My faithful casio ex-word stopped working and casio will not repair it because it is a 2005 model (too old, that is). So I was thinking of getting a new one, but before I do I wanted to ask about the alternatives that have become available.

I would like to spend up to $200 (I am perfectly happy with an older model, the one I had for years cost me $100 second hand).

So my question is: should I look at another ex-word or maybe buy an ipod touch with appropriate apps or something similar of whose existence I am not even aware?
What alternatives are there?

Many thanks for your help :-)

If you have a smartphone you simply install a dictionary app; there's a lot of options and the paid ones and some of the free ones are very well made and extensive, though you might lose out on a bit of functionality compared to a stand-alone electronic dictionary.

If you plan on spending money for something new instead of something like the ex-word I'd get a portable and generic purpose technology like a modern smart phone, a tablet, and etc. This way not only can it replace your dictionary, but it can aid your studies as far as SRS software, web browsing, books, video and whatever else.

Many thanks for your answer
Could you make some concrete suggestions?

(I do not have a smartphone and would rather not buy anything that I have to pay a monthly bill for (but maybe I would not have to?))

iPod Touch was a good contractless option for dictionaries and Anki, but the price is pretty ridiculous now, although the newest model does look pretty sleek. If you can find some sort of deal on it, it's definitely worth considering. I'm not sure if there's another mobile option that isn't a phone. Apparently you can fit some of the 7" tablets (which are cheaper than the Touch) in your pocket, but I think some people just have excessively large pockets.

Also, maybe I should have mentioned that I am not a big SRS fan. But on the other hand I did like all the functionalities on my ex-word, so I would be looking at something that has those at least. Sorry to be that picky and thanks for your help again!

There are like A LOT of great apps for apple products (also some good android stuff). And you can get a used ipod touch really cheap now...

I'd recommend those apps:

https://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/eijiro-o...74160?mt=8 (somewhere there was an offline version of this one I think)

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/midori-j...31773?mt=8

also one fine joke: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id317582716?mt=8

It's probably not all that helpful, but as someone who has 2 Ex-words (XD-A9800 and XD-D10000), as well as an iphone with a plethora of iOS dictionaries and apps, it's almost always the Ex-word that I turn to. Once you get used to the functions of a really good ex-word, its becomes impractical to use anything else. That said, Japanese by CodeFromTokyo got buffed recently and is a decent edict based dictionary, and the J-J Daijirin on iOS is both sweet and cheap.
I'm totally and unashamedly biased on this one though; If you miss your ex-word, go out and buy another ex-word.

Thanks for all the nice answers

Maybe I will go for another ex-word as suggested in the last answer.
Do you guys have any suggestions for a website where I can find second hand ones at a good price?

Many thanks again, your help is much appreciated!

http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp

Use a deputy service. Google 'japan deputy service.' Maybe someone else can recommend a good one, but I can't.

I'm with you on that @squarezebra. I generally reach for my Ex-word dataplus when I want to look something up. It just feels faster to me.

There are a bunch of different Ex-word varieties out there, but generally the basic features are the same. It's more of an issue of what extra stuff do you want in it.

I spent an extra 10,000 yen to get the Kenkyuusha big dictionary on CD-ROM and loaded it on my Ex-Word, and that's my main dictionary, because it has a *lot* of headwords. That, and the Koujien that comes with it. Also, the collocation dictionary is useful, too.

Yeah, I have both an Ex-word (dataplus 4 XD-SF6200) and an iPhone 4S, and the Ex-word is so clearly better than the iPhone for my studies, even if I were to spend a lot more money than I have on dictionary apps.

Also, yours may have broken but in general they're ***** tanks. I toss mine around (in the case) for fun as I'm walking through the hallways at work--when nobody is watching, that is--and though I've dropped it violently a million times the thing shows no signs of damage, haha.

I have an ex word and use the 'imi wa?' App (formerly kotoba) far more. Why? Because its always on me. Its alway there and ready. It can find words even if they are conjugated (ie a search for 寝ちゃった will pull up 寝る). And you can export your searching to Anki. I know you're not big on SRS but others reading this might. Ps given that the a new iPod touch JUST came out tons of people will be selling their older iPod touches for a song ($50-70) pick one up and try it. Imi wa? Is a free app. If you don't like it... Sell it.

[Zgarbas]

Ipod(well, everything Apple) batteries run out really quickly though =/. Not my idea of a convenient portable device.

The thing about all these smaller smartphone apps is they won't grow with you as a Japanese learner. Most Ex-words now have 2-3 large 国語 dictionaries, an Oxford dictionary for E-E, and a good E-J and J-E dictionary. Plus some possible special use dictionaries like legal dictionaries, medical, etc. Buying many of these as seperate apps is going to run you 50-60$ each. Where as the Ex-word is only like $200.

