Customer Reviews

Seiko DF4033 Six Language Translator, Organizer and Travel Alarm

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The Seiko DF4033 Language Translator is a nice little unit. It's small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, but it will bulge a bit, since it is about 3/4 of an inch thick. It has a backlight which makes it easier to read the screen in dim light. However, each of the keys serves two functions: the main function (such as a letter or numeric value) is printed right on the key and is easy to read, whereas the secondary function (attained by pressing the SHIFT key) is printed in orange over black making it harder to read even in normal lighting and I've found it impossible to read in dim light.

The unit is somewhat intuitive and appears well constructed. It has a number of phrases in various categories (accommodations, dining, health, shopping, travel, etc) that could come in handy. But, like most of these units, I've found the number of such phrases to be very limited. The alarm clock is a nice feature as is the phone directory. And you can even replace the battery without losing your stored data. You have 30 seconds to do so!

The letters on the screen itself are large and easy to read, but this limits the number of letters that can be seen at one time to only 12 per line. You can see the additional letters by pressing the scroll key. However, in translating some of the phrases the first few letters of a word can appear at the right end of screen on the first line and when you press the scroll arrow the screen image jumps to the remaining letters, essentially bisecting the word (you never see the entire word at the same time.) It would have been better if they had wrapped the phrase into the second line on the main screen so you would not have to scroll at all.

I think it would have been a nice feature if the translated word also showed the gender, where appropriate, and if phonetic assistance in pronouncing the foreign word was provided. There is room to do so on the second line of the display. Unfortunately, I have not found any reasonably priced translators that will do so, including this one.

Overall I like the unit and for the price I think it is a pretty good deal. For the casual traveler who does not know the language I expect that it will serve you (and me) well.

... Unfortunately,while I found it very easy to operate and very compact, I found using it to be quite disappointing. The first word I looked up was the German equivalent of "train" but the Seiko didn't contain "train," "train station" nor "locomotive" in its dictionary. Considering that much of European travel is done by train, it seems a pretty basic word that should have been included in an item aimed at European travellers. Ironically, they did include "trainer," which I think is far less necessary than train. The currency converter is useless - most of the buttons are for currencies no longer in existence since the Euro is now the standard in most European nations.

Almost all handheld multi-language translators have some common drawbacks and this one is no execption. Here are some examples: In order to translate a verb, you must provide the infinitive version in the foreign language. No gender articles are provided. The vocabulary word total given is for all of the words combined from each language -not for each individual language. This type of device is really just meant to provide catch-phrases and very basic vocabulary only. The Seiko was much easier to operate than others - I did not have to read the directions to figure out how to select the desired language and it was easy to figure out how to enter words. Also, the Seiko is backlit and easy to read - the letters are very clear and huge. It is sturdy looking and sleek,fitting easily into a pocket. Despite these positives, I found it much less expensive and much faster to look up words & phrases in a tiny traveller's dictionary/phrasebook. Therefore,I am returning the Seiko.

I bought this device because I thought it might help me on a vacation to Spain. Boy was I disappointed. The number of words especially common travel/tourism related-words, that it knows is small. The unit is hard to operate. Even the travel alarm is poorly implemented. Save your money. Buy something else (like a good phrase book).

I misplaced my manual if I ever had one. I agree with most of thee a copy o g mcomments stated. I am disappointed with it in that for a quick glance you cannot read the instruction when you open it. I don't know if when you close the lid that it shuts down the battery. I finally got the clock set and alarm but it was a challenge just from the instructions inside the lid or top cover. It would be nice if you had an off and on button to let you know that is was either on or off. I received an e-mail from the maker giving me the manual. It was worthless. It does not matter they don't make this anymore. Don't let anyone try and sell you one.