Customer Reviews

Nyrius Global ENTOURAGE7 Talking Travel Translator for 7 International Languages

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

You really cannot beat the value for the price. Similar models in the same price range do not work as well as this one based on my personal comparisons done at a store. My favorite is the top of the line Franklin but at $100+ this one will do just fine for the casual traveler.

It sticks to 7 languages ( English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese) instead of the 12 some similar models offer. It certainly is small enough to make it easy to carry around. The talking function is great when you are not sure of pronunciation and the best feature. The intuitive keypad makes it a breeze to use without instructions over the higher end models. It also has a backlit screen for easy night viewing. Another plus is pretty good translations since the German and French phrases were tested and found to be accurate. They even include features I have never used (alarm and ability to make a contact list) that make it look like they thought of everything.

Know that this pocket translator just provides common phrases. They are organized under 8 categories (directions, restaurants, transport, hotel, general speech, emergency, entertainment and sightseeing) for quick picks and great for BASIC communication. It does not provide a word for word translation so if that is what you need, then stick to more detailed phrase books or high end translators. There are 4900 phrases included and it has managed to get my point across whenever I used it. The only problem - it cannot translate back. As long as the answers can be gestured or drawn down on paper, you are good to go.

Bottom line, it can easily replace the small phrase books and provides the extra bonus of speaking the phrases for you. Instead of taking a couple of phrase books (if you are going to more then one place on your vacation like a cruise) - then this little gem will become your best friend.

I was excited to try out this item since it has Mandarin Chinese. I've been teaching myself Chinese for a year and try to practice by going to the Chinatown in Flushing NY, where Mandarin is the predominant tongue (as opposed to Cantonese in most other Chinatowns).

The heart of this translation unit is a set of pre-programmed phrases geared toward the casual short-term visitor. There are dedicated buttons for categories such as restaurants, transportation, etc. Within each category is about a dozen or two phrases that may or may not prove helpful to you. A bonus is that it will pronounce the phrases via the built in speaker (3 volume levels) or headphone jack.

The main disadvantage of this unit is that you're limited to whatever phrases the programmers decided to include. Some phrases are certainly helpful, such as asking for the bill, making reservations and asking directions. However, many phrases are completely useless from a culture-specific view. Sure, asking what type of cheeses are available is appropriate in Italy or France, but very out of place in China (where they abhor cheese). They could have easily changed the cheeses to tofus and it would have been more relevant. This was a major disappointment for me because I felt like they did not do any research into what phrases might actually be useful to translate into Chinese. They basically picked a set of "universal" phrases and used them for all the languages. The same comments apply to the Japanese phrase pack as well - though they do tend to eat a little bit of cheese.

Frankly, even when using the phrases in one of the Romance languages, they are rather boring. No, I'd rather not ask what type of typical American dishes are served when traveling to a foreign nation. Those types of travelers can go to a McDonald's just about anywhere in the world and do fine without a translator.

The thing I liked the most about this unit was the Chinese pronunciations. I thought they were spot-on and incredibly helpful for a complex tonal language. As a beginner, I find myself hitting the "talk" button frequently so that I can pay close attention to the tones. It's the next best thing to having a native speaker friend who is willing to repeatedly pronounce the same stupid word for you. Most of the restaurants I visit in Flushing don't have English-speaking staff. With this unit, I can pick a phrase (from the limited choices) and play it to them instead of butchering it myself. That's the coolest thing ever, especially when they smile back because they've completely understood you. It breaks the ice.

Unfortunately, I can't give similar praise to the Japanese pronunciations. Most of the phrases sound like they're spoken by a native Chinese speaker struggling to pronounce Japanese. It makes the Japanese sound very harsh and syncopated. What was a shocker to me was that many of the English words have not been translated to Japanese. Rather, they pretend to have translated it to Japanese, but it is still the same English word. Someone got super lazy. For instance, the Japanese pronunciation of "sparkling wine" is "spaaaa-ARC-kay-ling viiiNE." Are you seriously kidding me? It sounds like a native Chinese-speaking robot.

I did not bother to test out the German or Romance languages extensively. The pronunciations in them sound a bit better and the list of phrases are definitely designed for visitors to the Euro countries.

