So I downloaded the beta version of Pleco for my Android (Galaxy S2). I was a little set off by the $15 fee for adding the OCR feature so that I could use the camera to identify characters quickly, but it certainly seems worth it. Then I see that the rest of the program is still locked and they are selling all features for $50. Very expensive for an app. Does anyone else use Pleco on here, what are your suggestions? Currently I'd like to use it to assist me through books that are too hard for me to read with out assistance and also put the new words I learn into Skritter quickly and efficiently.(flash card feature) I hate to pay $50 for it though. Thanks for any advice.

I use it and love it. The price you mentioned I do however not recognize. The app as such is free and then you can buy add ins. I think that the full bundle ( with the OCR) is around 99 but the normal bundle is 35. Each individual item is around 11 to 15. Hand writing and flashcard is two nice features to get but not necessary. I use it as you when I read books or news and need to look up. The handwriting look up is the very convenient and also to be able to save the words. The quality of the dictionary is what makes it all worth the money. Also the additional dictionaries you can buy are good ones. For me I use it when i am travelling and can't be on line. I would say that it is well worth the money but that is just my opinion. They have some great voices too that makes it more fun to use.

I use the base version which is free (I also have a Galaxy S2). I just use the trial version of the OCR feature which still allows me to easily look up characters I don't know. If you download the dictionary add-ons that they have available for free then it already covers a lot of words without paying for the other dictionaries. The full-screen handwriting isn't really necessary since you can install your own handwriting input method. I would actually pay money for the base version of Pleco, but for me none of the paid add-ons are worth it.

I second what Stuart said. I use the free version all the time but haven't felt the need to download any of the extras. I would probably buy the OCR feature if I had a device that it worked on, but it's not recommended for the iPod touch because the camera is of such poor quality.

Great input from all of you! Thanks! @Mandarinboy, can you save the words and export them with only buying the OCR? The Bundle on Droid includes the OCR which your bundle perhaps didn't include. Bringing the total to 50.

@Stuart That's a good idea with the demo but its still a little time consuming to re-look it all up. I'm coming across 10-30 a page. Actually, I decided to read 三國演義的漫畫。 For one its hilarious and I already know the story very well. But mostly because its the only thing I have found that I actually interested in reading in Chinese that I can struggle through. In some ways its very 口語 but still has a ton of terms I never learned in daily occurrences, vocab bank I memorized, and typical conversation book sets studied through.

If I could just save the words in a list that I look up, export them quickly to Skritter, and load them into lists that I　pump out when I skritter, the whole process would be efficient. Hate to drop the cash if thats not how it works.

I think the paid add ons, especially the dictionaries and full screen writing are definitely worth it. I still use the default Pleco dictionary most (which is excellent, especially for examples), but also have a Chinese-Chinese one (describing a word in Chinese is much more useful sometimes than a bunch of English words, plus has examples sometimes when others don't), and ABC for the sheer number of entries. I also keep CCEDICT around for newer words which haven't worked their way into other dictionaries.

Also, full screen writing is much better than the ios one for recognition and ease, but I think the cost has gone up a bit since I bought it (Apple started charging the UK and some other countries more a few months back).

As others have mentioned, the base program and FREE add-on dictionaries are already quite comprehensive. I also used the OCR add-on (paid) for reading printed material, and the pasteboard reader (I can't remember if this was free, part of OCR, or separate paid) to copy and paste articles from Safari in.

Other add-ons not as useful (flashcards - use Anki, iFlash, SKRITTER; hand writing is nice but not sure if its worth paying for); the paid dictionaries MAY be worth it if you're at a really advanced level, I suppose. Overall the base app plus $15 for the OCR is a great deal I think.

I haven't tried the feature, BUT I think you can export your history of looked up words to a email (to send to yourself and then add to Skritter) - not sure about this.

Thanks @Icebear and @Byzanti, good info. Though its not as fast, right now i am just writing all the words in with stroke as its obvious how to write any character i don't know. I may upgrade soon though. The ability to export with only the OCR　upgrade will be important for my decision.

I got the full on bundle, best buy (apart from skritter) for learning Chinese and best Chinese dictionary I have used. Well worth every penny.

I have flashcards add on and use that to quickly save words of interest and later upload them to a computer and skritter.

