Do handheld scanners work?

Scanners are common in businesses and many homes. While they used to be very expensive, they've become much more affordable in recent years - especially since the advent of hand-held scanners. Why have a hand-held scanner? Handheld scanners offer many advantages to those who use them, whether for business or personal purposes. Hand-held scanners are designed to make life easier for those who are constantly scanning and sending documents, especially when traveling.

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1. Familiarity with hand-held scanners

The hand-held scanner can complete the shooting of text documents within 1 second, and can quickly convert scanned pictures into editable documents through the OCR text recognition function, thereby greatly improving work efficiency. It can also perform operations such as taking photos, video recordings, copying, and network paperless faxes. It is the perfect solution to make office easier, faster and more environmentally friendly.

2. The benefits of using a hand-held scanner

Versatility: Like all scanners, a hand-held scanner is an invaluable communication tool. The difference is that they now come in a very small size, which makes them very useful in business or personal emergencies. Since most hand-held scanners have a battery life of several hours, they can easily work for a long time without charging, depending on the brand. They are very valuable, can be carried and moved, and are almost invisible. It's easy to take with you wherever you go. They keep you organized and more focused on tasks by keeping you from needing as many files or papers.

Advanced Technology: Over the past few years, several different technologies have given modern hand-held scanners incredible advantages. Many documents can be easily sent without a computer or fax machine. Most can even be used to connect phones, MP3s, and anything that might contain a USB port. The scanners are very easy to use - many of them can scan documents in under a minute. They can also scan documents with exceptional clarity. Most are equipped with a large amount of memory space, which allows them to hold up to hundreds of documents.

Variations: Handheld scanners come in several different sizes, from a size that fits in your hand to one that's roughly the size of a computer. They also come in various qualities and speeds. Depending on the buyer's needs, there are some scanners that can operate with the desired clarity and speed. Prices can range from less than a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars, depending on the sophistication of the scanner.

Whether you need to convert paper documents to editable text, create and maintain a database of business-card contacts, or put together an expense report with digitized receipts, a portable scanner will come in handy. You'll find mobile scanners with widely varying features and capabilities. Even their portability varies from model to model. We've pulled together our favorite picks for a broad range of applications, all based on our analysts' extensive testing and deep hands-on experience. (PC Labs and its personnel have tested hundreds of scanners over the course of decades.) Our top pick for most users is the Brother DSmobile DS-940DW, a general-use document scanner, but we also tested and selected portable specialty scanners for tasks like collecting business cards at trade shows or digitizing book pages in libraries. Also below: a buying guide with general advice on picking a portable scanner, plus a spec-by-spec comparison table of our top models.

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

Best Portable Document Scanner for Most People

Brother DSmobile DS-940DW

4.5 Outstanding

• Small and light.

• Fast scanning and processing.

• Accurate OCR.

• Solid software bundle.

• Easy to use.

• Autonomous scanning to microSD card.

• Wi-Fi and USB 3.0 connectivity.

• No automatic document feeder.

• MicroSD card not included.

As portable scanners go, the DS-940DW is fast and accurate. It comes with wireless connectivity, a complete software bundle, and a built-in battery. The battery and the ability to scan to microSD memory cards allow for cable- and computer-free operation. In addition to Wi-Fi connectivity, you also get USB 3.0 for connecting to a single computer at the office or in a hotel room. This Brother model is slim, light, compact, and feature-rich, making it ideal for low-volume document scanning at home or on the road.

Unless you require multipage scanning, this little portable does everything you'd expect from a manual-feed document scanner. It should easily serve users at trade shows, job fairs, soccer and Little League tryouts, you name it&#;anywhere that your data harvesting doesn't involve more than a few pages at a time.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

ppi

Mechanical Resolution

600 ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

8.5" x 72"

Film Scanning

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Brother DSmobile DS-940DW Review

Best Portable Scanner for Receipts

Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W

4.0 Excellent

• Relatively fast

• Accurate OCR

• Strong software bundle, including ScanSmart Accounting Edition

• Built-in battery

• Compact and light

• No memory card support

• Lacks ADF

The RR-70W ships with Epson's ScanSmart Accounting Edition, an add-on to the company's ScanSmart scanning utility and document management software. This portable is highly accurate, dependable, light, and compact. It's also wireless and comes with a built-in battery, letting you use it without AC-power cabling or connecting to a computing device. If you need something more powerful for scanning stacks of financial documents&#;say, a full-fledged sheetfed document scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF)&#;the Epson RapidReceipt RR-600W is a favorite; otherwise, the RR-70W is ideal for sporadic, small scan jobs.

