PenPower WorldPenScan Wi-Fi | OCR Pen Scanner | Reader Mode | Text to Speech for Dyslexia | Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iOS & Android

The build quality on this unit seems pretty good. I was excited to get started because I have some books that I always wanted to translate. I was under the mistaken impression you could just use the pen if you wanted to, but you cannot. You must attach a computer or a smart phone to this. Here’s the problem, you can’t connect it if you’re not near a network. So the only place I can use this is when I don’t really need it. When I’m outside reading a book I can’t use it because there’s not a Wi-Fi router around. I cannot connect to the pen. If I’m at home I have plenty of resources, I don’t need the pen. I was really excited to get this portable device that now I find I can’t really use without a device that would mean I don’t need the pen. If you have your phone you can just scan the whole page and OCR it and translate if you need to. But if you don’t have Wi-Fi, you can’t use the pen. And if I have Wi-Fi I don’t really need the pen. It’s a little difficult to move it directly over the lines of text. You have to go slowly and smoothly and keep up the same speed, but it does work. It’s just a lot easier to take a picture so I think we have a device that just duplicates functionality you already have. I thought I was getting the version that didn’t need to connect to a computer, but my review reflects the experience with this device. And it seems like this device is mostly superfluous.

i have this scanner pen for a week and use it regularly. it reads aloud/mute or save to a text file after scan. i purchased this scanner for education. it works very well with ChatGPT.

This looked useful to get quotes from books and such entered without having to type them longhand. Taking it out of the box it felt really solid and well made. The next step was to hook it up to my local wi-fi network. Typing the password in on the touch oled screen was a little challenging as I have large hands and fingers, but I did it and it hooked right up. Then I opened the web app and it worked with no muss or fuss. Theres also a Windows App for using it locally that isnt as full featured, but for basic text entry is fine. It also works well with my iPad. I didnt find it hard to scan what I wanted after a short bit of practice. I suspect now that I have it, it will find a lot more use than I thought it would have. A nice niche device.