VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST441-VP

A close cousin to the more expensive Editors' Choice VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Wi-Fi PDSWF-ST44-VP , the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST441-VP leaves out the Wi-Fi that lets you check scan quality on a smartphone or tablet. However, it adds a one-inch color LCD that shows the image on the scanner itself, which is a lot better than not having any way to see the scan at all. If you like the idea of a completely self-contained wand scanner that can both scan and let you see the results without having to carry anything else with you, it may be your preferred choice.

As with all wand scanners, the PDS-ST441-VP scans without a computer, saving the results in this case directly to a microSD or microSDHC card. Unlike most, it doesn't make you wait until you've moved the files to your computer before you can see the results. Not only does it let you see the scan on its own LCD, it lets you zoom in to 2x, 4x, or 8x size to see details, like whether you can actually read text on a page you just scanned.

The ability to zoom in is a notable improvement compared with, for example, the preview feature on the Pandigital Portable Wand Scanner with Feeder Dock (PanScn09) , which also offers a display, but doesn't let you zoom in. Keep in mind that just having a display on the Pandigital scanner is a big improvement over not having any display at all. That puts even the Pandigital scanner way ahead of much of the competition, and the PDS-ST441-VP way ahead of the PanScn09.

Note that VuPoint Solutions offers the PDS-ST441-VP in several colors, with slightly different model names. The PDS-ST441BU-VP, for example, is blue. Aside from the color, however, all of the ST441 models are identical.

Basics, Setup, and Scanning
As with any wand scanner, the PDS-ST441-VP is highly portable, at 1.1 by 10.1 by 1.2 inches (HWD) and 6.9 ounces, complete with two AA batteries. Like other current-generation VuPoint Solutions wand scanners, it offers a 900 pixel per inch (ppi) optical resolution and comes with Abbyy FineReader 9.0 Sprint, a reasonably capable OCR program. Depending on where you buy the scanner, it may or may not come with a memory card to scan to, so you might want to check with the seller and, if necessary, get a card when you buy the scanner. Fortunately, prices on microSD and microSDHC memory cards are low enough so that won't add much to the cost.

Setup is typical for the breed. Install the two supplied AA batteries and plug in a memory card with a maximum 32GB capacity. Installing FineReader on your computer is optional.

Scanning is absolutely standard for a wand scanner. Start with the scanner at the top or side of a page and then sweep down or across. Rollers on the bottom make it easy to sweep smoothly and evenly in most cases. However, I found it hard to sweep smoothly with 4 by 6 photos, presumably because the photo is thick enough that the part of the scanner that sticks out beyond the width of the photo is suspended above the surface, keeping the rollers from doing their job.

In addition to letting you view your scans, menu choices on the PDS-ST441-VP let you set the scanner resolution to 300, 600, or 900 ppi; set the file format to JPG or image PDF; and set the color mode to color or mono (which translates to grayscale, rather than black and white). Very much worth mention is that the bright, backlit color LCD is easy to read, and the menu choices are mostly self-explanatory.

To scan, you simply choose your settings, press the Scan button, and move the scanner across or down the page. If you move too fast, the Scan status light will change from green to red, so you know you need to rescan without even looking at the result. The only time the light turned red in my tests was when I was scanning at 900 ppi, which requires a slower scan.

Once you've finished scanning, whether one page or several, you can use the menu commands to view a file and zoom in on it. The one-inch LCD shows less of the page than I'd like to see at once when it's zoomed in. However, you can navigate through the image, which lets you make sure that text, for example, is readable across a line, or that at least part of each line is readable as you scroll from the top of the page to the bottom.

Results
The application software that the PDS-ST441-VP comes with makes the scanner suitable for both optical character recognition (OCR) and document management applications. On my tests, it did impressively well with both.

On our standard OCR tests, using the scanner's default 300 ppi for the scans, the combination of the scanner and FineReader Sprint read Times New Roman text at 12 points and Arial text at sizes as small as 8 points without a mistake. At 600 and 900 ppi, it read both fonts at sizes as small at 5 points without a mistake. Just as important for both OCR and document management, although the scanner saves each page as a separate file, FineReader makes it easy to combine multiple pages into a single Word file or searchable PDF file.

Although the scanner doesn't come with photo software, I tried scanning some 4-by-6s just to get a sense of the photo scan capability. As with other wand scanners, the quality isn't terrific. It will give you recognizable images of photos, which can certainly be useful if you're scanning, say, a magazine page with photos, but it's not suitable for much more than that.

The biggest competitor to this scanner is VuPoint's own Wi-Fi wand scanner, the PDSWF-ST44-VP. Both scanners come with the same software, and both have the advantage over most of the competition of letting you see your scans on the spot, while you can rescan if you need to. For anyone who has a smartphone, the Wi-Fi version is the obvious choice, since it will let you see your scans on a bigger screen. For those who don't carry a smartphone, however, or would rather spend a little less, the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST441-VP is a highly attractive alternative.

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