Franklin Merriam Webster Advanced Dictionary and Thesaurus With Spell Correction (MWD-1500)

This little unit is difficult to use, IMO. There are so many features on it that I will never use - games that difficult to understand, entire reference books that I will never use, etc.

Trying to input my phone number list into this gadget was incredibly difficult! Whew, I'm tellin' ya! I'd carefully punch out the names on the itty-bitty keyboard and then look at the display only to see that a few of the keystroke had not registered. Although the keyboard is QWERTY, there's no way in heck that I can fit my fingers onto the homekeys all at once.

When you punch ORG (which I think stands for Organizer) it takes you to the clock. From there, you can select CLOCK (which confuses me, because you're already there), DATA (which is just your phone book), CALC, CONV (which I will use probably twice in my lifetime) and CURR (which I need more of in order to be in a predicament where I might need to convert currency).

Learn, Exercises, Games that are terribly difficult to navigate and understand, Setup are all available at the touch of fingernail-sized key.

The phone book itself holds a very limited amount of information. It tells you how dreadfully close you are to filling up your memory after each entry. And I can't help but wonder how much more data I might be able to fit into the unit if I had the option of deleting one of the oversized tomes that come built-in.

I looked forward to keeping my appointments and such on this unit. Alas, you cannot.

One thing I did like was the screen size. It's roomy for such a small unit, and I see very small type with no problems at all. I love looking up words on my Franklin, but that's just about all I can do with this thing.

I would have liked to erase some of the features that I would never use and instead utilize that memory for keeping notes and such.

Someone wanna trade me? Heh.

BTW: I have no idea why this unit is priced so highly online. I got mine at Walmart for 12-bucks. I thought it was a mistake and was going to argue my case at the check-out...but it scanned through at 12-clams. With that price alone compared to the prices I've seen online, I should be happy with this gadget. And I am. Sort of.

It featured 5 lines of info, thus make the font size smaller,
not as easy to read as my old one, and the Thesaurus seems not as great.

I got this to replace my 15+ year old Franklin Language Master. This model has more features, a larger menu and folds up to protect the screen. Unlike other reviewers, I like the contrast/letter size options and have no trouble reading it. However, it is smaller than the original and is not as easy to key, but with practice I have gotten used to it. Overall a good value.

This device is great for any grade level up to college. I use it nearly every day, and it is worth every penny.

When I first opened and started using this item, the room was not very well lit and the words on the device were difficult to read. However, this was easily corrected by turning the contrast up.

Games include hangman, anagrams, word train, word builder, jumble, connect four, and tic tac toe, each of which you can put in your own word if desired. Word builder is very useful for games like scrabble; you can put in a bunch of letters and it gives you all of the different words possible to be made with them.

There are three choices for phont size: small medium and large. They have 10, 8, and 5 lines in a screen respectivly, however, size small is written in all caps.

Scrolling is simple, you can either press down to scroll one line at a time, or you can press space, which scrolls an entire page making the last line first.

The buttons are fairly easy to press after trying it for the first time for a minute or two; it does not usually press undesired keys

The first set of batteries that the device came with lasted about four months, but I use it a ton.

So far it has been very durable and usefull; I use it nearly every day when writing papers. On my last model (1440, out of print), its top broke off after a couple weeks.



Dictionary & Thesaurus: The dictionary is very easy to use, has had every word I have looked up (mostly college level words(, and it is very easy to look up a word inside a definition that you may not be familiar with. Switching to and from dictionary and thesaurus is not at all complicated; it can be done with the press of a button. Dictionary definitions are good and easy to understand. Thesaurus entries are filled with several synonyms, ranging from three to over twenty.

Punctuation & Style: Being a higher level student, I did not really use this feature very much, but there are 9 different categories to choose from on the first menu, and around five different options on each category once selected (i.e. choice of Punctuation, Capitals and Italics, Abbreviations, etc. Select Capitals and Italics. Choose from Introduction, Beginnings, Proper Nouns and Adjectives, etc.

Geographical Dictionary: This feature can be useful even if you think you'll never use it. It literally has thousands of entries in the A's alone (I scrolled down just out of curriosity). It even had my own city, now with a population of 80,000, however, its information must have been written around '03 or '04 because it said it only had 50,000. This feature is helpful even if you are just wondering what country or state a certain city is in. Definitions are very brief, usually less than three lines long.

