Customer Reviews

Sharp Electronics PW-E550 Electronic Dictionary

5 star:		(159)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I had been thinking about buying an electronic dictionary since they first appeared on the market. I knew pretty much what I wanted in a device but until now, I've found them all wanting in some area that was important to me. This device is absolutely perfect for my needs. These are the attributes that I was looking for, in roughly most important to least important order:

It had to be easy and intuitive to use
It had to have a very comprehensive dictionary and thesaurus
It had to show (not speak) pronunciation
It had to be non-invasive (imagine using one of the speaking dictionaries in a classroom or library setting)
It had to be reasonably priced

The PW-E550 meets all of these requirements.

At the time I was considering the PW-E550 I was reading two books: "Being And Nothingness" by Sarte and "How To Be Alone" by Jonathan Franzen (as an aside, if you're not familiar with Jonathan Franzen I highly recommend checking him out). I decided to page through each book and write down a short list of words that I either did not know the meaning of, or was unclear of. I then took that list of words to my local bookstore, found the hardcopy version of "The New Oxford American Dictionary" and looked up my words. With the minor exception of "transphenomenal", I found all of my words in some form (with "transphenomenal" I was able to find "phenomenal", "phenomena" and "trans-").

To give you an idea of what I was looking for I unashamedly present my word list:

nihilates, transphenomenal, ontological, heterogeneity, facticity, thematized, interiorization, objectivation, vagaries, preponderant, exigencies, isolationism, milieu, preemption, multilateralism

When I received the PW-E550 the first thing I did was to recheck my word list. My experience was better than I expected. Not only did I find the same words and definitions, I didn't have to glance at the manual at all to figure out what to do. I just pressed the "DICT" button, typed my word and watched the list of words that matched my typing get smaller until my word (or a form of it) was displayed.

The screen has two zoom settings and the contrast makes the display easy to read. The entire unit could fit comfortably into a shirt pocket (both size and weight). The fact that it uses a single AAA battery (as a previous reviewer mentioned) is a real plus.

There was one feature that I did not think about until I started using the device - it would be nice if, when looking at a definition, I could look up any of the words in the definition without losing my place. That's when I picked up the manual and much to my delight I discovered the device can do this (they call it "Super Jump"). It's not as intuitive as the other features but once you've used it, it becomes obvious. Finally, the hardcopy version of the dictionary has pictures on some pages but the E550 does not. Again, not an issue for me.

I would like to comment on an earlier review where the author gave this unit a one star review. She complained that the PW-E550 is a dumbed-down version of the PW-E500. By dumbed-down, she meant it had fewer words than the E550. This is true. However, the PW-E500 uses the "Oxford English Dictionary" and its corresponding "New Oxford Thesaurus". That dictionary gives both English (as in England) and American definitions, likewise the thesaurus. This would be a personal choice. I don't need to see both "color" and "colour" in my dictionary but that's just me. To me it was like she was saying that she thinks a Jaguar is a better car than a Cadillac therefore a Cadillac is a lousy car. This is a great reference tool.

If you have any doubts about the contents of this unit, go look at the hardcopy versions. I am very impressed and absolutely delighted that I have such a simple yet comprehensive reference sitting on the arm of my chair as I read.

I'm a big electronic dictionary geek - I own four of them. Two of them for languages (Japanese and Chinese) and two for English. I'm a writer and I am constantly reading and looking up words, and I like to be able to do away from my computer because honestly, who wants to lug around a laptop when they just want to take a book out to a coffeeshop?

I own both the Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Speaking Dictionary (with a Concise Columbia Encyclopedia card) and the Sharp PW-E550. I owned the Merriam-Webster first, then bought this one, and actually bought the Seiko Concise Encyclopedia Britannica for a while before I returned that one. Here's a comparison between the two, and a little mention of the last one:

- Both have a similar range of definitions. There are some words I could find in the MW I couldn't in the Sharp (McGuffin), and there are some I could find in the Sharp but not the MW (phylogenic, the Bowery). I find that the MW tends to have slightly more in-depth definitions and the Sharp one reads a bit more concise and colloquial. The Sharp does provide examples of usage while the MW doesn't.

