Pocketalk - review

Pocketalk is effective and good fun too. Fairly complex, lengthy sentences are translated quickly and - for the most part - naturally. For travellers taking to the road around the world, it could provide a lifeline - and will certainly help you make friends.

Of course you could download an app onto your smartphone but that would mean passing it back and forth, a risk few would take with a stranger, perhaps when asking for directions in a city. You’d risk losing your phone complete with ticket home, contact details and so on, whereas with a translation device, its loss wouldn’t be such a disaster, and it would be less attractive to run off with, in the first place.

Pocketalk uses Wi-Fi, mobile data or a personal hotspot to connect to the internet and provide accurate translations. It has dedicated dual noise-cancelling microphones to pick out words in noisy environment - and it avoids running your phone’s battery down, too. Pocketalk has around seven hours of battery life while being used intermittently or around five hours in constant use. The device can be placed into sleep mode to preserve up to 10 days battery life.

Its touchscreen is slightly fiddly (especially to input wi-fi codes) but the general text can be enlarged and – after initial setup and choosing a language - the device is operated mostly by the two large buttons.

It is available in white, black and gold, on Amazon with a two-year global sim for £259. Pocketalk have not yet said how much it will cost to renew the sim after two years, although owners will also be able to use their own sim, or rely on wi-fi.