Cheapest Android device compatible with OCR function

[nerdish]

Hi,
I'd like to know if anyone could possibly recommend an Android phone in the US or Foreign market that is fully compatible with the OCR features of Pleco. As the subject states, the cheaper, the better. It doesn't even have to be a phone, I just need it to be a mobile device that's fully dedicated to this software. Thank you for your time.

 

[mikelove]

Hi,
I'd like to know if anyone could possibly recommend an Android phone in the US or Foreign market that is fully compatible with the OCR features of Pleco. As the subject states, the cheaper, the better. It doesn't even have to be a phone, I just need it to be a mobile device that's fully dedicated to this software. Thank you for your time.

The LG Optimus V is a pretty cheap OCR-friendly one in the US - technically a phone (on Virgin Mobile) but you don't have to use it as one.

Before buying a device just for OCR, though, have you actually tried it out on another phone? Some people come in expecting miracles and end up disappointed - it's a neat technology but it's not perfect, and some people find it not very usable at all, so I'd strongly recommend against committing to a hardware purchase before you've tried it out for yourself.

 

[nerdish]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I haven't tried out the OCR function personally but I've seen demos of it online and I think it would be indispensable for me in terms of being able to port words I see in the environment to flash card lists. I'm also terrible at looking up words in the dictionary and think this would come in handy.

I went ahead and bought an Optimus V for $28 including shipping. I've seen it go for less than $16 also on ebay auctions but didn't feel like waiting. I live in NYC with the fear of muggings all the time and at this price, the phone is nearly disposable and can function as a replacement for my old MP3 player to boot. Although I hope said muggings don't exhaust the number of Pleco registrations I'm entitled to!

Thanks again for the recommendation.

Cheers!

 

[mikelove]

I went ahead and bought an Optimus V for $28 including shipping. I've seen it go for less than $16 also on ebay auctions but didn't feel like waiting. I live in NYC with the fear of muggings all the time and at this price, the phone is nearly disposable and can function as a replacement for my old MP3 player to boot. Although I hope said muggings don't exhaust the number of Pleco registrations I'm entitled to!

Ah, didn't realize they'd gotten that cheap - really is pretty disposable then. Pleco registrations shouldn't be a problem unless you start losing a phone every day, at which point I would suggest changing subway lines

 

[gabor]

I currently have an iPad 2, which does not have a very good camera and is also not very easy to carry around, so I also started looking around for a cheap Android device, which has a good enough cam for Pleco OCR. I am currently in Beijing China, but shipment to Europe is also fine. I checked the above mentioned Optimus V on ebay.com, but all sellers ship to US only. And I didn't find any on European eBay. I would not use it as a cell phone, so its fine if its simlocked.

So, all my requirements:

• cheap (with shipment to China/Europe max. 60-70 USD),

• runs Pleco (Android 2.2 at least),

• and has a good enough cam for OCR, the Optimus V has only 3 MP but was recommended by Mike as OCR-friendly, so I guess anything similar would be good enough.

• PayPal payment accepted.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Do you know if shipment to China is safe? Or should I prefer shipping to Germany?

 

[mikelove]

The Optimus V is actually just a carrier-specific variant of the Optimus One P500 - can you find a cheap one of those?

 

[gabor]

The Optimus V is actually just a carrier-specific variant of the Optimus One P500 - can you find a cheap one of those?

For some strange reason they cost a LOT more in Europe. But I did quite some research on gsmarena.com and found a few phones which seem suitable and are quite affordable, too. Now I have only one question left: I usually use a 12MP camera to take photos of book pages, which I then transfer to Pleco for OCR. This takes quite some time and can not be done on the go.
I guess a 3MP camera, no matter how good, would not be enough for this task. But what do you think is the lowest resolution necessary to do this? I looked at the Sony Ericsson Xperia series, some have 5MP cameras (X10 mini / pro), or an 8MP camera (X10). If even an 8MP camera (of a mobile phone) would not be good enough to do this, I just might stick with a cheaper phone with 3MP cam and autofocus, and only ocr blocks instead of the entire page. I know photography is not about resolution only, but since its the only available data in the sheets, it will have to do this time, unless someone can provide actual information about his experiences with OCR of full pages

In case other people are searching for really cheap phones with autofocus cams, here are some models to look for:
LG Eve (GW620)
Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570
Samsung I5800 Galaxy 3
LG GT540 Optimus
Vodafone 845
Huawei U8510 IDEOS X3
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini
Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 mini pro

Some of them have to be updated with a custom ROM for running Pleco.

Mike, you mentioned you can see in the Android Market what are the popular phones of Pleco users. Can you maybe make this list public? I guess its not just me who is confused by the large numbers of Android phones. You recommend people to just buy the most popular models, well, those are also the quite expensive ones I guess, maybe some other people (students?), like me, search in the middle or lower price ranges.

 

[Wan]

In case other people are searching for really cheap phones with autofocus cams, here are some models to look for:
LG Eve (GW620)
Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570
Samsung I5800 Galaxy 3
LG GT540 Optimus
Vodafone 845
Huawei U8510 IDEOS X3
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini
Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 mini pro

Some of them have to be updated with a custom ROM for running Pleco.

Mike, you mentioned you can see in the Android Market what are the popular phones of Pleco users. Can you maybe make this list public? I guess its not just me who is confused by the large numbers of Android phones. You recommend people to just buy the most popular models, well, those are also the quite expensive ones I guess, maybe some other people (students?), like me, search in the middle or lower price ranges.

If price is not the most important factor, I wholeheartedly recommend the SE (now Sony) Xperia Mini. In Germany, it is available on Amazon for as little as 130 EUR, shipping included. The Xperia X10 mini is still available at about 100 EUR, but the leap between the two models is really huge! I believe, there is no other phone in that price range with that good a cost-performance ratio.
I was a little worried about the smallish screen size (3" diagonal), but I’ve been using Pleco on it for a month now without a problem. Sony confirmed there will be an update to Android 4 soon, so you’ll have full Pleco compatibility. You can easily tinker with this phone’s software, some of the custom roms are very good. I recommend a simple, cleaned version of stock rom found on the xda developers forums.

Hope I could help