Brother DS-620

Product	Images / Minute	Resolution	Connectivity	Duplex Scanning	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Brother DS-620	8 IPM	600 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	No	No	0.88 lb. (0.39 kg)	Click for more info

The Brother DS-620 is a mobile A4 scanner that you can power via USB cable, it doesn’t have a rechargeable battery. This is a cheap portable scanner that has just the basic functions and is very easy to carry around.

Brother ships the DS-620 mobile scanner with SANE and TWAIN drivers. The scan speed is up to 8 pages per minute and there is no duplex scanning mode. It has an automatic document feeder but no ADF tray. It allows for document scanning of any document size up to A4 format.

When you connect it to your computer, you do so through the 2.0 USB Port, the standard for most office products. It is a document scanner for PC and Mac with it being compatible with Windows and Mac OS.

This Brother mobile color scanner bundles some software like Presto PageManager which offers document management features, the Presto BizCard for business card management and the device is also compatible with Br-Receipts to turn this into a more robust receipt scanner.

The OCR from the Nuance PaperPort that you get with this compact mobile document scanner is bad and you’ll need another Optical Character Recognition software alternative.

Brother DS-720D

Product	Images / Minute	Resolution	Connectivity	Duplex Scanning	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Brother DS-720D	10.6 IPM	600 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	Yes	No	1.1 lb. (0.49 kg)	Click for more info

The Brother DS-720D is a different beast. First of all in the Brother DS-620 vs Brother DS-720D it is worth noting that the DS-720D has a duplex scanning mode. Even though the duplex scanning mode is not twice as fast in terms of images per minute because it only gets up to 10 images per minute, having the advantage of the single-pass duplex with the Dual CIS sensor is worth it.

This image scanner is also slightly heavier at about 0.2 lbs more in weight and it is also not a scanner with rechargeable battery and the power consumption is the same. The scan software is the same.

The price is half of the scansnap S1300i portable color duplex scanner, so it provides great value in terms of having the duplex scanning feature. And the extra 30$ compared to the DS-620 is justified.

This is a very compact and lightweight duplex mobile document scanner and at this price point, you won’t find other duplex scanners.

If you want something more high-volume from Brother, have a look at the Brother ADS-1250w or ADS-1700W which has a great built-in display.

Epson ES-50

Product	Images / Minute	Resolution	Connectivity	Duplex Scanning	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Epson ES-50	5 IPM	600 dpi	USB 2.0	No	No	0.59 lb. (0.26 kg)	Click for more info

The Epson Workforce ES-50 portable document scanner is a device that provides true value.

Everything starts with a 10 pages per minute colour scanning scanning speed which that is quite good considering the price. In the Brother DS-620 vs Epson ES-50, it is worth noting that the Epson is cheaper. You get the same USB connection that you get with the other two Brother DSMobile scanners.

The design is the same minimalistic style, no built-in display. It doesn’t have the extra receipt management software and business card software.

It uses the Nuance OCR engine but this time even though it comes from the same company, it works better.

Epson DS-30

Product	Images / Minute	Resolution	Connectivity	Duplex Scanning	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Epson DS-30	4 IPM	600 dpi	USB 2.0 Type Mini-B	No	No	0.7 lb. (0.31 kg)	Click for more info

The Epson ES-50 vs Epson DS-30, the difference is mainly in the software that’s included. You get ABBYY FineReader Sprint and Epson Scan to use with it. It is a great Optical Character Recognition OCR software that helps you convert scanned images to searchable PDF files and Word Documents that have editable text and layout.

The ES-50 is sold with the idea that it is a general purpose scanner for home and office use whereas the DS-30 is mainly focused on being a business scanner for plain paper documents.

There is also a speed difference, the ES-50 is a bit faster than the DS-30 having an extra page per minute, so it is negligible.

In the Brother DS-620 vs Epson DS-30 battle, the DS-620 document scanner is much better value with a faster scan speed but with a disastrous OCR

Is the 70 USD difference for the better software worth it? You decide for yourself.

Epson DS-40

Product	Images / Minute	Resolution	Connectivity	Duplex Scanning	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Epson DS-40	4 IPM	600 dpi	Wireless 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0 Type Mini-B	No	No	1.1 lb. (0.49 kg)	Click for more info

In the Brother DS-620 vs Epson DS-40 battle, even though the Brother is faster, this portable scanner has wi-fi connectivity which is a game changer. It also has some differences in the bundled software. This device has Epson Document Capture Pro together with ABBYY FineReader Sprint so the software is miles better than what the Brother offers you.

In the Epson DS-30 vs Epson DS-40 battle, what you get extra is still the wi-fi connection and instead of the Epson Scan, you get the Document Capture Pro. Most of the technical details are the same including the scan size.

But the price? Too big maybe for a wireless portable document scanner without duplex.

Brother DS-620 vs DS-720D vs Epson ES-50 vs Epson DS-30 vs Epson DS-40. Which one to buy?

In the Brother DS-620 vs DS-720D, we would pay the extra for the single-pass duplex function.

For the Brother DS-620 vs Epson ES-50, it all comes down to personal preference of scanning software. Our favorite is the Epson ES-50.

When we compare the Brother DS-620 vs Epson DS-30, we would only spend the extra 60$ on the DS-30 if we really need the great OCR software. It is the same with the Brother DS-620 vs Epson DS-40. There you have to spend 100$ extra. That is Doxie Go SE and Fujitsu ScanSnap IX100 territory.