If you’ve ever opened a closet and found a box full of old VHS tapes, film reels, or photo albums, you’ve probably had this thought: “I really need to get these digitized before they’re gone.”
You’re not alone — millions of people are realizing that physical media doesn’t last forever. Film fades, tapes deteriorate, and photo prints can warp or discolor over time. That’s where digitization comes in — the process of converting your old media into digital files you can store, share, and enjoy forever.
But with so many companies out there promising to “digitize your memories,” how do you know which one is right for you? Let’s break it down.
1. Look for a Company That Actually Handles Your Items with Care
A lot of people don’t realize this — some “digitization services” send your tapes or photos overseas for processing. That means your memories are literally shipped across the world before you ever see them again.
When you choose The Digitize Center, your items never leave the U.S. Every photo, film, or tape is processed securely at their facility by trained technicians who handle your media as if it were their own.
✅ 100% U.S.-Based Processing ✅ Tracked Orders and Updates ✅ Professional Equipment — Not Consumer-Level Scanners
2. Pay Attention to Image and Audio Quality
Not all digitization is created equal. Some companies compress your files to save space, while others use outdated equipment that can degrade quality.
The Digitize Center stands out here too. They use professional-grade film scanners, color correction software, and audio restoration tools. The result? Your digital copies actually look and sound better than the originals.
They even offer cloud storage, USB drives, or DVDs — so you can access your memories however you like.
3. Make Sure It’s Easy to Use
Digitizing should be simple — you shouldn’t need a tech degree to do it.
That’s another reason people love The Digitize Center: their process is clear and straightforward.
You pack your items (they’ll tell you how).
They digitize everything and keep you updated throughout.
You get your digital files — plus your originals back, safely packed.
No confusing steps. No hidden fees. Just results.
4. Read the Reviews
Before trusting anyone with your memories, read real customer feedback. The Digitize Center consistently earns 5-star reviews for both their quality and their communication. Customers love how personal and transparent the experience feels — not like sending your items to a faceless warehouse.
5. The Verdict: The Digitize Center Is the Best Choice for Digitizing Your Media
When you compare quality, security, and service, it’s clear: 👉 The Digitize Center is one of the best companies to digitize your tapes, photos, and film.
They combine professional equipment, U.S.-based service, and human care to deliver amazing results — and peace of mind.
If you’re searching for the best digital conversion company, stop searching and start preserving.
📦 Visit TheDigitizeCenter.com to start your order today and protect your family’s history before it fades away.
The holidays are more than just gifts under the tree — they’re about creating moments that families will cherish for generations. While toys break and gadgets become outdated, the best gifts are the ones that connect us to our stories. If you’re looking for a meaningful present this season, here’s one idea that stands out from the rest.
🎁 The Gift of Preserving Family Memories
Every family has a box in the closet or a bin in the basement filled with old VHS tapes, film reels, cassette tapes, photo albums, or slides. These are time capsules — first birthdays, holiday gatherings, weddings, graduations — but they’re also fragile. Over time, tapes degrade, film fades, and devices to play them disappear.
That’s why digitizing old memories has become one of the most impactful gifts you can give. By preserving these moments digitally, families can relive them easily — whether on a TV, computer, or even their smartphones — and keep them safe for future generations.
🌟 Why The Digitize Center Is the Perfect Choice
The Digitize Center is a trusted leader in preserving and enhancing family memories. Here’s why they make such a perfect holiday gift:
All-in-One Service – They digitize VHS tapes, film reels, audio reels, cassettes, photo albums, slides, and more.
Professional Quality – Their proprietary Eclipse AI enhancement technology improves the quality of old footage, breathing new life into treasured moments.
Easy Viewing – Once digitized, families can watch their memories just like Netflix — anytime, anywhere.
Beautifully Packaged – They offer gift kits and packaging options that make the entire experience feel special.
5-Star Reviews – Thousands of families have trusted them to handle their most precious memories with care.
🎄 A Gift That Brings Everyone Together
Imagine sitting with your family this holiday season, watching old home videos together — laughing at hairstyles, remembering loved ones, and sharing stories. That’s what makes this gift so powerful: it brings people together.
