The Miraculous Casio EW-G3000

I don't often plug consumer products on this blog, but let me make an exception for the Casio EW-G3000 (G).  It is a perfect synthesis of form and function.

Most portable electronic dictionaries are pretty grim affairs; you might get a basic vocabulary and a few verb tables, but that's about it.  The Casio contains the entire texts of some great dictionaries: the Langenscheidt's German dictionary, the New Oxford Dictionary of English, and the English-German and German-English dictionaries from both of these publishers.  Plus thesauri for both languages.  Plus German-French and French-German dictionaries. 

It's worth mentioning again that all of these dictionaries are contained whole, without major cuts.  That means you type in a phrase, and get not just the most common meaning of the term in another language, but every alternate meaning, and often dozens of examples and idiomatic expressions. 

And that, as the ad-men say, is just the beginning -- there are also travel phrasebooks, dictionaries of idioms, a calculator, and dozens of other functions.  Switching between dictionaries is easy; you can type in a word, and, while the phrase remains on the screen, effortlessly see every piece of information the dictionary has to offer about that phrase with just a few simple clicks.  For instance, you can type in a German word, and find its English or French equivalent by pressing just one more button each time.  Another button takes you straight to the full German-only dictionary entry, so you can deepen your research.  Or, you can search for every instance of the word in every dictionary in the device.

This gadget also looks beautiful.  The keyboard is simple and elegant.  The outside is discreet brushed aluminum, with pads on the bottom to keep it from sliding on smooth surfaces.  Folded-up, the the Casio is sleek; no more than 1 centimeter wide.  Smaller than a small paperback book, thus easy to slip into a backpack or briefcase.  It unfolds to reveal a large, clear, 10-centimeter LCD screen.  There's no backlight, which is a minor drawback, but this also means that the 2 AAA batteries last for years.

The GW-3000 is expensive.  But , just as the advertisement says, it replaces half a shelf of big, bulky dictionaries.  A thing of beauty for the mobile multilinguist. 

Hats off to you, Casio.  You can send the money to my Paypal account...

Comments

[Andy Wong]

Could you tell me if there´s any English sites selling the product and shipping internationally? I searched for quite some time and found out that big e-shops like Amazon Germany don´t ship e-dicts to Asian countries.
Thank you very much.

[Andrew Hammel]

It's under 250 Euro here:

http://www.geizkragen.de/preisvergleich/suchergebnisse/248380.html

[Robert]

Could you tell us where you bought it? I'm in Vienna now, and found one in a bookstore for over 300 Euro; something tells me I can get it cheaper somehow...

[Lee]

Wow, this is exactly what I've always wanted (and didn't know existed). I guess it doesn't really matter, but why isn't there an American marketed version? A quick search of Amazon electronics reveals a dozen junky electronic dictionaries. I'm a bit of a dictionary nerd so I would have been willing to put up good money for a nice electronic version (i.e., with a giant screen) of a reputable and giant English dictionary. But a solid Ger/Eng dictionary is my wildest dream. (I do notice the Eng dictionary is only a learner dictionary, but the OUP website lets you search it, and my quick test indicates it has the kind of obscure words I want).

I'm going to Germany this summer with a rudimentary vocabulary, and now that I'm aware of this thing, I think I just might have to buy one. Thanks!