Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds
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The Specs
- Battery: 50mAh
- Continuous Translation Time: 3h
- Standby Time: 720h
- Charging Time: 1.5h
- Battery Charging: USB Type-C
- Connection: Via Bluetooth
- Smart Sentence Segmentation: RNNVAD (Recurrent Neural Network Voice Activity Detection）
- Mobile System Compatibility: Android 7.0 / iOS 12.0 and above
- Bluetooth Requirement: Bluetooth 5.0
- Languages Supported: 40 (with 93 accents)
What’s in the Box?
- Timekettle WT2 Edge Translator Earbuds
- USB-C Charging Cable
- 1 x pair of ear clips
- 2 x pairs of silicone in-ear rubber tips
- Quick Start Guide
First Impressions
Out of the box, the build quality of the Timekettle WT2 Edge is awesome.
The attention to detail in the packaging is great and the nice, slender, and smooth pebble design of the casing is attractive, plus it would be easy to slip these in your pocket while you’re out and about.
The packaging and instructions that come with the unit are also excellent and a real cut above other device makers who are outputting similar hardware.
My initial impression of the WT2 Edge was really good. The fit in the ear isn’t the same with earphones but I don’t think that’s the intention here.
The idea is that you still have a good spill of external audio coming into both your ears in addition to the translation.
So I think they’ve probably intentionally designed these to be a little bit lose in the ear so that you can hear everything that’s going on around you and not just the translation.
I had different expectations about the WT2 Edge than I’ve had on other Timekettle products that I’ve reviewed, just because of the price. And that expectation is they’d be an even better-performing unit than the M3.
Translation Modes
Like the M3 and the T1, there are multiple translation modes on the Timekettle WT2 Edge, which can be used in different ways.
The first is Simultaneous Mode, which is when you give the right earbud to the person you’re speaking to and set the translation languages for each of the earbuds.
When they speak, it automatically translates into your ear, and when you speak, it automatically translates into their ear.
I didn’t find this to be real-time.
It was good and I could certainly piece together enough of the conversation to have a decent conversation, but I found a bit of a delay between them speaking and the translation.
On one hand, this could be frustrating because you’d like to hear them as quickly as possible. On the other hand, it was quite nice not having to listen to them and the translation at the same time.
I certainly managed to have a decent conversation with people speaking foreign languages but there were some pauses in the conversation, and I wouldn’t say that it was entirely in real-time.
Would it be enough to get through a meeting with someone? Absolutely.
Would it be enough to improve communication in a multilingual household? Yes, it would although the translation isn’t always 100% accurate. It gets you definitely close enough to be able to understand and communicate.
And if I were married to a foreign language partner or lived in a multilingual flat, then this would be a pretty cool addition to being more involved in the room for the conversations.
The second mode is Touch Mode. Again, you wear one earbud, pass the other earbud to another person, and then you select which language each earbud represents.
Then instead of it being simultaneous, you can tap your earbud when you’re ready to talk, and then you’ll talk, and it’ll beep when it has started to translate it to the other person.
The other person will hear what you’re saying, and if you’d like to reply, you can then tap the side of your earbud and hear the beep to talk and translate.
The little beep before you start speaking is nice, as it gives you confirmation that the earbud has received the touch and is now listening to your translation.
This mode would be suitable where there’s a bit more noise around, and you only want to translate when you have something to say.
Speaker Mode is where you’d have the earbuds in your ear and use the phone for the person to speak into.
This way, the phone becomes a microphone for them, and then that would translate into your ears.
When you speak, the phone will translate back to them using the phone and the text display on your phone. This is great for just asking for directions or something similar.
This is very much how I was using the M3 Timekettle model.
Listen Mode is where the phone would be placed near the speaker, and you’d wear the earbuds to translate what they’re saying.
This is more suitable when you’re simply listening to someone speak without having a two-way conversation. This mode is something that you could try when watching television.