If you're buying or selling on the road and need to scan one- or two-page receipts, invoices, and other papers, the RR-70W's Receipt Manager plug-in handles the job deftly, making this scanner a good choice for just about anyone gathering small amounts of data on the fly or in cramped surroundings.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

ppi

Mechanical Resolution

600 ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

8.5" x 72"

Film Scanning

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$199.99 Walmart

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Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W Review

Best Portable Scanner for Multipage and Two-Sided Documents

Epson WorkForce ES-300W Wireless Portable Duplex Document Scanner

4.0 Excellent

• Highly portable.

• Fast scanning and saving to PDF.

• Comes with document and business card management software.

• Battery and integrated Wi-Fi.

• Finicky when scanning documents with frayed edges.

We choose the WorkForce ES-300W year after year because it offers almost every feature and capability of a full-blown sheetfed document scanner at a reasonable price. In fact&#;as we've said more than once&#;feature for feature it's as capable as an entry-level desktop sheetfed scanner, if not quite as fast. The ES-300 comes with a 20-sheet automatic document feeder, multiple connectivity options, the ability to scan to USB flash drives without a PC, Epson's superb ScanSmart software, and more.

The ES-300W is powerful enough to serve as a light-duty scanner in several scenarios&#;shared by a workgroup in a home or hybrid office, or holding down the front desk at a doctor's or dentist's office or an auto parts store, to name a few good fits. Its ability to scan stacks of business cards or thick plastic ID's and credit cards is an added bonus for specialized scanning tasks.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

ppi

Mechanical Resolution

ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

8.5" x 11"

Film Scanning

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$299.00 Amazon

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Epson WorkForce ES-300W Wireless Portable Duplex Document Scanner Review

Best Wand Scanner for Books and Magazines

IRIScan Book 5 Wi-Fi

4.0 Excellent

• No computer required

• Fast, accurate OCR

• Comes with USB cable, 4GB MiniSD card, and vinyl drawstring carrying case

• Easy to set up and use

• Capable of scanning directly to a computer

• Short battery life

Wand scanners are relatively rare. But that doesn't mean the IRIScan Book 5 earned its place here by default. This Canon subsidiary makes great scanners. This particular device comes with ReadIRIS, a highly capable scanner interface and OCR package, as well as the IRIScan Book App for scanning to iOS or Android handheld devices. IRIScan makes two versions of the Book 5: the Wi-Fi version that we tested, which comes in black, and a non-Wi-Fi version that comes in red, turquoise, or white. The differences between the two are minimal (other than the lack of Wi-Fi) so if the Wi-Fi version is out of stock, you could consider the other model instead.

The Book 5 Wi-Fi is a good value for students, researchers, and anybody else who needs to scan book or periodical pages. Since it scans directly to microSD cards, this wand scanner should lighten the load of anybody who needs to digitize material that can't be fed through a sheetfed scanner.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

ppi

Mechanical Resolution

ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

8.5" x 11"

Film Scanning

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$149.99 Amazon

$146.78 Walmart

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IRIScan Book 5 Wi-Fi Review

Best Portable Scanner for Financial Documents

Epson WorkForce ES-300WR Wireless Document Scanner&#;Accounting Edition

4.0 Excellent

• Fast.

• Highly accurate OCR.

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• Powerful software bundle.

• Long-lasting battery.

• ScanSmart Accounting Edition software only compatible with QuickBooks and Excel CSV.

• No memory card support.

The ES-300WR is our Best Portable Scanner for finance types thanks to the addition of Epson's ScanSmart Accounting Addition plug-in, a.k.a. Receipt Manager. This software lets you scan not only receipts but invoices, statements, and other financial documents. It comes with all the power and functionality of ScanSmart itself, a capable scanner interface with first-class document and business-card archiving features.

