Lingo - Alternative Model LIN-TT-5500 - 614841050003

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Price: $60.63 $39.99   

Product Feature

• Batteries & earbuds included
• Translates to & from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
• 100,000 word vocabulary & 11,500 useful phrases
• Instant reverse translation
• Clock tool with world time, local time, daily alarm & reminders

Product Description

- Alternative Model LIN-TT-5500- Lingo Europa 5 language talking translator- Translates useful and popular phrases- World time in 200 cities- 8 Currency conversions- 8 Metric conversions- 4 Line x 22 character dot matrix display- 32k Databank- 12 Digit calculator- Powered by 2 AAA batteries (included)- Earphone included- 1 Year manufacturer's warranty- English, German, French, Spanish, Italian- SilverLINTT5000

Lingo - Alternative Model LIN-TT-5500 - 614841050003 Review

Original review date: 4/15/2005
Updated review (at bottom) date: 5/11/2006

I recently received my Europa. The purchase seemed prudent since I will soon be going to several Western European countries. I spoke Spanish relatively well (but certainly not fluently) at one point, but that was 15 years ago, and I have spoken very little of it since. It has started to come back to me after looking up words in the Europa, and hearing the translation.

I plan to add more to this review later, but I wanted to get it started. Since I haven't actually taken it on a trip yet, I probably have more cons at this point, than pros, but it does translate words into multiple languages, and it will "speak" them.

Pros:
1. The on/off button is protected by the partial cover. (The device shouldn't turn on accidentally - but if it does, it has a configurable auto-off setting, so it should turn off again.)
2. The Europa is attractive, just large/heavy enough to use comfortably, and still small/light enough to carry.
3. It takes 2AAA batteries and also a CR2032 (I believe) backup battery. (Don't change the primary batteries and the backup at the same time or you will likely lose your entered information. Always keep fresh batteries in this device.)
4. The device has a volume control.
5. 6 character password protection for personal information entered into address book.
6. Setup was easy.

Cons:
1. The device has a partial cover, so some keys remain exposed. (But this is far better than having an unattached case to lose.)
2. The earbuds that shipped with the Eurpa were very cheap and had a bit of a short in them. (I pitched them, since I already have a much better set of earbuds.)
3. Surprisingly, with 8 metric conversions, this unit cannot convert km to m easily. The user must use a combination of the m to ft conversion and calculator. (Multiply km * 1000 using your brain, enter value into converter, remember number of feet, change mode, enter feet into calculator, divide by 5280, I believe, and voila --- miles.)
4. The partial cover latch seems odd. (Will the cover snag on something and break?)
5. When entering data into the address book, I found myself wishing the Esc key was much farther from the shift key, rather than adjacent to it, since inadvertently pressing Esc will clear the display when you have "typed" a bunch of info in and you will want to smash the device. (You may just want to lock the caps on and enter information entirely in capital letters.)
6. The page up/down keys are separated from the cursor keys. Sometimes it is confusing whether you need to use down or page down to see more information.
7. I discovered that since we are currently on daylight savings time right now, I needed to turn "Summer time" off, in order for the time to be listed correctly both for my residence location as well as for the locations I plan to visit.
8. The clarity of recorded speech leaves a lot to be desired. It is just clear enough that it is helping me to "re-learn" the Spanish I could speak at one point, but even after hearing some words in the other languages, I would be afraid to try to pronounce them in front of someone who spoke the language natively.
9. The device seems unable to translate phrases --- only words. So I think you're stuck with the canned phrases built into the unit, some of which are actually a bit useful.
10. You always want these things to "know" more words than they do.
11. Whoever wrote the owner's manual didn't know English well, but you can understand it.
12. Yes, it has a "QWERTY-style keyboard", but putting the backspace key to the left of the space bar is just plain odd. The bottom row just seems to have been filled with necessary keys that the unit just didn't have the proper width to accomodate in a more typical location.

Even with all the cons, at this point, I intend to keep the unit, and I also still intend to take it on my trip with me.

UPDATE: (5/11/2006)
I returned from my trip to Europe, some time ago. That is where I primarily used this device. I am sorry for not updating this review sooner.

I would like to update the 3-star rating I originally gave this device to a 4-star rating, based on the reasons below.

Having now actually used the device in foreign countries, I look at my original review and find myself thinking that I wouldn't change much of it. The exceptions are:

1. (PRO) Almost a year after my Europe trip, I powered-on the device recently (with the original batteries still in it), and used it to some degree, while at the residence of some people who did not speak English, so the device's battery-power subsystem seems to have good integrity.
2. (PRO) Answering my question that was appended to my previous CON #4, the partial cover did not break, though it was on my person for my entire trip, and was removed/inserted from/into a belt pouch repeatedly during that time. The cover still seems to function exactly as it did when purchased. I'm not saying it won't break on someone else, but it didn't break for me.
3. (PRO) I don't know if I just got lucky or what, but every word I needed to convert from English to French, German, or Spanish (which I used the most, by far) was in the device. In addition, I also lucked out with the fact that the device's "canned" phrases also met my needs.
4. (PRO) There were a couple of times I when I didn't feel comfortable trying to say the word/phrase that it gave me, so I had people listen to the device while it spoke the required word. Each time was in a pretty quiet environment, so it worked. That said, don't plan on relying on this feature in any environment with average noise levels (such as on a street corner in a busy city). If you do, it may leave you feeling slightly stranded. However, keep in mind that you can simply show a person the display, which will have the text printed on the screen, so you do have the option of letting the person read it from the screen in their language, in the event they cannot clearly hear the device.

I'll sum it up by saying that prior to my trip, I considered selling this device after I got home. I'm keeping it.

I haven't used other pocket translators, so I can't compare it to others. I simply researched every similar device available on Amazon, at that time, and picked the one that best seemed to fit my needs, given my budget.

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