- The MW doesn't have a visual pronounciation key, while the Sharp does. That's because the MW speaks out the words. This to me was kind of silly because you don't always want to hear the words out loud (like, in a library, or just about anywhere public), even if they included a headphone jack. What became problematic was that the speaking gizmo on my MW broke after a few months, and now I can't even hear the pronounciation even if I want to.

- The Sharp will list all the words possible with each input of a letter (i.e., if you punch in "a" it'll list all the words that begin with "a," then if you punch in "b" it'll list all the words that begin with "ab" until you get to the word you want. The MW waits until you input all the letters and hit "enter," then it searches until it finds something. It takes about a second or two for it to find something that is in its dictionary, but if you punched in something with the wrong spelling or it just doesn't know, it'll take a while, maybe five seconds, which gets kind of exasperating, especially once you get used to the Sharp.

- The Sharp, when you turn it on, displays exactly what you had when you last had it on. The MW always starts with the same default screen. The Sharp also has a memory feature, that goes back some forty or so of your last entries.

- The buttons on the MW are hard and they hurt after prolonged usage. The buttons on the Sharp are pretty soft, which ends up with the opposite problem, you may not push hard enough on them at times.

- The Concise Encyclopedia that came with the MW is extremely painful to use. It's slower than the dictionary and when you do page up or page down it often goes straight to the previous or next entry. Otherwise it provides some decent amount of information at your fingertips. I'm just afraid of the tediousness of it all.

- The leather flip cover for the MW is really flimsy, while the Sharp is neatly self-protecting. I also like how you can open the whole thing 180 degrees, which is something the Seiko can't do. The Seiko only opens up to about 135 degrees, which might seem adequate until you get used to the Sharp.

- The games that come with the MW aren't so great. I like the idea of creating your own wordlist, but it barely takes any, maybe 20 maximum. After playing with them a bit my first week with the MW, I stopped using the game function.

- The Sharp has a grammar guide that I hardly ever use. I suppose it could be handy, but it just feels impractical.

For a long while I carried around both the MW and the Sharp, with Sharp being my first resource then, if I have to, the MW, and if I really have to, the Concise Encyclopedia in the MW. After a while I just ditched the MW and now I only use the Sharp. It is a far better experience, and it's become an indispensible tool. The Seiko I was really excited to check out, but for the price I was quite disappointed. The user experience, while better than the MW, pales compared to the Sharp. The entries in the Seiko are great, a lot of information and depth, but most of the terms in there are in the Sharp anyway, just not with as much detail. For $180, I decided I could just stick with the Sharp for basic concepts on the proper nouns, and head to my laptop when I want more in-depth detail.

Overall, I recommend anyone with a remote interest in having an English electronic dictionary to go with the Sharp. It's the best portable reference I've found so far.

The Sharp PW-E550 is an excellent product. It is just slightly larger than a deck of cards when closed. It has two font sizes. The smaller one is perfectly readable for me and offers sufficient content on the screen. It performs amazingly well, very quick, and has so far had all the words I needed to look up.

As one person mentioned, spend a few minutes going through the manual as there are a couple of features that are not readily apparent but are very useful. The Super Jump feature being the most notable, which allows you to lookup the definition of a word within a definition.

The Sharp PW-E550 does everything I wanted it to do and more. A great buy.

I've only had this dictionary/thesaurus for one day, and its all-around perfectness has driven me to write this review. Sharp really does include the full contents of each book in this device!

1) Dictionary: All definitions are explained clearly, many with example sentences and word origins. Want to know about a town, i.e. Altus(purely random)? Type it in - it's a town in SW Oklahoma, pop. 21910. Phrases? See if you can find this one in your ordinary electronic dictionary - "upset the applecart" or "the whole ball of wax." Need to refresh your mind on history? This has it all. It unscrambles words, too.

2) Thesaurus: The Complete Oxford American Thesaurus...tons of words.

