Rating: 
Summary: Great for gaining a fuller understanding of the language.
Review: I have Far East and Cowie's dictionaries. For clarity and a more well rounded understanding, Far East is better. Moreover, no magnifying glass is needed to read the type.
Rating:
Summary: For literary & spoken Chinese
Review: I use this dictionary for translating into English transcripts of dialogues as well as for reading top-of-the-range contemporary Chinese novels (mainland, Taiwan & HK), in traditional character print, and it works to my satisfaction.
As a complement to this one, I believe you will always need a character dictionary, since at 7000 characters it is a bit on the short side.
It's weak point is on the grammatical usage of characters but again you can use a character dictionary, those are usually good in that respect.
No example sentences are provided (well, it's not that kind of dictionary) so it's probably best value for students with at least intermediate Chinese.
For student of Chinese, it's also best to know that the phonetic is Standard Madarin but only from the point of view of Mandarin speakers in Taiwan, so there are a limited number of discrepencies with Mainland dictionaries (but it's nothing compared with the differences between standard and actual pronunciations both in Taiwan and in Mainland China, not to mention HK).
I believe it is the only dictionary in traditional print with as large a vocabulary (although still not quite enough).
Rating:
Summary: For literary & spoken Chinese
Review: I use this dictionary for translating into English transcripts of dialogues as well as for reading top-of-the-range contemporary Chinese novels (mainland, Taiwan & HK), in traditional character print, and it works to my satisfaction.
As a complement to this one, I believe you will always need a character dictionary, since at 7000 characters it is a bit on the short side.
It's weak point is on the grammatical usage of characters but again you can use a character dictionary, those are usually good in that respect.
No example sentences are provided (well, it's not that kind of dictionary) so it's probably best value for students with at least intermediate Chinese.
For student of Chinese, it's also best to know that the phonetic is Standard Madarin but only from the point of view of Mandarin speakers in Taiwan, so there are a limited number of discrepencies with Mainland dictionaries (but it's nothing compared with the differences between standard and actual pronunciations both in Taiwan and in Mainland China, not to mention HK).
I believe it is the only dictionary in traditional print with as large a vocabulary (although still not quite enough).
Rating:
Summary: More than a dictionary
Review: I was very impressed with this dictionary. At first, I thought that this book would be as big as a webster's college dictionary, but it isn't. I would like to tell more about it- but, in a detailed way, the last reviewer more or less "spelled it out," as far as details is concerned. At first, the dictionary may appear complicated, but the radical table in the beginning, and the pronounciation tables at the end:makes the book much, much easier to use. A DEFINITE MUST HAVE for a serious Chinese language student.
Rating: 
Summary: Taiwan focus!
Review: Just keep in mind that this dictionary was written in Taiwan and that not all entries are for Mainland Chinese. There is more at stake here than the difference between simplified and traditional characters. I studied out of this dictionary for years and found myself not understood in Beijing (at times). The best part about this dictionary is a particular edition that highlights in red those entries that are most common. Found that particular edition very helpful. Don't know if that is the offering here. But keep on the look out for the "highlighted" edition, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Taiwan focus!
Review: Just keep in mind that this dictionary was written in Taiwan and that not all entries are for Mainland Chinese. There is more at stake here than the difference between simplified and traditional characters. I studied out of this dictionary for years and found myself not understood in Beijing (at times). The best part about this dictionary is a particular edition that highlights in red those entries that are most common. Found that particular edition very helpful. Don't know if that is the offering here. But keep on the look out for the "highlighted" edition, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: Rather than echo the reviews of others, let me add a few insights I've gained over the last two weeks using this dictionary. First, while complete, it is light-weight enough to hold in one hand. Second, although the characters can be small, especially in the indexes, even with my bad eyes, I haven't found this to be a problem. The printing is 99% crisp and clean.
Third, this edition is purely black and white; there are no color highlights as a reader suggested there might be -- that must be another edition. Fourth, although the coverage is comprehensive, it has some drawbacks: a. I have found a few "common" characters missing. I did, however, find them in the much more limited Concise Chinese-English dictionary. b. Again, some compounds are missing, but available in the Concise dictionary. c. There is very poor coverage of transliterated foreign words. Granted, some of these occurred after the publication date, but the majority haven't. Also, many of these are specific to literary authors and titles, so inclusion may be too much to ask. Fifth: Although I would quibble with some of the indexing and formatting decisions, such as putting the character number for the page at the middle of the page header instead of along the margins, I found the dictionary very easy to search and use. Perhaps we'll see a new edition soon that will provide more coverage -- this edition is over ten years old. Nevertheless, this is an excellent dictionary, far exceeding any other option except Chinese-Chinese dictionaries (or the excellent Chinese-Japanese dictionary).
Rating:
Summary: An excellent Chinese-English dictionary
Review: The 7000 main characters are arranged by radical. The sub-entries are very thorough. The definitions in English are detailed. The main entry is pronounced by bo-po-mo, pinyin and national romanization. The compound characters are pronounced by bo-po-mo. This is a 1700 page dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: This is the famous Liang Shih-ch'iu dictionary.
Review: The late Liang Shih-ch'iu (Liang Shi-qiu) was the original editor-in-chief of this superb dictionary. He was an amazingly learned scholar of Chinese language and civilization. The dictionary used to be known as the "Liang Shih-chiu dictionary," and it remains among the most useful Chinese-English sources. For serious students of the Chinese language, it is indispensible.
Rating:
Summary: Get it eventually
Review: The old stand by. Getting older and standing by.
It's strengths are single character definitions and entries relating to Chinese culture and history.
Far East publishes six (6) different sizes of this dictionary, the larger two sizes having 120,000 entries, with the smaller four having an undisclosed number fewer. The smallest is no bigger (physically) than their Pinyin dictionary. The four smaller sizes have VERY small print.
NB Amazon has the larger size listed separately (ISBN: 9576122279).
Yes, some editions have a pink-red highlight for a small percentage of entries. Why, I'll never know (even though they say why).
All six have their trademark 7,331 characters. The larger two are worth the extra money for the size of the print if not the additional entries and the couple of additional appendices. But Far East uses more ISBNs than you can shake a stick at, so I don't know which is which without seeing the dimensions. The smaller ones are around 3" x 5" to 4.5" x 7"; the larger two are about 8.5" x 11". Five of the six have the same paper (white), and one of the larger two has a paper that they claim will weather Taiwan's humid climate better (it looks like old, yellowed paper and is very thin). They called it "bible paper" when I talked with them.
I wish they'd add to it and polish some of the definitions' Singlish and make a pinyin (look-up) version.
If I don't sound hugely enthusiastic, that's because I'm not. But if you're a serious student of the language, I would get this at some point. It's very good, but now there are a number of competitors that equal or best it.
I have an Amazon Guide for Chinese/English dictionaries of varying combinations.
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