Which smartphone can
- Thread starter Aming
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Any windows mobile smartphone can do that (as can the iphone when pleco support comes out). There are several ways to enable Chinese support, other posts in this sub-forum go into detail on that.
Inexpensive is a bit of a different problem, smartphones range between $400-$800 new, best option is to get one tied to a contract with your carrier to get a decent price.
Related to that problem though is your desire to use text messaging in chinese. I don't know where you live, but many (most?) Americas/European carriers don't properly support unicode sms, you need to have an asian carrier for sms to work. I used talk2china.com when I lived in the U.S. and needed to send Chinese sms.
Inexpensive is a bit of a different problem, smartphones range between $400-$800 new, best option is to get one tied to a contract with your carrier to get a decent price.
Related to that problem though is your desire to use text messaging in chinese. I don't know where you live, but many (most?) Americas/European carriers don't properly support unicode sms, you need to have an asian carrier for sms to work. I used talk2china.com when I lived in the U.S. and needed to send Chinese sms.
I have the HTC touch diamond. They can be bought on ebay in US right now used for about $175 and new from about $230. Pleco runs very well on this smartphone and for Chinese SMS I added the CEstar suite. It is nice with Pleco 2.0 that SMS can be brought into clipboard and then any un-known characters looked up with Pleco. With CEstar keyboard you will be able to send/receive SMS messages either in English or Chinese characters.
Aming said:
I am terribly sorry. I thought your requirements were as follows:
- switch between text messaging in English and Simplified Chinese Characters (What software, if any, will I need?)
- support pleco software
- be purchased inexpensively
I did not realize that you needed a phone that stacks up in a certain review, I thought you were looking for a phone that would perform to your, not some reviewer's, specifications. Please tell us where the phone needs to stack up so we don't waste our time making recommendations of phones that can do the job you are looking for, but will not stack up to wherever you will read a review on it.
If you are going to to use your phone in China, I would not recommend any Verizon phone, for example, as you will need an unlocked phone to be able to use it in China unless you plan to flash the rom or jailbreak the phone.
I'd add to that that the Touch Diamond is a very firmware-dependent device, and that early reviews of it were much more negative than later ones on account of its initially-buggy firmware - its performance / stability has gotten a lot better thanks to some of the firmware updates that have appeared since it first came out.
I am sorry if I offended anyone personally with my comments. When I purchase a phone, I consider how it performs as a phone as well as how it does as a dictionary. Considering Renovator and Mikelove's authority on the topic of best-fit analysis, I was disappointed to read the high rate of dissatisfaction with the phone itself. I actually still might consider purchasing it, given Mikelove's suggestion that later models perform better than earlier ones. Thanks.
All the windows mobile phones are very firmware dependent, it's not a matter of the new model, it's the newer, better tested software. In addition to that most of the Windows mobile devices are not considered the best phones by many, they are multifunction devices, phone being one function, and not necessarily the most important from the hardware and software developer's perspectives. If you want a great phone get a dedicated phone. If you want something that meets your three criteria then get a Windows Mobile device, and the Touch Diamond is a perfectly valid option provided you can live without dedicated hardware keys/keyboard. I've had hands on time with it in the stores, for ~$230 bucks I'd agree it's a great option.
Aming said:
No offense taken. It is all about the ROM. I bought one of the first HTC touch diamonds off the assembly line and it did have a few problems, between upgrading the ROM over time a few times and using some of the tweaks available on the xda developers site, I have the phone prefectly tailored to my needs. So even if you buy one of the older used models, it does not take much effort or IT know how to upgrade the ROM and do a few basic tweaks to make that phone perfect or near perfect for your application.
HTC has other great products in their line as well, just make sure that any of the HTC phones you look at have the word touch in it so it will run Pleco.