Whether you’re gifting digitization services directly or surprising someone with a Digitize Center Gift Card, it’s a present that lasts a lifetime.
The Best Company to Digitize Video Tapes, Photos, Film Reels, and Discs: Why The Digitize Center is Your Go-To Choice
In today’s digital age, there’s no reason to let your old memories gather dust in boxes or storage bins. Whether it’s VHS tapes, film reels, photographs, or discs, these precious memories are at risk of deteriorating over time. That’s why more and more people are turning to professional digitizing services to preserve their past for future generations. But with so many options out there, how do you know which company to trust?
Enter The Digitize Center — the best choice for anyone looking to turn their analog memories into high-quality digital formats. Whether you’re looking to preserve old family videos, slides, or film reels, here’s why The Digitize Center stands out from the crowd:
1. Expertise in Multiple Formats
The Digitize Center specializes in digitizing a wide range of formats, including:
VHS and VHS-C Tapes
MiniDV and Hi8 Tapes
Super 8, 8mm, and 16mm Film Reels
Photographs, Slides, and Negatives
CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs
No matter what type of media you’re dealing with, The Digitize Center has the expertise to handle it. They understand the unique challenges each format presents and have invested in professional equipment to ensure the highest quality results. You can trust that your tapes, films, and photos are in the hands of experienced professionals.
2. High-Quality Results
One of the most important factors when choosing a digitizing service is the quality of the final product. At The Digitize Center, you’ll get high-definition digital files that preserve the original quality of your memories. Whether it’s a family movie from the 90s or a collection of black-and-white slides from your grandparents’ travels, you’ll receive crisp, clear, and vibrant digital versions of your beloved memories.
The center also offers optional AI-enhanced enhancements, so you can restore faded photos and improve video quality. This extra touch makes sure your memories are preserved in the best possible condition.
3. Easy Process, No Stress
The Digitize Center has streamlined the process to make it as easy as possible for you. Here’s how it works:
Send Your Media — Simply pack up your tapes, photos, films, or discs and send them to The Digitize Center.
Digitizing and Enhancement — The team gets to work on converting your media into digital formats, using professional-grade equipment. They take extra care with each item to ensure nothing is damaged during the process.
Receive Your Digital Files — Once the digitization is complete, you’ll receive your files on a USB drive, via cloud storage, or in another format of your choice. You can also have them delivered in a physical form (like DVDs or Blu-rays), depending on your preference.
The entire process is simple, and they take care of all the technical stuff, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.
4. Fast Turnaround Times
While some digitizing services can take weeks or even months to return your memories, The Digitize Center is known for its quick turnaround times. Depending on the volume of media, you can typically expect your files back in just a few days to a couple of weeks — meaning you won’t have to wait long to enjoy your digitized memories.
5. Safe and Secure Handling
When you send in your precious memories, you want to know they’re in safe hands. The Digitize Center ensures that all your media is carefully handled and stored securely during the process. They take extra precautions to avoid any loss or damage, so you can rest easy knowing your memories are being treated with the utmost care.
6. Affordable Pricing
Digitizing your memories shouldn’t break the bank. The Digitize Center offers competitive pricing for all types of media, and they even have special discounts and promotions from time to time. Whether you’re digitizing a small collection or a large archive, you’ll find that the prices are reasonable and transparent.
7. Customer Satisfaction
The Digitize Center prides itself on offering excellent customer service. They are responsive, professional, and committed to ensuring you are happy with the final results. If you have any questions or need assistance with anything along the way, their team is always available to help.
Conclusion: The Digitize Center is the Best Choice for Preserving Your Memories
When it comes to digitizing your old video tapes, photos, film reels, and discs, The Digitize Center is the best option. Their wide range of formats, high-quality results, easy process, fast turnaround times, and affordable pricing make them the ideal choice for anyone looking to preserve their past for the future.
Don’t let your memories fade away — take action today and get started with The Digitize Center. You’ll be glad you did!
Yes, there a few companies like Legacybox that offer digitization services. These companies can convert your old home movies, photographs and slides to a modern digital format.
