The world is becoming small in the sense that you can easily travel to anywhere, conduct business, make trade, enjoy a holiday, and many other things without significant effort. While the ease of travelling to different parts of the world has improved a lot over the years, what hasn’t changed is the ease of communication. Imagine an American who travels to Brazil or China, either to conduct a business or to spend a leisure time. If he/she wants to communicate with the locals, who might not speak/understand English, he then has to rely on a translator (either a person or an app on their smartphone).
Another such situation is office meetings where a bunch of people with different communication backdrops try to converse. Google Translate is fairly accurate and responsive but you have to speak to the phone and not to the person in front of you.
We recently got our hands on Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds. As the name suggests, they are a pair of earbuds that can translate conversations in real-time and even in both directions. This is exactly the kind of product that comes in handy in the above-mentioned scenarios. But how do they perform in real-life usage? How is the translation speed and accuracy? Are they worth the price? Let us find out answers to such question in the review of the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds.
We are writing this review after using and testing these earbuds in different situations and with few languages. We tested the ease of use, accuracy, speed, different modes they offer, and many other things. Read along to find out more.
Let us quickly unbox the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds package and take a look at its contents. As soon as you lift the outer cover, you have the main event i.e., the earbuds in a case. We will keep this aside for the time being and look at the rest of the things in the package.
Next, we have a blue card with a weird looking fish on one side and a scratch area on the other. This contains a code using which you can install the offline translator packs. When the time comes, we will explain about this card. Next, we have a tiny multi-lingual user manual with basic information about the earbuds, different modes, and warranty information.
Exploring further, we have a pair of ear hooks and a USB-C Charging Cable. Last but not least, we a few silicone earbud covers. That’s all about the contents of the package.
The case of the Timekettle WT2 Edge Earbuds is all white (along with the earbuds). It looks and feels premium. On the back, we have the USB-C Charging Ports and on the front, we have four LEDs indicating the state of charge of the case. The hinge mechanism is sturdy and the overall case isn’t too large.
Coming to the main earbuds, the design of the ear tips (the part that goes inside the ear) is reminiscent of the 2nd generation Apple AirPods. If you used those AirPods earlier, then you won’t find the Timekettle WT3 Edge earbuds much different.
Personally, my ear doesn’t fit (or doesn’t hold, to be specific) this style of earbuds and I am accustomed to in-ear style earbuds my entire life. So, the included ear hooks are very useful for me.
There is a large multicolor LED that also houses the touch-sensitive area at the top of the stem. The outer area of the ear stems also has microphones while on the inside, they have couple of contacts for charging.
On a whole, the build quality of both the case as well as the earbuds is very good. The ear tip silicone covers are a nice touch for a solid grip in the ears.
A good software must accompany a good hardware in order to make a good product. Speaking of software, the Timekettle App is the only way to connect or use these translator earbuds. The official Timekettle App is available for both Android and iOS devices. Go to the respective application stores and simply search for “timekettle” and install the app.
After installing and opening the app, you have to provide some basic information such as email id and allow the app to access the Bluetooth, Location, and other essential things on your smartphone for it to work properly.
Even though these earbuds work over Bluetooth, everything works through the app. You have to keep the app active and the screen on all the time or else the earbuds will disconnect. This puts a toll on the battery of the phone.
The next step is to select the appropriate earbuds, which is WT2 Edge in this case, and pair them. Just take the earbuds out of the case to initiate the pairing mode. The LED on the earbuds will flash green while it is pairing and once it is successfully paired, the LED becomes a solid green.
You are now ready to use the translator earbuds. After successfully connecting the earbuds to the smartphone using the app, the main app screen shows the status of the connection and battery percentage of the earbuds on the top. Just below that, the app shows a bunch of modes to use the translator earbuds. They are:
Let us understand these modes one-by-one. The first and most interesting mode is the Simul Mode. It is short for Simultaneous Mode. In this mode, you have to keep one earbud for yourself and share another earbud with the person with whom you want to converse.
You don’t have to tap anything or touch anything. Just set appropriate languages for respective earbuds and start talking. The earbuds will try to what you speak, translate it to the language of the other person and plays back the translated data. This mode is very good for one-to-one communication in a room with little to no noise.
For this mode (or any other mode) to work properly, you should speak loud and clear with clear pronunciation. The app will show what the earbuds receive and even the translated content.
The next mode is Listening Mode. In this mode, you can wear both the earbuds but you have to place the smartphone close to the speaker. The phone’s microphone will capture the speaker’s voice, translate it, and sends it to your earbuds. This is a one-way translation. This mode is very useful when you are not doing the talking but listening to a speaker or lecture.
