Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary

I travel internationally about once a year to different places. I usually bring an English-to-XX/XX-to-English dictionary with me when traveling, in case I cannot find an English speaker (which is usually not too hard to do, but getting them to admit to it is harder ;-). I find the dictionary approach very easy - you look up the word and show the other person the translation.

My English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary seems to have approximately 6000 words each direction that I can look up by simply spelling it from either language.

I looked on the web for electronic dictionaries. Unfortunately, none of the available devices seem to provide a simple language-to-language translation with look-up by spelling (except maybe for the common European languages). Since I also travel in Asia, and work for a Chinese company, that doesn't quite meet my needs.

For languages with different alphabets that are rather dissimilar, such as English and Chinese, having a device support look-up by spelling for both languages becomes difficult. The hierarchical menu approach seems a way to support look-up in dissimilar languages.

Now for the device itself.

My Chinese-English dictionary weighs 10.25 oz (290g). My Nyrius, plus carrying case, lanyard, and 1 paper word list weighs a total 3.75 oz (110g). That may not seem like much difference, but a 10 oz book in your pants pocket is not small and unobtrusive, especially for a day of sight seeing. The Nyrius is small enough for a shirt pocket (or you can hang from the lanyard).

If you are doing a multi-stop vacation, such as touring Europe, multiple dictionaries would add to your luggage weight, while the Nyrius would handle multiple languages in one small package.

Usability:

I have not yet traveled with it internationally, so I am not sure how well it will work for me in different situations. I cannot see using this to carry on a conversation; look-up seems way too slow. Maybe with lots of use, look-up becomes much faster.

I find look-up of random words to be fairly difficult on the device, since you don't know which words are supported. I thank the company for providing small paper listings of the menus, since I can visually find which words are available and how to get to them much faster on paper than on the device. And since listings are provided in multiple languages, you can let the other person also use a look-up list to find words themselves. (They do not currently have 12 lists, though.) The lists are lightweight and easily fold up to carry in the carrying case.

I find some navigation counter-intuitive. The words are numbered; if you press the "up" key, it shows you the next lower numbered word; if you press the down key, it shows you the next higher numbered word. I suppose it corresponds to looking at the words on the printed list - word #181 is higher on the printed page than word #182.

I think the display is pretty primitive. The device is similar in size to a cellphone (actually a bit larger than many cellphones). The size of the screen is only two characters high, which is awful compared to cellphones. The screen is black-on-gray which limits its visibility compared to cellphones. The left-right scrolling is painfully slow compared to cellphones or computer screens. The word translator could be so much better in a decent cellphone handset or a PDA.

I give this device four stars; it seems to do what it set out to do reasonably well, and at a low price. Based on info available from the web, it seems to do a good job compared to competitive products. I wish they had shot for loftier goals, though. language talking translator

I think this translator could be much more than it is. I wish I could find a translator with better features that I think current technology could easily support. Imagine this device having a USB port or an SD port, and you could buy support for a single language on a USB flash drive or an SD card. And then you could buy only the languages that you need, when you need them. And you could buy the current basic dictionaries, or advanced dictionaries as they become available. And you could buy new languages as they became available.

Imagine having the translator on your cellphone or PDA rather than in a separate device, so you only need to carry one device. Imagine improved hierarchical searching with drop-down menus on better screens. Imagine being able to download the dictionaries of choice to your cellphone for use with a common cellphone application. Imagine support via your cellphone provider for a specific language payable one month at a time (the license continues until you explicitly discontinue it) - since I usually travel to one place once a year, for one to four weeks, that would make much more sense than having a 12-language translator that sits idle 11 months of the year. Imagine support for voice-driven look-up, similar to the voice command capability of some existing cellphones. Ah, what could have been.

Still, I think this devices deserves its four stars for what it offers at the price.

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