Price Tag: $49.99
Official URL: franklin.com
Rating:

The Official Deluxe Scrabble Players Dictionary is a great gift for the Scrabble lovers in your life. It contains more than 100,000 2 to 8 letter words as well as other features to help you improve your Scrabble game skills. It also has three word games. This gift would appeal to kids who can read and adults. The manufacturer’s stated age is 8 years and up.

FEATURES

Basic Function
As you would imagine, the basic function of this dictionary is to look up the words played in a Scrabble game to check spelling or settle challenges. You type in a word and press enter to get the spelling options and definition of the word.

Build
This feature allows you to input your Scrabble tiles and get a list of words you can create from them ranked by their potential scores.

Pattern
You can input the pattern of the words already on the Scrabble board, then input your word tiles. The computer will generate word options for you, including their potential scores. It will even calculate special word/letter scores (double/triple letter/word).

Games
There are three word games available and they can be played at three difficulty levels. The Mystery Word game is a fill-in-the-blank game where you guess the word one letter at a time. Jumble is a basic word scramble and Word Deduction give you 12 guesses to guess a word by typing in various words and keeping or deleting the correct and misplaced letters as the computer gives you clues.

CONTROLS

You can adjust the contrast on the screen by pushing the up/down arrows. To save battery life, the unit turns off two minutes after the last button is pressed. When you power it back on, it will return to the last screen you were using. “Clear� takes you back to the “ready� screen whenever you press it. The unit has a full QWERTY keyboard along with a square to represent blank Scrabble tiles and a score button that cycles through double/triple word and double/triple letter scores when you input your tiles.

PACKAGING

The unit comes in a plastic sealed package inside a cardboard box. The cardboard box was very easy to open but the plastic presented a bit of a challenge. There was a small slot in the top that I could get my fingers into and I used that to pull the rest of it apart. I did manage to open the package without using scissors. The unit also comes with a soft drawstring bag to protect and store your dictionary.

QUALITY/DURABILITY

This unit is made of a hard plastic material that is very sturdy and it seems to have an additional layer of plastic on top of that that works like a permanent case. It seems durable enough to survive being dropped on a hard floor. The buttons are a soft rubbery material. To test it, I tried to dent the buttons with my fingernail and could not make a mark.

EASE OF USE

The screen is easy to read, especially once you adjust the contrast. The basic function is self-explanatory but I did have to pull out the instructions to figure out the rest. The extra features are a bit complicated but with time and practice, I’m sure they could be mastered without having to use the manual every time. There is a “Helpâ€? button that will call up assistance when you press it during use and the help that comes up corresponds to what menu/feature you are in when it’s pressed.

ISSUES/NITPICKS

If you are using the features available besides the word lookup function (word building/patterns, etc.) when playing a solo, simulated Scrabble game, I have no problem with it. However, I have a hard time believing anyone playing with you would be okay with using a computer to generate words. Maybe a child learning how to play but otherwise, the challenge of the game is taken out by using an electronic brain to generate words. To me, it looks like the creators of this product didn’t think it was enough to just produce an electronic dictionary so they added all these other features to increase its functionality. I personally think the unit would have been fine with just the dictionary and games. That is, of course, only a personal opinion. It seems a bit too feature-packed to me. Sometimes less is more.

My other small nitpick is that the batteries are not included and it takes four triple A batteries. Since I don’t keep that particular size around the house, I had to make a special trip out to get some. Also, to install/replace the batteries, you have to unscrew a small Phillips head screw on the battery compartment. While I understand that this is a safety feature meant to keep little fingers away from the batteries, it seems unnecessary on a unit meant for kids ages 8 and up. Me being the lazy person I am, I resented the extra trip to the tool box to find a tiny screwdriver to accomplish the task. But then, I was already bitter about the battery trip to the store.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Scrabble Deluxe Dictionary is an awesome tool in a compact package to make any Scrabble game even more fun and efficient. It would be an excellent gift for anyone in your circle who likes the game or wants to improve their spelling and word reserve. While it has a few too many features for the average person, overall it is a solid product of highest quality that will put a smile on your Scrabble-lover’s face.