This Epson serves two important functions: first, scanning and archiving financial data, and second, digitizing and managing documents. Accountants and tax professionals who travel to client locations will get good service from this portable. So will entrepreneurs who gather documents and keep track of their own expenses.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

600 ppi

Mechanical Resolution

ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

8.5" x 44"

Film Scanning

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$449.99 Amazon

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Epson WorkForce ES-300WR Wireless Document Scanner&#;Accounting Edition Review

Best Compact Scanner With an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX

4.0 Excellent

• Fast for a portable scanner

• Accurate OCR

• Supports both wireless and USB 3.2 connections

• Robust ScanSnap software bundle

• Innovative U-turn Scan and Return Scan save desk space

• No battery for untethered operation

Like most Fujitsu scanners, the ScanSnap iX is well-built and easy to use, and it comes with the company's top-notch scanning utility plus document, business-card, and financial data management software. Better yet, the iX employs Fujitsu's innovative, space-saving U-Turn Scan and Return Scan paper paths, in which the flip of a switch sends paper exiting the scanner in a near-upright position, saving several inches of desk space. And like most of today's portable scanners, the Fujitsu is highly accurate and relatively speedy.

The ScanSnap iX is a highly capable semiportable scanner for hotel rooms, remote offices, your home or hybrid office, or any other location that has access to AC power but is low on space for a dedicated desktop scanner.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

600 by 600 pixels

Mechanical Resolution

600 pixels

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

Legal

Film Scanning

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Fujitsu ScanSnap iX Review

Best Portable Scanner for Photos and Negatives

ClearClick QuickConvert 2.0

3.5 Good

• Small, light, and portable

• Good scan quality and software bundle

• Rechargeable, replaceable battery

• Scans to SD memory cards

• Supports Wi-Fi

• No ADF

• Limited page sizes

While you'll find several portable "photo scanners" on the market, some are sheetfed, and a few are flatbed models. The handheld ClearClick QuickConvert is one of a kind&#;you place it over one photo at a time (with no need to remove the pic from an album), or place a photo or negative in the scanner's removable base. Despite being one of the least expensive photo-negative scanners available, the device scans both photos and negatives well, with accurate colors and good detail. It does its job quickly and precisely.

Do you have a stack of photos and/or negatives to digitize but not a lot of cash to spend? This handy scanner will provide good service to both individuals and families wanting to update an aging photo collection.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

14 megapixels

Mechanical Resolution

14 megapixels

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

4" x 6"

Film Scanning

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$219.95 Amazon

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ClearClick QuickConvert 2.0 Review

Best Business Card/ID Scanner

Canon imageFormula R10

4.0 Excellent

• Excellent CaptureOnTouch app

• Accurate OCR

• Relatively low purchase price

• Light and compact

• A little sluggish

• Lacks mobile device support

• Lacks wireless connectivity

• No battery

If you don't need wireless, network, or mobile device support, Canon's imageFormula R10 is an inexpensive and efficient solution. In addition to the ability to digitize business and ID cards, its 20-sheet ADF lets you scan multipage one-and two-sided documents. Canon's CaptureOnTouch software provides a strong scanner interface, as well as document management features and business-card and financial-data archiving. The R10 isn't fancy, but it's a first-class scanner for basic needs.

Don't care about scanning with your smartphone and don't mind connecting a scanner to your laptop via a USB cable instead of Wi-Fi? The Canon R10 is ideal for travelers or home-based office users who need to digitize a variety of data.

Flatbed

Maximum Optical Resolution

600 ppi

Mechanical Resolution

600 ppi

Automatic Document Feeder

Ethernet Interface

Maximum Scan Area

Legal

Film Scanning

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$159.00 Amazon

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Canon imageFormula R10 Review

Buying Guide: The Best Portable Scanners for

Most portable scanners don't need to be plugged into an electrical outlet to function. A few have batteries, and others get their juice via a USB tether to your laptop or desktop PC. Truly wireless scanners transmit data to your PC, , or tablet over Wi-Fi, and some support memory cards that let you scan without a computing device on hand.

