Pleco Chinese Dictionary for Android

Useful, essential, don’t fail to download this if you’re learning Chinese

I recently got an Android after being a lifelong Android user, and although many things are great, one thing that’s disappointing is having to use this app instead of Hanping Pro, which is only available on Android. Compared to Hanping Pro, Pleco has a worse dictionary which never seems to have the right translation and it’s missing the super handy on screen OCR tooltip feature.

After several years of using this app, I can recall it having only one glitch where the app had to be deleted and reinstalled. Very reliable app in terms of ease of use, and I like the options. There used to be more available "font" options, but times indeed do change.

It’s a lifesaver, if you need or want to learn Chinese, get the Pleco app. It’s the most versatile foreign language dictionary app I’ve ever seen, it’s the Swiss knife of bilingual dictionaries. Also has extras like Chinese History by Endymion Wilkinson, you could read it for hours if you like history (and the paperback of Wilkinson’s book is a doorstop, and it’s set in what looks like 2¾ pt. type, you want the app version).

The fact that this app is free is insane. It is SO WELL DEVELOPED. It loads up super quick unlike the crappy, clunky, bloated NAVER Korean dictionary and lets you quickly look up words you want to say. This is super indispensable when watching a Chinese drama or when talking with a friend and you need to look something up - I don’t want to wait 5 second for an app to load. The app has a great design and clean, intuitive UI. Top notch HSK reference. Another thing that’s amazing is that it has the voice recording for each word so you can practice reading the pinyin.