After trying out Pleco 4.0 beta for a few days last year, and a few more days recently, and comparing it with 3.2/Legacy, here is my feedback. For now I'm going to stay using 3.2 or Legacy. Here are the reasons why, based on my own particular way of using the app:
Audio
The main reason why I installed 4.0 beta is because I thought the audio would be improved. But it hasn't improved and in some aspects it's gotten worse.
The audio for each individual word is still very good, because I think it was recorded by a real human male and female speaker, so it's the same quality in 3.2 and 4.0.
But in real life, you never hear/say words individually. So the most important thing in audio is being able to hear the example sentences. Not only it allows you to practice real pronunciation, articulation and fluency as you need it in real life, but it also helps a lot in learning and remembering the word and its usage, as you hear it in the context of real life sentences.
In fact, reading the definitions of a word is something you do once or twice, when you first encounter a new word. But reviewing a word is something you have to do many more times, perhaps 10 or 20 times overtime, until you properly learn it, when it's part of your active vocabulary.
And when I review a word, I almost don't need to check out the definitions again, or I do it very quickly. Mainly, I go straight into the example sentences to practice it in context as you would hear it or say it in real life. That way you can visualize the meaning and keep getting more and more familiar with it, and with all the ways that word can be used.
So this is why the audio of the example sentences is far more important, in my opinion.
And in 4.0, the purchased versions of Hong and Qiang TTS are not very realistic, more or less the same as in 3.2. But with the added problem that in 4.0 they don't even do some very obvious and common tone sandhi's, which the 3.2 still do, like 不是, 不要, 一个, etc. In any case, they're both slightly robotic, the syllables don't flow as in real speech, sounding artificial, and it's clear it's a machine.
But what puzzles me is that, nowadays, when you hear any AI speak, even the free AI models, the voice is so realistic that it's almost indistinguishable from a real person speaking. And my Chinese friends tell me it's the same in Chinese, the TTS in AI models, even in the free Chinese AI models, is so good that they almost cannot tell if the audio is AI generated or it's a real person pronouncing really well.
I don't know if perhaps it's very difficult, or very costly, to have this kind of speech audio quality in Pleco too for the example sentences. But in case the Pleco team is considering it, I have to say that for me, this feature would be so useful that I'd be willing to pay for it, even if it was a relatively expensive add-on. Perhaps if other people agree with me it could be an option for Pleco in the future.
History
For me, History is very important, as it's the most used part of the app in my case. Once I've encountered words in a certain context and looked them up, I don't search for those words again. I just go to History to review the words from that context, repeatedly over several weeks or months. As I said above, reviewing is something you do many more times than searching for words.
Also, in History you usually have all the words from a certain context together, and their related words, as you searched them at the same time, and I actually leave them on my History list purposefully, because they should be reviewed together. For example, words with similar meanings, shared radicals or components, similar characters, similar pronunciation, related context, etc, it's very useful to leave them together on your History list, to review together.
I don't use flashcards of spaced repetition, because for me just scrolling through History is a simple, quick and accessible way of reviewing the words from the last week, or last month, or from a certain text I read recently, etc.
You can also test yourself using History, scrolling down one word at a time, so you see each word you're testing yourself on, right at the edge of the screen. If you scroll down, you see the Chinese first and you can test yourself from Chinese to English. But if you scroll up, you see the English definition first, so you can test yourself from English to Chinese which is the most challenging and useful type of test.
The problem with History in 4.0 is that the words don't have the tab for the example sentences (at least last time I checked), and example sentences are very important. So it would be an improvement to have the example sentences tab as well when you review words in History.
One good thing of History in 4.0 is that it has a search bar, so you can easily locate a word in your History list and when you saw it. This is very useful, and a big addition, but I think it cannot make up for the other problems.
So I really wish Legacy and 3.2 also had a search bar for History. If it's not too complicated to add, it would be a big improvement for those users that will choose to stay using Legacy.
User Interface
In my opinion, the screen space is used better in 3.2 than in 4.0. I'm referring to the dictionary, history, and definitions areas, where you see the definitions and example sentences under each dictionary, as for me these are the most used parts of the app.
In 4.0, under the definitions tab, you have each dictionary's definitions and examples contained within a square bubble headed by the name of each dictionary. This means you have less space available on the sides and the lines for text have to be slightly shorter. As cell phones are used vertically, the space on the sides is particularly valuable to prevent the lines of text from getting shorter, which means you need more lines to fit the same length of text.
In 3.2 on the other hand, the separation between dictionaries is just a horizontal line, which maximizes the space available on the sides and you can fit more text in less lines.
Furthermore, the name of each dictionary in 3.2 is displayed as the initials in small letters on the top right corner below the horizontal lines separating each dictionary, using minimal space. This size and placement is better, I think, because it's enough to serve its purpose well, as it's not the main piece of information on the page.
In 4.0, the name of each dictionary heads each of the square bubbles containing the definitions and sentences, which means the name of the dictionary uses a whole line for itself. Besides, it's in big letters; Even when I have my font settings for the definition body set to "large", the name of each dictionary will still show in slightly bigger letters than the definition body, using more space unnecessarily.
This means the overall view of this screen in 3.2 feels more spacious and clearer than in 4.0, with more space for the important things.
Anyway, this is just my opinion, based on the way I use the app, which probably is different for every person.
