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I am interested in buying SE Xperia Ray running on Gingerbread. An export set is selling $100 less but was told that it does not support messaging in Chinese. My question is whether messaging input language is supported by Android or by the handset maker, Sony Erisson? If by Android, do I need to root handset and update firmware directly from Android? If by maker, then I need to go to the maker for the language pack. Is it worth the trouble to save on $100?

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2 Answers

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Do you ask wheather your keyboard will have Chinese input? Best part about Android is, that you can easily change the stock keyboard with whatever you like. You just install it like a normal app, and select is as input method. Bulgarian is supported, not only keyboard layout, but even text prediction. I am pretty damn sure there are some good keyboards that will provide Chinese for you. Smart Keyboard Pro (I think) has one, you might check its features in Android Market. You can probably find text prediction in Chinese, do a search in Android market, too :)

If you want the whole ROM(menus,etc) to be in Chinese, though, this is ROM dependent, so it is not easy to change this, you will have to root. In short: A good keyboard will cost you 5-6$, so you are saving 95 :) I hope I understood you question correctly.

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I haven't used Android before so I may not asking the right question. In my old Sony Ericsson phone proprietary system, there are 2 language settings: language for phone (which I select English) and language for texting (which I select English and Simplified Chinese from a list of languages stored in its OS). Chinese input can use the same English keyboard becos input can be done in Romanised Chinese (called Hanyu Pinyin). So when I selected 2 input languages, a key is added to the keyboard where I can toggle between actual English and Romanised Chinese using a-z alphabet. – Zen Mar 4 '12 at 6:51
The salesman is not sure himself, all he can tell me is the export set does not support messaging in Chinese. To me this mean Chinese is not in the list of languages installed into the phone memory by the makers. So I am asking if I cannot download something to add Chinese as an input language choice. Whether by way of language pack or keyboard change (if Chinese support is packaged together within the keyboard) does not matter to me. – Zen Mar 4 '12 at 7:03
All I wish to know is that I can easily add Chinese as the second messaging input language by download and install something. Hopefully need not take the risk to go so technical as to erase and reinstall OS. – Zen Mar 4 '12 at 7:11
Maybe I should ask: What is my course of action if my choice of messaging input language (Chinese) is not in the list of languages pre-instal in the phone by the maker? This is likely if the export set is intended for South Asia and Middle East region where Chinese is seldom used. – Zen Mar 4 '12 at 7:37
keyboard is not enough ! , i had android few years ago and Arabic was not supported then, there were keyboards supporting arabic language but , the arabic fonts are not there in OS and there is no way without rooting to add them, only way for me was a messaging app that supports arabic and have the arabic font in the app , by that app messeging problem was solved but again arabic was not there in the browsers, gmail, facebook, twitter, for browser firefox for android had fonts for arabic in it, for rest i had to wait till arabic got supported in OS – Ali Mar 4 '12 at 10:25
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in android market there are lots of messaging apps that support languages not supported by the device , specially chinease , so you will not have problem with that,

many applications are built to support specific languages that are not supported by android so there also if in that app chinease is supported you will not have problem , but the issue for you will be in gmail app , facebook app, twitter app , these depend on fonts and language supported by the OS only

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