Franklin DMQ221 Collins English Dictionary with Thesaurus

THE BEST QUALITY

Its no more than a toy for very little fingers. Keyboard so very small. Ordered from Amazon UK. It arrives from Amazon USA. To return it I have to send it back to the US following very inadequate instructions. It has to be sent using DPD with no instructions of how to contact the carrier. It seems I am stuck with it.

My dads an avid Telegraph crossword fan and was in a panic when his go-to Franklin dictionary & thesaurus stopped working. New battery didn't fix it so I got a phone call - can I order a new one please. Sound familiar?So I trawled Amazon and review after review, with my dad saying "don't bother with that just the same as the one I've already got", only it's donkeys years old and no longer available. No worries, Franklin have a new and improved model (allegedly). Only some of the reviewers comments made me concerned, with similar people in similar boats saying the new machine had FEWER words than the old one, and was infinitely more complicated and less intuitive to use. Surely not?I stumbled across 3 main brands (well more on paper but just looking at the photos and description there are really 3 different manufacturer models). Rebranded versions of the Franklin, Lexibook and Seiko.I did as I was told, although I also ordered the Lexibook model as it had good reviews.Surprisingly, dad found the Franklin difficult to use and generally WORSE than his old Franklin... and didn't get on with it. Instead, he found the Lexibook way easier to use and more or less told me to bin the others. Turns out the other, more cautious, reviewers comments were spot on.Having said that, everything is a personal taste so you might disagree and love this Franklin.If nothing else I hope they, as a company, take note of these reviews and think carefully about what is important to people, especially considering the age groups of those generally wanting to use these 'pocket dictionaries.1) Make them easy to use.2) More words and better thesaurus suggestions the better - obviously, that's not rocket science or asking a lot.3) For the price I'd really expect a larger, clearer display. A 1980s digital watch has a better LCD.4) Larger keys as well as display. Seriously...Make a slightly larger version if needs be but make it more useable.

the item was alright but I could nor read the writing on the lid how to use

Product easy to understand good r many uses

This item is great value for the money and is an excellent solver of crosswords etc.

I bought this as a replacement for my old Franklin which I used to help me solve crosswords. Should have been guided by a previous reviewer. The Chambers dictionary has been replaced by Collins offering fewer words. Limited number of synonyms and no list with varying number of letters. The text and the buttons are smaller and the directional arrows are not properly separated and very small so it is not east to press one at a time. Anagram function and word builder work quickly but with limited dictionary do not always come up with a result. So Franklin why did you change to something which is neither satisfactory as a dictionary nor to solve crosswords.

After sending and returning other versions of this item I have decided to keep this. They are all far too small. My old Franklin was much easier to use and the thesaurus much better. This is very fiddly and I find that using a rubber pointer is better than fingers. The makers of these should realise that quite a percentage of customers are in the older age bracket. The screen is too small for older eyes and especially one of the other types had a green screen which was not good at all. Black printing on yellow or white background is the best.It also switches off too quickly and you have to reset it again each time.It would be much better to improve the dictionary and thesaurus rather than have calculators, clocks, phone number storage, etc.One of the plus points of these is supposed to be that they are pocked-sized. My old Franklin was a good big bigger but still pocket sized. Smaller is certainly not better.