By the way, the interface is pretty lame. I don't mind the low res text, but the phrases scroll painfully slowly. The buttons are not intuitive. I still haven't figured out how to set the time on this unit. It's rather aggravating to use.

Several years ago, I spent a couple of months working in Paris. I was a non-French speaker. What I would have given for the Nyrius Talking Translator!

Nyrius has programmed in almost 5000 phrases to help you communicate in a variety of situations. You can ask about costs and prices, schedule excursions and side trips, go to the theater, book a hotel, understand a menu and order a meal, and buy tickets for boats, planes, or any other mode of transportation you might require. It's all in there.

The most entertaining phrases ("I would like to speak to a lawyer" or "I would like to speak to a woman.") require that you are able to converse more fluently and understand the reply of a native speaker, so it helps to have at least minimal familiarity with the language before you go. Nevertheless, this tiny translator will help you speak so it can be understood. Just listen to the spoken words as you read the translated sentence. Repeat what you've heard, and you're able to communicate at a rudimentary level.

Nyrius makes three versions of their translators, all surprisingly inexpensive. The one I have includes seven languages:

English
French
Spanish
German
Mandarin Chinese
Italian
Japanese

You choose your native language from the list and the language you want translated. The translator will speak a phrase you choose in your native language and in the language you want translated, so you don't even have to say the phrase yourself.

Power is provided by two lithium batteries. I could not find an estimate on how long these batteries would last an average traveler, so I will take a couple of extras along on any international trip - insurance, you know.

In addition to the translating functions, my Nyrius has an alarm clock, a light to back light the screen, and an address book. That's a lot of features for a translator that's about the size of a package of cigarettes.

What else would I like to see included? A wrist strap so it's not quite so easy to lose would be nice, but in all in all, this translator is a tiny wonder.

I'm impressed. And I can't wait to try it out in China! Good job, Nyrius.

Five stars

This was actually a fun product to review. I speak pretty decent French, mediocre Japanese and pretty poor Mandarin. As such I'll be focusing on those languages since I have experience with them.

This pocket translator is light, fits in your pocket easily and is amazingly cheap. I would call up random words and phrases in each of the languages I know and the French and Japanese were excellent in terms of enunciation and pronunciation. The Mandarin was a bit weak but that's because Mandarin uses four Different tones for each syllable and the dialogue recorded into the translator sometimes doesn't use the appropriate tone. A fun example of this is the word in Mandarin for mother, "Ma." Ma spoken in the first tone is mother, but the translator speaks it in the third tone, so it's actually saying, "horse." You can probably imagine the incidents that will occur if you use this to talk for you overseas.

I'm still a bit mystified at how cheap this translator is. Most translators that offer this many languages and these functions go for around $100. At $29.99, this a great purchase for those of you who spend a lot of time abroad in Europe or the Orient. Even the best might forget a key word or phrase that ends up being essential to a conversation. That's where this comes in. As the Nyrius Global actually speaks the phrase you plugged in, native speakers will be able to understand exactly what you're looking for, within reason of course. This also makes this device a necessity to those of you who don't speak a foreign language or have poor pronunciation techniques. I'm not saying you should have this machine speak for you when ever you are dealing with the residents of the country in question, but this will help you at times, and with repeated usage, you can pick up a few importance words and phrases to use when abroad. I can't emphasize enough how just trying to speak a foreign tongue in its home country can help dispel the "Ugly American" Stereotype. A little sign of respect goes a long way.

For those in need of technical bits, the translator boasts 705 phrases that you can call up by number or by browsing through various categories. You can turn the backlight on and off to make reading easier or to conserve battery power respectively. You can set the target language to whatever you want so you can, for example, hand the translator over to an Italian when abroad and they can ask or answer you with it as well. One of my favorite features is the abilities to save your preferred phrases. This way you can quickly access them for an easier attempt at conversation.

Overall, I highly recommend this translator to anyone going abroad. There are hundreds of uses for this and there are times in my past where having something like this would have been a boon. By no means should this be a replacement to learning another language, but it will help you when travelling throughout Eurasia, and that's what is important.

This travel translator exceeded my expectations. It has all the phrases you would want for an average tourist. It is extremely user friendly. The translator is easy to hear and understand the translation as it is spoken. I did extensive research on talking translators and this one is the best value out there. I would highly recommend this travel translator to anyone travelling that knows nothing about the native language of the country they are visiting.

Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
*** Somewhat recommended, with reservations and only lukewarm fuzzies.

This device is just too much of an all-in-one compromise. While it does offer more phrases than are usually presented in most travel books, it lacks the completeness and flexibility of a dedicated travel dictionary. At best, you have the ability to speak some commonly used canned and pre-rehearsed phrases to people in a foreign country. At worst, you may look like a dork holding the device up to someone, only to become thoroughly puzzled when they, in trying to be helpful, reply back to you with several sentences that you do not understand.

In all major cities of the countries represented by the 6 cross-translated languages in this device, you can usually find someone who can understand some English. The problem arises, especially in China, when you travel to smaller towns where the likelihood of finding no one who understands any English increases. In such a situation, your best bet is to learn some of the native language using language books and CDs before you travel and bring those language aids along when you travel. A device like this would mainly be handy as a communication aid of last resort. A great concept... But because it only accommodates pronunciation of pre-packaged phrases, and does not allow typing in of words or phrases, it is of limited use in actual scenarios of trying to communicate with someone.


***** Excellent 5-fuzzies feature ratings:

***** The unit is small and lightweight.

***** Its cost is not that expensive; it is cheaper than buying phrase books in 6 different languages.

***** It includes hundreds of common phrases organized into eight conversational categories. It lets you save frequently used phrases for quicker access.

***** The backlit LCD screen lets you see the translator in dark environments.

***** It includes a password-protected electronic address book, world time display, and built-in alarm clock to extend its usefulness.


**** Good 4-fuzzies feature ratings:

**** I am always pleased with electronic devices that include two lithium batteries in the package instead of a lame "batteries not included" statement.


*** Not-so-good 3-fuzzies feature ratings:

*** As someone who speaks German, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese, I found that the sound quality was fairly good when headphones are plugged into the headphone jack. But the built-in speaker tended to muffle some of the pronunciations, which is particularly problematic with languages like Mandarin Chinese, where slight subtle differences in the intonation and inflection of the pronunciation can result in huge, sometimes embarrassing, differences in meaning. (For example, by saying "ma" with 4 different tonal inflections to mean "mother", "scold", "hemp", and "horse", you could conceivably be saying either "Mother scold hemp horse." or "Horse scold hemp mother." or "Horse mother scold hemp.", thus providing much entertainment for the locals in China.) And this device does not translate for Cantonese, which is another common, and quite different, dialect of Chinese.


** Bad 2-fuzzies feature ratings:

** There were various errors in the translations of both Spanish and Japanese. Overall, the European languages were rendered far better than the two Asian languages.

** Probably in the interest of keeping the unit small and compact, the ergonomics of the unit are unwieldy and very cumbersome. If you were standing in the presence of a foreigner who did not understand a speck of English, to actually hold the unit in your hand and start to use the device to communicate something requires way too much button-pressing and, hopefully, lots of patience between both you and the foreigner during the amusing periods of silence while you press lots of buttons. The small LCD screen requires you to press buttons to scroll through most sentences. Unless you already had a phrase previously saved to your "favorites" list, navigating around the categories in search of a suitable phrase requires lots of button presses. And then by the time that you do actually find the appropriate phrase to use and hold the device up to the foreigner for him to listen to, if he really cannot speak any English at all, what will you do next when he speaks a reply of several incomprehensible sentences in his native language back to you?

** The Product Description for this talking translator mentions:

"Being able to hear and see the phrases will help you blend in with the locals so you don't look like a tourist."

But, trust me, if you are standing in a hotel, store, restaurant, or street of a foreign country holding this in your hand, you WILL look like a tourist just as much as someone who holds a language dictionary and phrase book in their hand.

The Product Description also mentions:

"Don't waste valuable time or luggage space if you're going on the trip of a lifetime or traveling on important business."

Again, if you are going on a "trip of a lifetime" or traveling on important business, you WILL need the ability to communicate far beyond the phrases that this device offers.


Fuzzy Wuzzy's Conclusion:

With the current state of the technology, *ALL* of the talking 1-way or 2-way multilingual translators that are currently available on the market right now are only marginally useful at best, and gimmicky complete wastes of money at worst. Some of the electronic translators that only specialize in just one language are a bit better. But any electronic dictionary or talking translator that tries to cover multiple languages is severely limited and compromised in what it can achieve. And when you try to use these electronic devices in actual in-person conversations with a foreign person standing in front of you, they really do not work at all. You would be FAR better off with a foreign language phrase book or practicing and learning with language tapes/CDs/software before you attempt to talk to people in a foreign language.

