NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 Review: Redefining the way to look up words

With the advancement of technology, more and more language translation products are flooding into the market. Last year, NetEase launched the dictionary pen, which refreshed the ceiling of language translation products with its advantages such as fast query, portability and low price.

A year later, NetEase continued its efforts and launched the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0. Although the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 generally continues the design concept of the previous generation of products, after an in-depth experience, we found that the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 has made great progress in both details and functions compared with the previous generation of products.

This is very similar to the product transition from the first generation of iPhone to the iPhone 3GS. If the first generation of Youdao Dictionary Pen can be regarded as pointing the evolutionary path for language translation products, then NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is fully likely to revolutionize the "translation" scenario and lead consumers into the era of intelligent word lookup.

Preferring an appearance that is "orderly and beautiful"

On the front of the body, the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 uses a 2.5D curved glass design, and the edge of the glass is perfectly transitioned to the frame of the body, thus bringing a streamlined rhythm. In addition, the front of the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 has only a round Home button, which is very similar to the iPhone when it was first launched, which shocked the entire mobile phone industry - by saying goodbye to the cumbersome button design, the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 has innovated the use logic of the translator through "minimalism".

On the back of the body, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 uses an all-metal back cover, coupled with a unique matte texture design, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 feels like skin to the touch.

Since NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 adopts a design concept similar to an inverted water drop shape, when we hold it in one hand to look up words, our fingers just fit the transition to the rounded body of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0.

In terms of details, in order to make it easier for consumers to locate when the machine is scanning text, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also uses a transparent viewing window design on the scanning end, taking into account both aesthetics and ease of use.

Interestingly, when translating, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also takes into account the left-handed usage habits of users, providing two options: "right-hand holding pen" and "left-hand holding pen". Whether using the left or right hand, you can slide and translate smoothly. This also shows the efforts made by NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 in ergonomics and industrial design.

Compared with the oval design of the first generation, the design of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 abandons the "symmetrical beauty" and adopts the "order beauty", so it is even easier to use. In addition, due to the touch screen design, the operation logic of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is greatly simplified. It can be said that the evolution of the appearance of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 takes into account both operation and aesthetics.

One device for study, work and life

In addition to its pinnacle industrial design, in terms of functionality, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 focuses on "translation" and expands horizontally, making it easy to translate vocabulary for study, business trips, and daily life.

Offline translation ensures learning quality

Since students often have to deal with long English articles, this places high demands on the translator. On the other hand, most of the translators on the market can only translate single words, and the translation speed is unbearable.

Obviously, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 has made sufficient optimizations for these two stubborn problems. At the press conference on August 6, NetEase Youdao officially stated that the scanning speed supported by Youdao's self-developed OCR technology has reached the peak of the industry, which is 240mm/s. In other words, 40 Chinese characters can be scanned and recognized in about 1 second.

Not only that, Youdao OCR also overcomes many usage difficulties, such as hand shaking, tilting and sliding, left-handedness, and too close line spacing. Don't underestimate these details. In real use, what really determines the first impression of product reviews is often the use effect under imperfect conditions.

Taking the above picture as an example, the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 scanned a passage at the speed of an ordinary person reading. As a result, the NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 did not miss or scanned a wrong word, and the screen gave the corresponding Chinese at the moment the scan was completed.

At the press conference, NetEase introduced that the recognition of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 uses Youdao's self-developed OCR technology, with a recognition accuracy rate of up to 95.5%, while the industry average is only 82%. In addition, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also has 1.5 million authoritative English and Chinese entries, covering vocabulary from elementary school to university, as well as TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, etc., and supports both British and American accents, far exceeding the entry content of other similar products, which provides a strong guarantee for students' daily learning.

It is worth noting that, unlike the translation function of mobile phone software, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 does not require an internet connection when translating. This also ensures that students can look up words and learn English anytime and anywhere even in a classroom without an internet connection, or if they are preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination and have voluntarily quit the internet.

