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I have previously reviewed a couple of Timekettle universal language translators. These are all in-ear devices that aim to provide a discrete and seamless translation experience.

I have then reviewed competing solutions such as the Pocketalk S Voice Translator and  Langogo, which are handheld Android powered devices that provide a more convenient way of providing translation compared to your phone and Google Translate.

Timekettle has now launched the Fluentalk T1, which is the same concept as the Pocketalk S and Langogo. The one big advantage this has over many competing devices is the ability to do offline translation, giving you some reassurance that you can communicate with people if you are somewhere with a poor mobile signal or no WiFi.

Buy the Fluentalk T1

Available Languages

The Timekettle Fluentalk T1 can translate:

  • 8 languages in offline mode including:
    • Chinese ⇆ English, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Russian, German
    • English ⇆ Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Russian, German
  • 40 languages in total with 93 accents including:
    • Arabic / Bulgarian / Cantonese / Catalan / Chinese / Croatian / Czech / Danish / Dutch / English / Finnish / Fillipino / French / German / Greek / Hebrew / Hindi / Hungarian / Icelandic / Indonesian / Italian /Japanese / Korean /Malay / Norwegian / Polish / Portuguese / Romanian / Russian / Slovak / Slovenian / Spanish / Swedish / Tamil / Telugu / Thai / Turkish / Ukrainian / Urdu / Vietnamese
  • It can provide image translation for 36 languages including:
    • Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, Thai; Portuguese, Turkish, Dutch, Vietnamese, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Greek, Slovak, Finnish; Swedish, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Indonesian, Croatian, Danish, Lithuanian, Slovenian; Serbian, Catalan, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Malay

Device Specification

Model NumberFluentalk T1
Size4.59 x 2.30 x 0.01 in (116.8 * 58.6 * 11.2mm)
Weight0.25 lb (115g)
CPUQuad-core ARM 14nm 2.0GHz
Storage(RAM)3G (ROM)32G
Operating SystemAndroid 10
Screen Size4.0"Oncell 540*1080
Camera8 megapixels
MicrophoneMulti microphone
SpeakerDual speakers
ChargingType-C 5V⎓1A
Battery1500mAh
Connectivity TechnologyWiFi/Nano-sim/E-sim(built-in)
Wireless Network Technology2G/3G/4G LTE
Continuous Translation Time3.5h
Standby Time96h
Charging Time210mins

In Use

One Click Translation

In an attempt to try and see how accurate this device was, I tested playing a YouTube video called “8 YouTube Channels in Spanish”. In it, the presenter speaks in Spanish and has English subtitles.

I found that the performance seemed to be excellent. It picked up all the words that were spoken and translated them more or less the same as what was displayed in the subtitles.

Listening Mode

Listening mode is a hands-off feature that will listen to either speaker and try to translate. Using the same test as above, I didn’t find this to be quite as useful, but I prefer the one-click translation.

It missed a few bits of what was being said, and when I spoke in English back, it deleted the Spanish translation on the screen.

This feature seems to work in offline mode, but only just. When in offline mode, it is very slow to pick up words and misses the majority of them. It seems to work OK when you speak slowly and clearly, but if you are going to that effort, you may as well use the one-click translation.

Image Translation

I find image translation quite important when travelling. I love food, and that’s one of the main reasons why I like to travel. Touristy places will inevitably have English menus, but as soon as you venture off the beaten track, you will likely find it increasingly difficult to find anything written in English.

With the image translation, you take a photo of the text, and it then processes it. You can optionally save it for use later.

This works well. I tested it against Google Translate, and I would say the performance is comparable. The main difference is that Google can auto-detect languages. I used to struggle with the way Google worked, but it seems to have improved over the years.

Offline Translation

Timekettle devices are one of the few options on the market that provide an offline translation. This is one of the main selling points of the Fluentalk T1 compared to the similar devices I have used.

With this option, it can only translate to/from English/Chinese to seven other languages. However, this should still make it useful for a lot of people.

While you do get 2-years of free data, you can’t always be guaranteed to be in a place with reliable data or public WiFi access.

Disabling both mobile and WiFi data, I was able to successfully translate from English to Spanish

Price and Alternative Options

Buy the Fluentalk T1

The Timekettle Fluentalk T1 is available from Amazon US for $300, and it is not currently available on Amazon UK.

You can buy it directly from Fluentalk for $300 with free shipping worldwide and an expected delivery time of 8-14 days.

At the time of writing $300 is £265.

The Pocketalk S is priced at £210 on Amazon

The Langogo Summit is £280

The older Langogo Genesis AI is £200

The competing option claims varying numbers of languages translated, but they all pad out the numbers with local dialects, which I find misleading. At least Fluentalk has had the honesty to state that they do 40 unique languages with 93 languages, including accents.

Overall

The Fluentalk T1 is an excellent universal translator, with the stand-out feature being the offline translation.

I personally prefer these handheld devices compared to the in-ear options Timekettle normally does. I am a casual traveller, and it just feels more natural to use a handheld device. The image translation is also incredibly useful for reading things like menus.

The conversational translation worked OK, but I found that the one-click option was much better.  

While this is priced on the higher end of the spectrum, I prefer this to the cheaper Pocketalk S, I find it more responsive and easier to use.

I also think the premium you pay is well worth it for the offline translation.

Fluentalk T1 Handheld Translator Device Review Rating

Summary

The Fluentalk T1 is an excellent universal translator, with the stand-out feature being the offline translation.

Overall
80%
80%
  • Overall - 80%
    80%

Pros

  • One-click translation appears to be fast and accurate. It is also very user friendly
  • Offline translation gives this a big advantage over competing devices

Cons

  • Conversation mode/listening mode could be better
  • Expensive vs competing devices (and Google Translate)

Last update on 2024-03-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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