Franklin Speaking Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition (SCD-2100)

The dictionary itself is very good(you know how merriam websters are like), and thesaurus is very handy, the best I've seen so far. (as a foreign student I've had over 5)However, it makes clicking noise when you press buttons which is slightly getting annoying and it doesn't turn on instantly on the first time after leaving it turned off for some time.(takes about 8 sec. After that it turns on in less than 2 seconds though).In addition it takes some time to load definitions and you can't add more than 100 words on the words list.Also the design of the interior is horrific, not just the looks but the alignment of function keys don't really match what shows on the screen because of the menu button and it's a bit confusing (you're bound to press menu key instead of f1 or f1 instead of f2 but you'll get used to it eventually)Back to the pros, it has an outstanding battery life, very compact size (but with a sufficient screen size) and additionally, fabulous exterior design.Though I am not 100% satisfied, I'll strongly recommend this to everyone who needs an electronic dictionary.

The Franklin dictionary is very easy to use. The buttons are large enough for me to press and type without making many mistakes. It really saves me time, because in research or projects, instead of having to heave a heavy dictionary onto my desk and flip throught the pages, i can just search and type in the word im looking for. Usually, if i read a book, i may run into some words that i dont understand. i do my best to keep them in the back of my head because i dont want to get to get a pen and a piece of paper, or define it on the spot. Later on, i would forget. But, if i have the Franklin with me, i can turn it on(takes less than 5 sec.) and search the word. Also, if u choose to turn the feature on, you can have a word-learning feature that will teach you a new word every time you turn the device on. It is very useful. Also, it is very convenient. It has games, a calendar, time, and even an address book. So, if you are one of those people who are trying to save time searching up words instead of flipping through big dictionaries, the Franklin is the best.

These comments do not pertain to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary itself, but to the electronic device that holds it, which a shoddy piece of work. To begin with, it is too small (3" by 4") for a dictionary with 57 keys. When a word of, say, eight letters or more is entered, the odds are that the user with normal size fingertips will hit a wrong key or two, which necessitates making a correction or retyping the word. A second major flaw is that the letters that appear on the "Enter an English word" screen are very small and to make matters worse the last letter in the word being input is partially obscured by the rather thick cursor so that it is hard to tell at a glance what the last letter is. Finally the contrast between the letters on the screen and the background of the screen is very weak, even when the user sets the contrast adjustment button at high contrast. I should also mention that the characters on the screen can be set to three different sizes, which is helpful when reading definitions, but the letters in the "Enter an English word" screen is set to the smallest font and cannot be enlarged. I use four different electronic dictionaries in my work (none made by Franklin) which are light years ahead of the Franklin "Merriam-Webster's Speaking Collegiate Dictionary." If you like the Collegiate Dictionary, you'll do better to buy the book version.

UPDATEI'm changing this review from 3 stars to 4 stars because the Sharp unit I mention below started having problems. Namely, lines on the screen which made it unusable. My review of this Franklin device was at first glance. Now that I have used it for quite a while, I really like the definitions better than those on the Sharp. This Franklin unit also has more definitions and thesaurus than the Sharp unit. This Franklin unit is quite a find. I encourage those looking at the Sharp unit to reconsider because at some point, the unit will get the horizontal lines on the screen making it unreadable.Original ReviewI'm going to compare this unit to another electronic dictionary offered by Amazon, the Sharp PW-E550. It can be found here: Sharp Electronics PW-E550 Electronic Dictionary.I've had the Sharp PW-E550 for about 5 years. Thinking a newer electronic dictionary would be of even more use to me, I recently (April 2011) ordered a newer electronic dictionary. Boy was I wrong - big mistake on my part. I ordered this unit, the Franklin Speaking Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition (SCD-2100) Although the Franklin unit has 250,00 more base definitions and 150,000 more thesaurus entries, the Sharp PW-E550 is still a far superior unit. The definitions in the Franklin unit literally used variations of a defined word in providing the definition of the word. For me, such a "definition" is useless. If I don't know the meaning of a particular word, I certainly won't understand a definition that uses a variation of the word I don't understand. I returned the Franklin unit to Amazon.com after a few days of using the unit side-by-side with the Sharp PW-E550. The definitions in the PW-E550 are concise, and the unit isE550 much easier to use than the Franklin unit.I did give the Franklin unit 3 stars for its larger number of Dictionary & Thesaurus entries. It also has a larger screen than the Sharp. Finally, the Franklin unit is a speaking dictionary, something the Sharp does not have as a feature.