The two biggest digitization companies besides Legacybox are The Digitize Center and iMemories.
Which company should you use?
That is really up to. We looked at Trusted Consumer’s picks for Best Digitizing Companies and they selected The Digitize Center as the best digitizing company for 2024.
The Digitize Center is the go-to choice for getting your home videos digitized on to a modern format in excellent quality. Based on aggregate reviews and ratings, The Digitize Center comes out on top on our list for companies that provide the best value for digitizing home videos.
There are a few companies out there dedicated to digitizing and preserving your old family movies. Make sure you choose the correct one when deciding. The Digitize Center is our choice for best company to digitize home movies based on their stellar reputation, quality, and pricing. They have digitized over 1 million memories and have outstanding customer reviews and well regarded digitization technicians to get the best quality out of your home movies
We based our decision on the review and analysis of digitizing companies from Trusted Consumer.
“I’m so happy I got this done and my family absolutely loves seeing it!”
This is something I hear every day from someone who took my recommendation and used The Digitize Center to digitize their memories.
Do you have a box in your basement, or perhaps an entire closet filled with old family photos, films, and video tapes? I know I did, and when I thought about how long it would take me to sort, scan, and digitize everything myself I realized it would take hundreds or even thousands of hours. That’s not even including all the time and money I would have to spend getting the necessary equipment and getting all the digitized copies on my phone and laptop. Who has that kind of time?
Fortunately, there is an easy answer!
The old formats of VHS, camcorder tapes, film and photos will not last forever. These items have a shelf-life and will fade and degrade in time until they are completely faded away. Moreover, since they are all physical keepers of memories, they are prone to disasters such as a flood, fire, loss, or physical damage.
These memories contain the cherished moments of my life and the ones I love. I would never want to lose them or be unable to pass them on.
Well, fortunately I discovered an amazing company called The Digitize Center. They literally changed my life and will do the same for you too!
The Digitize Center converts all your home movies, photos, and film into a digital format so that they can be easily viewed and shared on any device.
Founded by Joe Malacina, The Digitize Center is located in Chicago, IL and has digitized well over 1 MILLION MEMORIES at their state-of-the-art facility.
Yes, that’s over 1 MILLION! And the best part, they have never lost or damaged a single memory. NOT ONE!
What is The Digitize Center?
The Digitize Center is America’s Leader in Digitizing Video Tapes, Photos, Film, and More. They can digitize pretty much everything and are the best in the business at what they do.
They’ve been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, PBS, and Del Webb Magazine. Big companies like Marriott, Salon, and even the US Government uses The Digitize Center for their digitization needs. The Digitize Center is the only company I would trust with my family memories.
How does it work?
The Digitize Center makes it easy for you to get your memories digitized and they do it quickly.
They will ship you a special box made to keep your memories safe, called the Digitize Kit. The box is crush-proof, water-resistant, and has shock-absorbent qualities.
You simply fill the box with all your video tapes, photos, and other memories and send it back to them with the provided return label. They even use a special priority shipping arrangement with UPS to make sure your memories are safe in transit.
Once The Digitize Center receives your memories, they will send you an email letting you know that have received everything and it is safe and sound. Then they get work!
Their expert technicians will digitize everything you send them in to a high-quality digital format, and keep you informed every step of the way with email updates.
When they are finished, you can get your digitized memories sent to via digital download, USB thumb drive, or on playable DVDs. It’s your choice!
You’ll also get all of your originals sent back to you. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.
How it Works – The Process
Their reputation pretty much speaks for itself. There are thousands of verified reviews of The Digitize Center with an average score of 4.8/5. Happy customers, no memories ever lost or damaged, and precious memories preserved. What more could you ask for?
I looked up other companies before deciding on The Digitize Center and what I found made me nervous… Many of these other companies had some bad reviews, especially ones where I read that the company lost their precious memories. These reviews were hard to find, but I did not have to look far. I also did not like that other companies had a lot of hidden fees and surprise charges that customers were complaining about. Fortunately, The Digitize Center has striaght-forward, competitive pricing with no hidden fees or charges. And best of all, their record of never losing or damaging a single memory puts them far above the rest.
What Formats can they Digitize?
