Customer Reviews

Ectaco ER300T Partner English - Russian Talking Electronic Dictionary

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought that there were few electronic dictionaries on the market for an american learning russian, but figured this product would suffice. Unfortunetly, almost all of the word I didn't know and needed to look up were not in the dictionary, it makes beeping noises that you can't turn off, it offers no russian verb conjugation (or recognition of conjugated verbs), and only talks in english. i would advice students learning russian to buy something else.

It is OK as a portable dictionary. My 72 y.o. mother uses it while studying English - her native language is Russian. She says it has enough of the most common words so she does not have to use the actual big dictionary every time she needs something translated. However, she cannot verify the desired word's pronunciation using this talking dictionary -whoever created it knew nothing of English pronunciation whatsoever. My American husband cannot even recognize most of the English words by listening to it. Do NOT use this device if you intend to learn how to pronounce English words as well as their meaning. Translation seems to be accurate so far (two months after the purchase).

I am very happy with this dictionary.

I don't need now to sit at the computer . I can study , I can read books and magazins everywhere.

I wish I bought it sooner.

Thak you for your service.

BUYERS TIP- prices on Ectaco's website are lower than on Amazon for those interested in buying. But be ready to deal with a badly designed and slow website.
ANOTHER TIP- Click on "Bid your price" and they will likely send you a discount coupon within 1-2 days.

Ectaco is a "Russian" company based somewhere in NYC/Long Island. Their market is primarily the millions of former Soviet immigrants to the US. Hence their Russian-English dictionaries are "designed" for that demographic struggling to learn English- just look at the names of people who posted the reviews here :)
And even with the greatly expanded selection of languages over the years, they still seem to be mainly targeting Eastern European population (and possibly Spanish speakers), in other words- major immigrant groups to the US. Unfortunately, English speakers trying to learn Russian make up a tiny percentage of the company's customer base, so I wouldn't expect Ectaco to make any changes to their products to accommodate this minority (think of the R&D cost that will never pay off). But in Ectaco's defense- how many Americans actually bother to learn any language, let alone Russian ? (The above is for those who are interested in learning Russian and looking at Ectaco devices)

I've owned several Ectaco products and have to say- the hardware is inferior in build quality and mechanically. Little crappy displays (which they invariably advertise as "high-resolution"- what a joke !) and unresponsive keyboards that often require for keys to be hit more than once, especially with age ! Interface design is also very outdated and not the most intuitive. In the days of "i"-everything, paying anywhere from $400-$1,000 for a translator that remotely resembles an iPod seems ludicrous, whereas you can get any "i"-device for well under a grand. The more expensive models are packed with "bonus" features such as touch-screen displays, GPS, PIM, etc that seem to add nothing to the quality of translation or language learning- just inflate the price. And seriously- who wants a GPS from a company that makes translator software and hardware ?! It's like buying a cell phone from a company that makes toasters and microwave ovens.

I suppose the cheaper models are ok for what they do, for those who want a portable translator they can carry with them and for students (but not for students of Russian).
BEWARE though, the cheaper models seem to have much smaller vocabularies in comparison to the more expensive ones- the downside of buying lower models I guess. Here's a good test word I found that wasn't present in the low-end models I've owned- "serendipity" :)

At this point, I'm using translation soft for the iPhone (iPod touch/iPad). But haven't found anything with pronunciation yet. Ectaco also has translator soft for sale on the iTunes store, which I haven't tried myself so can't comment. I suspect there're similar offerings for Android and other platforms too.

The first thing I noticed about this device is that it is very slow. Every time I type in a word into the dictionary I have to wait 2 seconds for each letter to be displayed (I guess it is due to the fact that it searches all the word options that start with that letter. It is like the guessing feature in Google Search).

Secondly, this device totally lacks a more ergonomic design. By this I mean that is has so much useless plastic (such as the cover and on the sides) that you could easily cut away and be left with more compact version with the same features. Presumably is was added for convenience to imitate a computer keyboard, but I can bet that 90% of people would rather like holding it in hands like a cell phone.

And the last major drawback is that many keys/buttons are so useless and non-intuitive. For example, there is a world time clock button but there is no Backspace button which would have been 10000000 times more useful (instead you have to press Shift + back arrow FOR EACH LETTER TO BE ERASED). Just because English alphabet has fewer letters than Russian doesn't mean that there should be a dedicated comma or period button rather than some actual Russian letters being placed on a secondary function positions (meaning that in order to use them you have to press Shift every time).

So here is the summary:

Pros:
- Powered by AA batteries that you can easily recharge/replace.
- Translates words correctly

Cons:
- Slow and laggy typing
- Poor design (non-ergonomic, has parts you wish you could break off and throw away)
- Non-intuitive button placement and function/letter assignment.
- Audio Talking/Pronunciation feature is very fuzzy and is extremely hard to understand. (I couldn't figure out what word it was saying after 10 times listening to it, without looking at the screen).
- Does not translate most of the phrases.

Conclusion:
This dictionary should definitely not be called a "Partner" because I would rather look into the paper book that use this device with all its pointless stuff. After all, it barely does what it is supposed to, but it doesn't cost the price listed. I would give it $40 at most. See or try for yourself, if you wish, but I wouldn't recommend buying this dictionary.

Much easier to carry than a paper dictionary. Also pretty quick if you need a word in a hurry.

This translator does not seem to have many commonly used words. Also it can pronounce only those words that were preinstalled, unlike previous etaco models that could pronounce anything you typed. To add to that, pronounciation itself is awful

Helpful in everyday life. But I wouldnt recommend it to people, who need a dictionary for professional translations or students.The screen resolution and pronunciation could be improved there is no pronunciation of Russian words. But at the end of the day I should admit that for that price it is a fair deal. If you want something advanced - you should pay more money ;-)

I like this dictionary. I don't have to sit at the computer every time when I'm reading. Sure, you can get better one, but it will cost you much more. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the dictionary, and I absolutely got what I expected for that price. Thank you.