I use the default dictionary and the free Adsotrans for a second angle on things, it gives a one word direct translation response.

I use the mid-range bundle. The flashcard feature is excellent because I can quickly put a word in a flash card rather than making a handwritten note, which would mean constantly moving from screen to notebook. I use an iPod Touch. Just occasionally, the animated stroke diagrams are good.

@Neil: How do you upload the words on flashcards to a computer and Skritter?

Export from pleco to Skritter is actually easy. Either you use the build in email function and mail them to you or you use the build in web server and publish them or simply export them as file and sync with your computer. See their manual for more details: http://www.pleco.com/ipmanual/flash.html#export
Once you have the data is very easy to crate your own Skritter list and add the words to that. I use that often. Skritter and Pleco is a good combination

@Byzanti - off topic but did I see on another thread that you have an itouch 2G? Are you planning to upgrade to access the Skritter app? (Oh, the joy!) It looks like, with a trade in, a refurbished 8 gig 3G is within my budget. But I'm wondering if the performance on an older model is going to be what it needs to be. Have you looked into this at all? I'd be curious if you've come to any firm conclusions. qmmayer at msn.com.

I have been using pleco for years now. Definitely a must. Don't use the flashcards now because skritter is so much better. I have bought a few dictionaries, first for palm os and i was able to transfer these licences to my android cell phone. I paid for the ocr device, but i use it only from time to time. The handwriting recognition is very good and once you know how to draw any character it is much faster to trace the character with your finger than go through the hassle of fixing your camera on the text. What I find very useful is the pronouncation, the tracing of characters (especially when i was still a beginner), the easy way to look up compounds and the extensive database for each character so that you can easily get to other information about a certain character. I also like the way you can navigate from one character to another by just 'clicking' it. And...it has a good reader that allows for easy copy and paste from any text on your phone.

Marc

quimby: I already upgraded! Definitely worth doing. I should have done it ages ago. One of the best things is switching between anki and pleco to look up words, with multitasking it takes 5 seconds to go there and back, rather than the best part of a minute. It also has a much better screen.

The ipod 4 is already an old model, I don't think it would be sensible to get a 3g. You can look on the macrumors forum for people's experiences with them and ios5 though.

For someone at an advanced level, the paid Pleco dictionaries are awesome.

I don't find the OCR feature very useful - it's just as fast to use the full-screen Pleco handwriting to look up characters, and besides, actually writing out the characters is better for learning.

I have also been using PlecoDict for years, first on Palm devices and now on my iPhone and iPad. I have all available dictionaries, but only really use the Chinese to English and Chinese to Chinese dictionaries.

My experience with the OCR has been that it is better in theory than in practice. But then again, maybe I'm just not using it properly.

Handwriting input is a wonderful way to look up characters that I'm not familiar with, and I love to use the Document reader to read Chinese stories, as I can look up characters/words that I don't know with just a tap of my finger.

Overall, PlecoDict may be expensive, but I feel that it is definitely worth the money.

The only words I can think of to describe the free dictionaries that come with Pleco, are expletives. The free dictionaries might be ok for the casual low level learner, but not if you are serious about learning chinese.

There are so many surprisingly important words simply missing from the free dictionary. There are also huge numbers of words where the definitions are misleading or flat out wrong. I very frequently come across a sentence that doesn't make sense until I look up the words using the paid dictionary to understand the meaning.

I would submit updates back to cc-cedict but my last 10 submissions seemed to go into a black hole, so I dont bother any more.

Would you care to share some examples of important words that are missing or have misleading definitions? I know that it's true, but I don't seem to have come across as many as you have, and I'm certainly not a casual low-level learner.

I think, 董雅各, when we are talking about the free dictionary, we are not talking about CCEDICT or some of the other downloadable ones, which is very poor (although helpful for newer/slang words), but rather the PLC dictionary which is a more developed version of a proper dictionary they've licenced. It is very good, even for an advanced learner and has super example sentences (more and better quality than ABC). Still, as I said, multiple dictionaries are needed for proper cover.

I use Pleco every day and find that it's useful to have several dictionaries installed.

I use the OCR feature to rapdly make a set of flash cards of entire vocab lists. Then I export them as a text file, which I use to add vocab lists to Skritter. Very fast.