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!