Franklin SCD-1870 Speaking 11th Collegiate Dictionary

If you really need it for one year or 6 month, it is ok to have. But if you are planning to use for longer time, forget it!
firt of all it is too expensive for what it does (Ipd is only $99 it does more...)
Second speaking of words is crab...forget it!
Third display is hard to see and not well lit!
Fourth not customer freindlly (ease of use)
Finally, if the battery is dead then it is gone forever!! you will lose eveything !!!
Don't buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!

I reviewed a couple of electronic dictionaries online and there is no ONE perfect dictionary that would have all the features that one would want. But this one is the closest to what I have always wanted. It has a wide range of vocabulary - easily accessed. It is simple in use and fun to use too. I like it and advise it to anyone who wants to work with their vocabulary and pronunciation :) (I'm from Europe :-)

Everything is great except that the color is kind of man's color, a little dark grey. but it is of great help that I keep it with me all the time as a college student.
I recommend it.

I don't recommend you to buy or even read about what people said.
so don't waste your money.

What an exceptional experience I had dealing with aaron. Would not hesitate to buy from him again!

I am a Doctoral candidate and this little gem was a must for me. I had a speller for years and it was time to upgrade. The speaking part of this device is the best! The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because it needs a backlight, so when I get profound epiphanys in the middle of the night I don't have to turn on a light.

This dictionary is mediocre at best and a bitter disappointment for endurance of product. Major shortcomings are: non-retention of the last word used -- i.e., a word entered by user is not retained in the lookup window after the unit is powered off unless a word is deliberately saved by user in the unit's word list, which itself requires a rather tedious means for maintenance; the spoken pronunciation of a word does not sound natural -- i.e., the digitally-generated voice has a rather unpleasant machine-like quality to it -- therefore the definition should be accompanied by a pronunciation guide/key; the unit's physical keys are not user-friendly for larger fingers -- i.e., adjacent keys are too easily engaged, resulting in an erroneous entry and/or an inconvenient interference. My particular dictionary was purchased new but it remained fully functional for only fifteen months, after which, without ANY abuse whatsoever during ownership of the product, the ENTER key and up/down scroll keys failed to be recognized, rendering the unit useless except to read the FIRST PART of a definition by pressing the DICT or THES key on the unit's tool bar. Given that the failure of my Franklin SCD-1870 occurred shortly beyond its one-year warranty period, this experience leaves a nasty memory of a relatively expensive Franklin product. As a replacement, I purchased a Sharp PW-E550, which seems to be overall a product that is superior in almost all aspects to the Franklin SCD-1870, even notwithstanding no spoken pronunciation for the Sharp replacement.

Excellent product! I have used this dictionary for almost five years now. It is easy to use, informative, and has withstood being dropped countless times. It has very good learning tools to help you expand your vocabulary. The "speak" tool has helped me fix words I had mispronounced my whole life. I love it...worth the money.

I have had The Franklin model SCD-1870 for several years now. I'm so grateful and happy with it I'm compelled to say a few words about it.

Two AAA batteries I put in several years ago and it still works! And I use the dictionary pretty much every day. As others have noted both the LCD and the speech are clear. Vocabulary capacity is more than enough. It comes with a lot more than a mere dictionary, like eBooks, but I use it primarily as a dictionary.

I nominate this product as the best product of the first decade of the 21st century.

I'll never forget now the day I received my electronic dictionary. It has changed my life. My mother bought me the Franklin SCD-1870 Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and I was in awe of this handheld device which looked like a little notepad but functioned like a computer. I spent that night and the next day looking up every single word I could think of, even the ones I was familiar with. I would link myself from word to word and started building up my word list and looking up new words and studying the SAT Word List. I loved pronouncing the difficult words and the batteries that came with the dictionary lasted for 18 months before the computer told be it was on low battery, and this was after using the device nearly every single day. I love saving words in the Word List, although sometimes the list is erased if you leave the device out in an extreme temperature, so be careful and make back-ups. The games serve their purpose and I don't have a problem reading the text. This works pretty quickly if you are typing in a word that the computer matches identically, but you have to wait a bit if you type in a word that is spelled incorrectly. The asterisk and question mark function helps out a lot though if you are not sure how a word is spelled. This is highly recommended and it is definitely one of those products that makes me wonder how I ever went without it. I need it by my side at all times now.