When I'm out and about I may not have my ex-word, and in that case I use my phone (not an Iphone) and an EDICT based dictionary. When I'm at home or doing anything real, then I use my Ex-word. There is stuff that most of these cheap/free iphone dictionaries are not going to have. Honestly, I'm rarely without my ex-word. I have it in my backpack which is with me most of the time. Plus a pair of replacement rechargeable batteries that I keep charged for it. An electronic dictionary is invaluable once you start to get more advanced.

My friend has one of the newer casio ex-word cost around $600 and it has so much stuff in it and so much stuff you don't need but I use an app called Japanese on my ipad. I got the app on sale for 5 bucks but now its 10 but it's still worth every penny. Midori is also good heres a link to the one called Japanese.
http://japaneseapp.com/
Also I have a nintendo ds and if your Japanese is ok you can get a dictionary game for that as well and a used ds is pretty affordable nowadays the game will cost more than the device itself. Now I use my ds to play games as well cause I really like rpgs and jrpgs but I the one I have is really good and there are others out there too. Heres the one I got which is E-J and J-E.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O2S...B000O2S9VQ
Now I like the app better than the ds but I have an ipad so that's why the ds does come in handy when I cant carry my ipad. And while the dictionarys are better for the ipad I think the games they have to help learn japanese are better although some you need to find your way around them cause it's completely in japanese but it builds vocabulary.

Couple of points on why I think 電子辞書　is better than スマートフォン:
1. Stylus input (yes, I know some apps do finger recognition but some don't. On 電子辞書 it works all the time)
2. Physical keyboard
3. Battery life

A side note. Those 電子辞書 have number of all sorts of dictionaries. For example, mine has a quite broad Chinese section. In there, there is a position titled “Daily Chinese Conversation”, which I mention here because this section has audio for Chinese and Japanese. I guess, I could use my 電子辞書 to study Chinese as well (laddering on Japanese, that is)

I think the only issue with Ex-words is the price, and that you always pay first for the hardware before the actual dictionaries inside. The hardware in the cheapest 2012 models is the same as that found in the flagship models so the difference in price is only related to what content is included. I can understand why a lot of people come away disappointed with ex-words, or other denshi jishos because they went for the entry level models and found that iOS dictionaries are just as good (if not better in some cases).
I think the thing with casio is that you get more bang for your buck, the more you pay. And you actually have to pay a lot for it be worth your while (whether you buy a flagship model, or buy a mid-range and add the green goddess or other dictionary you went as an SD). If you're buying *new* and you only have £200-300 to spend, from my experience and people I know who have them I can't really say i'd recommend an ex-word (but you can get a great piece of kit for that much second hand ^^)

Inny Jan Wrote:1. Stylus input (yes, I know some apps do finger recognition but some don't. On 電子辞書 it works all the time)

At least on iPads/iPhones/iTouchs, ALL apps have finger recognition, simply because the device itself does. You have to add it in the settings for languages however, and it's actually meant for Chinese. But it works just as well for Japanese.

vix86 Wrote:The thing about all these smaller smartphone apps is they won't grow with you as a Japanese learner. Most Ex-words now have 2-3 large 国語 dictionaries, an Oxford dictionary for E-E, and a good E-J and J-E dictionary. Plus some possible special use dictionaries like legal dictionaries, medical, etc. Buying many of these as seperate apps is going to run you 50-60$ each. Where as the Ex-word is only like $200.

Maybe if you're in Japan they cost that much, but the cheapest Ex-Words I've seen available online are $350 before shipping is added, and those models don't really have an appealing set of dictionaries. If you want one with Kenkyuusha, which is possibly the only J-E dictionary actually worth paying for, then you're looking at $500.

I believe all models below the 8600 use Shogakukan's Progressive as their J-E dictionary, which you can get as an app on iTunes for the price of $31.99 (including E-J).

Though if you don't already have a smartphone then that of course changes the cost.

Edit: Oops, I see now that you were talking about buying second hand from Japanese auction sites.

Tzadeck Wrote:

Inny Jan Wrote:1. Stylus input (yes, I know some apps do finger recognition but some don't. On 電子辞書 it works all the time)

At least on iPads/iPhones/iTouchs, ALL apps have finger recognition, simply because the device itself does. You have to add it in the settings for languages however, and it's actually meant for Chinese. But it works just as well for Japanese.

And with Android you can get the Mazec IME and have excellent Japanese handwriting recognition in all apps.

Also, my smartphone came with a wacom powered pen :p

There's a bunch of different capacitive stylus on the market for touch screen phones, though I've not tried them myself.