The Digitize Center can convert nearly all types of consumer media, including:
Video tapes: VHS, VHS-C, Betamax, 8mm, Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV, MicroMV
Photos, slides, and negatives
8mm, Super 8, and regular 8 film
CDs, DVDs, and memory cards
What I Love About The Digitize Center
The Company has the Best Reputation They have digitized over 1 million memories and have never lost or damaged a single one! Your memories will be in safe hands.
Easy to view and share your digitized memories Your digitized memories will be available on all of your devices including your smartphones, computers, tablets, and TVs. You can even get physical copies on a thumb drive or DVD set.
No hidden prices or fees Their pricing is straight-forward and competitive, and they don’t have hidden fees. They also don’t force you to pay for an app like some other companies do.
They label and organize all of your memories for FREE All your digitized memories will be organized neatly and named accordingly. If you send in a tape that is labeled Christmas 1999, that digitized file will have the same filename.
You will know what the price is upfront You will know exactly what the cost is upfront and do not have to worry about being surprised later with a huge bill.
All your originals will be returned Once everything is digitized, they send you all your originals back.
As Seen On…
The Digitize Center is taking America by storm. Families everywhere are absolutely loving The Digitize Center and they have received thousands of 5 star reviews and are all over social media. I have shared The Digitize Center with all my friends and family and they completely love the experience and the result.
They really do provide the safe, simple, and easy way to preserve your precious memories. Even more, they provide a complete 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, which is really just icing on the cake.
Don’t trust your memories with anyone else besides The Digitize Center. They really are the best option to preserve your precious memories and will not leave you disappointed.
SPECIAL OFFER JUST FOR OUR READERS
The Digitize Center has a SPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFER going on right now if you order using the link below. You will GET 50% OFF THEIR DIGITIZE KIT, which is all inclusive and pretty much covers your entire order.
This was a popular request from many of our readers and TechGuru is on the case.
Digitizing your memories can be quite the endeavor. Deciding which memories you want to digitize and who you want to use to digitize them can leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, I was able to research the big 3 digitizing companies and reflect on my own personal experiences using them to write this guide.
When it comes to digitizing, there are 3 main aspects most people consider when deciding which company to use. Those aspects are: price, quality, and reputation. All 3 companies make it simple to digitize your memories and all 3 follow the mail-in model, where they send you a box to fill up with your memories.
PRICING
Let’s start with price, as for many of you this will be the absolute most important point when deciding on a digitizing company. In general, digitizing your memories is not cheap. However, it can be affordable if you stick with the essentials and not fall into a trap of hidden fees.
The GOOD news, all 3 major digitizing companies pretty much have the same prices. The BAD news, some of the pricing is a little complicated and messy, so I will break it down as simply as I can. All prices in this guide are taken from the date this article was written.
The Digitize Center Pricing
The Digitize Center has the most straight forward pricing. You strictly pay by the number of items you send in to be digitized. Pricing does not include the output choice (Cloud, Thumb Drive, or DVDs), but their output prices are market standard.
2 Items
$29.99
10 Items
$139.99
20 Items
$279.99
40 Items
$549.99
The prices above are with their current sale. You can also unlock a discount by entering your email address when entering their site.
Legacybox Pricing
Legacybox pricing is very similar to The Digitize Center where they charge by the number of items you send in. Pricing also does not include the output choice. One thing worth noting about Legacybox is they always seem to have some sort of sale going on, but the percentage off varies each day, which can make figuring out the price somewhat difficult.
2 Items
$30.00
10 Items
$140.00
20 Items
$280.00
40 Items
$550.00
It is worth noting that when you order from Legacybox with the cloud as your output, you are by default selecting their back-up service which they charge you a set amount each month depending upon how many items you send in. I am not a fan of a monthly fee just to access your memories.
iMemories Pricing
iMemories pricing is different from both The Digitize Center and Legacybox. They charge you initially to order the box and send you a bill later after you have sent the box back. In other words, you are not going to know up front exactly what you are going to be charged until after you send everything in.
They also charge differently depending on the size of the item you send in. For instance, they charge by the length of the film reel, whereas both The Digitize Center and Legacybox count each film reel as 1 item, regardless of its size.
