Timekettle X1

This interpreter hub has a sleek, futuristic design that stands out. It supports 40 languages and 93 accents online, and even has an offline mode for 13 language pairs, making it perfect for travel or when internet isn’t available.For meetings, it can connect up to 20 people speaking 5 different languages in real-time. Each participant needs their own device for group settings, ensuring clear communication.In voice calls, it provides simultaneous translations and integrates natural voices, which is great for remote conversations. In one-on-one interactions, it shows on-screen text translations alongside spoken translations.While it performs well, the earbuds could be more comfortable with rubber tips for extended use. I think the uses are limited for now, but as these devices become better and less expensive, I think we can see this stuff go into the mainstream soon enough. I'm excited for the future.Overall, it’s a valuable tool for business, learning languages, or navigating multilingual interactions.

This is an amazing device, something out of a ScFi movie. The unboxing is good, with the same high end feel that you get from Apple Devices.Very well built with premium materials to make it feel great to hold and use. It is reassuringly heavy in hand, but not overly so. The draw for the ear pieces is smooth and easy to use. The ear buds charge when inside, and battery life seems pretty good so far, though the ear buds aren't pzrticlulary comfortable. It has a glass display with touch functionality to navigate settings and is as easy to use as any smart phone.On its own, it's a little limited, but paired with other units, you can make multi lingual discussions common place. It is obviously aimed at corporate use, where i can see it has a place to improve international relationships in a business setting. It does have some useful features for others too, hen used to translate tv shows for example. You also get subtitles produced on the glass display, and you can whip it out to translate on the fly when out an about, providing you have downloaded the required language pack...It works best when connected to a network, or piggy backing off your phones hot spot, but it can work off line with a limited number of downloaded languages. It could be great for the solo traveller when a language barrier prevents asking for information or sharing information etc.My only reservation, is that everything is really aimed at corporate office use with multiple units. All of the functions you would use as an individual could be achieved by your smart phone and a premium app, which is much much cheaper. Don't get me wrong, this is a great device in all aspects, but i can't help but think it's a niche and expesnive solution to a problem that modern smart phones can already solve. Even in the market space of hardware translators, this is double the price of the next highest priced competitor, and i struggle to see the value. Forgive me, but units like this have their place, but only when marketed directly to larger businesses. Its not really a public "everyman" device.

Okay so who's this aimed at - I have mixed thoughts on that, its aimed really at a corporate user or a person who travels a lot and needs that always handy translator is Ill break this review into those two areas, whilst I have split the modes into these two it doesn't mean you can't find a use case to use them for either.But first the device itself - its a really nice looking piece of key - it feels very premium and the touch screen is really clear and good quality and really helps extend the tools use as even if you don't catch the odd word the text in both languages is clear to see. Buttons wise it's quite simple there is a record button and volume up down and an off on button. It weighs just 200g and has a hidden compartment that holds and charges the headphones that comes with it.Traveller usage has a few modesOne to One - Probably the biggest selling point is that you can have two way conversations with a person using just a single X1 as it comes with two built in headphones which each person wears and it can handle translations whilst both are talking so no need to talk and then pause as the other person talks, in my tests it does a pretty good job at translation but more on that later.Listen and Play - This mode is where you wear the headphones the other person then speak and you hear the translation from there and then when you want to speak you switch and then talk and the unit speaks the translation.Ask and Go - Very much like Listen and Play but you don't use headphones and press the record button to speak and then the speaker translates in the unit and you do the same for the other speaker.Corporate side of things really does require at least two X1's and access to wifi, there are some work arounds but Ill get to them later.One to One mode assumes you and the person your going to talk to has their own X1 - each unit as its own unique identity aka room number that you can share, and one dials this number, note it does not seem possible to change the devices number so keep that in mind.Multi Mode from what I can see is where each person in the room (or dealing in) again has to have their own X1 and then they can talk in their own language and it will be translated to all the others, whats not clear as I can't test this is if its as fluid (aka multi talkers) like some of the other modes.So how does it all work - pretty well actually from what Im able to test, Ive mostly been using ask and go and listen and play with colleagues at work (Hindi, Telugu, Chinese (Cantonese), Spanish and I have also tried it using wikitongues to see how it does using it that way.It does seem to handle Chinese and English slightly better than the others as tests with those really seemed to have any slip ups, in other languages if the person does as you'd expect and slows down a little its fine - if they speak quickly and not that clear it can struggle.I was initially worried when I saw an online review as it implied in the modes you had to keep changing the setting to swap languages when in use - this is not the case and I think it might be that the reviewer wasn't a native English speaker so it was struggling to understand - its perfectly fine in understanding the two language picked without any additional prompts.I guess the other question is why bother if you can use your phone, and yes if you need pretty basic translation a phone can be great but its not ideal as its not as easy to use as this and whilst this isn't cheap, if it was taken your going to lose no information like you would a phone.Battery life is pretty good losing about 10% on standby each dayThe device comes with 20GB of storage to download languages for when your not on wifi but be aware the choice of languages is centred around English and Chinese so you can download English to German and English to French but there is no German to French download that can only happen over wifiSo the negativesI guess the main one is that the sale offer is not being reflected here so its cheaper directThe unit itself's biggest drawback is the headphones, your going to have to know the person pretty well as it does feel a little unhygienic to be offered an inner ear headphone to listen through, but they are not rubberised so should be easy to clean and the device comes with slips to cover the headphone as a nod to the hygiene issue - Im not sure if you can get replacement slips though. Bone conducting headphones IMO would have been a better option to go with.You can use the headphones slightly off the ear and Im thinking and adaptor could be made to hold it like that with a wrap around - one for the 3d printerFinally one little hidden feature is it retains the history of your translations so you can review them at any time - this means you can use the device as a message recorder (note its only text it retains so not a dictaphone as such) so good if you need to make a note but have nothing else to use.So yes its not cheap but your paying for the corporate functionality and for what is a really nice device but Id say if your after a holiday translation tool you might want to take a look at their more consumer based solutions.

Fantastic language translating device. This high tech device is so sleek and compact, it's perfect for travel. The technology is highly impressive, allowing for multiple language translation and makes it ideal for large meetings and conferences. The person to person translation happens quickly and smoothly, and makes it possible to have a conversation that flows nicely once you get used to the timing of questions and answers. I find the battery life a huge plus point, it lasts up to 12 hours and it's more than enough to last through a full work day.