In addition to "English to Chinese", I believe many students also need the function of "Chinese to English". NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 meets the needs of Chinese-English translation very well. After actual testing, the scanning translation speed of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0's "Chinese to English" is the same as that of "English to Chinese", and the translation is completed at the moment of scanning.

In general, compared with paper dictionaries or traditional translators that can only translate words, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is far superior in terms of translation speed, accuracy, and offline support. It can not only translate between Chinese and English, but also look up Chinese dictionaries and idiom dictionaries. It is definitely a learning tool for students.

In addition to supporting the translation of entire long and difficult sentences, phrases, and words mentioned above, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also supports reading, menu searching, and foreign language instructions for cosmetics for people of all ages, which greatly expands the usage boundaries of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0.

No more "sign language" when traveling abroad

I believe that many of my friends want to travel abroad, but because their English level is not good enough, they are prevented from wanting to "see the world".

For example, when we travel to a city and encounter a menu that we cannot understand, we could only communicate with the waiter through "sign language" in the past. With NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0, we can simply scan the menu to understand the names of the dishes intuitively, which greatly improves our life efficiency.

In actual experience, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 can accurately recognize the name of the dish and the price behind it. It is worth noting that, unlike the translators on the market that can only recognize regular text, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also supports the recognition of special printed fonts or fonts with backgrounds. In this way, no matter what situation you encounter when you are out and about, you can easily scan and translate through NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0.

Can't understand the instructions of imported cosmetics? It can also translate

In addition to professional fields, I believe that everyone will frequently encounter uncommon English in daily life. At this time, everyone can only take out their mobile phones to open the translation software, type in one letter at a time, and then translate it. Not to mention the trouble, the quality of the translation cannot be guaranteed.

In fact, in addition to studying and traveling, in daily life, we can also translate various uncommon words through NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0.

For example, some girls bought a set of imported cosmetics, but they couldn't tell which was lotion and which was toner because of the English packaging. At this time, we open the scanning translation of NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0, scan the cosmetics packaging box, and directly get the Chinese instructions of the imported cosmetics.

After comprehensive use, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 has amazing translation speed and accuracy. Coupled with the support of multiple scenarios, it is simply a dimensionality reduction attack on competitors.

Voice assistant + OTA brings unlimited imagination space

In addition to translation, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also has two very interesting small functions - AI voice assistant and OTA upgrade.

In addition to being used for translation, the AI ​​of Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 also empowers voice assistants. Unlike the optional voice assistants on mobile phones, through Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0, we see more possibilities for AI voice assistants on professional devices.

Because Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is aimed at a deep learning scenario, in this scenario we don’t want to be disturbed by fragmented information on the Internet, but sometimes we encounter some unfamiliar nouns and have to take out our mobile phones to receive fragmented information.

With Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0, when we encounter information we don’t understand, we only need to talk to the AI ​​voice assistant to solve it. For example, if we want to know who Li Bai is, we only need to say "introduce Li Bai" to Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0, and Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 will immediately give us relevant information, which is much more efficient than taking out a mobile phone to look up information step by step.

In addition, although Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 currently only supports Chinese-English translation, due to the OTA upgrade, it is not ruled out that NetEase will bring us Russian, German and other languages ​​of other countries or nationalities in subsequent updates.

More importantly, the OTA upgrade of Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 can always connect the device to the service provider, so that the service provider can provide consumers with updated entries at any time, and always keep the information authoritative. This is a level higher than the "buyout" language translation products on the market.

Overall, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is based on "scan and translate", and by deepening its usage and interaction, it has greatly deepened the function of "translation". Whether it is elementary school, high school, graduate students, or consumers who are afraid of different languages ​​when traveling abroad or even in daily life, they can find the functions they need in Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0.

More importantly, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 is not bound by "translation". Instead, it keeps in touch with users at all times through OTA upgrades, further deepening the "translation" function. At the same time, with the addition of an AI voice assistant, Youdao Dictionary Pen 2.0 creates a closed-loop immersive translation experience.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.