Tuttle is a lot more colloquial / modern, yes. About 13,000 examples in all, so more than ABC C-E but fewer than PLC. If you just want a ton of example sentences you could also look at the larger Oxford dictionary (tough to count examples in that since they're lumped in with derivatives but probably something in the range of 80,o00), though its examples don't have Pinyin, and quite a few of them are in the same formal / written / etc category as examples in PLC.
You can see quite a lot of example sentences in the demo versions of our dictionaries, so I'd recommend checking those out - if you download the demo of a dictionary in "Add-ons" you can browse sample entries from it. (just go into its Add-ons page after downloading it and you'll see a "Browse" button)
It's kind of a delicate balancing act with PLC, we want it to be good enough to be useful to people but not so good that it eliminates any benefit to buying an add-on dictionary (since we still need to make money).
Last week I bought the Tuttle dictionary. I am very happy with my purchase.
I actually think it is the best dictionary!
Obviously it doesn't have the depth of other dictionaries, but it covers all the basic bases. It separates words into adverbs, nouns, verbs etc which I love. The examples are all sentences that you actually might use in real life in 2015! It doesn't have any redundant characters or words, so you know that all these words are actually used in common speech! There are some fantastic 'Notes' as well in some definitions that tell you about when certain phrases/words are used and in what context.
This is THE perfect dictionary for anybody who is learning Mandarin for their first 24 months. There is no specialized terminology, but that is actually very good in my opinion! Learn the words in this dictionary and I reckon you will be at the level of a 13-14 year old native, it has more depth than first meets the eye.
It also includes an English-Chinese dictionary which is very useful too. My default position has been to turned the other three dictionaries off, and keep Tuttle on. Occasionally I turn them back on to find a specialized term but 90% it is Tuttle all the way!
A fantastic dictionary. Well worth the purchase!