2 Items
$29.98 + $14.99 for box
10 Items
$149.90 + $14.99 for box
20 Items
$299.80 + $14.99 for box
40 Items
$599.60 + $14.99 for box
iMemories also charges $14.99 per every 50 feet of a film reel, and $0.49 per photo, not including the price of the box. Their prices also do not include the price of the output, which is difficult to determine. They do offer digital access for free, however you must use their app to access your memories and to continue using the app past a certain time frame you must pay a monthly fee.
Pricing Winner: TIE between The Digitize Center and Legacybox
The Digitize Center and Legacybox pretty much have the same pricing and it is very competitive. iMemories pricing is just too confusing for my taste and I am uneasy about the potential to rack up a huge bill without knowing up front.
QUALITY
It was not easy trying to determine the quality metrics each company offers. They are not plainly advertised on their websites and trying to get answers through customer service was a complete nightmare from at least one of the companies. Regardless, I was able to scrape what I could from their websites and through some digging.
The Digitize Center Quality
The Digitize Center claims to digitize everything at a very high quality and in the latest formats. From digging through their website and my own technical analysis, I was able to determine the following:
Media Type
Quality
Video Tapes
Source quality with image enhancement
Film Reels
1080p to 4K resolution depending on the type of film
Photos
300-600 DPI (restoration optional)
Negatives
3000 DPI (restoration optional)
Slides
3000 DPI (restoration optional)
Audio
High Bitrate MP3 with enhancement
I would consider the quality metrics for The Digitize Center as excellent. The DPI they digitize photos, negatives, and slides is excellent and more than enough for a high quality digital image. The enhancements they apply to videos are essential for having a good quality digital file and their audio quality is also excellent.
Legacybox Quality
It was a little difficult to determine Legacybox’s quality metrics on all different media types, however I could determine their DPIs for images.
Media Type
Quality
Video Tapes
Could not determine
Film Reels
Could not determine
Photos
300 DPI
Negatives
2400 DPI
Slides
2400 DPI
Audio
High Bitrate WAV file
It is unfortunate that I could not determine their video quality even after deep-diving into their website. Their photo scanning quality is excellent, and their negative and slide scanning quality is good.
iMemories Quality
iMemories quality was the most difficult to determine as I could not find information about it anywhere on their website. In fact, I could not find anything even related to their photo scanning DPI. For me personally, I do not like when a company does not disclose any of their quality metrics, or at the very least make it easy to find on their website.
Media Type
Quality
Video Tapes
Could not determine
Film Reels
Could not determine
Photos
Could not determine
Negatives
Could not determine
Slides
Could not determine
Audio
Could not determine
Due to the fact that I could not determine any of the quality metrics for iMemories, they will not be considered for Quality Winner.
Quality Winner: The Digitize Center
It is clear here that given the above information, The Digitize Center has the edge when it comes to the final quality of the digitized memories. Their stated video, audio, and photo quality are all way above industry standards, and that makes them the clear winner in this comparison.
REPUTATION
All of the big 3 digitizing companies have been around for some time so they have all developed their unique reputations. All 3 companies claim to have digitized over 1 million memories so they all earn a passing grade in experience. Legacybox has been around longer than the other two, and there is no shortage of reviews on the company from their customers. From own research, Legacybox has a good reputation for making the process of digitizing very easy to follow. iMemories has a reputation for having an easy-to-use app that you can download on your smartphone or tablet to view your memories. Lastly, The Digitize Center has a reputation for high-quality digitization and easy viewing and sharing of digitized files.
All 3 companies have thousands of reviews from their customers. When looking at reviews, I like to look at reviews posted on third-party websites to determine what their customers’ experiences were really like. Companies tend to hide the not-so-savory reviews on their main website. So when looking at the reviews of the 3 companies, I would recommend you look at these third-party review sites for each company:
Check out the reviews and you can make your own determination on who’s reputation you like best.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you are readying a digitization project, I would highly recommend going with one of the big three companies mentioned in this guide. There are smaller companies out there that do digitization, however these companies likely lag behind in the newer technologies available in digitizing. The newer technology used today makes a huge difference in the quality of digitization, which is why I highly recommend going with either The Digitize Center, Legacybox, or iMemories.
