ScanSnap fi-5110EOXM - document to PDF scanner

Finally I am reviewing a mac only product! I can’t explain how excited I am to tell you how simple, effective, easy, pleasent and fantastic the Fujitsu scanner is. And it really is all of those things.

I used to run my own company a while back. I was never particularly good with a fax machine or admin (or both combined for that matter). The most frustrating thing was having to deal with reems and reems of paper work that I had either written out, written down, filled in, filled out or filled up. I hate paper and I hate killing trees. I really wish that I had the Scansnap back then.

What ScanSnap is in a nutshell is a single page scanner that turns your paper documents in to PDF’s.

Installation

Was an absolute pleasure. You are provided with two installation discs. The first that you will need to pop in is the software and drivers for the ScanSnap. This is simple and easy if you have a Mac. There is no option if you don’t have a Mac…you’ll need to go out and buy one before you start the installation!

Once the drivers and software are installed you’ll need to install Adobe Reader Standard. V.7 is supplied and it worked simply and effectively too. I wish that there was more for me to write regarding the installation but there isn’t. It really was that simple.

Device Setup

There are a few bits and pieces that come with the ScanSnap but nothing overwhelming. Simply unpack the main machine and peel off a few pieces of red tape strapping some parts down and you are golden. There are basic steps to follow that are obvious and simple, unwrap, plug in to USB, plug in to power… This is where one tiny hitch popped up. The machine is American. Yessiree, born and bred in the great US of A. We all know what that means for our plugs; you’ll need a converter to run this badass scanner.

Once you have sorted out that small problem you will be well on your way to optimising your desk and office space.

Size

Since we are talking about desks and offices it must be mentioned that the ScanSnap is tiny. It is slightly larger than the width of an A4 piece of paper and about half the height. Sure it’s not as thin but I am sure that with a few more years of technological developments that wont be far off!

You can easily slip the ScanSnap on to a desk or in to your office with no-one noticing. It’s really that small. And silent.

Scanning

Some quick and basic specs:

• A4 colour scanner
• 15 pages per minute
• Duplex (30 images per minute)
• 50 sheet feeder
• Interface: USB

What the above means for us as end users is that you get a fast and effective scanner that does a great job of turning your “real paper” documents in to PDF’s for you to use digitally at your will. I was somewhat sceptical about this device as I have only ever used flatbed scanners, not single paper feeders.

To my surprise everything went swimmingly. The setup was simple, altering the settings was a breeze and the actual scanning was incredibly quick. The page was loaded in, it was sucked down and was spewed out in a matter of seconds. Literally.

But what did take me some time was figuring out that there is not home base for the scanner, no software basecamp, if you will. To scan, you simply hit the “Scan” button and it scans, opens up the scanned document and you are A-for-Away.

The other really great thing about the ScanSnap is that it scans both sides of the page you are scanner at the very same time.

What I’ve done is attempt to be somewhat smart and geekish and add a scanned PDF of a magazine page that I tested. Hopefully you’ll be able to download the example and see for yourself what the scanner can do.

Rate this review:

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Filed Under Featured Reviews, Other Gadgets