Casio XD-GP9700 - Better than the GW9600

February 17, 2008 on 8:37 pm | In Gadgets, Language | | Email This Post

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ve probably heard me raving about my favorite electronic dictionary, the Casio GW9600. Maybe you even want one too!

But wait! Put the wallet, DOWN!

A new model has just been released, the Casio XD-GP9700.

I haven’t seen it in the stores or tried it yet, but according to the Casio XD-GP9700 product summary over on The Japan Shop, the greatest new features include that the dictionary now pronounces the Japanese and that it has a backlit screen. It also seems to have a larger J-E dictionary than before.

Clay at the JapanShop mentioned that if you already have the GW9600 it’s probably not worth shelling out the cash to upgrade. If you’re about to buy your first electronic dictionary though, I would personally skip over the GW9600 and get this new one.

Now that this new model has been released do I regret buying my GW9600 just last fall?

Not really. I have gotten so much use out of it so far that I think it would have been counter-productive putting off the purchase. I’m alright. I won’t cry…

Remember, you might be able to get the dictionaries cheaper on Amazon.co.jp if you can get through the ordering process in Japanese, be sure to shop around!

- Harvey

Related Posts... (in theory)   Got my Dictionary! The Casio XD-GW9600    Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary at The Japan Shop    TheJapanShop.com Sale  

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  1. Gravatar

    The only thing left to do to improve electronic dictionaries is to give them a huge corpus of example sentences to browse through when looking up words in the dictionary.

    Comment by Alex — February 17, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    What I want in a translation device is something very simple. I want something with a little pen like stylus, that lets me highlight a word I don’t know in a book or a newspaper, and brings up the reading, definition, an animation of how to write it, and a sample of its use in a sentence.

    If it doesn’t have that, what difference is there from the translation services I can use on the internet for free?

    Comment by Joe — February 17, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    I bought the GW9600 two weeks ago. Marvelous. Great electronic dictionary. The top. Can’t live without it.

    Comment by vincent — February 17, 2008 #

  4. Gravatar

    @Joe
    if you use Firefox as your browser, there are two absolutely invaluable addons. moji and rikaichan.

    moji –> http://moji.mozdev.org/

    rikaichan –> http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

    both are translators built right into the browser accessible via either a sidebar (moji) or via right-click (rikaichan) that allow you to highlight words you don’t know and see them translated and used in examples. AMAZING.

    Also, if you have a Nintendo DS, there is a fantastic (and outrageously cheap) dictionary for it called Kanji sonomama rakubiki jiten.

    http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-198v.html

    if you already have a DS and want to get a fantastic starter dictionary (that you use the stylus to write the kanji you want to learn) this is a steal at like $49-ish USD

    Comment by カート — February 18, 2008 #

  5. Gravatar

    Thanks カート. But the vast majority of information in the world is still in printed form, so I’m looking for some way to quickly look up things that are in physical media.

    Comment by Joe — February 18, 2008 #

  6. Gravatar

    Alex, you may want the DS dictionary then, but I imagine this thing has you covered.

    Anyhoo, the amazon.co.jp and The Japan Store photos are different! Which is the real product?!

    Comment by claytonian — February 18, 2008 #

  7. Gravatar

    I thought it might be worth mentioning that Amazon.co.jp won’t ship the electronic dictionaries outside of Japan. orz

    Buy one for me and ship it to me Harvey!!

    Comment by Blake — February 19, 2008 #

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