This review pertains to Model SCD-1870A, ISBN: 159074174.

Please do not waste your money on this product. My girlfriend and I bought two of these dictionaries together, through an online vendor, and both had defects.

At first my saved wordlist would delete periodically (which is frustrating when you have saved around 30 new words and are trying to expand your vocabulary). Then my dictionary simply stopped working, after around 4 months of use. My gf's still works, but her wordlist deletes once she turns the power off.

For the price asked, the product is made extremely cheaply. You'd expect a more durable plastic--one that could withstand a small drop. The dictionary has a "cheap" feeling when you pick it up, and it is somewhat difficult to type, since the letters are so small. On average, it takes the dictionary about 1.5-2 seconds to find a word once you type it and hit enter. I've seen less expensive dictionaries look up words AS you type, meaning that if you type "gramm," the word "grammatical" and other similarly spelled words would come up, thus saving you time.

I gave the product two stars instead of one b/c it did have useful features (it's just a matter of those features working). The dictionary is very powerful--I read a lot of philosophy & scholarly works and have not found a word Franklin could not define. It has great word games as well, and the pronunciation is fairly comprehensible. But again, for the money paid, the product is too poorly constructed to receive, in my opinion, anything above 2 stars.

My sister has a dictionary made by Sharp (http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-Electronics-PW-E550-Electronic-Dictionary/dp/B00028DM96/ref=pd_cp_e_0?pf_rd_p=250314601&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0000A8VNU&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=146VZ2PJ1K0NRC9Q68P3), and for looking up words it is much better, and has a more durable feel to it.

This Franklin's SCD-1870 is a good and convenient product (looks great too). I especially like the fact that one can simply pop in an expansion card (dictionaries, references, games, and even bibles) to obtain additional functions--without having multiple gadgets. I purchased mine, via Amazon, from xpresstech for $90.99 + $5.49 shipping.

I also have the German (has the best features & tools of the 3), the speaking Spanish (has an annoying tiny & not expandable read screen), and the Italian dictionary bookman cards. I first purchase the German dictionary bookman card from J&R, $19.99 with $5.99 shipping and handling; I then later purchased the Italian and the (speaking) Spanish dictionary bookman cards from AimHi (of IL), $19.99 each, and didn't have to pay any shipping and handling (received them on the 3rd day after placing the order.) Therefore, if you are considering additional cards, you might want to consider AimHi instead.

I am really hoping for a touch screen dictionary with its contents as good as this dictionary.
Pros.
Many words, great thesaurus, word correction, multiple lines of display, easy key inputs, games, basic grammar help, voice pronunciation, voice read ... well I can't really name them all but you get the point.
Cons.
The flip cover breaks easily (you won't really miss it because it bugs more than it does good). Umm... the battery lasts too long... wait that's another Pro...
This product is for people of any language background trying to learn English one word everyday... NO! tens of words everyday and actually know how to pronounce them.
And if you are thinking about buying anything cheaper than this dictionary. Know this that you will be frustrated with the following: lack of pronunciation, one or two line display, lack of thesaurus, and probably the lack of word and phrases.
So far, I've bought two and I am not disappointed. In fact, I've been doing well increasing my vocabulary for the past year with this dictionary.
BOTTOM LINE: You don't have enough pennies nor the time to not pay for this so take the price and invest in your future.

The Franklin Dictionary (FD)is a great product. It is easy to use. I do not need to take account of any other pocket dictionary.

