Good Electronic Dictionary

[Maqqie]

Hey guys, sorry if this question has already been posted before.

I am looking for a good electronic dictionary which is easy to use, designed for primary use by english speakers (so you don't have any japanese characters etc. on the dictionary's keyboard), can call up chinese character meanings quickly, relatively small in size and provides pin-yin with all the chinese character entries. Bonus features would be hand-writing recognition and speech recognition.

I do not have a price bracket as I am willing to pay for a very good electronic dictionary.

I'll mainly be using "on the fly", that is, i'll mainly be using it whilst walking around the streets, when chatting with friends in chinese and talking with chinese shop keepers so obviously its reference speed is quite important.

I already own two dictionaries: BBK AM-101 and Canon wordtank V903. Although these are good, I am looking for something a little: quicker in terms of looking up chinese characters, more accurate in terms of when it gives the chinese equivalent to an english word (often the BBK AM-101 will give an entire chinese sentence for a simple english word) and more flexible in terms of input methods for looking up chinese characters (an ideal dictionary would be one where if I remember its pin-yin will allow me to check a chinese character by typing its pin yin or if I forget its pin-yin but remember what the character looks like, by writing it into the screen or has speech recognition so if I am in a situation where a chinese local says a word I don't understand, he can simply speak into the dictionary and it will provide the english equivalent).

Of course an electionic dictionary which can meet all these demands would be ideal but I am happy to settle for one which has the majority of these features.

Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated. Cheers,

Maqqie

Edited September 26, 2009 at 05:17 PM by Maqqie

[tony1343]

The best solution I've found is Pleco (www.pleco.com). It's actually just software, so you'll need to buy a Palm or Windows Mobile Device to run it on. You can probably very easily and cheaply buy an older model of one of these to run the software on.

Personally, I bought a Palm TX on eBay very cheaply and only use it to run Pleco. It works great for learning Chinese and is fantastic to use when I'm in China.

[imron]

sorry if this question has already been posted before

That's what search is for. Tags are also quite useful. There are plenty of previous posts on this topic.

In the meantime, I'll throw my vote in for Pleco.

[Maqqie]

Sorry, I failed to mention I am looking for a dedicated electronic dictionary rather than a palm software. Thanks.

[Don_Horhe]

BuBuGao E-900

I recently got one and it has pretty much everything I need - comprehensive En-Ch, Ch-En and Ch-Ch dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, Classical Chinese dictionary, dictionaries for about 10 other languages etc. Last time I mentioned it on this forum it was about 2200 RMB in Beijing, I got mine a bit over two weeks ago for 1800 in Wuhan and just the other day I found a place where they sell them for 1600.

[paike]

BuBuGao E-900

I recently got one and it has pretty much everything I need - comprehensive En-Ch, Ch-En and Ch-Ch dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, Classical Chinese dictionary, dictionaries for about 10 other etc. Last time I mentioned it on this forum it was about 2200 RMB in Beijing, I got mine a bit over two weeks ago for 1800 in Wuhan and just the other day I found a place where they sell them for 1600.

That dictionary looks amazing. I will go to my electronics store tomorrow and check it out! Everyone is into the Pleco thing, not sure if thats my bag. I LOVE chinese made things because, who would have thought, the translations are better. My Korean friend's dictionary looks like the Pleco stuff and just not how Chinese people would say it. But I have a 300 kuai dictionary Ive been using for ages, but I want to write characters.

Also, was reading 南方周末, best newspaper in China IMHO, and ran into stuff I wish I could have looked up. Its getting to be that time I actually jump in and buy some flashy gear!!!

Don, is it fast? When you look up things does it take all day? Thats what I hate about the little mini-computers. Slow!

Pai Ke

[Don_Horhe]

Yup, it's very fast, so is switching between dictionaries while looking at a given entry. There's also additional stuff you can download off of their website.

[El Macho]

Can anyone recommend an electronic dictionary that can/will break a character down into its components?

I'm just starting to learn hanzi, and I've been blown away by how helpful the yellowbridge.com's Etymology feature is in learning characters. I'd like to buy a dictionary that would offer the same functionality...can any do this?

(For reference, I don't want to buy a PDA to run Pleco, though I'll consider it once it comes out for the iPhone.)

[盈盈爱灏明]

that seems like a good dictionary but the site all in chinese, anyone know whre we can get those in the US?

[Neil_H]

You can trial this one for free.

http://www.hnhsoft.com/dictec

Installed it on my Windows mobile phone earlier this week.