Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator Review: A Diminuitive Translator That Will Help Communicate During Travel, but the Native Speakers May Smirk

Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator Review

I reviewed the Timekettle WT2 Edge translation earbuds a while back. I found them relatively accurate, but the model left room for improvement. Sharing earbuds post-pandemic isn’t likely the first thing a stranger wants to do. The app does offer other modalities, but it isn’t the most convenient. Timekettle suggests the WT2 Edge for deep, extended conversations—think negotiation, mentoring, or diplomacy. I can see that use case after the earbuds get a nice disinfecting wipe.

My need for translation is usually more urgent, which falls into the Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator camp. This little box makes being understood at the moment a priority.

What we like

Pros

• Wide range of languages and accents
• Compact and wearable
• Reasonably priced
• Online and offline modes
• Comes with a 1-year data plan
• Photo translation
• Includes a lanyard

The first aspect to check on a translator is that it translates to and from the languages expected to be encountered. Then comes the quality of the translation.

From my testing, the T1 Mini does a credible job, meaning it covers the major languages with enough quality that a non-native speaker will likely be understood, even if the translation proves imperfect to the ear of the recipient.

Here is the list:

Arabic / Bulgarian / Cantonese / Catalan / Chinese / Croatian / Czech / Danish / Dutch / English / Finnish / French / German / Greek / Hebrew / Hindi / Hungarian / Indonesian / Italian / Japanese / Korean / Norwegian / Polish / Portuguese / Romanian / Russian / Slovak / Slovenian / Spanish / Swedish / Tamil / Telugu / Thai / Turkish / Ukrainian / Vietnamese.

The device also includes 88 accents or dialects, including Portuguese, for instance, for Portugal and Brazil. Thirteen language pairs can be downloaded for offline use, though only four at a time.

I did have students in my university course from parts of India with local languages that were not included. They could fall back on Hindi, some on Tamil, but they would have preferred Punjabi. India is a hard ask for translation software, with its 22 official languages, 121 total languages, and 20 mother tongues. For those traveling in the main cities, or attempting to communicate at work, the 36 languages will likely suffice. Wander off in India, however, and the Fluentalk T1 Mini’s ability to communicate may become stretched.

As to size, the 3.58 x 2.15 x .53 inch (91 x 54.5 x 13.4mm) device easily fits in a pocket. It comes with a lanyard, making it a wearable.

AT $149.99 the T1 Mini isn’t outrageously priced, but it does cost more than a phrase book. Yes, it does much more than a phrase book, and across many lanaguges, but individuals need to figure out if they need all the features before investing.

I recently visited Portugal. My team was much more interested in practicing their English on me than me talking to them through a translator. We tested it a couple of times, they said it was okay but formal, and then returned to English. That said, wandering off I felt more comfortable having some way to talk to others if I needed it, rather than not having the capability. I did not, however, need to avail its services.

The Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator includes a roughly 3-inch, 480×640 touch screen that swipes between modes: images, online translation, offline translation, and settings. One button initiates a translation. Simply speak and the T1 Mini immediately translates the phrase. There is no need to reconfigure for each user. The language pairs recognize the input language and translates accordingly. All that much happens between inputs is to push the button and speaker clearly.

In photo mode, using the device’s five-megapixel camera, point the Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator’s lens at a sign or a picture, or a book or magazine, and it translates it. Unfortunately, it does not store the translations, but it does allow moving between the original and the translation. I found it worked well even on French poetry.

While there are offline translation options, they are limited compared to the online options. Timekettle provides a 1-year international data plan with the T1 Mini. This means it will work, wirelessly, in most cities around the world. Once that subscription runs out, Timekettle will suggest a renewal at current rates (likely less than $50 a year). For those who don’t want to pay for a cellular-based wireless plan, the device still works in offline mode for the downloaded language pairs, and it continues to work across its entire portfolio on Wi-Fi. It can even be tethered to a phone’s mobile hotspot.

As an “online” device, firmware and other updates, including improvements to the translation packs, can be downloaded as they become avaiable.

The packaging was less than average, with a plastic-wrapped mostly cardboard box. Unfortunately, the device was seated in a glued down foam cutout that made the cardboard of the box’s back non-recyclable. Based on some recent packaging designs I’ve seen, they could easily switch out the foam for formed paper.

What could be improved

Cons

• Does understand gender
• Translations are formal
• May not include the language you need
• Easy language flipping
• Often inaccurate, especially at a distance

There are two major translation issues that those whom I tested the Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator pointed out: gender and the formality of the translations. Neither of these issues makes basic understanding of situations untenable, they just add to the continued recognition that the software has certain deficiencies.

As for formality, I tend to think that is a good feature in a technology-based translation tool. While it may not sound natural and most likely not local, the lack of casualness results in explicit translations that avoid confusion.

I found the Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator was good at understanding English. It did not, however, understand my German. And it didn’t just not understand it, it wildly misunderstood it. I also found that it would occasionally get caught in a loop and not return a response.

The languages must be switched manually. And that switch isn’t done well. Speak English and receive German. For the other person to answer, the device requires a convoluted reset of the input languages. It isn’t possible to switch to German as the input, because the device reports it doesn’t support English-to-English. Flip German to any other language, then flip the other language back to German. A simple flip of the languages button, in either software or hardware, would solve this issue, and I’m not sure why it’s not already there. When I see the team at CES 2024 I will ask them.

Offline translation works more intuitively, with buttons pushed on the screen designating the input language.

Timekettle should consider consolidating the UI for online and offline. If offline, it defaults to the languages available. If online, it uses the versions available on the company’s servers.

For the languages that I dabble in, I found the phrases I know were often interpreted in wildly different ways, with none of them the actual phrase I was speaking. Even basic German phases like, ”Es geht mir, gut danke, und dir, wie geht es dir?” were mangled by the online translations but were handled relatively well by the offline translations that used the German UI button to designate input (though on repetition it heard my first “dir” as “deal” and left it untranslated. (BTW, as much as its translations were formal, this demonstrates that Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator can understand less formal input.)

From my English-first tests, it appears that if it understands the input, it does a pretty good job with the translation. My issue is more with it understanding the input than mistranslation.

Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator: The bottom line

Translation is necessary in many travel and business situations, but it is often difficult and awkward. The Timekettle Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator makes it less so. The fast translation helps, but the situation still requires another party to put up with a parlor trick that isn’t going to prove completely effective. When I used it with my students, sometimes with up to six different native language speakers in the room, they found the translations formal, but understandable. They suggested only using it in travel situations when desperate for an answer. And I think that Timekettle would agree that is the hero use case.

Timekettle provided the Fluentalk T1 Mini Translator for review. Images courtesy of Timekettle unless otherwise noted.

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