New Casio XD-GP9700
I got the new Casio in two weeks ago, but being busy with moving the website, I really haven’t had time to play with it. I probably won’t have time to make videos, do reviews and other fun stuff until after the website dust settles (who knows when?)
My first impression is positive.
I did try to use the USB cord to move some text files over, but I couldn’t get it to work quickly and I quickly ran out of time. Will try again soon.
Like its predecessor the GW9600, the GP9700 has beautiful-to-the-eyes backlighting and the beautiful-to-the-word-hungry Kenkyusha J-E.
But the GP9700 adds a few things over the GW9600:
- Larger writing space for stylus
- Sensitive screen for navigation and menu choices (use the stylus to tap on the screen itself*)
- Japanese voice for the J-J (this may be one of the nicer improvements)
- Improved flashcard memo pad functions
I’m sure there are a ton (ok, one or two) of other advantages over the GW9600, but I really need to sit down with it more to find them. I’d say if you have the GW9600, it probably isn’t worth upgrading. But if you don’t have a dictionary, the GP9700 is hard to beat.
Casio XD-GP9700 at The Japan Shop
* Scott Severn chimed in with:
The GP9700 actually does let you write kanji on the main panel. You can do it in the 漢字源 from option B (…大きな手書き入力から…), which is accessible by pressing the メニュー button, then go to the 国語系 category, Press ‘C’ for 漢字源, then choose option ‘B’, the one I mentioned above. It then opens the big writing square for the main panel. Hope that helps!
Hi,
I just read your comment about the XD-GP9700…
What I have managed to do with it has shown me that it is great, but I am having trouble figuring out how to use it properly. The quickstart manual doesn’t explain much I find. I don’t know if you plan to do this or when you will be able to. But I was wondering do you have any plans to make a slightly more in depth english manual to post here? to help people like me. Or if you know of anywhere that might have one?
Mine arrived a few days ago
Regards,
Jonathan.
Yes, I really should. I have been slammed with moving TheJapanesePage.com, but I really, really ought to do more reviews on that model and a bunch of DS games.
Play around with it. I’m sure you will figure out a lot, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here. If I have time (I should), I’ll try to make posts out of questions. Maybe it will help others who are new to dictionaries.
The GP9700 actually does let you write kanji on the main panel. You can do it in the 漢字源 from option B (…大きな手書き入力から…), which is accessible by pressing the メニュー button, then go to the 国語系 category, Press ‘C’ for 漢字源, then choose option ‘B’, the one I mentioned above. It then opens the big writing square for the main panel. Hope that helps!
Nice! You are absolutely right. I don’t know why I didn’t see that.
Thanks.
Clay, you had some (minor) ‘cons’ with the ‘9600; does the ‘9700 address any of these?
e.g. while JUMPING does it NOW display hits in a pop-up menu like some of the Canons?
For my interest specifically - can you NOW do a ’search within a search’ and get the split screen that shows the search result from a HIGHLIGHTED term - rather than having to know the pronunciation of that term, type it in and search for it…
i.e. Highlight the term and hit さらに検索 to see it rather than type the pronunciation in to see it?
Guess it would be like a jump into a SPLIT screen rather than having to go ‘back’ after jumping an unknown kanji/term.
Looking forward to an in-depth review after the dust has settled from your trip, the new web site is up and the new baby has settled in. This seems to be the premier 電子辞書 for students of Japanese and you seem to be the de-facto English information site! Casio owe you big time I think!
Thanks again.
>>e.g. while JUMPING does it NOW display hits in a pop-up menu like some of the Canons?
Unfortunately it does not. Really, this is NOT a big deal, but some other models in the past had a two column setup where you could flip through the hits for each dictionary before deciding on which dictionary to use. The GP9700 just has an extra step.
>>Guess it would be like a jump into a SPLIT screen rather than having to go ‘back’ after jumping an unknown kanji/term.
I can’t really remember what older models were like, but I seem to remember something along those lines. I think that is really the same as above where you can basically see the results before actually jumping. (Or maybe I am misunderstanding–I am a little jetlagged!)
It would be nice to write more on the GP9700. Casio and others have put out newer models, but nothing better (that I know of) for English speakers.
Thanks Clay, your answers are appreciated :-).
Now I have received the dictionary, I am able to answer my own questions about it!
One benefit I wasn’t aware of - with the “jump” function - you select a particular dictionary BUT you can then scroll L and R to see the matching entries in all the other dictionaries. I don’t know if that is standard with Casio BUT I think it solves the “problem” with it not displaying the NUMBER of hits in the pop-up. If anything - this is more useful!
I also didn’t realise (despite Johns comments above) that there is an English quick reference provided by Casio - it is a bit thin on information but definitely useful IMHO! The combination of that and you blog posts/videos made the learning curve very manageable.
The handwriting recognition is excellent - I have even tried writing the kanji in reverse stroke order, and it generally gets them correct anyway!
Still exploring the other areas, but already it is getting a work out. I suspect it will serve me well for several years.