Biographical Dictionary: At first, it was difficult to figure out how to look at other entries of people with the same name, but I simply went to the help menu, and it explained it to me. Its selection, I'm pretty sure, is close to the size of the geographical.

5 Language Translator: English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian are the different languages to choose from. You can have words translated to and from any of these languages. When the word is typed in (after auto correction), it gives the translation for each language. This feature is nice if you happen to read a sign in a different language and are currious about its meaning.

It also has a calculator, currency converter, clock, date, time etc., and conversions to and from metric and U.S. It also has a place to put contact information of friends (up to 50) which holds their name, number, and address.

Learn a Word: this feature randomly selects a word from the dictionary each time you turn on the device. This can be turnded off if desired.

I would have given this product 5 stars if it was expandable.
I would (and have) reccommended this product to a friend.

Good for the value, screen could be better, have to press hard on the keys.
Overall good.

Franklin MWD-1500 is a nice product.
Very good feature, it has most of the words you might look for.
I had MWD-480 in past; this one is lot faster than that.
Size is also pretty handy.
It has five language dictionary which has basic words that you may look for.
Games are OK. not very interesting.
One option i like most is you can add words to your words list that you may feel are whether important to you or difficult for you. You can review them again and again. Thats a very useful feature.
Product feel is also very great. Keyboard however is not sufficiently sensitive, you may have to press few buttons HARDER to type. Trust me this is sometimes annoying. (But this was the same problem with my old MWD-480 too).
The display is not at all as crisp as they show on the product information photos.
It is pixeleted so first time i saw the product i thought there is something wrong with it but it was ok.
I think the consumer has a right to see the actual photo not a graphically edited one.
I had to buy this new one cause my old one's (MWD-480)display went blank just after the one year warranty was over.
Thats why they cant do anything to it.
If this one does the same i will not buy one more again and produce more landfills.
Overall happy with the product so far.

I bought this item for my 5th grade and 2nd grade kids. They are having difficulty spelling words any other way than phonetically. The MWD1500 does a great job of taking commonly misspelled words and finding the correct spelling. It does the same with words with the same sound (i.e. rain, reign, rein). I haven't confused the machine yet.

It has a calculator, phone/address book, conversion charts and many more features. I like the way it easily cross references the dictionary and thesaurus without needing to re-enter the word.

I wish the cover folded underneath to avoid a potential breakage, but at least the cover (when open) has some directions on it so you can easily remember how to use it.

My biggest complaint is I bought it at a retail store for more than $20 more than what Amazon has it listed for. Buy it online!

The liquid crystal display is easily broken. The ease of use is terrible. And it doesn't have all the words that I needed to find.

I got this for my kid who is in 3rd grade, who has been asking me to spell frequently. She finds it great fun to use and loves the games on it.

This is a very handy electronic dictionary. The screen is large enough to display multiple lines. The spelling correction is very effective, displaying multiple options. The thesaurus and dictionary contain more words than most dictionaries out there. Highly recommended!

While adequate it definitely has a limited amount of data. The contrast is extremely low making it difficult to read in subdued light. I have an older model Franklin product which has a high contrast screen larger print and is ten times easier to read. They ought to Beta test their products before putting them out in the market.

a very nice hand held dictionary/thesaurus.It has spell check , pronunciation , & everything that I needed. It works very nicely.

Product Features

* Monochrome LCD screen
Offers an easy-to-read display.
* Dictionary and thesaurus
Includes 400,000 definitions and 500,000 synonyms and antonyms.
* Geographical and biographical dictionaries
Provide important information about people and places.
* Grammar, punctuation and style guides
For easy reference to rules and usage.
* 5-language guide
Includes English, Spanish, French, German and Italian for easy translation.
* SAT and user word lists
Make studying easy.
* Organizer
Includes world travel clock, personal databank, calculator and currency/measurement converter.



Product Height
1/2"
#
Product Width
4-1/2"
#
Product Weight
8 oz.
#
Product Depth
2-2/3"
#
Power Supply
Battery
#
LCD Display
Monochrome

I got this item for working on speeches and homework. It is great for on the go. I wish it came with a case because it will scratch easily.