Review by A. Hauptman:

My husband bought this for me as an early Christmas present. It’s awesome. I’m not very technically savvy, but it was so easy to figure out. The manual is clearly written, which was unespected given the fact that it’s a Chinese Model.

One of the reasons (besides cost) that I wanted a Chinese model insead of an iPod was that I am kind of weird about organizing my music. I have a broad taste in music, so I organize by genre, then by artist and by album after that. As far as I know, an iPod doesn’t allow for that. This model does. I can import the music in the folders as it is organized on my computer. So easy!

I love that it’s expandable by memory cards. The screen has a great picture quality, and I plan to put movies and books on the cards. You can read any book in a text file on it while you’re listening to music…Super Cool!

A few people complained that when they plug it into their computer, it’s reads as two devices. This is because it’s expandable by SD cards. When there is not a card in the player, then the secondary drive noted on the computer is not accessible. When there is a card in the player, you can access the drive to add and delete files as normal. Also, the player has a function to tell you how much space is left on both, which is helpful if you want to fill it with as a many files as possible!

The games are ok. Not great, but ok. You can never go wrong with the classic Tetris, but I might look into adding more games onto it.

One of my complaints is that the stylis they send can’t be attatched to the player anywhere. But it does come with a rubber sleeve for the player, so for now I’ve just slipped the stylis into the sleeve between it and the player.

The screen is not super sensitive, which I suppose is both good and bad.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, there is not a shuffle option. For now, that is my biggest peeve.

Overall, this is a great player for an even better price. I would definitely reccommend it to friends and family!

Review by Aaron Jasper:

I was surprised to see my new media player in the mail a full four days ahead of the scheduled promise date. I love the fact that it is compatable with my ibook. The design of the start up and shutdown needs work (looks as if it done in a rush). The system itself is about 80% user friendly in my opinion, i still can’t figure out how to exit the games section without having to restart the entire unit. Mp3 playback is pretty good once you put in some good headphones(I use a pair of 10 dollar jvc earbuds)and the video doesn’t lag so that’s a plus. The Camera is about the quality of a first generation moto rzr as well as the mini dv recorder. The voice recorder is a nice added bonus if you are a writer or college student (wish I had this in art history).

The body of the unit is pretty hollow and needs to be handled gently (as should all electronics), I suggest getting a protective case for it if you plan to travel with it. All in all, its a pretty cool device and makes for a good economic gift for the holidays.

Review by Phyrephox:

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.

Review by J. Wang:

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 0, 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.

Review by Delwyn J. Wendler:

This is a well designed easy to operate translator. It will cover 95% of what you need being a tourist. The only flaw I see in this machine is not being able to enter your own sentences, but that might be a flaw in all machines, so I would bring a dictionary for those times. Good voice quality and volume. I will bring a set of watch batteries with me on the trip as I don’t know about the availability of those batteries in Europe.

Review by Summer Williams:

I purchased this translator as a gift for my mother’s four week tour of Europe. Over all, she was very happy with the item. Occasionally, she said there were times when she couldn’t find how to say a particular phrase, but for the most part, she was thrilled that this one device served her quite efficiently through all of the countries she traveled. She especially liked the verbal pronunciation, the pre-grouped categories of phrases, its small size, & its included alarm clock which allowed her to cut back on bringing one more item. As for me, I certainly appreciated how reasonably priced it was for how well it served my mother on her trip. You can absolutely find better translators but doing so on par of the cost per value of this translator would be difficult. It’s a great item for the price.

Review by Sischelle:

I saw this on QVC and thought it was a neat idea. So I mulled over it for a couple of weeks.

I decided to order it from Amazon – something about the free shipping and cheaper price that won me over. hahahahaha

It was on backorder at the time and I was surprised when it just showed up one day.

We love it. My hubby, who is always skeptical about my gadget purchases, was surprised when he used it. He thinks it’s a neat idea – and the fact that it organizes everything by category on your list automatically is simply GENIUS!!!

Press the button say the item you need to add – it shows up – select it from a list of options and it adds it to the list. When you are ready to go shopping simply press print – and it prints out the list. Easy as that…..

No more sitting at the table trying to remember what you need – just add the items to the list as you can think of them. The list stays until you delete it.

Plus it even lists errands – another added bonus. Need to run to the bank, atm, cleaners, lawyer’s office…

Another plus – is that you can add your own items, or errands, if they aren’t listed.

If you have problems with it recognizing your voice or speech – you can TEACH IT to understand your diction. Talk about a HOT MESS!!1

As you can tell – I LOVE THIS THING!! Best gadget I have ever bought!!

Try it – you won’t be disappointed!!!!

Review by C. Gough:

When this thing works it’s wonderful, but I have had some problems. First a note on troubleshooting problems. Don’t talk TOO LOUD. I had to turn the sensitivity down on mine. This unit is so sensitive that it sometimes hears too many sounds to accurately understand what you are saying. This is the opposite of what most people would instinctively do. Most people try to talk louder if they think someone can’t hear them. You may also have to mute the TV if it is too loud.

Pros(Besides the obvious):

1. It has a very strong built in magnet that allows you to put it on your refrigerator just at your speaking level, never gets lost and items stay on list until you remove them, even if you take out a battery.

Cons:

1.There are some words that it seems to refuse to recognize, no matter what you do. (i.e. I tried to add calendar to my smartshopper and no matter how many times I improved voice recognition, it would not recognize it. I even removed collander from the smartshopper so there was nothing similar. That didn’t help. It kept coming up with the most rediculous suggestions to what I had said that were not even remotely similar. I finally ended up adding wall calendar instead.)

2. Again, talk softly.

3. Sometimes mine freezes up and sticks on Record Now. I can usually break this by taking a battery out and putting it back and then it works fine again.

So when it works I love this, when it doesn’t I hate it. I have learned over the last couple of months to deal with its quirks, so I mostly love it.