Is there really a need for a standalone electronic dictionary? That was the first question that hit my mind when I first got to know about Casio's new electronic dictionary lineup.
Recently, Casio launched two electronic dictionaries - the EW-B100C and the EW-B2000C models - in India at Rs 7,995 and Rs 14,995, respectively. The review model I got was the higher-end EW-B2000C.
First, let's see what all this gadget has to offer: It includes 11 complete Oxford dictionaries of English and French and one Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. It can help you find meanings of English words, check spellings, check collocations of words, find synonyms or antonyms and offer other such functions that a user would expect from a full-fledged dictionary.
As you open the device, power it on and go to the menu, you will see six buttons – 'English 1', 'English 2', 'English 3', 'French', 'Other' and 'Useful'. The first three buttons include Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford Learner's Thesaurus, Oxford Collocations Dictionary, Oxford Idioms Dictionary, Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary, Oxford Learner's Wordfinder Dictionary and practical usage (which also includes common mistakes people generally make in speaking or writing English).
While the French tab includes French to English and English to French Oxford dictionaries. And the other two buttons include multilingual word and phrasebank, which can help you in getting meaning of any key word or phrase in other four different languages (apart from English and French) – German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. Besides, the integrated reference material also includes 100 works of World literature and other remarkable speeches like Barack Obama's victory speech "Yes we can", John F Kennedy's inaugural address and six others. In addition, the dictionary has a built-in speaker that lets you hear pronunciations of different words and other speeches and literature that it has. It also comes bundled with an earphone and a USB cable.
The dictionary supports microSD card of up to 2GB. You can also use it as a calculator.
Before I move on the hardware specifications and further details, I would like to raise the most important questions on my mind. Is it indeed worth Rs 14,995? Do I need all what the device has to offer? Can't I read (or even listen to) speeches on my internet-enabled smartphone or laptop? Can't I download dictionary apps, that too for free? These are some questions that, I think, users should ask themselves before making the Rs15K spend.
Though expensive, but this clamshell device is portable and also durable. At the launch a Casio executive dropped it from a height to show-off its sturdiness.
The dictionary is powered by two alkaline batteries, which means that a user does not have to take the pain of recharging the device on regular basis. I had the device for more than 10 days with me and I neither recharged the batteries nor changed them, even once.
Casio could have included an in-built battery charger to save users the bother and the expense of purchasing a separate device just to charge the batteries.
While the device is good to look at the back looks a bit clumsy. On the left side of the device, there is an earphone jack on the top, a toggle switch in the middle to let users choose between an earphone or speaker mode and a micro USB port at the bottom.
The right side has a microSD card slot. The device features a QWERTY keypad and keys are soft to press. But the only concern is that there are too many buttons, which might confuse a user. Another thing that I found disrupting was the placement of the the 'ENTER' button. I think that it could have been better positioned in the center of the navigation/arrow keys. The screen is sunlight readable and measures 12.6 cm in size.
In the first look, the interface may perplex you, but once you get your hands on the device, you will slowly adapt to it. What I believe is that the interface could have been designed simpler. The audio is clear and crisp. Both earphones and speaker deliver good sound. Volume can be adjusted with up and down arrow keys.
The dictionary supports microSD card of up to 2GB and the user can transfer text files from PC to the dictionary and vice-versa. But the pain is that you need to download a text loader software from www.ex-word.in and install it on your PC. Another pitfall is that only .TXT files can be transfered.
While the company claimed during the launch that JPEG images can also be transferred from dictionary to the PC and vice-versa. Even its brochure says the same, "Viewing and transferring images from/into the memory card." However I discovered that it is not the case. You can only view images, which are there in your memory card on the dictionary, but can not transfer them.
The Casio EW-B2000C e-dictionary might be of some use to writers and students, who don't have access to the Internet all the time, or find it a little bothersome to locate and launch an app on the phone or PC only to look up a definition.
But, with the easy availability of Internet and scores of free dictionary apps, I doubt the success of this electronic dictionary in the Indian market.
Pros
Durable
Portable
Soft keys
Cons
Expensive
Perplexing interface
No built-in charger
Rating: 2.5/5
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