I purchased my first Webster Speaking Dicionary about fifteen years ago. It was black and the keys were placed horizontal, and it came with a nice black leather case and an earphone. The shape of it was better suited for holding in your hand, and it had larger keys. With this Talking Dictionary the keys are too small, I don't like the shape, and the flap cover broke off soon after I purchased it. You can enlarge the words on the dictionary, but not the words in the games. On several occasions when reading,I would look up a word I was not familiar with, and was not able to find the word in the dictionary. Also, it should include an earphone.

The product has good features and suits for my growing kids. However, the hinge of the protective cover is very flimsy. It'd been broken before the package was opened. Franklin said they don't have that spare part! The retailer suggested me to refund, but my kids want to keep it. Franklin advised to send me a protective holder instead of its original style cover. I saw their document (description with photo). I accepted. Surprisingly, I received an old/used holder with different style and it doesn't fit (slightly smaller) my new device!! This is my third Franklin products I've bought. I was very shocked by what I was treated.

My husband just got into book reading last year and wasn't familiar with lots of words so I bought this for him for Christmas. It's great and was a good price. He loves it.

Easy to learn, easy to use. Very readable screen; you select the font size. Just select a word and press the "enter" key to see the meaning and pronunciation. If your spelling is not correct, a selection of words is provided for you to select from. If the same word can be pronunced in more that one way and with a different meaning, this talking dictionary lets you know it. Saves time and effort.

Purchased as a gift for my husband. It's exactly what he wanted. He is very pleased with all the functions. Delivery was timely and arrived as specified. Very satisfied.

We purchased this as a gift and when we saw it, we ordered one for ourselves.

Excellent product. Lives up to everything good that is said about it. The price was right and it was delivered promptly. Although the shipping package was not in good shape when it arrived, the manufacturer's clam shell packaging protected the dictionary against any damage. I had tried to find it in local stores such as Target and Circuit City where supposedly they said that it was available, however I only found it for purchase on the internet. I am very pleased with the purchase.

This is a great product with clear, easy definitions.

Quality Points:
1)You can highlight a word within a definition and it will look it up.
2)You can save words within a word list so you can go back and review it.
3)I was never a fan of games in products like these but they are amusing once and awhile.

Drawbacks:
1)The back-lighting. You cant use this dictionary in the dark.
2)The cover is flimsy and useless. It will break regardless of how careful you are.
3)This is a concise dictionary. So you will be missing some stuff within a definition but the average user can care less.
4)The processor is slow. This is very noticable when you misspell a word.
5)The speaking part is decent but you shouldnt depend on it too much.
6)The keys tactile feeback is good but too hard to push. It woul have been better if they werent covered with a rubber coat.
7)The word list on my dictionary will sometimes clear itself for no reason. I am sure if this is just mine or a defect in the product.

There are a lot of complaints but this is the best dictionary you can get out there. Most of the complaints is livable except for the slow processor and #7.

This electric dictionary has all its applications focusing on words, even the games. It can explain and pronounce a word which presents in any explanatory notes.
I really like it.

This is a great little gadget. I use it almost every day and sometimes several times a day. It is especially handy to keep next to my favorite reading chair to look up unusual words as I read. It is also great to get the correct pronunciation for those tricky words that you don't use often. Both my husband and I love it. Easy to use, too.

overall,it's a good electronic dictionary. Except I have two complains. I don't really like how the keys are arranged, it's not very comfortable to type. In addition, sometimes I feel it's a little slow to load the definition of the word. But that maybe similar in all electronic dictionaries.

I always wanted to own one of this jewels. I owned the SD770, I loved it but one day I left it in my lawyer's office, and it got lost from there. I really missed my SD770, until now that I bought my SCD-1870. The only complaint I have is the LCD cover. How come they did not make a sturdy cover to protect this baby?

Pro: Lots of words, rarely you can find a word that is not included in this dictionary unless you are working in a very specialized field. Size is small. Definition is better than many desktop dictionaries.

Con: Slow processing time, it sometime takes as much as 5 seconds to retrieve a definition. Key button is small, and not easy to press. Pronounciation is not very clear. But you can plug in your own earphone to get better quality. For most words, you don't see sample sentenses in a definition. There is no picture in a definition at all.

