Epson DS-30 review | Is this portable scanner worth it?

The Epson DS-30 is a light and compact portable scanner that can scan to the cloud with one touch, is powered by USB.

Pros: Scan to Cloud, OCR and Document Management software included, Lightweight, Punch Hole removal feature

Cons: No duplex and no WiFi
ProductImages / MinuteFormatConnectivityMax. document sizeADF TrayWeightPrice

Epson DS-30

Epson DS-30
9.2 IPMA4USB 2.0 Type Mini-B8.5 in. x 14 in. (215 x 356 mm)No0.7 lb. (0.31 kg)Click for more info

Doxie GO SE Wifi

Doxie GO SE Wifi
7 IPMA4Wi-Fi, USB8.5 in. x 30 in. (215 x 762 mm)No1.1 lb. (0.5 kg)Click for more info

Epson DS-40

Epson DS-40
4 IPMA4Wireless 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0 Type Mini-B8.5 in. x 36 in. (215 x 914 mm)No1.1 lb. (0.49 kg)Click for more info

VuPoint Magic Wand

VuPoint Magic Wand
40 IPMA4Hi-Speed USB 2.08.5 in. x 98 in. (215 x 2489 mm)No0.47 lb. (0.21 kg)Click for more info

Epson DS-30 Specifications

Images / Minute9.2 IPM
FormatA4
Resolution600 dpi
ConnectivityUSB 2.0 Type Mini-B
InterfaceTWAIN, WIA
Max. document size8.5 in. x 14 in. (215 x 356 mm)
Sensor typeCIS
Paper thickness35-270g/m2
Dimensions10.86 in. x 1.45 in. x 1.97 in. (27.5 x 3.6 x 5 cm)
Weight0.7 lb. (0.31 kg)
Included SoftwareABBYY FineReader Sprint 9.0 (Windows), Epson Document Capture Pro (Windows only), Presto! BizCard 5 SE
DriverDownload Driver
ManualDownload User Manual
BrochureDownload Brochure
FeaturesDuplex Scanning, Automatic Color Detection, Automatic Image Rotation, Automatic Image Cropping, Background Removal, Automatic Deskew, Punch Hole Removal, OCR included, ADF Tray

What’s so special about it?

Epson DS-30 The first mobile business scanner of Epson is DS-30. With this, mobile business people can easily scan their documents in a short time. If you want to scan and save documents like signed forms and business forms, Epson DS-30 is the best choice. Epson DS-30 is the lightest portable scanner in the market. Epson DS-30 portable scanner weighs only 325 grammes.

Epson DS-30 Datasheet Explained

This portable scanner has a USB connection, like the majority of scanners on the market. Due to this, users are limited to some extent to connect PC and laptop. An Ethernet or a wireless connection could provide you with a plus because it enables you to scan the documents through network directly to your smart devices.

The Epson DS-30 can scan up to A4 in size and it can do that at a speed of 9 images per minute. That’s about the same as the competition at this price point.

The resolution is 600dpi just like other scanners provide, so it doesn’t shine there either and the sensor is a CIS (Contact image sensor).

This Epson offers you TWAIN and WIA interfaces, so you can integrate this product with special scanning applications and workflows. The average user will not care about TWAIN, but if you are more of a power user, it will come in handy.

This scanner can handle quite a wide range of paper types, from thin receipts to papers as thick as 270g/m2 (Business cards, credit cards, plastic cards)..

Features for Productivity

This scanner doesn’t have duplex scanning, but in this price range it’s difficult to find scanners which have this, as only 1 in 4 scanners have duplex.

The Epson also comes with image enhancement features such as automatic color detection, automatic image rotation and automatic cropping. They will save you a lot of time and we consider these to be a big bonus. The scanner can tell if it’s scanning a color document or a black & white one, it can tell if the document is upside down and it will remove the black area around the document so you will be left with a clear and clean scan..

Quality of images

Another useful feature is for perforated papers and documents. If you want to get some documents that have punch holes in them, then the holes are visible as these big black dots. With this feature, the holes are filled with the colour of the paper so you can’t tell they were punched.

The scanner also has automatic deskew, so if your image is even a bit skewed by 1 degree, it will automatically straighten it.

Another cool feature in this scanner is OCR. So, scanned paper and documents cannot be accessed, modified, and searched. But OCR takes each image and makes it so that you can search for the text inside it. It’s the closest thing to magic that scanners are capable of. It also enables you to create Word Documents, eBooks and Excel files out of your scans..

Epson DS-30 accesories unboxing

The Epson DS-30 doesn’t have an ADF tray, but then again, no scanner for this price has one, so you can’t expect it to have one.

The scanner is also very light. It weighs only 0.7 lb, while the average scanner in its category will weight up to 1.1 lb. That’s almost 40% lighter, so we consider this to be a huge plus for the Epson.

There’s a big software bundle that comes with the scanner and the best software and the one which we recommend is ABBYY FineReader. We use it all the time in our scanning center to create searchable PDF files and Word files and it works very nice, especially when you can give it good and clean scans to start from..

Epson DS-30 driver, manual & brochure

If you want to find the driver for the Epson DS-30, you can download it here from their website.

Also, there might be information that you are looking for and which we haven’t covered in this article, especially regarding how to use the scanning software. You can download the manual from this page. For more advanced technical information that you couldn’t find in this page, try having a look at the brochure for the DS-30 here..

What do real users say?

Users love the fact that you can carry the Epson DS-30 around, that it will always find its space inside your backpack, but they are not big fans of the Software, especially the Document Capture Pro. Also, when you run glossy paper through it, it tends to jam more. What you can do to overcome this issue, is gently press them when they run through the scanner and it should be fine. People are also big fans of the fact that you can power it from USB, but installing it on a Mac proved to be a bit more tricky. <!–
–>
Our Score

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.