3) Grammar book: good for refreshing your memory on key points.

On top of that, the font is big, black, and easy to read. The wait times are nonexistent. And yes, you can use "Super Jump" and jump between entries at the touch of a button.

This is the absolute best electronic dictionary I have ever used or seen. If you want an intuitive, easy to use, easy to read, easy to understand electronic dictionary/thesaurus/history/geography/grammar/etc. device, then get this. It's well worth the money, and you'll never need another one. Ever.

I bought this unit about a year and a half ago, and soon couldn't understand how I ever lived without it. The dictionary is quite complete -- I haven't had to go to my OED but maybe once or twice since getting it. The definitions tend to be on the terse side, but not ridiculously so.

The thesaurus is just okay, but I've been spoiled by my vintage 1957 Roget's, which is SO much better than what they slap that name on these days.

So why the negative review? After a year and a half of being my trusty writing desk sidekick it just quit. Wouldn't turn on, wouldn't do anything. New battery and jabbing the reset doohickey do nothing. Naturally the warranty is only for a year. If this was a $15 item I'd grumble and get another one, but at $80 I shudder to think what my cost per lookup came out to!

Now I can't live without one of these little gadgets, but I'll be trying a different brand. Hope I can find one that's as good as this and actually lasts awhile!

It's amazing how so many reviewers give this electronic dictionary five stars. For the most part I agree. This is an easy to use electronic dictionary with a deep vocabulary database and a comfortable thumb keyboard. The dictionary itself is a good one not only because of its coverage but because it lists a word's most frequently used core meaning first, unlike the Franklin English dictionaries where definitions are listed in chronological order, from oldest to latest (how stupid is that!). So whenever you look up a word in this Sharp dictionary, you'll know which definitions are the most used ones. The included thesaurus is also pretty good and the grammar guide is fun to read.

Unlike my Franklin 11th edition speaking dictionary, which had a lousy keyboard, this Sharp has large-sized keys that have the right tactile feel to them. There are also dedicated page-down and page-up keys, a very good feature. On the down side, the placements of Enter and Esc are unconventional and stupid and take quite some time to get used to.

The multiple-line black and white LCD screen is sharp and you can view contents in one of two fonts and change the font size on teh fly via a dedicated Zoom key. (The Franklin, in contrast, requires a trip to the setup menu.) Unfortunately the LCD screen is not backlit (nor are the keys), making it impossible to use this in the dark when you, say, have a sudden craving for enlarging your vocabulary while lying in bed. Given that most paper dictionaries (and the Franklin electronic ones) suffer the same problem, and given that a dictionary is usually used as a companion to reading something else, this may not be a big problem. Still, I wish it had a backlight option.

Nicely, the Sharp uses just one AAA battery and has good battery life. The clamshell design protects the screen and keyboard and the size is small enough to carry in a pocket. The build quality stands in stark contrast with the Franklin 11th edition collegiate speaking dictionary: whereas the latter feels cheap and flimsy, the Sharp feels solid and well built. I really hate myself for wasting $90 on the Franklin before discovering a much better value in this model.

On the other hand, the Franklin model has lots of learning tools (like an SAT word list as well as the ability to make your own vocabulary list) and games but the Sharp PW-E550 doesn't have any. But given the Sharp cheaper than the Franklin I guess this is not a big deal.

The biggest difference between the two is this Sharp has pronunciation keys but no spoken pronunciation, whereas the Franklin speaking dictionary is the opposite: spoken only but no written keys. It would have been nice to get both in one dictionary, esp. for foreign words (how exactly do you make those damned French sounds??) I got tired of Franklin's synthesized speech quick so I don't miss not having it. When I travel to Hong Kong a few years ago I saw electronic dictionaries with natural speech (American accented, no less!) selling for a few dollars. I don't understand why nobody has one here. Maybe the market is just too small as native English speakers usually don't need or care for this feature. (Who cares about how the French pronounce their words? We have our own way of saying them!)

Ok, in short, whether you are a student or an adult or something in between, this Sharp makes a great reading companion. Too bad it cannot be be updated to include new words like "blog" -- but then, who really cares for these new words anyway?

