My New Besta CD-636 Electronic Dictionary

[Sam Addington]

Extremely expensive (USD399) it is worth every penny. Although the user's manual is not in English it is fairly intuitive and you can have fun breaking it in by trying to translate the manual! Hit the menu key and you can toggle between Chinese, English, Japanese, Spanish and Korean menus. And yes, it has ample multi-lingual functions. I haven't had a chance to fully examine the Chinese-Japanese dictionary, but it seems pretty darned good. But for us English learners of Chinese, the big plus is the complete "Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Bilingual Edition)" complete with pinyin plus a good Taiwan dictionary as well (you'll have to familiarize yourself a bit with bo-po-mo-fo for it to be fully useful). The main Chinese - English dictionary also suffers from the handicap of the zhuyin fuhao, but hey you are learning Chinese, what is 36 more characters?

The handwriting function is fabulous. I read in one posting in here how a user of another dictionary couldn't write fast enough to get his entry in before the machine was already parsing it ... if you go into the setup menu on this dictionary you can adjust the speed at which the dictionary parses ... so you can be as slow as you want. And the stylus is fit very neatly into the top hinge of the unit ... very cute. And the color screen is fabulous too. At first I thought I would have to live with the boot screen every time I opened it, but you can turn that off too. And you can turn the sound off so that you don't have the annoying beep everytime you hit a key. The only problem is, that function is also buried fairly deep in the setup menu, so if you want to hear a pronunciation you have to back out of what you are doing, go into setup and back out again. Then you have to listen to the beep of the keys again.

I know have have not even begun to tap into its full functionality, and of course I will never have any use for all the English learning tools it has. I have a feeling I will never use the translator, either.

Perhaps there is something cheaper out there that will serve as well, but with a full encyclopedia in Chinese where you can highlight the word and do a search on it, etc. etc. etc. it ain't bad! Also, it keeps a record of all the words you have looked up recently in any one of the dictionaries, which is great for review.

From what I can gather from the user's manual, it doesn't have any print-out functions, but I haven't tried to hook it up to my computer yet (it comes with a USB cord). I'm not quite sure why I would want to interface with my computer, but apparently I can also access www.besta.com.tw to download more dictionaries.

Did I mention it also plays MP3 files, has an address book and ties your shoes?

Any advice on how to more fully utilize its potential is welcome!

[FuNKy]

Hi Sam!

I'm interested in purchasing an electronic dictionary to help me with my Chinese studies so I am currently researching for what's available out there in Beijing (and beyond). I came across the Besta CD-900 yesterday when I was window shopping and I was wondering if you knew what the difference was between the two models (as I've yet to see the CD-636 anywhere)? Thanks!

[Sam Addington]

It seems that the 600 series is geared toward the USA. The equivalent in Taiwan seems to be the 800 series. There is an article on the www.bestausa.com page that warns the Besta cannot honor warranties on the 800 series in the USA. It seems also that the 800 series do not meet US quality standards. I wonder also if there might not be some power issue (220v vs 100v).

I didn't see the 900 model anywhere. Maybe it is the latest and greatest?

You can also access www.besta.com.tw for information on the Chinese models.

(In my previous posting I transposed tw and com. It has now been corrected.)

[Sam Addington]

I also found www.besta.com.sg. There is actually an English version of the manual in PDF format there.

[bao-en]

Hi all, I have just received a reply from Besta in regards to the best model for an English speaker. Quote, "Only Besta exported models capable with English Manuals. English Operating Interface, Madarin Learning Material including Pinyin (Chinese phonatic symbol). These models are: CD-627 and CD-636". I am not sure of the difference between these two models as they are the same price in Singapore; www.powerdictionary.com. I have doemloaded the specs and will try and sort it. For sure though, there is an English manual to be had some where. Their home page list the CD 627 and CD 626 but when you choice English, I cannot find a listing of a English manual for either ofthese two models. I will go back to Besta and ask. Regards Brian.