ECTACO iTRAVL 2 English Indonesian Travel Smartphone

ER-800 is probably one of the better translators available. This model will translate a whole paragraph. I married a Russian speaking lady and most times it is our only means of communication. The quality of the translation is sometimes a big problem, because it doesn't always give you a answer that makes any sense and sometimes it causes more problems than it solves, but without the human factor being involved in the translation i suppose it is usually acceptable. Quite often it is possible to figure out the basic idea of the translation and you get an idea of what the other person is trying to tell you. I would say that about 75 percent of the time the translation is good enough to understand completely, which is probably as good as the technology is at this point in time. Overall I would say that if you need to be able to converse with Russian speakers this is one of the better choices that is available.

This dictionery is very usefull not only for beginners also for person who can speak,write and read in english . Actualy I am using this dictionery when I write this rewiew.I had the same item for a long time and recently I've droped it and item has been broken,so I decided to buy a new one and it help wery vell.

same s*** as what every one else is asying....it basically sucks, they got me

This product shipped from a third party seller listed on Amazon. There was a software problem as well as a problem with the rechargeable battery. As soon as it was removed from the charger, it powered off. Repeatedly. When the seller was informed of this he said there was no guarantee on electronic products and so I was stuck with it. This seemed unfair especially since I had paid over $ 460 for it. I am a regular shopper from Amazon and I find myself at a loss about what to do.

Firstly I first purchased an Ectaco product in Moscow back in 2001 and was quite happy with it as a quick and ready translator. This company has quite a long history in electronic translators especially for the Russian language.You have to remember that generally the purchaser speaks native Russian and wants to learn English - English Speakers wanting to learn Russian are probably 1% of the total learners so it is generally geared that way around!I am now using the ER800 and find it quite quirky with outdated software and an old early 00's synthesized voice. Cheap Software available for the Android (and I assume Apple) now have actual native speakers pronouncing which is amazing in perfect accent free Russian and English with huge 1M+ vocabularies.. amazing. And also likely around 1/10 of the price. Even factoring a cheap Android phone into the equation you'll be way better off with this solution... unless..Unless you use a translator frequently/for study or professionally and in this case the ER800 suffices but barely. It can be of enormous help but can also be a source of enormous frustration with its quirky software.As an advanced Learner of Russian I find it very useful overall but feel they could do a lot better.A bit overpriced in my opinion but it is a niche product from a smallish company so one could expect that.I like it - it is well built - not cheaply - and should be reliable - mine 5 years old no problems.Never used Customer services so cannot comment.

