Buying an Electronic Dictionary in Beijing

[ruds10]

Just wanted to ask if anyone has an electronic dictionary that all the japanese/koreans etc seem to have? I was looking at buying one where you can write pinyin/english as well as the chinese characters (using a stylus). Does anybody know of any good brands / model numbers?

I am planning to go to Zhongguancun with a local to get one. I am thinking of spending between 600-800kuai

[Baggerking]

Don't know. I'm using an iPhone with Hippo Dictionary. I also use it for many other things, but am growing really attached to it as a dictionary. Very dense, you can write the characters, and you can make flash cards that work really well. Me and my classmates play drinking games with the flashcards. It's a blast.

I don't know how useful the dictionary specific models are, but I have used them and they often are lacking on Pinyin options and tend to lean towards the Chinese learning English. I would still wait to hear a reply from someone who maybe has more knowledge about them.

[ginnjuice]

If you do go to zhongguancun, just be careful you buy a reliable one and get a receipt. I had some friends that bought the dictionaries there and they're batteries ended up dying after the first week. I also bought mine there and luckily mine hasn't had any problems yet, but I hardly use it because I too just use my iTouch. Like what BaggerKing said, these dictionaries are generally geared towards Chinese speakers that want to learn English, so the ease of looking up characters and their definition may not be as efficient or thorough as you might like.

Also remember to bargain! Expect to pay around 500 kuai for the most basic stylus with a black and white screen, and 700+ for the nicer color screen ones. If you just want to be able to look up unknown characters on the fly, I recommend just buying the most basic black and white stylus models.

[greenarcher]

Get a Besta. Although expensive, they are very good for beginners and are almost the same as the Nurian brand used by Koreans. Costs roughly 1000RMB in Zhongguancun.