Anyway this is one of the best on the market for an electronic dictionary. My ideal electronic dictionary should be,
1. A large collection of vocabularies.
2. Definition retrieving time is less than 0.5 second.
3. Color screen, and include color picture in a definition for noun.
4. Video clips in a definition for verb.
5. Samples sentenses in definitions.
6. Pronounciation is clear and loud.
7. Buttons can easily pressed.

This product was delivered on time but apparantly we opened it only last week only and found that it had a broken piece in one corner. Is it replacable or will I get some discount? It seems to work fine but for the damage.

I would appreciate if I get an answer for the damage.

My order was cancelled without my notice and just an email was sent saying that my order has been cancelled. Will NEVER do business again.

This is a wonderful product and I'm having so much fun and learning so much with this product- I love it that it pronounces words for me!! And I like the part where I can store the words that I am working on to learn the meanings of and the pronounciations!

Love not not having to go to dictionary every time I need meaning/pronunciation. Pronunciations best feature. Could be better audio and larger text to make this unit excellent. Have recommended to friends and relatives.

Helpful tool, easy to use, pronunciation is clear enough. Multiple purposes. I really like it.

Very useful dictionary with detailed meanings and funy word-games.

I bought it for my mom who's technology-illiterate and even she's using this electronic dictionary like a pro! She doesn't think she can do it, but she's been using the dictionary for 1 month now and won't let it go.

This item worked great except after 2 years the on/off button does not work anymore. The add-on slot for accessories, say encyclopedia-4th edition, is useless. The encyclopedia is slow to load. Looking to by another talking dictionary but will not consider Franklin!

The Franklin SCD-1870 Collegiate reference product is a great resource,
and the suite of features are comprehensive. (...) is a great value for such an excellent tool.

Love the dictionary, particularly the ability to hear the word pronounced correctly. The anagram game database needs improvement as the game calls common words like "eat" and "ate" invalid words. A backlight would be nice to have. Overall, I'm very happy with my electronic dictionary.

Based on Merriam-Webster dictionary, the defintions are accurate. Portable. A good product for non-native speakers who are not tied to a computer all the time. Word games are fun.
The only little shortcoming: the pronunciations sound a little robotic.

This is the best & excellent product. Every parent should give gift to their children. I give gift to my daughter. She told me that dad your gift is very helpful to me in study. She is doing biology,and in final semester for graduate.

I have enjoyed this product, yet there are some words I cant' find in the dictionary. Also, the speaker sound could be a bit louder. The words define are clear and great.

The definitions are good, it is easy to use and have a good number of words.
Also you can buy expansion cards if you want to learn other languages from the original website.

But the Speaking function is useless. The pronunciation is totally different from the right pronounce.
And by having the Speaking function it is heavier and bigger to have the speakers.

I returned it to buy the other model without the Speaking: cheaper, lighter, smaller and with the same functions.

I am very happy with the Franklin SCD-1870 Speaking 11th Collegiate Dictionary. The audio is very clear and so far every word I've looked up has been available. The definitions are extensive. I recommend this as a excellent tool. I haven't had time to explore the games, but my 26 year old daughter (an english major) has and she has enjoyed it.

It is a good dictionary but the quality of sounds is pretty bad. Also as everybody said it is quite slow, which does not bother me so much as the poor speaker sound.

The collection of vocabulary and thesaurus is terrific, and includes many slangs and idioms. The voice pronunciation is a little robot-like since it is not real recording (that will require larger memory space), but acceptable, and generally pretty good. The delay in searching for a match when the input is not accurate is 2-5 seconds, and navitage back and forth between words is 1-4 seconds. If that is long depends on who you ask. Funny enough, all four-letter words are collected but have no voice pronunciations. Maybe they do not want your co-riders think that you are speaking to them on commuter trains, or they just do not want you to learn how to say them.

