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Langogo Summit AI pocket translator review: Quick and accurate translation and transcription from a compact device
Langogo Summit AI translator
pros and cons
- Accurate OCR
- Long battery life
- Rapid translation and transcription
- Confusing subscription options
I looked at an earlier version of the Langogo pocket translator in 2019 and was blown away by its features. Now, the new Langogo Summit translator has added features that make it an indispensable aid for any traveler.
The Langogo Summit AI Language Translator will provide two-way translation across 104 languages making it easy and quick to have an almost real time conversation with someone speaking another language.
It uses 24 translation engines to get the best accuracy possible -- even translating across different accents.
Languages with only text output include: Azerbaijani, Persian, Gujarati (India), Armenian (United States), Icelandic, Georgian, Kannada, Lao, Lithuanian, Latvian, Serbian, Swahili, Urdu, and Zulu.
It supports 9 system languages: Chinese(Traditional), Chinese(Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Thai
The Summit has a lot of interesting features. It will translate voice to voice on-the-go and transcribe voice to text almost immediately.
The voice to text feature uses four onmi-directional microphones to capture the sound from any angle. You can choose whether to use a female or male voice for language output.
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It will act as an interpreter so you can listen to a conference in another language, whilst reading the transcribed text -- and it will pair using Bluetooth to your TWS earphones for simultaneous translation.
You can take a photo of an image with its 8MP OCR camera and it will translate the words from 46 languages so you can understand the menu options. I took an image of the Chinese part of the user guide which worked well.
Translation will operate over Wi-Fi, or you can use a local SIM so that you can access its features whilst out of Wi-Fi range. It will also transcribe the conversation and store the text in the cloud, or synchronize them to your Google Calendar if you wish.
It will transcribe text within five minutes, produce the complete transcript of a conversation within five hours and will record up to four hours of continuous conversation. You can use the speech translation to get continuous subtitles in the original and transcribed languages.
Langogo has squeezed a lot into the Summit's form. Its dimensions are 4.73 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches and it weighs 10.8 ounces. Its screen is a 4.0 inch IPS display with good screen to body ratio.
It has 32GB of internal storage giving up to 226 hours of translation stored. There is a further 500 hours of cloud storage which will transcribe with higher accuracy
It has a high capacity 3,250mAh battery squeezed into its compact form factor which will deliver five hours of operation before you need to charge it. Pair it up with a long lasting portable battery charger to maximize your translation time.
For the first year, you can get free minutes on your eSIM data plan which will transcribe 3000 minutes per month, 500 hours of cloud storage, and 120 minutes per month.
After the first year's subscription you can pay $3.58 per month to connect to the onboard eSIM for the translation data plan. If you need transcription VIP service this is a further $5.99 per month after the first year of use.
However, the subscription options are confusing. You do not have to pay for this translation data pack as the Summit will work perfectly well with a data SIM, or over Wi-Fi.
The Langogo Summit is simple to use. Select which feature you want, and press to talk. You can set a password on its screen lock to prevent disclosure of conversation information. You can also change the text size to make reading the transcribed notes easier.
I found the Langogo Summit a joy to use -- and it was fast in translation. I tested it across a range of foreign language videos with subtitles so I could check its accuracy.
I was very impressed with both its accuracy and its time to respond. I loved its form factor and its impressive battery life.
The Langogo Summit AI translator is pricey at $399 -- but you can get a discount if you use code: ZDNET10XM (available until 2021/2/28). If you regularly need translation services, the Langogo Summit is certainly the device you need on your travels around the world.