Fujitsu Scansnap S1300i

Product	Images / Minute	Format	Connectivity	Max. document size	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Fujitsu Scansnap S1300i	24 IPM	A4	USB 2.0, USB 1.1	8.5 in. x 34 in. (215 x 863 mm)	Yes	3.08 lb. (1.4 kg)	Click for more info

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i is one of our favourite portable document scanners with an automatic feeder. It has a speed of 24 images / minute, it can hold papers up to A4 in its document feeder tray. It has a high-resolution CIS (Contact Image sensor) that will scan documents at an image resolution of 600 dpi, great for photo scanning. What’s important to know it that this portable sheetfed scanner has a full document feeder ADF input tray that you can open already integrated, no need for accessories like autofeed docking. It’s a scanner that’s compatible with both Mac and PC.

You can connect the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i portable color duplex document scanner to your computer using the USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 provided as standard. This is a bit disappointing as we would love to have it with Wi-fi. The Interface that it uses is the ScanSnap interface which is proprietary to the Fujitsu products in this line-up. Fujitsu doesn’t use TWAIN for the ScanSnap models. However, you can get fujitsu scanners with plenty of functionality and TWAIN and ISIS from the Fi product line. The maximum length that the Fujitsu ScanSnap can scan is 34 inches.

The included software features: ScanSnap Home, ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap. Both the apps are compatible with both operating systems, Windows and Mac.

Optical Character Recognition software is included in the scanning applications, so you can create searchable PDFs where you can find any keyword in the text just by typing it. It doesn’t have a rechargeable battery, so you need to connect the AC Adapter to power it. It also cannot be USB powered because according to the manufacturer “it is not enough”.

You can put in thick paper up to 104 gsm and it’s not the heaviest scanner nor the lightest. It’s right in the middle. The Fuijtsu is a double-sided mobile scanner. It has automatic color detection and image cropping features. The ScanSnap software is great and it weighed a lot in our decision. It’s what we consider the best portable scanner with an automatic feeder on the market to buy.

Canon imageFORMULA P-215

Product	Images / Minute	Format	Connectivity	Max. document size	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Canon imageFORMULA P-215	30 IPM	A4	Hi-Speed USB 2.0, USB 3.0	8.5 in. x 39.4 in. (215 x 1000 mm)	Yes	2.2 lb. (0.99 kg)	Click for more info

The Canon P-215 is the second mobile photo and document scanner with an automatic feeder that we will look at. With it’s 15 pages per minute speed, it can scan A4 formats with an optical resolution of 600dpi so you can use it as a photo scanner too. It comes with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity for fast transfer of scanned images and unfortunately the USB Cable is also its only connectivity option. The color depth is 24-bit when scanning in color and 8-bit when doing so in grayscale.

The TWAIN and ISIS drivers are something that the ScanSnap S1300i doesn’t have, so this could be a plus for the Canon, depending on your project. This compact mobile document scanner capable of scanning documents up to 40 inches long, so a bit longer than the Fujitsu can do. This device also has a automatic document feeder adf tray that can hold 20 color documents.

Like the scanner before it, it’s a color duplex scanner so you can digitize double-sided documents with just one pass. It has color detection and auto cropping but it doesn’t have automatic image rotation. If you put scans upside down, you’ll have to manually rotate them.

The Canon P-215 is a quite compact and lightweight portable mobile color page scanner at just 2.2 lbs. It comes with a software bundle that includes Canon CaptureOnTouch, CaptureOnTouch Lite (built-in), Nuance PaperPort, NewSoft Presto! BizCard (Windows), NewSoft Presto! Page Manager (Mac), Evernote. The Canon P-215 can be integrated to upload your digital scans to your favourite cloud storage.

Brother ADS-1500W

Product	Images / Minute	Format	Connectivity	Max. document size	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Brother ADS-1500W	36 IPM	A4	Wireless 802.11 b/g/n, Hi-Speed USB 2.0	8.5 in. x 34 in. (215 x 863 mm)	Yes	3.5 lb. (1.58 kg)	Click for more info

The Brother ADS-1500w is the third portable scanner with a feeder that we want to talk about. It’s on the faster side with a scanning speed of 36 IPM. These are fast scan speeds. The document format that it’s compatible with can be up to A4 paper size and it’s sensor brings out the standard scanning resolution of 600dpi.