The flap cover is basically a joke. Within 7 days after getting it, I dropped it on wood floor, and that broken the hinge to the flap. I tried glues and none works. I think I will make a cloth bag myself sometime to hold it. I do not feel comfortable letting the gel keys and screen rubbing against my keys in my bag. It feels definitely more fragile than my $10 Sharp calculator, but I could be wrong.

Overall, it is good, and much better than my American Heritage CD, which requires a computer and makes airplane taking off noise every so often. The latter does have real people voice pronunciation, if you care.

This product is okay. It is a good product for its price. However, I have some frustrations over its functionality. Its processor is quite slow. If one types in a word incorrectly, it can take up to good 5-10 seconds searching for the best matching words. Moreover, the keypads are too stiff. It requires too much effort to depress its buttons. My fingers often get fatigued during a long stretch of reading - or maybe I am looking up too many words. Furthermore,its pronunciation function is not realiable. Despite its less than perfect pronuciation, the manufactuerer failed to provice pronunciation symbols. Thus, one must rely soley on its verbal feedback. On the positive side, it provides clear and succint definitions, portability, and durability.

I have another brand of electronic dictionary by SHARP and its functionality and ease of use is phenomenal. It comes with a built-in voice recorder with an expansion SM card slot. Thus enables user to record several hours of voice recording. Furthemore, its processor is super fast and keypads are smooth. However, my Sharp does not have clear and succint of definition as Franklin and its extremely expensive ($375 USD).

In conclusion, Frankline is a good-buy considering its price.

i had mix feeling about this dictionary, bad news first....the dictionary is slow, compared to most hand held electronics today it process at the speed of a snail, almost no action you do will get an instant result, it takes about half a sec to up to 3 secs to see the result, if you dont mind the minor delay then its not a big issue...another thing is the memory...it can only hold 40 flash card words...as a student i find that useless, for a electronic flash cards to even be useful i need enough space for at least 200-300 words...and the design isnt exactly sleek either...it looks like it got dug up by some archeologist, at the same time it's black and white...meaning i was expecting it to be A LOT faster/more memory due to the fact that its made from 1980's blackish/greenish screen

ok the good news...number 1 good news is there isnt a lot of english-english electronic dictionary out there....all the fancy, sleek, massive memory, super speed, in color dictionaries are foreign...meaning it dont come with english-english dictionary...also its very bulky and durable...the greenhouse effect can melt the polar ice destroying every living organism on the planet, and the Franklin SCD-1870 Speaking 11th Collegiate Dictionary would end up being the last recorded history of man kind...its also VERY VERY cheap, all the color, web surfing dictionary cost around 300-500 bucks, for under 100 dollars, you get your money's worth

so the conclusion...to the Franklin company i give you 3 and half stars...you guys know what people want...they just want a freaking simple dictionary...SCD-1870 is kinda like the very first nintendo system...when everyone else is playing on a playstation 3...you got the right idea, and a very good start...however if you dont want to get outsourced by the chinese...i'd strongly suggest making it smaller, in color, way faster...and finally AT LEAST double the memory size...else its just a matter of time, and you're asking for it

Every thing is good but the speaker sound is not clear it needs improvement, specially for people english as a 2nd languge it is not easy to understand the pronouncations.

I like everything about this product, just wish its speaking was louder.

POSITIVE
1. The dictionary is adequate for my needs, and it functioned well.

NEGATIVE
2. The Cover is very flimsy! It broke off, and fixing it myself was impossible. This particular design part needs improvement.

AN ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENT . . .
3. If, even at the cost of extra weight, IT WOULD BE VERY NICE TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO LIGHT THE SCREEN.

As a full time college student, I could not live without this wonderful dictionary. It is complete with over 400 definitions, their origins, and a thesaurus(500,00 synonyms and antonyms, and if you are not sure of the pronunciation, it speaks it for you. I not only take it to school but use it on the computer because it is quicker than looking up words without having to minimize what I am working on, and I also use it for all the books I read. It is slim and sleek - 3 1/2" x 4" x 1/2" and weighs less than a pound. It also has other features including word games, SAT word list, and a long list of signs, symbols and tables.