I use the Sharp PW-E550 when I am out reading at a cafe, it is a great little tool and it has proven to be quite indispensable!

PROS:
1. Relatively compact (size & weight) as compared with comparable Franklin models. It is not small enough to carry in a jean pocket (or a shirt pocket unless you are one of those that wears a pocket protector), but it's much better than having to lug a dictionary around
2. When you turn the unit on, it will be where you last left off, not the main screen - you'll come to appreciate this feature
3. 8-line display makes it easier to skim through definitions without scrolling
4. Fast retrieval of dictionary/thesaurus entries - almost instantaneous
5. Spell checker is very good at finding the word you are looking for
6. The Super Jump feature is very handy (as mentioned by many other reviewers)
7. The keys are well laid-out and intuitive to use

CONS:
1. The unit is made in China, and the built-quality suffers a bit, but it is sturdy enough to take some beating
2. Soft buttons are comfortable, but occasionally enters one-too-many characters, this coming from a Blackberry user who's comfortable with even smaller keypads
3. A backlight will be a nice addition to the feature set but not a necessity
4. In addition to the History which is marginally useful, it'd be nice to have more memory to store words of your choosing on the unit -- electronic flashcard?

I own the PW E550 and the PW E500. Neither model has dissapointed me as far as variety of words. I have yet to stump either device reading classic English works. I bought these dictionaries based on the reviews on this page and the reviews of the competing devices from Franklin and Seiko. Also, I think the Oxford Dictionary of English (and its American counterpart) are excellent reference books, better put together (in my opinion) than Merriam-Webster or American Heritage.

The E550 has the grammer dictionary, which is a great tool. The E500 has the dictionary of quotes, which is nice, but I think I would have rather had the grammer dictionary.

The definitions are long, very informative, and easy to understand. The definitions are also organized as to most modern meaning first, considered the core sense, followed by sub-senses which might be: most commonly used, oldest, etc... Each sense has an example sentence which shows its use--very nice to have.

Some of the entries have *notes* associated with them, which give a great deal of additional info on the particular subject (e.g. earth, which identifies circumference, distance from sun, and other facts).

Both the E550 and the E500 have pronunciations; however, the E550 has it for most every word, whereas the E500 has pronunciations for certain (I guess less obvious) words. The E500 is described as the "British" version by the manual, but as an American I have had no trouble understanding any word uses/definitions. The E500 will also identify regional differences in usage for you so you don't have to guess if you're sounding too much the Brit or the Yank (e.g. it will say N. Amer for meanings common in North America, and Brit. for meanings commonly used in the UK). It will also tell you if the particular sense of the word is archaic, vulger, slang, formal, informal, etc...

No backlight, but the screen is clear, large, and you can zoom in or out one size of the font. They keys are large and soft, making it quite easy to type versus stiff, hard keys. The devices are conservative looking, light, and appear well built. They use 1 AAA battery. They also have an automatic shutoff, which you can configure and which will extend the life of your battery. They will stay open at virtually any angle less than or equal to 180 degrees, which is convenient for desktop use, sitting on your chest as you lay in bed, or whatever contortion you find comfortable.

The E550 is US $[...]. For double the price I got 105K more words, lost the grammer guide, and gained the quotes dictionary. I'm not sure if I made out for the better or not on this one, I suppose time will tell. If I don't find a word I'm looking for in my more $$ one, I may end up being disappointed. Do I think double the price for 105K more words is good? Not really, but as I'm going to rely primarily on this device when I read and travel, I figured I'd spend the extra money and get as much as I could.

Again, I have tried no other dictionaries but these, and bought these based on reviews of the predominant brands. I have been very pleased with my purchase thus far and would recommend one of these to anyone intersted in improving their vocabulary and understanding of the English language--and to quite a few people not intersted in doing so but who butcher the meanings of words regularly.

As for me, I'm studying for the Graduate Record Exam and have already found this to be a great tool in improving my score.

