I really like the content of this thing so far, but the problem is that I usually use it outdoors, and you can barely read it there, for some reason. I thought the battery was low after I tried to use it in my car, which is where I listen to my Spanish lessons. However, when I took it indoors and turned it on before replacing the battery, it was nice and bright there and easy to read again. Then back out in the car, later that day, I can't read the screen AT ALL. Not sure what the problem is, but so far I don't see a button or option to alter the screen to make it more visible.

DBE-1470u

Be careful buying this product!! I recently ordered the DBE-1470u (pictured) specifically because of the arrangement of the 4 scroll buttons at the bottom of the keypad. What I received was the DBE-1470 with two scroll buttons on the bottom of the keypad and two on the left side near the top of the device. I am returning that device now. I had the same experience several years ago when I ordered a 1470u but received a 1470, but I have used that DBE-1470 since. I still want to replace my 1470 with a 1470u, but I cannot find the 1470u anywhere. My complaint may sound trivial, but you will understand after you have used the 1470 for several years.

Love it. I use it all the time; I zoom through course material that would normally take twice as long; I almost never need to check a paper dictionary.
If you have to do a lot of reading, and are still trying to build vocab, this is for you.
-1 star: I thought I would get a lot out of the other features but I never use them.

I'd recommend this product to anyone learning Spanish or English. I bought this dictionary a few years ago because it was pretty cheap, small and lightweight. It served me well until I spilled water on it one day last year, and the screen stopped functioning. I still thought it was a very good product, though, and didn't want to risk my money on something different, so I bought a second one.

It's excellent for looking up vocabulary quickly, whether you're listening to a professor in class or you're reading and pressed for time, however, it lacks some words a bigger dictionary would have and doesn't include any common idioms. It's also really frustrating to scroll through the long verb conjugation list, so I'd recommend buying a regular book like 500 Spanish Verbs if that's what you want.

This handy little English/Spanish electronic dictionary was invaluable during my two week Spanish Immersion School in Costa Rica. I lived with a local family who didn't speak English and I hardly spoke Spanish. This helped us both bridge the gap. Even the children in the family would use it to find a word I could understand.

In classes, it was a quick way to find a word I needed and it gave me all the variances of that word. I was the envy of my class.

I used a lot of the extra features as well - converters, calculator, clock, games, and others.

I do wish that the screen was not so dark. It's really hard to see unless the lighting is fairly bright. I also wish that it had more words in it, both in English and Spanish. Sometimes I just couldn't find a word they were using in class and it was frustrating.

I ended up leaving this with my host family and now I need to order another.