Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 Scans Quick, Easy, Anywhere
We have some interesting scanners on hand- some for business cards, others for receipts, even bar code scanners. But two of our favorites are still the Fujitsu models we’ve tested previously- the best all-around models we’ve tried, either portable or stationary.
We’re happy to report that they continue to raise the bar. Fujitsu’s ScanSnap S1300 takes some of the features of the desktop model and crams them into a portable version that weighs about three pounds and is just a fraction of an inch larger than the S300. They are similar in other ways too- both offer automatic document feeders and duplex color scanning, in 600×600 dpi resolution. Speeds are also about the same- up to 8 pages a minute in lower-quality color or about 2 minutes per page at the very highest quality. One of the neatest things about these scanners is that you can power them via the included AC adapter… or simply use USB power when you have two open USB ports. You sacrifice some speed- expect to get about half the scans per minute- but it’s quite convenient when traveling.
The best change is the full Mac and PC support in a single model, instead of having two separate versions. Another difference is the grayscale mode, which offered some advantages in speed over the older model when dealing with documents that weren’t simply text. Text still scanned in fine, but a few black and white photos were much better when scanned via the newer model. The feeder holds up to 10 pages at a time, and still does an incredible job of automatically handling documents of different sizes. We were able to stuff in an envelope, a business card, and two other sizes of paper and still have them fed and scanned appropriately (without a lot of extra space around the scan, and scanned quite rapidly). The drivers still aren’t TWAIN-compatible, so they don’t play nice with every application, but the included application suite is pretty good.
Note: you’ll need to have a DVD drive in order to install the drivers and software packages. Most likely, this will be fine for most people, but it did surprise one editor who only had a CD drive in their laptop. Windows 7 is supported nicely and the business card software (CardMinder) still beats out the competition. Fujitsu also included Scan to Sharepoint software and some of the better OCR software out there, ABBYY FineReader. Of course, that software will cost you some disk space- over 2 GB in fact. And the main oddity about the ScanSnap line returns- the S1300 does have consumables, meaning that you’ll need to buy new pad assemblies and pick rollers every so often (Fujitsu suggests each year, and they are pretty inexpensive). At nearly $300 and available widely online, this is a perfect scanner for the document-crazy, the accountant or lawyer on the road, and the mobile office worker.
