Electronic Computer-like Dictionary - help is needed...

[Dani_man]

Hi everybody,

Since I don't have money for the touchable screen kind of dictionary, I thought of buying the computer like one, that is pin-yin based (you just type the word). I just need to understand what the teachers say in class...

Tsinghua store provides only with Chinese menu... Kan Bu Dong...

does anyone has any experience with that kind? English one?

where to buy, how much, and whether you can look for a word by radicals?

Thanks in advance!

[ironfrost]

No brand recommendations, but some advice: make sure you get one that gives you pinyin both ways. A lot of electronic dictionaries won't give you pinyin when you look up an English word, meaning that it's not much use when you're trying to figure out how to say something in Chinese.

[Koneko]

I have been using 无敌, a Taiwanese-made talking dictionary, for a long time!

It's not too bad.

K.

[ange9s]

I have the 文曲星 pc1000c, you might still be able to buy it at the large bookstore on the Chang An side of Wangfujing. It allows pinyin and radical lookup but it doesn't have an English menu so it takes a few minutes of messing with to figure out, but it's not too tough. It's much slower than Plecodict for character and pinyin lookup; you can't just type in a multi-character word or phrase and have a definition spit back at you, you have to look up and find each one (meaning you have to know the character and not just the pinyin).

As an English to Chinese dictionary, on the other hand, it's far superior to Pleco, allowing you to look up slang, place names, etc., which is why I still use it everyday, especially for writing.

There might be other affordable electronic dictionaries that allow radical lookup and will show pinyin, but this is the only one I found. I think I paid about 240 rmb a couple years ago.

[Dani_man]

Thanks for the helpful replys guys,

I think I'll go this weekend to Zhongguancun to try my luck,

and post here the findings.

Zai jian!

[Dani_man]

so, eventually I bought a Palm style of dictionary... cost me 880, but it is much better.

the reason is that the 手写 (written character recognition function) is very bad! me and my friend tried it out by writing "zhong" time after time but it didnt work! even didnt suggest it in the options, and even the seller had a hard time... I think that it's a point we should take into account... cause we are not skilled enough and we should buy a dictionary that can kind of guess what wewanted to write (like the Palm piero-dict, god it so good).

that all folks!

hope I won't regret I didnt buy the Palm!