Many factors come into play when choosing a portable scanner. Frequent business travelers must balance their desire for the smallest and lightest scanner with the need for particular features such as two-sided (duplex) scanning, high resolution, and fast scanning speed. If you're digitizing documents, you'll need good optical character recognition (OCR) to turn printed pages into editable text; if you scan at high volume, you'll want to consider the scanner's duty cycle, which is the recommended number of pages it can scan per day, week, or month. If you mostly scan invoices, sales receipts, applications, and other short documents, a fancier device with a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF) may be overkill.

Let's take a closer look at what features make different portable scanners best suited for different tasks.

Manual-Feed vs. Sheetfed Portable Scanners

Portable scanners come in two basic types: manual-feed and sheetfed. The former accepts only one sheet at a time, though many can scan both sides of a page at once. Sheet-fed scanners come with ADFs for handling multi-page documents.

Portable scanners come in two basic flavors: manual-feed models (left) accept only one sheet at a time while sheetfeds (right) accept multipage jobs, usually up to 20 sheets. (Credit: Brother)

The majority of portable scanners are manual-feed or single-sheet machines. They cost less than their sheet-fed counterparts, sometimes much less. If you don't need an automatic document feeder, there's no reason to shell out for one. On the other hand, if you anticipate lots of scan jobs of more than two or three pages, you probably want a sheet-fed model. Most come with ADFs that hold up to 20 pages.

Simplex vs. Duplex vs. Wand Scanning: What&#;s the Difference?

Nearly as important as whether a portable scanner accepts one or multiple pages is whether it has two sensors (one for each side of a page). Dual sensors allow duplex scanning, capturing both sides in one pass as opposed to scanning one side, flipping the page over, and feeding it back into the scanner (simplex or manual duplex). Most sheet-fed mobile scanners are duplex, though some lower-end portables scan only one side at a time.

When scanning one- or two-page documents with a manual-feed scanner, capturing one side at a time isn't so bad, but the more double-sided pages you scan, the more time-consuming and tedious simplex scanning becomes. An ADF will save you a bit of trouble for longer two-sided documents.

With a wand scanner, you move the device over the source document, instead of the machine pulling the source over its sensors. (Credit: IRIScan)

If you want to scan a page from a book or something else that can't be fed into a conventional scanner, you need a wand scanner such as the IRIScan Book 5, which you hold in one hand and pass over the object you're scanning.

Portable Scanners: Connectivity and Compatibility

Portable scanners transfer data to computers, phones, and tablets by either USB or Wi-Fi. Of the two, USB is much more restrictive. It works only with a Windows PC or Mac (in some cases only Windows) and won't play well with your tablet or smartphone. Wi-Fi scanners may add the option to communicate wirelessly with Android and iOS apps as well as laptops and desktops.

A few portable scanners support autonomous scanning via SD flash cards or USB thumb drives. While you're on the road, your scans are saved to the memory device, and you can transfer them to your PC (or a network drive or cloud service) when you return to your office or home. This is ideal for situations where you have limited desk space or luggage room for both your scanner and your computer.

How Does a Portable Scanner Get Power?

As mentioned, most modern portable scanners can get their power over a USB connection. Those that have internal batteries (or can be upgraded to use them) will generally be able to charge from a laptop's USB port, but many scan and charge more quickly when using AC power. If you're primarily using the scanner away from wall outlets, make sure it supports USB 3.0, which will transmit data more quickly as well.

Some portable scanners have built-in batteries; others might run on batteries purchased separately. If you plan on using a battery-powered scanner, check its estimated runtime or scan rating. Some are good for only about 100 scans per charge; others can handle up to 1,000.

How Quickly Should Your Portable Scanner Scan?

Some of today's portable models are just as quick as some larger desktop document scanners, but scan times vary widely. A portable scanner's speed is heavily dependent on what you're scanning, how it's fed through the machine, and what kind of output you want. If the scanner is manual-feed or manual-duplex, you need to insert each page; a scanner with an ADF will take care of that for you and speed up the job. Post-scanning processing, such as converting an image of a document to editable and searchable text, will take more time than storing a quick, unprocessed image such as a scan of a business card.

