Electronic Translator Model Maze Road Map

You've probably noticed a dizzying array of translator devices and are wondering how the heck you are going to sort through all those to figure out which one you need. Help is here!

We can quickly sort these out into a few categories:

Type	About it
Cheap	When you buy a $58 translator, you've wasted $58. The thing is almost useless. We don't sell these.
Phrasebooks	These have canned phrases only. See phrasebooks here.
Dictionary/phrasebooks	These allow you to look up individual words, plus they have the phrasebook.
True translators	These have a dictionary, phrasebook, and free-form sentence feature (called Full Text Translation, or FTT).
Speech to speech	These exist only in science fiction. They are in the same category as warp engines, transports, and an ethical US Congress.

So your choices are now only three. And for most people, the decision will be between a dictionary/translator and an FTT translator. That sure makes it much easier now, doesn't it?

Among dictionary/phrasebooks, you really have two choices:

High word count (Ectaco 800, 500, C4) or low word count (Lingo). Why would you want a low word count model? It costs less, and is adequate for tourist-level usage. With a high word count unit, however, your cost per word is quite a bit lower.

Among FTT translators, you once again have two choices:

Ectaco 900 series or Ectaco iTravl. These also come in some variations, which we'll discuss in a moment.

900	iTravl

The first thing you notice is the 900 has a physical keyboard and the iTravl doesn't. There is another difference: the dictionary of the 900 has natural human voice output in the dictionary and the phrasebook, while the iTravl has it only in the phrasebook (it's synthesized in the iTravl dictionary).

Some people like a physical keyboard because of the tactile aspect. On the downside, keyboards are QWERTY so the other person has to use the virtual keyboards anyhow--why not have both parties do that? The iTravl is smaller and lighter because it doesn't have that physical keyboard.

What about those variations? These devices come in:

Different colors (as you can see from the images above).
Deluxe versions. This means you get a bundled deal on a scanning pen with the the unit (it works with the unit to translate text to the screen). In the iTravl Deluxe, you also get the cradle charger in the bundle.
Multilanguage versions. The 900 and iTravl are based on pairing English with another language. But Ectaco has compiled some pairs together in various bundles. These bundles go together in some theme, such as Asian or Western European. You can select the language pair you need from a menu, instead of having to reload the device with the contents of a different SD card.

Now that you've read this overview, you should have a pretty good handle on which translator is right for you. All that remains is to buy it, so you can start erasing your language barriers. For prices and detailed product information, see the Mindconnection Translator Store.

About commonly misunderstood features:

Sentence builder. Choose from the huge selection of phrases (all conveniently organized for fast selection, plus you have voice-operated lookup available). Substitute pieces of the phrase to create a new phrase. A "phrase" is actually a complete sentence. It's called a "phrase" out of tradition and to distinguish from the few models that permit typing in a random sentence. This feature is on all 800 and TL models. Once you become adept at it, you'll be able to quickly translate sentences.

Speech input. It's not actually "speak in and get the translation out," so don't assume that. All translation is done text to text, inside the unit. You then have inputs and outputs to the part that does the translating. Speech input is (at this time) a "shortcut" method for looking things up. You will still interact with the screen. See also: Voice on Electronic Translators: Cutting Through the Confusion.