Acer's been pulling out all the stops at Computex 2025, and not just with its sweep of all-new laptops. It revealed an all-new pair of earbuds, but these aren't the kind you listen to music on. Instead, they break down language barriers — and I got to have a full-blown conversation in a different language.
The Acer AI TransBuds offer real-time translation through earbuds, using AI-based speech recognition and semantic analysis, so you can have a two-way conversation in two completely different languages and know what the other is saying.
And there's no overly long, awkward delay, either. That's a key reason why I tend to shy away from other translating platforms, as the stall in conversation can turn into a, well, buzzkill. After trying Acer's AI TransBuds, though, it was more of a helpful, natural flow.
Translations in languages have been a way for AI to show off its smarts, with everything from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra being a live interpreter, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses offering its own Live Translation feature and, of course, the ol' reliable Google Translate.
It's not like there aren't other earbuds offering translation, with the Viaim RecDot and Timekettle X1 AI Interpreter Hub offering up to 40 languages to translate and 93 accents. But this doesn't quite reach real-time translation, and it suffers from some inaccuracies.
With the Acer AI TransBuds? Those don't seem to be issues.
Acer AI TransBuds specs
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Acer AI TransBuds |
Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.4 / USB-C receiver |
Battery | 50mAh (earbuds) / 400mAh (Charging Box) |
Supported languages | DE/ EN/ES/FR/FIL/IT/ID/JA/KO/MS/PT/RU/TH/VI/ZH |
Size | 0.64 x 1.4 x 1.6 inches |
Weight | 2.2 ounces |
Smooth chats
Acer's TransBuds support 15 major languages spoken across Asia, the Americas and Europe. That includes French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and others, but during the brief demo, it's English and Mandarin that came in handy.
I'm in a unique position of having learnt Mandarin growing up (a lot of it is lost on me now, sadly), meaning I can pick up on a few phrases and understand how they translate to English — the simple stuff, keep in mind.
That very much came in handy when testing these earbuds out. They work via a plug-in USB-C receiver that can be used in a smartphone or tablet, where an app will give you the option of translating your languages of choice.
I wore the earbuds to have a chat with an Acer representative, who could speak English and Mandarin fluently. The TransBuds sit comfortably on my ears thanks to the earhooks, rather than being fitted in-ears. In a crowded space, outside noise can be a tad distracting, but they were plenty loud enough for me to still hear translations.
Anyway, the representative tested out its translation ability by giving me a call on his phone, walking off, but still being in earshot so I could hear what he was saying in Mandarin.
Admittedly, there were some connection issues due to the signal in the room being atrocious at first. But once it fired up, I could hear full translations in English of everything he said.
This is done through an AI voice, which sounded natural enough. More importantly, I found that the translation was accurate. I could hear the representative ask, "today's weather is very good" in Mandarin, and that's exactly the translation I got in English through the earbuds.
I could also hear him say "Can you hear me?" and "I thought you said you studied Korean, but you don't, so we won't try that," in Mandarin, and again, that's what I heard in English. Even when speaking in English at the other end of the line, he could fully understand what I said when it got back to him in Mandarin.
And it was a pretty smooth conversation that didn't require all that much stalling to come through.
Interestingly, he didn't need a pair of the TransBuds himself to get my translations, as you only need the one pair for it to work in a two-way conversation. Handy, right?
Next-gen communication?
The speediness of the AI being used in Acer's earbuds is impressive, and I can see why the company is aiming for buyers to use these for business meetings, livestreams or online study sessions.
The AI TransBuds present many use cases for multilingual conversations, and from what I could tell, real-time translation with these on is fairly snappy and accurate. But they also offer live captioning and transcription that can be seen on the connected smartphone or tablet, meaning you can record conversations and check them out later on.
While I didn't get any word on pricing (many products at Computex 2025 only have estimated costs right now due to the current state of trade) or availability, the Acer AI TransBuds are sure to be useful earbuds for education, work or simply traveling.
Depending on how much these will cost, the Acer AI TransBuds could be a handy set of earbuds to have in your pocket while going abroad (but for listening to music, probably stick with one of the best wireless earbuds instead).
More from Tom's Guide
- I wish I’d known about these Google Translate features before I went on vacation
- These AI powered earbuds pack a secret — you can record and translate speech
- I just went hands-on with the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI — this gaming laptop was made for me
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