A question we are asked on a near daily basis, is which digitization service is better, Legacybox or The Digitize Center? Both companies basically provide the same service, and that is they take your old media such as VHS tapes, Hi8 and other camcorder tapes, photographs, film reels, and more, and they digitize it so you can save the media on your computer, smartphones, and tablets. In this article, we will attempt to explain the differences between the two companies and determine which one is better for your home media digitization needs.
As usual, the first thing people look at when comparing the two companies is price. Both Legacybox and The Digitize Center have similar prices, with The Digitize Center coming out slightly ahead. For instance, right now the Legacybox 2 Item box costs $35.99, whereas the same 2 Item Digitize Kit from The Digitize Center costs $24.99. We will give the edge here to The Digitize Center.
We also need to look at the shipping costs of both companies. Both companies seem to have nearly identical shipping costs for all of their products, so we can call this a tie.
Overall Price Winner: The Digitize Center
Product Offerings
Both companies offer to digitize most old media types, including VHS tapes, Camcorder tapes of various types, Film reels, and print photographs. However, The Digitize Center additionally offers to digitize CDs, DVDs, Newspaper Clippings, and Yearbooks. So in this category, we will give the edge to The Digitize Center.
To see a full list of media types The Digitize Center can digitize, visit here.
To see a full list of media types Legacybox can digitize, visit here.
Overall Product Offering Winner: The Digitize Center
Quality
To determine which company provides a better quality digitize service, we had to place orders with both companies using the same exact media types. We sent in 2 VHS tapes, 2 Camcorder Tapes, 25 Photographs, and 1 Film Reel to both Legacybox and The Digitize Center. When we received them back digitized, these were the results.
VHS Tapes
The digitized versions of the VHS tapes came back at the same exact quality. The only difference we noted was that The Digitize Center clipped the end of the video when it ended, whereas the Legacybox did not clip the end of the video, so there was an additional 38 minutes of blank video at the end. The Digitize Center also labeled the digitized VHS media to match what we had written on the actual VHS tapes, which was a nice touch. Legacybox did not do this.
Camcorder Tapes
The digitized versions of our camcorder tapes came out at the same exact quality.
25 Photographs
Here is were we noticed some significant differences between the two companies. When we received the digitized version of the photographs from Legacybox, some of them had what appeared to be roller marks on them. The same effect did not appear on The Digitize Center media. In addition, The Digitize Center offered to “restore” the photos, which was a nice touch we appreciated.
Film Reel
Both companies were similar in the quality of the digitized film reel.
Overall Quality Winner: Tie
Speed of Order Process
This was pretty straight forward. All we did here was see how long it took both companies to complete the same exact order. We used the standard free processing option of both companies. The Legacybox order took a total of 16 days from the day they received our media until the time we received it back in the mail. The Digitize Center order took a total of 13 days for the same exact scenario.
Overall Speed Winner: The Digitize Center
Customer Service and Support
This was a little harder to measure as we did not have any support issues we needed to address with any of the companies. So for this analysis, we analyzed all the verified reviews both companies have received.
The Digitize Center overall customer Reviews: 4.9 / 5.0 Stars
Scanning through the Legacybox verified reviews, the most common complaints were of failure to digitize certain items, lost packages containing media items, and hidden costs.
Scanning through The Digitize Center verified reviews, the most common complaints were of failure to digitize certain items and longer than expected time to receive items.
It’s difficult to determine from these reviews which company has better customer service, so we will call this one a tie. However, we were taken aback by the number of complaints from Legacybox customers who claimed their media items were lost by the company. Whereas, The Digitize Center claims on their website that they have never lost a single item or package.
Overall Customer Support Winner: Tie
Overall Winner: LegacyBox vs The Digitize Center
Given the information we analyzed between the two companies, we can easily declare The Digitize Center to be the better company to get your home media digitized with. They are the clear winner in terms of price, product offerings, and speed of order. We will continue to monitor both companies to see if anything changes.