(Credit: Epson)

Low-resolution scanning is relatively fast, but higher speed usually means lower quality. Typically, 300 dots per inch (dpi) is adequate for most text pages; anything lower can cause OCR accuracy to degrade. Most portable scanners support resolutions of at least 300dpi and some are capable of much higher.

Portable Scanner Software and OCR Accuracy

With a portable scanner, the software does the real heavy lifting: accepting the raw image data from the scanner, recognizing and deciphering text and converting it, paginating the blocks of now-editable text, and saving documents to a format compatible with their intended application.

Financial data, for instance, might go to Excel or an accounting program such as QuickBooks. Text saved as searchable PDFs or documents may be edited in Microsoft Word, sent via , saved to a cloud site, or printed. Contact information gleaned from business cards might be turned into leads in IRIS's Cardiris or Presto BizCard. Whatever you're scanning, you need to make sure your scanner comes with software that knows what to do with it. For the most part, the top scanner makers' products come with apps that address most applications for the kinds of media they are designed to scan. But this is one area where you should be as sure as you can be before pulling the trigger.

(Credit: Epson)

Each manufacturer includes its own bundle of scanner drivers, interface apps, and other productivity and convenience software, such as OCR, document management, and data archiving programs. Most scanners support ISIS and/or TWAIN drivers that let you scan directly into applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft PowerPoint.

Nowadays, most scanning and OCR apps are well-developed and mature, combining popular features with highly accurate text recognition and conversion. OCR accuracy is important for saving time&#;if fixing OCR errors takes longer than keying in or retyping a document, why bother with a scanner?&#;and most recent scanners, portable or otherwise, have no difficulty producing error-free recognition of text sizes down to 6 points or so. That's plenty small enough for most business applications. As long as you're scanning clean pages without stains, tears, wrinkles, or smudges&#;or business cards without fancy decorative fonts&#;any modern scanner should convert them without a hitch.

Specialized Scanners: Credit Card, ID Card, and Business Card Scanning and Archiving

If you've ever tried scanning 2-by-3-inch cards, you know it can be hard to get small cards or thick laminated ones to pass through a scanner without skewing or getting stuck. Many makers of portable scanners have addressed this by adding a dedicated slot designed to move cards through the paper path.

This Brother ADS-W comes ready to accommodate business cards and other small documents. (Credit: Brother)

If you plan to scan small or thick cards, save yourself some hassle and make sure you get a scanner that's ready to handle them.

What Do Scanner Volume Limits and Ratings Mean?

A scanner's daily "duty cycle" is the manufacturer's recommended limit or the number of scans you can do each day without causing undue wear and tear on the machine. This is usually a relatively large number. For a scanner with a 1,000-page daily duty cycle, you'd need to load its 20-page ADF more than 50 times in a day to exceed the volume limit. Even so, in most cases, you won't void a scanner's warranty by exceeding its duty cycle, so if you occasionally go above and beyond, don't be too concerned.

How Important Is a Portable Scanner&#;s Size and Weight?

If you're throwing your portable scanner into a carry-on bag or backpack, you'll want to pay attention to its size and girth. Once you've packed a laptop, its AC adapter, and any other gear you need to take with you such as a portable printer, adding a four-pound scanner can seriously weigh you down. To save your back, look for the lightest and smallest model with your feature requirements.

(Credit: Epson)

The average cord-powered, manual-feed portable scanner weighs about a pound and measures around 2 inches square by 10 to 12 inches long. The features that add the most heft and volume are batteries and automatic document feeders, so if you don't need those, spare yourself the effort of hauling them around.

If you really do need both a printer and a scanner on the road, the least burdensome option might be something like the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-in-One, which measures 3.6 by 15 by 7.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.5 pounds. If you're setting up a full-featured office in your car or hotel room, an AIO unit will save you from juggling separate devices with a higher combined weight and footprint.

So, Ready to Buy the Right Portable Scanner?

Today's range of portable scanners is really impressive, and the selections we've gathered here&#;including several that have earned our Editors' Choice designation&#;should include something for anyone who needs to scan on the go. Take time to weigh the factors that matter most to you, and you'll find a portable scanner that hits the sweet spot. Decided instead that you need a bigger scanner that will live permanently in your office? Check out our recommendations for the best scanners overall.

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