Elenkis Wrote:Edit: Oops, I see now that you were talking about buying second hand from Japanese auction sites.

I hadn't really implied it or had it in mind with my longer post. New Ex-words can be pretty pricey. If a person were in Japan, I'd say wait till semester starts or start of a school year because you'll see some sales on these dictionaries.

But the auction sites are good for some of the older B&W models which are still decent to use. They can be a bit of a pain in the ass to use depending on the lighting situation though.

Do most of the smartphone apps support easy jumping?

For smartphone use, I switched to the EBWin/DroidWing apps because it was a pain to search the same word in 2-3 dictionary apps. Even then, the searching in the EPWING viewers is only as good as the dictionaries you have loaded.

I picked up the business version of the dataplus6 last year, paid 37,000 yen for it, but the next weekend saw it at the same store (Bic) for 10,000 yen less on sale. Bic was very good about refunding me the extra 10k, which I promptly blew on the Kenkyuusha CD.

Without Kenkyuusha, it's a good dictionary with Koujien and Meikyo for 国語, plus it has a bunch of other useful dictionaries, like collocations, kanji, a separate stroke order (for the 3 main styles), a 四字熟語, a thesaurus, and a few business dictionaries as well as Genius for 英和 and Progressive 和英.

If you don't need the 和英 function, the Ex-Word is fine as it is. But if you want a really good 和英, then spend the extra money on Kenkyuusha. It really *is* that much better IMO. It has gobs of headwords and example sentences galore.

Moving to 国語 would save some money.

FWIW.

Hyperborea Wrote:

rich_f Wrote:But if you want a really good 和英, then spend the extra money on Kenkyuusha. It really *is* that much better IMO. It has gobs of headwords and example sentences galore.

Kenkyuusha is available for Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai....WKENT001G

That isn't the right kenkyusha. You linked to the 7th chuujiten. The one to get is the 5th shinwaei daijiten

vix86 Wrote:Do most of the smartphone apps support easy jumping?

I haven't used a dedicated denshi jisho, so unfortunately can't compare the two. I suspect using a smartphone is more clunky for jumping around, but I find copy/paste quick and easy enough that I wouldn't want to spend the money on a ex-word just to improve that.

I have my dictionaries in EPWING format (including the Kenkyusha 5th daijiten, my main dictionary), so they are all in one app. I enter a word in the search box and it searches all dictionaries, results from the dictionaries are shown on the left and tapping a result shows the entry on the right.

When I come across a word that I don't know in the definition, I press my finger on it so the selection tool pops up, highlight the word and tap the copy button. Then I just press the search bar at the top, hit the paste button and search all dictionaries for that word. It automatically keeps a history of your searches (though you can set manual bookmarks too), so you can find previous searches easily.

If not using EPWING then you would have to switch between apps to copy/paste from one dictionary to another. Which thankfully is pretty fast and easy to do on modern phones; on Android you just hold the home button so the list of running apps pops up and then tap the one you want.

squarezebra Wrote:That isn't the right kenkyusha. You linked to the 7th chuujiten. The one to get is the 5th shinwaei daijiten

Yeah, the chuujiten is about as good as any basic 和英 dictionary. I used to have it on my iPhone before I switched to Android. It's okay, but not stellar. (At least it's professionally edited.)

The 大辞典 is the one that's worth dropping ~10,000 yen for the Ex-Word. It has a lot more headwords and many more example sentences than any other 和英 I've seen, so it's incredibly useful for dealing with everyday Japanese, which often doesn't show up in dictionaries like the chuujiten.

Searching is a little different with the Ex-Word. If you use the 複数日本語 search button, you can search across all of the dictionaries on it at once. The only downside is that any dictionaries you install go to the end of the list. So that lovely Kenkyuusha is always the last result, which I think is really a bad design decision.

So I search in the Kenkyuusha first, then if I don't like what I see, I just tap the ジャンプ button on the upper screen, tap the word I want to look up, and it will search across a bunch of dictionaries. I can always go back to what I was looking at in Kenkyuusha by hitting the 戻る key.

Once you get it down, it's really fast.

The 大辞典 is available as an app on iOS by Logovista. It costs £99.99 though I have no idea how well it runs. I've never used the chuujiten as I've never needed another JE after getting the 大辞典. There are a number of ways you can get the 大辞典. You can get it built in to the 2 top-end casios (xxx9800 / xxx10000 models), but a cheaper option is to buy a cheaper casio and add it as an SD upgrade for about 10000 yen. You can also buy it as a hard back tome (for a rediculous price) or get it on a CD in epwing format. Having it on epwing can be really useful when you are making your anki cards, as you can cut and paste example sentences directly from it (at least that's what I do).