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The device has no moving parts, just a 3.5-inch touchscreen covering its face and a few buttons on each side. This includes power and volume buttons, and the now-standard pair of ‘Talk’ buttons – one for recognizing your partner’s voice and the other for your own. However, in many modes, you will not need to use them. Like most portable translators, the unit includes a 4G SIM card pre-loaded giving it almost universal ease of use. (Vasco says it operates in “nearly 200 countries,” which is a lot, as there are only 195 that are widely recognized today.) 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi are also available when you’re in range of a hotspot or at a hotel.
The 2500 mAh battery is charged via USB-C. Vasco claims that the Q1 offers “many hours of intense use” and up to 160 hours in standby mode – though note that the battery will drain faster than you might expect even when idle. The “several hours” in my testing was less than eight hours, but the 160-hour standby metric was nearly accurate.
Language support is solid, but details vary based on how you use the device. As for voice translation, it supports 86 languages. For text translation, that works out to 108. Surprisingly, image-based translations work with 113 languages. Finally, real-time call translation supports only 53 languages. I’ll get to each one of them in a moment.
After a quick setup, the Q1 takes you to a clear interface that combines its six functions, one on top of the other. In addition to the four modes mentioned above, the system offers a group chat feature that can support up to 100 participants in their own languages, and a basic learning mode that simply quizzes you on vocabulary, Duolingo style.
Chatty Cathy
Photo: Chris Noll
Most users will likely spend the bulk of their time in chat mode, allowing you to have a one-on-one audio discussion with a real-life partner, each one in the language of your choice. As is common for portable translators, holding down one of two buttons—either the pair on the side mentioned earlier or another pair that appears on the touchscreen—allows you to tell the Q1 who’s speaking.