Buying this dictionary was one of the best investments I have ever made. It has nearly every word I need to look up (the ones that don't show up are latin words that are rarely used in philosophy, which I wouldn't expect most dictionaries to have anyway).

The thesaurus is a great tool to have, helping me to use a greater variety of words while writing. The Garner's Modern American Usage was a pleasant surprise, giving detailed explanations of specific usage issues in the English language.

I was comparing this to the Franklin Electronic Dictionary (Merriam-Webster College Dictionary 11th ed), but I really despised the idea of a talking dictionary and I much prefer the pronunciation guide. While the Franklin model does have games and tools designed to help expand one's vocabulary, it seems (at least in its description) to be full of unnecessary features. The Sharp dictionary, on the other hand, is very easy to use and is well-suited for its purpose.

All this being said, I should point out that after only two weeks of use, the LCD broke on my dictionary. I suppose that maybe I set my backpack down too quickly and the force crushed it, but needless to say I was very dissappointed that this product couldn't handle more than it did. I called Sharp and they are not going to cover my product under warranty, even though I feel it's not designed as well as it could be. Despite my negative sentiments towards the company, I plan on ordering a replacement and buying a hard case this time.

I have been a lover of dictionaries for many decades now. I enjoy learning and one cannot learn if the words are not understood!

Seems I am always "in search of a better dictionary". When the first Oxford American Dictionary came out I was very impressed with its clear, easy to understand and simple definitions. Main thing missing then was there were no derivations for the words and it was not expansive enough. Later the dictionary was greatly revised and expanded and provided derivations. But skimped on examples for definitions.

Then came the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD). This dictionary is about as good as it gets in a single volume that can be lugged around. Weighs about 8 pounds.

The NOAD has excellent definitions. It presents its definitions in a very simple way that is an upgrade over previous dictionaries. Something like Encarta, but has better definitions and more examples. And has excellent derivations.

Also, very importantly, gives simple examples for most of the definitions. In the past the dictionaries that provided examples for their definitions usually gave sentences from English Literature. And often these sentences contained words that were uncommon and forced one to look them up in order to have understanding. Sometimes these words were so uncommon you couldn't even find definitions for them in the dictionary that provided the example! The NOAD provides simple examples that illustrate the meaning, but are not pedantic.

So if I can only have one dictionary at my disposal at any given time I choose the NOAD. Understand, though, that the NOAD might not be the best dictionary for a person that hasn't been looking up words for some time. A simpler dictionary might be more appropriate for regular use. In which case this dictionary would be a great second dictionary for finding words and definitions missing from the easier dictionary.

When I discovered that Sharp had teamed up with Oxford to put the entire NOAD in a small package I was delighted.

This tiny device contains the entire NOAD PLUS an Oxford Thesaurus and a Grammer Book.

The electronic dictionary is superbly done and functional. Very easy to use and actually makes looking up words fast and fun. If you are in a definition and need to look up another word in that definition you can do that quickly and as quick return to the definition you were in.

You can also look up a word in the new definition if needed. You can continue to do this, if needed, and still be able to return (without using the history function) via the same word path. The dictionary keeps track of this direct path up to 10 words. If you need to go back further the History function is there to do so. The history function keeps track of 30 words.

Phrases and idioms are also very easy to find. Much easier than in a regular dictionary. Sometimes one doesn't know which word entry might have the definition for the particular idiom. Here you can type in up to 3 words in the phrase and the dictionary finds the phrase and its definition immediately.

I recommend you read the manual. You can even download it before purchase. It is easy to understand. Knowing how to use this convenient little device gives you great power in terms of mastering words rapidly.

You can jump to other definitions, to the Thesaurus or Grammer book, to notes on definitions, etc. and back again with ease. The facility of navigating the dictionary is superb.

The history function is very useful as it keeps track of words you have looked up and permits fast access to them.

The dictionary is so useful I bought another. It is small and lightweight. (Won't leave home without it). I will probably buy several more to give to others I know.

If you want to learn the English language and have rapid access to words for anything you are studying this dictionary is a MUST.