The unit comes with two instruction sheets, one for travel-related phrases, and the other for operating instructions. On first use, when you pull the small plastic strip from the battery compartment, the unit is turned on. There is a power switch and the unit automatically turns itself off when idle for more than five minutes...always a plus when it comes to battery life.

The stored phrases (705 in all, or a total of 4935 once all seven languages are taken into account) are broken down into the following categories: General Speech, Emergency & Medicine, Shopping & Entertainment, Sightseeing, Immigration & Directions, Restaurants, Transport, and Hotel & Accomodation. This product is designed for "survival" and conversational speech, so what you will find here are the most commonly used phrases.

Before using, you set the "home" and "target" languages, which can easily be changed. The choices are English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish and German. There is a "Home" button on the left, and a "translate" button on the right. Using the keypad, you navigate through the categories (which are convenient buttons on the face of the unit) and phrases (which are displayed after you press a button). You can have the "home" language and "target" languages displayed in the LCD readout, and you can also have them spoken for you. The sound from the unit is clear, so you have the choice of listening to the spoken phrase and repeating it, or...if you're feeling self-conscious or simply in a hurry, you can press the "Translate" button and have the unit speak directly to the person you are trying to communicate with. I found it helpful to have the phrase spoken several times while I read the words in the display.

It is very lightweight and fits easily in a pocket, purse, etc. Depending upon how you feel about scratches to the display and the face of the unit, you may wish to shop around for a generic, protective iPod case that fits.

There's a headphone jack, so you could use the unit for a "cram session" as a passenger on your way to a destination (no, don't do it if you're driving). There is a backlight switch (a wonderful addition). You can save and quickly recall frequently used sentences. There is a world clock, an alarm, and a phone / address book. In short, this little unit is feature-packed and an excellent value for the price. I was actually quite surprised...my tendency would be to have very low expectations of a product like this, especially in its price class, but Nyrius deserves accolades for offering a translator that is useful and user-friendly. I highly recommend it.

This item functions as describe BUT you better bring a ton of BATTERIES with you it eats them. If you use the backlight 15 min. or less is all it will give you. With out the backlight its VERY hard to see. The only thing I found it usefull for was an alarm clock.

Before I got this, I never really knew there was such a device to help you deal with on-demand foreign language translation. This is one heck of a little invention for just such a purpose. It is light and compact, easily slides in your pocket or purse. The controls are very intuitive, not a lot of learning curve to figure out. I like the fact that it is applicable to 7 languages--those likely you would use if you travel to Europe or Asia. Although the database is limited to basic communication terminologies, I like the fact that it "talks" and it is more than enough to get you thru the hassles of those moments when you need to get thru or be understood. The little LCD screen (it is back-lighted by the way) instantly connects you with the translation that you need. It is a must-have tool if you are traveling to foreign countries where the languages are covered by this translator. Nifty little talking device that is more accessible than trying to read and pronouce words from an in-country language guide. The only thing that I found fault with this device (but is actually negligible) is the type of batteries that they used, it is a CR 2025 lithium battery. It would have been a snap if it uses the universally available AAA battery. But other than that, I still gave it 5-stars for its functionality (did I mention it also tells world time), portability, ease of use and just plain unique (to whoever invented this device). Highly recommended!

I handed this translator to couple girls in a Starbucks and asked them, if they could figure out what it was and how it worked. It took the first girl two minutes, the second beat her by thirty seconds. I did that because I found the words above the keys to be so small as to be unreadable. They might as well not be there. But I guess you don't need them, because after five minutes they had the whole thing figured out. They were good to go.

Me, I spent time fumbling with the directions, going through the written phrases (included with the directions). But I guess I should have just jumped right in like they did.

So, would I ever use this when traveling? Probably not, but I'd certainly use it before I left, playing and memorizing the very useful phrases. Heck, I'm using it now, memorizing words and sentences and I'm not planning a trip to anywhere, but learning a few Japanese and Mandarin phrases, how cool is that?