Many of us don’t like sharing stuff, especially earbuds, with others. If you are one of them, then the next mode is just for you. This mode is known as Speaker Mode. In this mode, you can wear both the earbuds. As you speak something in the choice of your language, the earbuds will capture it, translate it, send it to the phone and play the translation over the phone’s speakers.
If the other person responds, the phone’s microphone will capture the data, translate it and send it to the earbuds for you to listen. This mode is very useful while ordering food or asking directions.
The last mode is Touch Mode. This is again a “share the earbuds” kind of mode where you use one earbud and the other person wears the other bud.
In order to start conversation and translation, the speaker has to tap on the “touch sensitive” location to start the chat. This mode is useful in busy environments where you can activate the translation only when you touch the earbuds. This way, you can avoid unnecessary translation of surrounding voices. Additionally, by connecting 3 pairs of earbuds, the Touch Mode supports a 6-person communication.
Apart from these four basic modes, there is a Group Chat function that supports 200 people speaking 40 different languages in a meeting.
So, how do the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds perform? The translation aspect of the earbuds is good, especially for popular languages such as English, French, and Spanish (at least that’s what we could try with people and not artificial voices). The translator misses some words and you have to repeat the sentences by speaking louder than usual. Also, we have to talk at a slightly slower pace than what we do normally.
How do these translator earbuds work? Timekettle uses 6 popular translator engines (Microsoft, Google, DeepL, iFlyTek, AmiVoive, and Hoya). For online translation, you need a strong internet connectivity as the data is processed at cloud servers, which Timekettle has about 15 of them worldwide.
Although they claim very low translation delay, it can take a second or two to process the data and play the translated voice. Of course, this is dependent on the network connectivity. The Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds can translate between 40 languages and 93 dialects.
What if there is no internet connectivity? Can you use these earbuds then? Yes, you can use but there is a catch. You have to install an offline translation package. Simple right. Well, the offline translation packages cost extra. You have to purchase “fishes” and use them to redeem offline packages.
Good thing is you get a “Timekettle Fish Card” in the package (the card with weird looking fish we mentioned earlier) where you can use a special code to add 30 fishes to your account. Each translation package needs 5 fishes. So, using the Timekettle Fish Card, you can install 6 translation packages.
At the moment, Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds support 13 offline translation packages.
How accurate is the translation? As we said before, the translation for popular languages is decent. We tried a bunch of Indian languages. The system struggles to recognize some words and misidentifies them.
While Timekettle claims a 3-hour runtime, we got anywhere between 2 hours 30 mins to 2 hours 40 mins (sometimes even less). You can customize some settings such as ambient noise, pause duration, audio level, etc. in the app.
When you can use Google Translate to do basic translation, what is the point of this product? In our frank opinion, most users who need occasional translation don’t need this at all. If you are an executive who travels the world, then you can use these earbuds (remember, you have to share one earbud with the other person) and have a face-to-face conversation and instead of talking to the phone.
You can use these earbuds to learn a new language or if you are a student, use them if you are studying in a foreign country. There is a small delay in translation and the earbuds miss some words, even if we say them loud and clear.
There are a bunch of variants of the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds. If you take the “Online & Offline Translation” model, it costs about $349.99. While you get 30 Fishes to purchase few offline packages, you need to spend more if you need additional offline packages. At this price point, the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds are not for everyone but for people who are tired of using the phone to translate and pass the phone between the speakers. They have a standard 1-year warranty.
Overall, we like the idea of the Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds.You might have heard, read, or saw about them in a science fiction movie or book. In reality, this type of translator earbuds are a luxury or novelty product where we have better and cheaper alternatives, especially in the form Google Translate.
Credits to Timekettle for taking an idea and actually making a working product out of it. They say the Timekettle servers make use of 6 cloud-based translator engines from Google, Microsoft, DeepL, iFlyTek, AmiVoive, and Hoya. While this works for popular languages, the translation is a hit or miss for not-so-popular languages, especially with accents and slangs.
You always need high-speed internet connectivity for translation to work and if you want offline mode, you have to pay extra and purchase offline translation packages. Despite its high price, you cannot use the earbuds for anything other than translation, that too with the Timekettle app. You cannot use to listen to music or make phone calls. Such a shame.
If you are a business executive who does business/meeting with foreign correspondents or a student living in a foreign country, you can invest in Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds. You can have face-to-face conversations in almost real-time without using a phone. But considering the price, this is a very niche product that must target corporate clients and business executives. For regular users, who want occasional translation or a not-so-expensive option, Google Translate works just fine for now.
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