This portable scanner has wifi 802.11 and also can connect via USB 2.0. This device is our favorite in terms of connectivity because let’s face it, wi-fi is a must have in a portable scanner. The Dual CIS sensor will make sure that both sides of a duplex document will be scanned in one pass and the automatic feeder tray will stack up papers so that they get scanned automatically and you don’t have to manually feed them into the scanner. It also has a plastic card slot on the back so that you can scan ID cards with it or use it as a business card scanner.

This Brother mobile document scanner lacks automatic color detection but it makes up with the fact that it can automatically crop and rotate and with the fact that it has a background cleaning feature. These features are called Digital ICE features and they will save you a lot of time from editing the images in Photoshop or Gimp. The Brother also has an auto deskew feature. That will automatically rotate the scanned image even by 1 degree if it’s a bit skewed. The Brother Web Connect module is a cool feature that allows you to scan to cloud directly to Google Drive, Evernote or Dropbox. The scanning software can convert the high-quality digital images into JPEG, BMP Bitmap, TIFF and PDF format.

This handheld scanner is a bit heavier than the others at 3.5 lb, but it’s not a big weight difference, it doesn’t affect its mobility and you can still carry it with you. Besides making great compact desktop scanners, Brother also makes an exceptional portable wireless high-speed scanner, the Brother ads-1700w and also the Brother ADS-1250w. They are faster and more feature packed than the scanners in the Brother DSMobile line.

Doxie Q

Product	Images / Minute	Format	Connectivity	Max. document size	ADF Tray	Weight	Price
Doxie Q	8 IPM	A4	Wi-Fi, micro USB	8.5 in. x 30 in. (215 x 762 mm)	Yes	1.79 lb. (0.81 kg)	Click for more info

The Doxie Q is the last portable scanner with an automatic feeder that we will be looking at. It’s quite similar to the Doxie Go SE Wifi in many ways. The scanning speed is not very good at 8 images per minute. There is no duplex scanning feature on this portable scanner. The maximum document format that you can digitize is A4 and the optical scanning resolution is 600 dots per inch, so it has the same pixel density as the other on-the-go scanners. That’s plenty of detail for even the most demanding computer monitors. The manufacturer says that you should only run plain paper through the Doxie Q, which is a minus because other portable scanners with a document feeder (ADF) support thicker media.

The Doxie Q color scanner however, comes with wireless connectivity and a Micro-USB port, so it fairs pretty well in this sector. The TWAIN interface makes it compatible with other scanning software too. The long document mode of this scanner can scan up to 30 inches in length. The Doxie Q also has an auto document feeder with an ADF tray in which you can stack papers. The document feeder input tray can hold up to 8 sheets. One of the coolest things about the Doxie Q is that it can scan directly to a memory card. This is a document scanner for PC and Mac.

Color detection, automatic image rotation and automatic image cropping are great scan correction features that come built-in with the Doxie Q wireless document scanner scanning app. It’s one of the lightest scanners around at just 1.79 lbs in weight. It also has something interesting, the imaging sensor is a CCD sensor, not a CIS. That’s different than what most wireless portable scanners offer. It also uses a rechargeable battery. So you get a lot of features for the price.

We like the ScanSnap S1300i and that is our favourite, but the Canon ImageFormula P-215 is also a solid choice. Regardless of which of these portable office document scanners in this list that you buy, you are bound to make a solid choice. These are also very good receipt scanners. Some may be surpised that the Epson Workforce ES-50 portable sheetfed document scanner, Fujitsu ScanSnap IX100, Epson ES-300W, Epson Workforce ES-60W, VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand portable scanner with docking station or the Xerox Duplex Combo didn’t make our list. These scanners although mobile, have essentially the same functionality as desktop document scanners like the Visioneer Patriot. They are also not to be confused with pen scanners. However if you need more productivity from your document feeder, then you need to look into document scanners with ADF like the Fujitsu fi-7160, Fujitsu Scansnap IX1500 or HP Scanjet Pro 2500 f1 and if it is photos you need to digitize, then the Epson Fastfoto FF-680W is well suited for that. They are also much more portable than flatbed scanners such as the Canon CanoScan Lide and it’s also worth mentioning that these are scanners for macs and PCs.