Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Mobile Document Scanner | Best Product 2014

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Mobile Document Scanner

CUSTOMER REVIEW



As you've probably seen, the original Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 Scanner (PA03603-B005) has received great reviews here on Amazon. So what's this S1300i (notice the "i") all about?



What's New?

Basically, it's just faster, up to 1.5x faster (up to 12 double-sided color pages per minute) than the original S1300 model. Everything else seems to be the same. Fujitsu boasts some new software features, but from what I understand, these features are also available to the original S1300 through a software update:



- Scan to mobile: you still need to have your ScanSnap connected to your computer and your computer powered on, but you can easily transfer scans to your iOS or Android device over WiFi



- Scan to DropBox: Technically, you could do this before since you could just set your destination folder to your DropBox folder, but now DropBox is directly supported



- ScanSnap Folder (PC-only): This sets up a temporary folder that allows you to then quickly attach a scan to a program that is not directly support. For example, if you wanted to e-mail a receipt through G-Mail's web interface, you would scan it to the ScanSnap Folder, then attach it from G-Mail's website. The folder automatically deletes the document after a configurable number of days.



PROs



+ This thing can handle pretty much everything I throw at it: receipts, forms, photos, even old greeting cards. Some things you can't scan include anything with whiteout or a sticky substance on it since it can get caught in the rollers or smear up the scanning glass (although, these things can be cleaned). Even though a document feeds in crooked, the software does a great job correcting the slant in most cases.



+ You can power it with two USB ports, although scanning is a bit slower compared to when it is powered by the AC adapter.



+ Scanning directly to Evernote is awesome: just select Evernote from the Quick Menu that displays after the scan and your document appears in the Evernote application instantly



+ It works with Macs and Windows and includes software for both (there are some differences, such as ScanSnap's Organizer program which is PC-only)



+ Paper jams are easy to clear by just opening up the front flap



+ Front and back scanning in one pass is amazing! The software can intelligently distinguish if a document is one-sided and then removes the blank pages from your scan



+ This thing is sturdy! I wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it is, which is a good thing. When folded up, this thing is a solid brick.



CONs



- OCR (converting the document into usable text) can take a while to process after scanning (my multifunction printer/scanner seems to handle OCR a lot quicker, albeit less accurately than the ScanSnap)



- It can't handle a huge stack of documents (maybe about 10-15 pages), but it's fairly easy to "sneak" a few pages in at the end while it's running. UPDATE: Thanks to Andrei in the comments for pointing out that the software can be configured to prompt you if you want to add additional scans to the current document.



Overall, if you're looking to go paperless in your home or office, you can't go wrong with the ScanSnap 1300i!



UPDATE: 1.5 years later and this scanner is still going strong! Jacc on the third page of the comments has some great information for "power users" for securing your documents and setting up profiles.