Fluentalk T1 Language Translator - Product Review (MSRP $299.99) The Timekettle Fluentalk T1 is a language translator that could be your perfect companion when traveling to foreign lands or use at home with acquittances that don’t speak English. Physically the unit reminds me of a small cellphone and it even has an empty slot for a Sim card if you want to use it with a cellular network. That said you don’t need a cellular network to use the T1. Its dimensions are 2 ¼ wide 4 ½ long and ¼ thick. It has a 4 ¾ (measured diagonally) touch screen. See photo 1. You do need a WiFi connection to the internet to set up the T1. Once it is set up and you download language packages to allow offline translations the unit is ready to use. Without an internet connection it can only do the translations between English and Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Russian and German. With an internet connection the list expands to include these 40 languages: Arabic / Bulgarian / Cantonese / Catalan / Chinese / Croatian / Czech / Danish / Dutch / English / Finnish / Filipino / 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. The Fluentalk T1 comes with 2 years of free online translations. The time starts to count down the day you set up the unit. At the end of the 2 years you can purchase more data or just use it in offline mode. I have downloaded all the languages that will work offline and they have only filled 12GB of the unit’s 32GB capacity. As you can see the internal storage has enough capacity for you to download a plethora of languages. Each language gives you an opportunity to choose the “accent” that best fits your location. For example, for Spanish you can choose Spain, USA, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Salvador. The opening screen shows you One Click Translation on the left and Photo Translation on the right. When you click the One Click Translation you use the two buttons on the left side of the unit to switch back and forth between languages. There is an icon on the bottom left of the screen that lets you switch to landscape mode. In this mode you click on the screen to switch between your language and the language that the other person will be speaking. In Chat Mode it does the same thing without you touching any buttons. When you click the Photo Translation you are ready to shoot a photo of a menu or document that you want the Fluentalk T1 to translate. See photo 2.
Reason to Drool The Fluentalk T1 can help you communicate with people who do not speak your language. What is amazing is that it can translate and say out loud what the speaker is saying in their native language in your language and at the same time show the statements in print in the 2 languages on its screen. Perform this task even when you don’t have access to the Internet through a WiFi or cellular network. In Chat Mode it automatically switches between the 2 languages without you having to touch any buttons. At the time that I started working on this review they were offering a 10% discount and also the ability for you to return the unit for 30 days. Make certain that these offers are still in effect if they are important to you. Link to Company Website
Not so Cool The volume at maximum is not loud enough to hear in a noisy environment. The photo translation mode is a great feature but it is difficult to read the translated document on a small screen. It would be great if they had a smartphone app so you could see the translated document on your phone or iPad.
