Franklin DBE-1440 Pocket Spanish/English Dictionary

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 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 took this on one trip and I tried to pack it safely but the screen on the unit still somehow got broken. The cover is pretty flimsy so my theory is that the entire cover pressed into the screen causing it to break. For a travel piece of equipment to have the most vulnerable part of the unit so weakly protected is really bad design. I didn't own it long enough to evaluate it's usage. Sorry.

I bought this item to replace a DBE 1440 that wasn't working correctly. Although the buttons are a little small, and I have small hands, it works very well. The thing I like best about this model is the vast number of words and phrases that it has, including slang and even "dirty" words. Expensive, but worth it!

The keys for typing are too small for tyoing (men hands). Once you do get the word typed the unit function well.

it's an item that you don't fine eanymore even Amazon don't carry.I buy thru Amazon from a person waiting months for thesethese is a translator of spanish to english big diference of english to spanish is another way to think to feel to express

So far, this has been a disappointment. Shipped promptly, but the item was not the DBE 1440 with the LaRousse Dictionary, as the ad specified, it's the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.Here's the catch: Item doesn't work. Can't get it to turn on, at all! Hoping to hear back quickly from vendor, as I need this item for a business trip!

This unit is the perfect substitute for a spanish/english dictionary. Upon using it a few times, it picked up words quickly and easily. Probably on of the coolest things about it was that while reading, I could type in a fully conjugated verb and it would take me back to the root meaning of that verb. Especially useful if you don't know what the root verb might be. Great unit. Highly recommended.