Franklin Electronic Publishers SA-309 Spelling Ace Thesaurus with Merriam-Webster Puzzle solver

Works great and is easy to use for my 12-year-old

I bought one of these many years ago as a gift for my father and he loved it and used it to death. After some rough handling the battery door was broken and the screen contrast decreased, which was difficult for him to see given he is 86 years old and has some vision issues. I just bought a new Franklin for him and he is very delighted. It is easy for him to use (he is VERY non-tech) and the screen and buttons are legible to him. He loves playing the word puzzles and takes it with him when he needs to wait for appointments. I think this would make a great gift in particular for an older friend or relative.

Purchased for mother because she likes to cheat occasionally on hard crossword puzzle. She loves it and easy to use

My husband's day doesn't really start until he finishes his crossword/word puzzles from the daily newspaper. He received the SA-309 as a Christmas present. His review: it does what it's supposed to do, and the screen is big and easy to see. His only complaint is the keys aren't always responsive. They are big enough, but he sometimes has to press them twice before they work. Would he buy it again (or welcome it as a gift)? Yes!

Helps my son with his tutoring sessions. Too expensive for what it is.

This is used for doing crossword puzzles. It is a vauable tool to have with you. This is the 2nd Franklin I bought. The first one, purchased at a store, lasted over 5 years of heavy usage. I got this one on Amazon because I had a better choice and the pricing was excellent. It locks up once in a while. but I just push the reset and it's back to work. Good size for traveling and fairly rugged construction.

After spending more time with this product, I've come to the same conclusion many other reviewers here have: it lacks on assisting difficult puzzles, which is at the core of what makes devices like these so handy. I figured this would be an improvement on their older model, the CWP-206, but it takes longer to create an answer list. The time it takes goes up dramatically the farther into the word that your first known letter sits. It took the CWP-206 only one second to finish searching for the word "harem" with the first letter a wildcard, but took 8 seconds to finish on the SA-309. ??REM took less than 4 seconds for the CWP-206 to produce five words, and 37 seconds on the SA-309 to produce only two words. If you start to try longer words with more front-end letters missing, it gets so slow as to be unusable. What really annoys me is that it seems like they removed a lot of answers that were specific to solving difficult crosswords - certain terms, first/last names, or short phrases you would not normally find in a dictionary. My best guess is that they used a smaller crossword solver database to make more room for the spellchecker and thesaurus, the primary functions of the device given the "SA" product prefix. Giving Franklin one more chance, I considered purchasing the slightly more expensive CWP-570, which I figured would be the real upgrade I was looking for. I was shocked to find the reviewers there had the same complaints. Through my searches I also found that Franklin used to sell it as the NYT-570CWD, with the New York Times logo printed on it, but must've realized the folly of their ways and removed the reference. They're so full of other useless games and features that the main selling point seems like an afterthought. Over the last few years I've finished thousands of New York Times crosswords and, like others, have found Franklin's (sadly discontinued) CWP-206 to be one of the best solvers around. There is also a more compact CWP-106. If you can't find either of those used, I would recommend Seiko's line of crossword puzzle solvers, ER3200/ER3700/ER6700. They can be found on Amazon (I found the ER3200 for $35), but it may take some time to find a reasonable price since they're usually coming from the UK/Ireland. They use the Oxford English Dictionary and run circles around Franklin's current solvers on the market. You can read their customer reviews on Amazon's UK site.

The keys are like a manual typewriter compared to cellphone keypad. The most disappointing thing is the search capability of this device. You have to be real close to the correct spelling for a hit on the correct word. The free internet online dictionary is much more reaching and in fact a phrase describing the lost word can be used to find the correct spelling. I bought this tool because I didn't want to power up my computer each time to verify the spelling of a single word. I would use an app on my phone if the whole screen was used to display the possible hits.

I love this so much , when your working and you can't have your phone on you for spell check this is a great little helper .

Easy too use by my 90 yo mum. She just loves it. Good price and fast delivery. Recommended.

Despite new batteries and close reading of the instructions nothing could be seen. Worse still there were no indications for assistance and no return address. Obviously this will go to land fill or dust collection. A very expensive lesson for me.

we used this product for crossword puzzles

I like the device but the font is not my favourite . I wish i could change it. Also I would like to add my own jumble words,,but the put the jumbles in.. But the thesaurus is very good.