Timekettle W4 Pro AI Interpreter Earbuds,Bidirection Simultaneous Translation,Translator Device Supporting 40 Languages,Translator Earbuds for Call and Video Translation,APP Work with iOS and Android

I work in an industry where it would behoove me to learn Spanish. Unfortunately, that has proven nearly impossible. So, I purchased Timekettle in order to be able to speak with other clients who did not speak English. I verified its accuracy through people who are courtroom certified, and they told me that it was very accurate, even more accurate than Google Translate.That said, you still have to use your phone for translation with this device , as it connects to your phone directly. I make sure to use alcohol wipes on it because transferring it from person to person could be gross, and having to have that right now was a little, and a little uncomfortable.Something for the future, would be some glasses that go on and it just translates that just picks up the sound and determines if it is a voice, and then translate that voice into English without having to have a mic given to the person. Also, it would have the ability to work without the need of a phone, so it could work faster. If I wear glasses, it would make someone look normal instead of making them look like they have earbuds or something else that is impeding their hearing on their ears .I would want it to be its own unit because I would want to be able to just put it on and look normal. The idea would be that I could literally walk around at Disneyland and the device would listen to all of the different voices in different languages, and I would be able to hear it and understand it all in English. If someone else also had it, they could also hear my voice in their language. Essentially, if it were affordable, and everyone had one, it would be a universal translator. You could even have it where it has Bluetooth so that if you were to take a phone call, you could do so, and the person who is speaking would sound like they were in speaking in English. And then when you spoke back, it would translate it into their preferred language on their phone. The people would then be able to pay for a monthly subscription to keep it. Personally, I think it would be very advantageous to be able to understand everyone around you, especially in tourist areas like Disneyland, Vegas, Orlando, Paris, Etc…

Let me start by saying that I REALLY hoped that this would work… but unfortunately, it didn’t.Note: I paid full price for this device. This review is not sponsored in any way.Use case: Chinese to English, Business Setting (Your experience MAY be different in a different setting and a different language)First, let me mention the positives:1. It’s a great concept.2. The packaging is nice3. The hard shell case protects the headsets and charges them4. The headset battery lasts a long time5. The headset is comfortable and can be worn for a long time6. Phone app keeps a log of the translation, which can be useful to go back and review.7. Languages can be downloaded and used offline (no internet connection required) [this is a paid feature though]8. Seemed to work OK for one-on-one conversation where both people wore the headset*Now the negatives:1. Translation quality was TERRIBLE (Chinese to English)2. My iPhone had to be on in order to get it to work… and it was a battery hog on the iPhone (25-30% of iPhone battery consumed per hour)3. Offline translation seems to work as the Timekettle app only used 5.79 MB of data while I was in China.4. Very expensive for something that doesn’t work.5. You can tap the headset to switch modes; however, there is no audio prompt to tell if you’re in ‘speaking’ or ‘listening’ mode – so you have to have your phone open to know for sure.6. Does not do well with multiple speakers – even if only one is speaking at a time.------------------------Detailed Review: ----------------------------------------Since not all reviewers of this product have specified the language(s) they tried, let me begin by clarifying that I used the headsets during a week long BUSINESS trip to CHINA in November 2024. My review is based on this use case. If you are looking to use the headset in a different way (e.g. personal or tourist) or a different language (e.g. not Chinese-English), your results MAY be different. I travel to China for business several times per year and really hoped that this would work as I do not speak Chinese and I’m reliant on a translator (and I feel that I only get a summary of the translation vs. a word-for-word translation). While on this 1.5 week trip, I used the headset in multiple different scenarios – and I’ll detail them all below for you. I did use my one free credit to download the Chinese-English dictionary and used the app/device in offline mode during the trip. (additional languages can be downloaded and used offline for a reasonable additional fee).Product arrived quickly and nicely packaged. It includes a short USB-A to USB-C charging cable (but no transformer – which is OK). The included hard-sided case acts as a nice protector for the headsets although it is fairly bulky and is probably too large to fit in most pockets (except maybe larger cargo pockets on shorts/pants). The battery on the headset seems to last a long time – which is perfect for almost all use cases.USE CASE 1: Board room. Listening in on typically 2 speakers. – For this first use case, I was in a board room with 8 other people. The two people that were speaking the most were located next to me and across the table from me (approx. 