Scanmarker Air doesn’t need much to run properly, essentially just needing the ability to support bluetooth. We found the Scanmarker’s app to be pretty straightforward and well laid out. It wasn’t confusing or hard to use at all, you simply scroll down to find things to adjust and tweak. You can, for example, adjust:

On the whole, for the price we would say it does a pretty good job as a read aloud scanning pen. What ages is the Scanmarker Air appropriate for? The Scanmarker Air connects to your home computer by USB or bluetooth (it even comes with a little bluetooth adapter that you plug into your USB port), and connects to a mobile device by bluetooth. On top of the pen scanner, next to the logo, there are two LED lights, one for the showing an active Bluetooth connection (a blue LED), while the other shows the status of the battery (a green LED) and towards the narrow end of the pen, there’s a microUSB port used for charging the device (not type-C). After you remove the cap, there’s a small transparent section which protrudes from the device and, next to it, there’s a small laser (Linear CMOS 128 pixels). Unlike USB connected pen scanners, the ScanMarker Air uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.0) to connect to a computer or a hand-held device and the battery will last up to 10 hours of continuous scanning on a single charge, the battery should last up to 7 hours of low to medium use (if you don’t have the time to let the battery charge up to an optimum level, you can use the provided USB cable and connect directly to your computer). Certain features require internet connection to be available, so you have to be in range of WiFi or 4/5g for:

It is also supported by a number of third party software and services that you might use for work or leisure, such as Word, Excel, Gmail and even Facebook, should you want to quote something to your friends. Memorize and gain a clearer understanding of the scanned material using the read aloud feature – hear the text out loud whilst scanning. This also turns Scanmarker into an effective assistive device used for dyslexia and other disabilities, helping every student achieve academic success. BLUETOOTH CONNNECTIVITY: seamlessly connect to any Android, iOS device and PC or Mac so you can start scanning text in no time AUTO TRANSLATION: instantly scan and translate words or lines of text in over 40 different languages, including English, Austrian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Spanish French, German and more RECHARGEABLE BATTERY: features a rechargeable battery that provides hours of continuous use without the need to frequently charge

The Scanmarker Air can also read and translate text in a variety of languages, supporting about 50 languages as of writing: English, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Russian and more. From Austrian Standard German to Zulu, basically. But the most interesting feature is the Interactive Reading which seems to be able to animate what’s written in certain books. By certain books, I mean those specifically designed for Interactive Reading and at the moment, they’re available just in Mainland China. Furthermore, the optical resolution is 350 DPI, the character size ranges between 6 and 24pt, and the field of view is 0.4 inches (make sure the text you intend to scan is in the centre of the tip before you start the scanning process). Some shortcomings that I could point out are the fact that the ScanMarker Air will have a harder time scanning larger fonts (such as titles with a bigger font style), it skips apostrophes and hyphens (leaves a blank space) and there isn’t a way to delete the freshly scanned words directly from the pen (you have to go into the app and manually remove them). Fortunately, the ScanMarker Air will scan mathematical formulas and handwritten text and add them as an image. The Scanmarker app also gives you two options, scan to the Scanmarker application and scan to external applications. If you choose the latter, you can then scan to a wide variety of supported tools, like Word, Excel, Gmail and Facebook, or send things to the Cloud (Google Drive and iCloud, for example) which is cool and pretty useful if you need to save something for later use. Ease of Scanning TextThe Scanmarker Air is compatible with any application, including Word, Excel, Gmail, Facebook, Outlook, Cloud Drive and more. Text will be scanned wherever you want it to, making it easy to scan and share without needing to type. The device seems sensitive to jitters and users report having to spend time learning to scan with it properly (lining up text in the center of the tip, holding the pen and such), although like us once they learned how they saw fairly good accuracy in scanning.

ULTRA-FAST SCANNING: the Scanmarker Air enters text 30 times faster than typing, saving you valuable note taking time We recommend holding the pen at a steady 60 degrees or so because it is a bit more fidgety than some other, more expensive, brands.Overall, we feel the Scanmarker Air is an affordable and pretty accurate reader pen. If you don’t mind working alongside your computer or mobile device, and don’t mind needing a bit of practice, given the price we think it can represent a good value as an assistive device to students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties. The C-Pen Reader is one of the three available devices from the same manufacturer (the other two being the Exam Reader and the Dictionary Pen, which have a larger library with more languages), all of them sharing the same dimensions and weight (measures 5.3 x 1.3 x 0.7 inches and weighs 1.7 ounces) and the main differentiating design factor is the colour: the case of the C-Pen Reader is all white. Because of the small form-factor, the device can be used by adults, but it is also suitable for children, especially because it is reasonably lightweight and it allows for a comfortable grip even with smaller hands. The Scanmarker Air will read font sizes between 6 and 24 point. This is a pretty wide range of fonts and fairly useful since almost all adult (that usually use size 8-12 fonts) and children’s books (that typically use size 14-16 fonts) will fit inside the scanning area. Doing so is really easy. You simply tap the relevant button in the app, which is quite easy to find in the device settings. Speed

Unfortunately, the Scanmarker air is not a stand alone device in that It does require a computer or mobile device and app to use. The C-Pen Reader follows the same concept as the other pen scanners (it allows you to scan various paragraphs from books or any type of documents and, using the Optical Character Recognition technology, it converts the data and ports it into a digital format, which can later be read or edited), but it’s main audience consists of people that suffer from dyslexia or other types of reading difficulties and for users with visual impairments. I know that some other devices offer the option to take a picture of the math formula, but this is not supported with this pen scanner. As for the battery life, the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 pen scanner will work or about 5 hours if you use it continuously – the charging port is USB-C which is excellent. 4. IRISPen Air 7 To reliably use the Scanmarker Air accurately, we feel your child should be able to do the following: UPDATE 01.08.2023: The Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 has been added to the best pen scanners and digital highlighters list 1. ScanMarker AirWe liked the fact that the Scanmarker Air does let you switch between right and left handed modes. Basically, if selected, it reverses the scanning direction from left-to-right to right-to-left. Towards the top of the IRISPen Air 7, there are two LED lights, one indicates the status of the battery (the LED will blink slowly a green colour when the battery is being charged and, when the battery is almost depleted, the LED will start blinking fast – you can also see the status of the battery in the IRISPen app), while the other shows the Bluetooth connection. At the top, you’ll notice a small piece of plastic that the user can remove to reveal a micro-USB port used for charging the device. If they can do those things, they should be able to use a Scanmaker Air without much issue. Conclusion