Even though I'm not planning to switch to 4.0 for the time being, I'd still like to thank and congratulate the Pleco team for making such a great app (including the Pleco dictionary!), probably the most essential app for students of Chinese and the most used app on my iPhone in the last two years.
Audio
The main reason why I installed 4.0 beta is because I thought the audio would be improved. But it hasn't improved and in some aspects it's gotten worse.
The audio for each individual word is still very good, because I think it was recorded by a real human male and female speaker, so it's the same quality in 3.2 and 4.0.
But in real life, you never hear/say words individually. So the most important thing in audio is being able to hear the example sentences. Not only it allows you to practice real pronunciation, articulation and fluency as you need it in real life, but it also helps a lot in learning and remembering the word and its usage, as you hear it in the context of real life sentences.
In fact, reading the definitions of a word is something you do once or twice, when you first encounter a new word. But reviewing a word is something you have to do many more times, perhaps 10 or 20 times overtime, until you properly learn it, when it's part of your active vocabulary.
And when I review a word, I almost don't need to check out the definitions again, or I do it very quickly. Mainly, I go straight into the example sentences to practice it in context as you would hear it or say it in real life. That way you can visualize the meaning and keep getting more and more familiar with it, and with all the ways that word can be used.
So this is why the audio of the example sentences is far more important, in my opinion.
And in 4.0, the purchased versions of Hong and Qiang TTS are not very realistic, more or less the same as in 3.2. But with the added problem that in 4.0 they don't even do some very obvious and common tone sandhi's, which the 3.2 still do, like 不是, 不要, 一个, etc. In any case, they're both slightly robotic, the syllables don't flow as in real speech, sounding artificial, and it's clear it's a machine.
But what puzzles me is that, nowadays, when you hear any AI speak, even the free AI models, the voice is so realistic that it's almost indistinguishable from a real person speaking. And my Chinese friends tell me it's the same in Chinese, the TTS in AI models, even in the free Chinese AI models, is so good that they almost cannot tell if the audio is AI generated or it's a real person pronouncing really well.
I don't know if perhaps it's very difficult, or very costly, to have this kind of speech audio quality in Pleco too for the example sentences. But in case the Pleco team is considering it, I have to say that for me, this feature would be so useful that I'd be willing to pay for it, even if it was a relatively expensive add-on. Perhaps if other people agree with me it could be an option for Pleco in the future.
History
For me, History is very important, as it's the most used part of the app in my case. Once I've encountered words in a certain context and looked them up, I don't search for those words again. I just go to History to review the words from that context, repeatedly over several weeks or months. As I said above, reviewing is something you do many more times than searching for words.
Also, in History you usually have all the words from a certain context together, and their related words, as you searched them at the same time, and I actually leave them on my History list purposefully, because they should be reviewed together. For example, words with similar meanings, shared radicals or components, similar characters, similar pronunciation, related context, etc, it's very useful to leave them together on your History list, to review together.
I don't use flashcards of spaced repetition, because for me just scrolling through History is a simple, quick and accessible way of reviewing the words from the last week, or last month, or from a certain text I read recently, etc.
You can also test yourself using History, scrolling down one word at a time, so you see each word you're testing yourself on, right at the edge of the screen. If you scroll down, you see the Chinese first and you can test yourself from Chinese to English. But if you scroll up, you see the English definition first, so you can test yourself from English to Chinese which is the most challenging and useful type of test.
The problem with History in 4.0 is that the words don't have the tab for the example sentences (at least last time I checked), and example sentences are very important. So it would be an improvement to have the example sentences tab as well when you review words in History.
One good thing of History in 4.0 is that it has a search bar, so you can easily locate a word in your History list and when you saw it. This is very useful, and a big addition, but I think it cannot make up for the other problems.
So I really wish Legacy and 3.2 also had a search bar for History. If it's not too complicated to add, it would be a big improvement for those users that will choose to stay using Legacy.
User Interface
In my opinion, the screen space is used better in 3.2 than in 4.0. I'm referring to the dictionary, history, and definitions areas, where you see the definitions and example sentences under each dictionary, as for me these are the most used parts of the app.
In 4.0, under the definitions tab, you have each dictionary's definitions and examples contained within a square bubble headed by the name of each dictionary. This means you have less space available on the sides and the lines for text have to be slightly shorter. As cell phones are used vertically, the space on the sides is particularly valuable to prevent the lines of text from getting shorter, which means you need more lines to fit the same length of text.
In 3.2 on the other hand, the separation between dictionaries is just a horizontal line, which maximizes the space available on the sides and you can fit more text in less lines.
Furthermore, the name of each dictionary in 3.2 is displayed as the initials in small letters on the top right corner below the horizontal lines separating each dictionary, using minimal space. This size and placement is better, I think, because it's enough to serve its purpose well, as it's not the main piece of information on the page.
In 4.0, the name of each dictionary heads each of the square bubbles containing the definitions and sentences, which means the name of the dictionary uses a whole line for itself. Besides, it's in big letters; Even when I have my font settings for the definition body set to "large", the name of each dictionary will still show in slightly bigger letters than the definition body, using more space unnecessarily.
This means the overall view of this screen in 3.2 feels more spacious and clearer than in 4.0, with more space for the important things.
Anyway, this is just my opinion, based on the way I use the app, which probably is different for every person.
Even though I'm not planning to switch to 4.0 for the time being, I'd still like to thank and congratulate the Pleco team for making such a great app (including the Pleco dictionary!), probably the most essential app for students of Chinese and the most used app on my iPhone in the last two years.
