How Handheld Translators Work and Why They’re Handy for Travel

Summer is right around the corner. We’re headed out on adventures and bringing our stuff with us. Here are all the tech and tips that WIRED Reviews recommends for your travels.

Hans Christian Andersen once said, “To travel is to live,” and while that’s a romantic notion, he probably wasn’t careening through Gyeongju, South Korea, at midnight in the back of a taxi with a driver who didn’t speak a lick of English.

Today’s world traveler has it awfully easy when it comes to understanding the local lingo, as even a basic modern cell phone app can offer a pretty good translation of common phrases delivered in everything from Abkhaz to Zulu. Type or speak a sentence or two into the app, tap a button, and out it returns in the language of your choice. Tap another button, and your phone can even speak those sentences aloud. It takes a little doing to turn this into a credible two-way conversation—especially if the cab driver isn’t slowing down—but with some patience and good humor, two strangers can engage in a reasonable discussion this way.

Photograph: Christopher Null

Casual travelers merely in need of directions to the farmacia or who want to know exactly what they’re getting into with a plate of kycklingtallrik can get by with a phone and a translation app, and if you’re going to a place with a fairly common tongue, you may not even need an active internet connection if you download the relevant language file for offline use. Google Translate, Apple Translate, or DeepL Translate will all do the job for free, though Google’s product is widely considered the gold standard for cross-language chitchat.

But what if you want to push past translating menus and asking for extra towels, and carry on a conversation with a new friend you met on a trip, or the in-laws who are visiting from halfway across the world? That’s where a handheld translator device can prove invaluable. These pocket-sized digital interpreters can help you seem like a polyglot, even if you don't know simple phrases. I have been testing and reviewing handheld translators for WIRED for five years, and I've developed a keen sense of how a good product should work and which ones I'd recommend.

Handheld translators are exactly that—stand-alone devices that up the ante on language interpretation, and their real value is revealed when you use them for sustained, voice-based conversation. Alongside the spoken word, some have a screen that shows the translation in text, often displaying the other side of the conversation upside down, so you don’t have to constantly pass the device back and forth.

Having a translator in a separate piece of hardware has further advantages. Namely, you can use your phone for something else while you’re talking—like snapping pictures or taking notes, for example—instead of tethering it to a translation app. You may also feel more comfortable handing a less costly stand-alone device to someone you don’t know versus trusting them with your $1,000 smartphone.

Many handheld translators can operate independently, either via Wi-Fi or with preloaded data plans that generally work worldwide. That means you can take one on a global jaunt and have access to interpretation services without having to pony up for an international plan on your smartphone. Better yet, download all the language packs you want before your trip, and you can use a handheld translator in offline mode, even when you’re in the sticks.