I have used the translator and it seems to live up to the advertising about it,but I do wish that the manufacturer would create an instruction book besides the English language edition for buyers who would want to send the transator to a foreign country. Eg. a person in Russia should be able to be able to read the instructions in their language so they can understand how to use it.

I purchased this product through Amazon when it first came out for the full retail price - it may be a better deal at today's reduced price, but I am generally sorry I purchased the unit and believe I could have purchased something else more suitable. The unit was delivered by Ace Photo - Definitely DO NOT recommend them! I contacted Amazon to let them know my unit didn't work correctly and they sent an email to Ace on my behalf asking them to contact me - they didn't. I sent an email directly to them - no response!

The audio on my unit is virtually unintelligable - even in English (and I speak some Spanish and cannot understand that either) The speech feature on this unit is worthless - very poor quality tinny speaker. Forget it if you don't know the language - you'd never understand the word even with the earpeice.

The unit is in a cheap plastic case (which doesn't appear very durable). I expected for almost $300, that it would be metal or at least somewhat solid.

The setup is confusing and the instructions were not written by a native English speaker. I am not sure my unit is functioning correctly, but can't really figure it out because of the confusing instructions.

The unit doesn't stay in the leather case and will come out easily. There are also pockets in the case but the Lingo fits so snuggly, they really aren't useable. I tried to put the "quick instructions" sheet in the carrier and even it doesn't fit. It's a nice case with a magnetic strap that will go a long ways in protecting the fragile unit though.

On the plus side and the only reason I didn't give this unit 1 star is that it does have a lot of words in all languages and although somewhat cumbersome to operate (and you can't even put 2 of your own words together - all phrases are preset). It has helped me in several situations where I needed a word or a phrase. The phrases I might are also not easy to use - you have to scroll through them to find what you want. However one very positive note is they are linked to a word you want to look up - that's how I ususally start - by translating one word.

Bottom line - This is a very cheaply built unit. I would NOT recommend this unit to a friend. You can get better for less money.

UPDATE... I just returned from South America and am downgrading this product to 1 star and would go 0 stars if they had a catagory. You cannot find tenses - try to find "went" or "was" in Spanish. The vocab is very limited.

It also eats batteries even when switched off. They last about 3 days. I started removing them and only putting them in when I wanted to check for a word.

Also on the speaking part. I have a freind who grew up in China and speaks limited English listen to various words. I didn't show him the word or tell him beforehand but he could not understand one word out of about 20 we tried and he has been speaking Chinese for over 40 years as his first language. If you were trying to have someone listen to a word because you could not pronounce it - it would also be wortless. Again.... don't waste your money. I found a little Berlitz Spanish dictionary much more useful on my trip.

This is a review about the product, not the company's fix it policy or my exciting trip. However I can make it short and sweet for you.

This product will act as a glorified talking dictionary with 20 languages. Similar to a dictionary you must input words individually however if you are getting this product for more general purposes it does come with a common phrase data base.

The talking part of this dictionary is not great either. However, if you are a fan of listening to Stephen Hawkings voice then you will love the speach of this dictionary. This means that the recorded voice is robotic in nature which does not bode well with asian languages that revolve around fluxuation.

This is the first "talking" translator I have purchased. I have been using another Lingo translator for 8 years and have been generally pleased with it.

The Voyager 3 has a small increase in available vocabulary and uses the same entry modes as the previous version. Lookup of a word seems a bit quicker. These are all positives.

However, the unit I received had the volume control turned all the way up and when I processed my first entry, the audio was very loud and extremely distorted. I immediately reduced the volume to the lowest level at which I could hear the word being pronounced, but the distortion was still present although somewhat reduced making the audio difficult to understand. I don't know whether this problem occurs on all units of this model or just the one I purchased. I plan to return this one under warrantee and see what happens.

I would recommend that prospective purchasers stick with non-talking versions of Lingo products. If you do buy one make sure that the volume is all the way down before powering up the unit for the first time. The initial excessive volume setting may have damaged my unit on first use.

The day Lingo received my warrantee card & complaint letter, a representative called on the phone and offered me either a full refund or warrantee service. I am returning the unit for service, but wanted to post about Lingo's concern and quick response.

Received the unit back yesterday with a note from the technician that said, "We checked the sound and its the same on all TTV's." However, the audio does seem improved a bit. Although still present, it is not objectionable on all languages except Chinese. (Chinese is an inflected language and the proper tones on the vowels is important.) My wife, a native Chinese speaker says she can now understand words pronounced by the female speaker, but still not by the male speaker.

I would now upgrade the rating to 3-stars.

I am thrilled with the Lingo Voyager,it has 20 different languages. I am going on a cruise an hitting 5 different countries, it will be cool to have this use.