2 meters or 6 feet away). The room was a bit echoey. During this meeting, I wore one headset and had the phone on the table in front of me (the other headset was in the case). The meeting started with my customer giving a PowerPoint overview of their company followed by some conversation between my colleague (next to me) and the company’s manager (across the table). MOST spoken language was not picked up. Based on the PowerPoint content and our business, I would have to say that the little bit that was translated was mostly not correct. Some examples of what came through on the translation are: -silence- “But what we want is. The next step, I think I am.” -silence- “We only have 3 basketball. Hmm beg is more expensive than gold.” -silence- “Magazines usually do not look for him” [for the record, NONE of this is even a little bit relatable to my business]. Overall, I would have to guess that translation accuracy was well under 5%. I was left wondering if the echo in the room negatively affected the translation quality. Rating: NOT RELIABLE / NOT USEFUL.USE CASE 1B: During this same meeting, I took the second headset out of the case and set it to Chinese and my headset to English. I placed it on the table in the direction of the people that were speaking most hoping that it would pick up some of their words and improve the translation; however, this did not work. There was no improvement.USE CASE 2: Same company as #1, but during factory tour. – for this use case, I wore one headset and the other was in the case. We then walked around the factory for about an hour for the tour. During this time, the translation quality was slightly better – but only when I was holding my phone in front of me and the tour guide was nearby and speaking in my general direction and when he spoke slowly with lots of pauses… which was not often. Rating: NOT RELIABLE / NOT USEFUL.USE CASE 3: Different company, small tea table with 5 people. 3 people did most of the talking, the person to my immediate left and immediate right and the customer across the table (approx. 1.8m or 5 feet away). I wore one headset, the second headset remained in the case and MOST spoken language was not picked up. This smaller setting with less echo was slightly better than the Board room described above; however, I would still estimate that maybe only 10% of the spoken words were translated. At one point, the device was silent for a while then translated: “We’re a gas station. Reporting the right to life.”, then it was silent again. Rating: NOT RELIABLE / NOT USEFUL.USE CASE 4: In a car. One-on-one conversation. I wore one earbud (set to English) and my driver wore the other (set to Chinese). My driver speaks fluent English, but I wanted to try the headsets to see how they worked when using 2 of them. Since we were the only two in the car, it was a fairly quiet environment and the headset did much better picking up the speakers and translating. There was a delay in the translation, which made it awkward as we would have to pause and wait to continue talking. According to my driver, the translation was fairly accurate from English to Chinese, but less accurate from Chinese to English. After using it for awhile, we did figure out that the device works MUCH better when translating short sentences… we changed our conversation style to saying a short sentence, waiting for the translation then speaking the next sentence… which is not really how conversations work. Rating: SEMI-RELIABLE / SEMI-USEFUL.USE CASE 5A: Trade show. I wore one headset and the second headset remained in the case. I walked around the trade show and talked to several vendors. The trade show was very noisy. When I asked very simple questions and the vendor responded with a simple answer, the headset did an OK job of translating (sometimes). It seemed to work better when I stood (uncomfortably) close to the vendor or held my phone near their face. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work. Using an ‘old fashioned’ translation app (e.g. Bing Translation) worked much better and more reliably. Interestingly, as I was walking around, the headset picked up parts of conversations and I randomly heard sentence fragments translated in my ear. Rating: NOT TOTALLY RELIABLE / SEMI USEFUL.USE CASE 5B: Trade show. Very noisy. During the trade show, I had one sit-down meeting with a vendor. At a small table, four people sat down with me and another person doing most of the talking to each other. The manager that I spoke with would sometimes confer with his team and then respond back to me with an answer. Even though we were sitting next to each other (approx. 3 feet / 1 meter) and the phone was resting on the table, the headset did not pick up enough of the conversation to be useful. I tried to listen in on the vendors team conversation, but almost none of it was picked up. Rating: NOT RELIABLE / NOT USEFUL.USE CASE 5C: Trade show. Very noisy. After the larger group meeting, I stayed at the table and had a one-on-one conversation with the customer service manager. She speaks some English. I gave her the second headset and we tried using it in conversation mode. The results were fairly similar to what I experienced during the car ride; however, I felt like she had to speak louder than she normally does and more of the conversation was missed – probably due to the much louder environment. It also seemed like the translation quality was much lower than during the car ride. Rating: NOT TOTALLY RELIABLE / SEMI USEFUL.--------------------Maybe Chinese is difficult for machine translation. Maybe other languages work better. (The W4 does get better reviews from many other customers... so maybe it works better in other scenarios)Final verdict: RETURN FOR CREDIT since the product did not work reliably.