Customer Rating: 
Summary: Tremendous Learning Tool!
Comment: I was a bit hesitant to purchase a Franklin dictionary because of the bad reviews and after using one myself i did not like the buttons or the small text size. I knew that I needed a dictionary though so I did a little research and found this one by Sharp which wasnt outrageously priced.
I have been very happy with this product and have yet to find a word that this dictionary couldn't define. The buttons are good, and the text size is large. Aside from being a good dictionary, it acts almost like a mini encyclopedia. For example look up "Huguenot" and it's almost like u get a brief history lesson! It's got an extensive Thesaurus too. Overall, though it's a bit more expensive than those cheapies, its worth it!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Satisfactory
Comment: Before, i bought this item, i read all the reviews on this page with every single one saying that it is a good buy. so eventually i did buy it. and its really good and user friendly, i didnt quite get the grammar thingy though, but the dictionary and thesauraus are really more than enough. so if your buying this item i would say its well worth the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent product
Comment: The Sharp PW-E550 is an excellent product. It is just slightly larger than a deck of cards when closed. It has two font sizes. The smaller one is perfectly readable for me and offers sufficient content on the screen. It performs amazingly well, very quick, and has so far had all the words I needed to look up.
As one person mentioned, spend a few minutes going through the manual as there are a couple of features that are not readily apparent but are very useful. The Super Jump feature being the most notable, which allows you to lookup the definition of a word within a definition.
The Sharp PW-E550 does everything I wanted it to do and more. A great buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent dictionary!
Comment: This is an amazing electronic dictonary, very intuitive to use and has virtually all words you're ever going to need. Definitions, phrase search, grammar are all great features. It's like buying three books in one only better as it's much easier to use, carry around etc. it's very stilish and you can even use it in the middle of a meeting if you need a definition as most people won't really figure out it's a dictionary. GREAT BUY!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Handy, Quite Comprehensive
Comment: I own the PW E550 and the PW E500. Neither model has dissapointed me as far as variety of words. I have yet to stump either device reading classic English works. I bought these dictionaries based on the reviews on this page and the reviews of the competing devices from Franklin and Seiko. Also, I think the Oxford Dictionary of English (and its American counterpart) are excellent reference books, better put together (in my opinion) than Merriam-Webster or American Heritage.
The E550 has the grammer dictionary, which is a great tool. The E500 has the dictionary of quotes, which is nice, but I think I would have rather had the grammer dictionary.
The definitions are long, very informative, and easy to understand. The definitions are also organized as to most modern meaning first, considered the core sense, followed by sub-senses which might be: most commonly used, oldest, etc... Each sense has an example sentence which shows its use--very nice to have.
Some of the entries have *notes* associated with them, which give a great deal of additional info on the particular subject (e.g. earth, which identifies circumference, distance from sun, and other facts).
Both the E550 and the E500 have pronunciations; however, the E550 has it for most every word, whereas the E500 has pronunciations for certain (I guess less obvious) words. The E500 is described as the "British" version by the manual, but as an American I have had no trouble understanding any word uses/definitions. The E500 will also identify regional differences in usage for you so you don't have to guess if you're sounding too much the Brit or the Yank (e.g. it will say N. Amer for meanings common in North America, and Brit. for meanings commonly used in the UK). It will also tell you if the particular sense of the word is archaic, vulger, slang, formal, informal, etc...
No backlight, but the screen is clear, large, and you can zoom in or out one size of the font. They keys are large and soft, making it quite easy to type versus stiff, hard keys. The devices are conservative looking, light, and appear well built. They use 1 AAA battery. They also have an automatic shutoff, which you can configure and which will extend the life of your battery. They will stay open at virtually any angle less than or equal to 180 degrees, which is convenient for desktop use, sitting on your chest as you lay in bed, or whatever contortion you find comfortable.
The E550 is US $[...]. For double the price I got 105K more words, lost the grammer guide, and gained the quotes dictionary. I'm not sure if I made out for the better or not on this one, I suppose time will tell. If I don't find a word I'm looking for in my more $$ one, I may end up being disappointed. Do I think double the price for 105K more words is good? Not really, but as I'm going to rely primarily on this device when I read and travel, I figured I'd spend the extra money and get as much as I could.
Again, I have tried no other dictionaries but these, and bought these based on reviews of the predominant brands. I have been very pleased with my purchase thus far and would recommend one of these to anyone intersted in improving their vocabulary and understanding of the English language--and to quite a few people not intersted in doing so but who butcher the meanings of words regularly.
As for me, I'm studying for the Graduate Record Exam and have already found this to be a great tool in improving my score.
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