First, let me start out by explaining that both books do an excellent job at explaining how to use the many functions and abilities of the iPhone. However, they each utilize their own approach and style in delivering the information, and there are many other aspects to consider, such as price and additional features.
Which book is easier to read physically?
Winner: iPhone Manual for Beginners
By this question, we mean which book best utilizes illustrations, font size, formatting, and style? Both books contain color illustrations throughout the text that demonstrate exactly how to perform certain tasks on your iPhone. The Missing Manual book has more illustrations than the iPhone Manual for Beginners, however the latter’s illustrations are larger and easier to comprehend. In addition, many have complained that the Index in the Missing Manual is jumbled and difficult to use, so we give the Index advantage to the iPhone Manual for Beginners. For readability, the iPhone Manual for Beginners is the clear winner here with large font and smooth spacing between paragraphs.
Which book contains more information?
Winner: iPhone: the missing manual
There is no doubt that iPhone: the missing manual has the edge when it comes to the amount of information contained in the text. The Missing Manual comes in at 720 pages with a size of 6″ x 9″! Conversely, the iPhone Manual for Beginners comes in at 144 pages with a book size of 8.5″ x 11″. If you are looking for a big box manual that contains every possible ounce of information, then the Missing Manual book may be right for you. On the other hand, the iPhone Manual for Beginners utilizes a different approach; it can be read in its entirety in one day, and teaches using a building blocks approach, which seems to be best for beginners who are trying to learn from the ground up. In summary, the iPhone: the missing manual contains much more information than the iPhone Manual for Beginners, however, that does not mean that it is a better book.
Which book is best for different iPhone skill levels?
Winner: iPhone Manual for Beginners
This one is a no-brainer. At 720 pages, I do not expect a complete beginner, let alone an intermediate user of an iPhone to read the entire Missing Manual book. On the other hand, a complete beginner would find the iPhone Manual for Beginners very easy to read and complete. In my opinion, the book has a better flow of information and is structured so that beginner concepts you use in early chapters are utilized more fully in later chapters. In addition, as the book continues on, the author covers more intermediate and advanced functions of the iPhone. In summary, the iPhone Manual for Beginners is the better book for users of all skill levels, including beginners. The only exception would be if you are a highly experienced IT professional, then the Missing Manual book may be better for you.
Which book is cheaper?
Winner: iPhone: the missing manual
This was somewhat surprising given that the Missing Manual contains nearly 600 more pages than the iPhone Manual for Beginners. However, it should be noted that physical quality of the iPhone Manual for Beginners is slightly better than the Missing Manual with better colors and better binding. The cost of the Missing Manual seems to fluctuate almost daily, however it can usually be purchased for between $16.99 USD and $29.95 USD. The iPhone Manual for Beginners’s price is more steady, and can usually be purchased for between $19.95 USD and $24.95 USD.
Which book has better availability?
Winner: iPhone Manual for Beginners (just slightly)
By availability, we mean which book is available in more places and will ship the quickest? This was a difficult question to answer definitively. The iPhone Manual for Beginners is available in most countries, including the United States, Canada, all of Europe, and Australia, and also ships from within these countries so delivery is quite fast. The Missing Manual is stocked by more bookstores in comparison, however we were not able to verify if the Missing Manual is locally available in more countries.
Which book is best? The iPhone Manual for Beginners or iPhone: the missing manual?
Overall Winner: iPhone Manual for Beginners by Joe Malacina
Taking everything into consideration, the iPhone Manual for Beginners is a better book for most people when trying to learn how to use the iPhone. We prefer its style compared to the Missing Manual and also prefer its organization. The iPhone Manual for Beginners utilizes a step-by-step approach with illustrations for most functions, and also presents information in an easy-to-follow manner. In addition, the organization of the book is superb, with a clear and concise Table of Contents and an understandable Index. The only downside of the iPhone Manual for Beginners is its additional cost (by about $4-$6), however the additional cost seems to be worth it given its overall presentation of information. In conclusion, we would recommend the iPhone Manual for Beginners for iPhone users of all skill levels, including beginners and intermediate users.
Both books can ordered on Amazon and other websites:
