Quote:
Originally Posted by glazwegian
I'm considering purchase of either a PRS 350 or 650. Sony's product description says there are 10 translation dictionaries included. I would appreciate it if a current owner of either reader can confirm if French to English and English to French dictionaries are among them.
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Yes. I bought my 650 in Belgium, and it has:
New Oxford American Dictionary (EN)
Oxford Dictionary of English (EN)
Oxford-hachette French Dictionary (EN-FR)
Oxford-hachette French Dictionary (FR-EN)
Collins English-German Dictionary (EN-DE)
Collins German-English Dictionary (DE-EN)
Oxford Spanish Dictionary (EN-ES)
Oxford Spanish Dictionary (ES-EN)
Collins English-Italian Dictionary (EN-IT)
Collins Italian-English Dictionary (IT-EN)
Van Dale Pocketwoordenboek Engels-Nederlands (EN-NE)
Van Dale Pocketwoordenboek Engels-Nederlands (NE-EN)
Clearly the set of dictionaries included in the device is localized (who else in the world would want a Dutch dictionary outside Belgium or the Netherlands), but the point is that the central language is English. In other words, if you were hoping to find a french dictionary, as opposed to a translation dictionary, you're SOL.
I'm personally delighted by the choice of dictionaries in my 650, as I'm primary a reader of English who knows French, Spanish and a bit of Dutch, but I'm clearly a minority here. The few other people I know who bought a 650 sorely miss a dictionary in their native tongue, and feel slightly shafted by Sony here. Their argument is that they have less for their money than english readers. In fact, I find it slightly odd that Sony doesn't include a native dictionary (or dictionaries in the case of multilangual countries such as Belgium) in readers sold in non-english speaking countries.