Travel can offer adventure, escape and relaxation for even the most tightly wound workaholic, but a language barrier can add stress back into the equation. A good electronic translator can help remove that barrier or at least give you a look at the other side by putting the most useful foreign phrases at your fingertips.
The biggest problem facing today's pocket translators is the fact that, well, there's an application for that. Not everyone has a smartphone, however, and not everyone with an upscale phone wants to take it every single place they go. Also, you may be in and out of coverage areas on your most adventurous vacations, and some apps only operate at their best when they are online.
Excellent portable word speaking translators offer a wide range of languages and features in one small device. It may take an unmanageable number of apps that may be hard to cross-reference to handle the same tasks that the best electronic translators handle. The best electronic translator comparisons and reviews show that the best electronic translators can become command central for your vacation, helping you communicate with others and stay organized throughout your journey.
Our favorite electronic translators, the Franklin Speaking Global Translator, Lingo Voyager 6 and ECTACO 500 AL, become good travelling companions that make your vacations more enjoyable and safe. For more information, take a look at our articles about electronic translators.
The best electronic translators offer speedy translations for commonly used phrases in a wide range of languages like "where is the train station?" or "can you bring me my check?" These translators make commonly used phrases easy to find with logical menus, easy-to-read screens and big databases. The best electronic translator devices include recorded human voices that pronounce the translated phrase for you so you can learn new languages or at the very least communicate effectively when travelling abroad. We especially like the electronic translators that add extra features to make your journey more pleasant, like built-in currency converters, calculators and alarm clocks.
More specifically, we used the following criteria to evaluate the electronic translators featured in our review:
Features
We looked for electronic translators that offer a good selection of languages and many phrases and words in each one. These units should be able to get you through many, many journeys to diverse locations. Our favorite devices can literally act as a translator, playing a human voice recording of any phrase you can find aloud, in any language you specify.
We like units that go beyond translation to help you progress in a second language by allowing you to translate to and from a target language, organize vocabulary lists and more. These pocket translators should also be lightweight and have high-quality screens that are easy to read.
Travel Features
The best pocket translators offer a host of features to make your travels pleasant. They offer calendars, an alarm clock and even games to help you pass the time on a train. These devices offer fast conversions between different systems of measurement and currency conversions. They combine all the things that a savvy traveler will want to have in one place.
Accessories
We prefer electronic dictionaries that come with everything you will need to get started – carrying cases for protecting your investment, headphones or earbuds, and batteries.
Help & Support
The best pocket translators come from companies that stand by their products by making it easy to access customer support. These companies will offer online access to product manuals and many ways to contact them with further questions.
The right electronic translator can do the talking for you and help you travel with confidence. You will be able to find your way around any city in the world with your tiny-but-trusty translator. Bon voyage!
At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™
| Rank | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 |
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Franklin Speaking Global EST-7014 | Lingo Voyager 6 | ECTACO 500AL Multilingual | Lingo eTERPRETER | Franklin Speaking Global EST-5014 | ECTACO Partner XL-1500 Multilingual | Lingo Global Traveler | Lingo World Traveler | Nyrius Global Talking | Franklin Speaking EST-3012 |
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Lowest Price |
$165.00 |
$199.99 |
$103.64 |
$239.99 |
$134.99 |
$94.03 |
$45.00 |
$69.96 |
$39.99 |
$37.02 |
| Ratings | 9.23 | 8.65 | 7.65 | 7.48 | 6.60 | 6.38 | 6.03 | 5.60 | 5.08 | 5.03 |
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| Language Features | ||||||||||
| Languages | 14 | 14 | 49 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 44 | 12 | 12 |
| Words/Phrases | 2.5 million | 886,000 | 514,000 | 780,000 | 21,000 | 3,398,000 | 440,000 | 980,000 | 9,100 | 3,250 |
| Weight (ounces) | 4.6 | 8 | 7.4 | 8 | 4 | 16 | 8 | 4.5 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
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| Games | none | 8 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | none | none | 2 |
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