Before vacationing in Russia, I wanted to purchase the best electronic translator available. Reading the product description for the Partner ER800, it sounded perfect. The company makes some impressive claims in the product description. After having purchased the ER-800, I believe the product marketers and the electronic engineers who designed this device are themselves suffering a language barrier.Before I get into the point-by-point, claim-versus-reality portion of the review I'll tell you some of my first impressions of my ER-800 experience. I opened the box and removed the product. The physical dimensions are small, sleek and the construction looks sturdy.I opened the device and touched the power switch. The monitor lit up and it started a "software loading" procedure. At one point and "error screen" popped up and then disappeared. I was then presented with a choice. Two choices, both written in Russian. I don't speak Russian, that's why I ordered a translator. I've since learned that this is the "language selection screen". If your language skill is such that you can recognize the word "English" written in Russian, than this probably won't hinder you. But I couldn't so I made choice (50/50 chance- right?) and scored a win.Referring to the User Manual, I noticed it was in Russian. I flipped through it looking for an English section. No English section. I tore through the rest of the box looking for the English version of the User Manual. It does not come with an English User Manual. I found an English "Quick Start" leaflet in the box but it's not a like a User Manual.I was able to locate an English User Manual for the ER-800 on the Ectaco website. But it is built in HTML, and not something you can easily print out and use.A few other general problems I've experienced is with the touch screen and the keyboard buttons. The ER-800 comes with a handy stylus to use with the touch screen. When selecting text with the stylus, the text becomes unselected when the stylus tip leaves the touchscreen. This will drive you insane. I've tried different techniques to try to avoid the text from becoming unselected. But there is no way around it. You just have to keep trying until it works. Selecting individual words is easy, but selecting a large paragraph is almost impossible.Several of the rubber keyboard buttons, when depressed, will get stuck under the metal and remain depressed until you can pry them out with your fingernail. This is not a huge problem, but still annoying.Now we get to the actual functions of the ER-800:The product description says:"Coherent full-text translation into English and Russian, instant reverse translation."Reality: Instant reverse translation only works with the dictionary. There is no "instant" way to reverse the translation of full text.The product description says:"It employs the latest language learning technologies that use foreign language Speech Recognition modules...Test your pronunciation by trying to speak out a phrase in the foreign language and see if the Partner understands you."Reality:So far as I have found, the voice recognition function only works as part of the pre-recorded phrasebook. The voice-recognition to locate the phrase you want. Using the phrasebook to test your pronunciation is a ridiculous notion. It only works about a third of the time, even when you pronounce the word perfectly. The other catch with the phrase book is that you must select a small section of phrases such as "At the restaurant: drinks" before you can use the voice-recognition function.Honestly I had the mistaken notion that the you could speak (English or Russian)into the machine; it would recognize and record the words as text, and then you would be able to translate this into (English or Russian) - which you could then playback aloud using the voice synthesizer. Now that would be impressive! It doesn't do that, and sadly I don't believe there is any electronic translator available that can.As far as fine-tuning the ER-800 to recognize your voice, you specify if you are male or female. That is the true extent of the calibration.The Product Description says:"Type any text you want and it will translate and speak the translation out loud using its built-in Text-To-Speech processor."Reality: No. It really won't do this in an automated way. It will translate into text, but will only speak the source text - not the translation. There is a round-about way to trick the machine into speaking the translation, but it is not easy because you have to highlight (see stylus problem) the translation, then click the "Dictionaries" button, then select Ectaco Text Translation software icon, to reopen the program with your translation in the source window. This is the only way I've found to get a reverse translation using the Text Translation program. Not what I would call "instant" or even easy.The games:I thought the games and exercises would be useful. We all know "flashcards." There is aa question on one side and an answer on the back. A useful set of flashcards for learning a new language would have an (English or Russian) word on the front and it's translation on the back. The "flashcards" that you get with the ER-800 have a word on the front. When you "flip" the card you get to see a synonym of the word in the same language. How is this useful? I guess it might help you broaden your vocabulary (in your own language). Or use it as a random thesaurus. The other games are simply disappointing variations of this "game."The SAT 200 and SAT 5000 are for Russians only, or English speakers who want to broaden their vocabularies.Media Player? Don't know about this feature. I haven't tried to use it.I almost returned the ER-800 to the manufacturer. But when researching alternatives, I discovered that even with it's flaws and glaring weaknesses, the ER-800 is, in fact, the best translator available. The fact that it can translate sentences is unique. When I took it to Russia, I used it several hundred times a day. It was useful. Persons who can speak both Russian and English will notice that the full-text translations are generally far from accurate. You cannot rely on these translations or use them to carry on a meaningful conversation. But they are useful as clues or hints as to what you are trying to say. The individuals I talked to found it most useful just to see the English spelled out on the display, and only refer to the translation if there was a certain word that was unknown to them.Support is available through Ectaco via email. I was able to contact an employee through the website, but did not get useful information from him. His knowledge was limited to information found in the User Manual. I called once to get an RMA number so I could return the ER-800. I got a message machine (during working hours). They did not return my call. My trip to Russia was closing in, so I decided to keep it. It was useful. I only hope that they offer a software upgrade in the future to fix some of the issues I've described.