despite several bad reviews, I purchased this product after losing my Franklin BES-1850. I started using Franklin English-Spanish dictionaries over ten years ago and they have proved to be very beneficial in learning Spanish. This one is no exception. Some reviews said the sound wasn't loud enough; mine is perfect. One complained about the screen being too small; mine is more than adequate. Some complained about it not having a backlight; although it is convenient, it is not necessary. I would tell anyone who is considering buying this to go ahead and buy it. You won't regret it.

It serves its purpose well, but the sound is quite soft; it was necessary to use headphones. Otherwise, it has been helpful for the person who received it as a gift, someone with no background in Spanish, to learn enough key words and phrases for a vacation to an area where very little English is spoken.

Having used their BES 1850, which is identical in all aspect ... and this device. I can not understand why they do not let the opening screen be either the spanish english dictionary or the english spanish dictionary. Instead, you have to scroll down to the spanish dictionary, then hit enter, before you can start using the dictionary. The bes 1850 starts out immediately in the spanish dictionary mode, saving your buttons and prolonging the life of the device. There is no option to set the default page to be the spanish or english dictionary. I am also disappointed that they no longer carry the Larousse versions of translators. I am sure it has to do with contracting agreement, but the Larousse version has more colloquial and slang terms that you will find in hispanic literature and newspaper.

The usefulness of these device can not be described until you struggled to find the conjugated form of a verb in a paper dictionary. It is difficult unless you already have an intermediate knowledge of spanish. It makes it frustrating for a beginner spanish student to read any book using only a paper dictionary. The Franklin devices allow you to read books at any level of spanish, as the stumbling block is usually a conjugated verb form.

I find that while reading the standard spanish bible, one in four words I did not know were not encountered in either the Larousse mini dictionary nor the Webster New World pocket spanish dictionary. While using this Franklin translator, I am guessing that only about 1 in 100 words searched were not found. I have not found a conjugated verb that has not been listed yet. Although toggling between pages is a pain in the butt for conjugated form that has more than one infinitive (ie - ve - which either can be ir or ver - go or see). The speaking function is relatively useless for most intermediate users, but I guess would be useful for a beginner.

Overall, it is a good item. But the BES 1850 is better mainly because the default screen is a spanish dictionary and not a list of books. The BES 1850 is also slightly smaller and better fitting in to the front pocket of most pants.

The description I read here doesn't mention the earbuds, nor the earphone plug in for this unit. When I first used the built in speaker, I was very disappointed with the sound quality, and the volume was so low that I would need to hold the unit up to my ear. The speaker is very small, on the on the BACK side (away from you) of the unit. I checked the volume control, but it was turned all the way up. I was about to give up, and return the unit, but thought I'd try the earbuds included in the package. I was amazed! It was way too loud! I had to turn the volume down to about half for it to be comfortable listening. Also not mentioned in the description here, but in the packaging was a soft case. My wish list for this device is that they would put the speaker on the front, and although there are thousands of spoken phrases and millions of spoken words, I wish for conjegated verb recordings, and written phonetic pronunciation guides in the text. But this device is loaded with information I know will help my journey to learn to speak and write Spanish.

Another thing that is handy, is that this unit has a full English Dictionary and Thesaurus.