Dragon’s product range has traditionally fallen into a Premium and Professional version of their speech recognition products. However, their release of version 15 has changed things up a bit by condensing a wide range of variants into Dragon Professional Individual 15.
Strangely enough the odd releases of Dragon have typically fared better than the even numbers. Case in point, version 14 was released and superseded by 15 in a short space of time… much shorter than the average lifespan on the product.
Dragon Premium and Professional 13 were some of the speech recognition giant’s best and most stable releases. Dragon Premium 13 is still widely used by many of our customers today. Ironically sporting number 13, it’s one of the few releases that didn’t acquire a service pack or any updates. It was that stable and solid that there wasn’t a need to upgrade or tweak the software.
While these products are designed to keep on going, their environments and constantly improving system resources are temporary and tend to out mode older versions of Dragon. This generally renders the software incompatible with some of the more popular applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite. When the software stops plugging into the products or delays their opening, their add-ins tend to get ejected or they simply stop working within these environments.
Nuance have stopped supporting Dragon Premium 13 but since it still works within Windows 10 with at least rudimentary use within Office programmes, it’s had a long lifespan. Being accurate and quick, the results are still good enough for people to keep enjoying version 13.
For new users, it’s a toss up between the two packages, Dragon Premium/Professional 13 and Dragon Professional Individual 15. For current version 13 users, they want to know how version 15 is going to improve their work flow or necessitate their choice to upgrade.
Cost Factor
Dragon Premium 13 is considerably cheaper than Dragon Professional Individual 15 making it a more attractive prospect. It can still be installed and work within a Windows 10 environment but this could change depending on updates. You may have to compensate for incompatibility by using some work-around solutions. HCD can assist with this, even if you already have this version of the software.
Legacy Product
Dragon Premium 13 was released in August 2014 and is older and no longer supported. The benefit of buying a more recent product release is that it’s still supported if there’s a need for a service pack and developers will try to assist with glitches or keeping the product compatible with the most popular supporting applications.
Features
Both products enable you to dictate, transcribe audio, navigate your PC and create auto-text commands. However, when it comes to additional features… Dragon Professional Individual 15 wins. Being a next-tier Professional version of the software, it gives you the full bouquet of Dragon features. While it covers the most popular and essential functions, Dragon Premium 13 is more stripped down and limited.
The best example is that you can create custom commands and macros using Dragon Professional Individual 15. These means you could automate repetitive tasks so that several mouse-clicks, keystrokes or movements could be housed under one command. The general overall benefit is that you’re taking advantage of the latest algorithms and Deep Learning technology, which make the product learn quicker and more accurate out-of-the-box. Dragon Professional Individual 15 is so accurate that it doesn’t require you to read additional training texts. You can start dictating after a simple audio check.
The Bottom Line
While both products are still usable and share many of the most essential features, it’s best to go with the latest version of Dragon to avoid compatibility-related issues with embedded operating system and application environments. Taking advantage of the most recent release means the technology is more up-to-date and the product is able to learn quicker and more efficiently. While there’s a significant difference in price, it makes more sense to get the latest version to avoid having to buy it at a later stage. Dragon upgrades enable you to skip a release, meaning you could jump from 13 to 15 but not 13 to 16.