Is a portable computer scanner really worth buying? Depending upon the business, portable computer scanners for some businesses are almost inevitable, for others it is a matter of choice and can work around things to accommodate their needs.

RETAIL OUTLETS

Supermarkets, pharmacies, general stores, literally every place that has a point of sale (POS) these days, require portable scanners. Though these devices are standalone and are specifically designed for barcode reading, these devices provide an easy, efficient and speedy procedure at the POS. These portable scanners come along with application software installed in a computer. This ensures a faster and accurate point of sale. Portable computer scanner system provides a complete inventory system. The application software is designed smartly to automatically update the inventory lists every time a product has been detected by the portable scanner. Library is another place where these devices are extremely important. Record keeping and book listing without computer scanners these days seems impossible. Video centers, bookstalls, pharmacies, post offices, warehouses, all these places depend upon portable computer scanners for efficient and accurate procedures.

There are a number of portable scanners available in market for this specific task. These vary with their size, speed and manufacture. However, Symbol LS2208 Barcode scanner is an excellent choice. Manufactured by Symbol Technologies, this device weighs 3.5 ounces, and has a fast performance speed of 100 scans per second. Wasp WWS500 Freedom cordless barcode scanner is another excellent choice. Although expensive this device provides a cordless environment and uses Bluetooth technology instead for communication. It has a blazing speed of 230 scans per second.

OFFICE USE

Depending upon the nature of the business, you may choose the Frontgate Wand scanner. Easy to go this device is portable and can easily scan text and images both. Light weight, easy to handle, this devices captures both monochrome and high resolution color images from any flat surface. Compatible with microSD cards, the digital files can be transferred to a laptop or computer via USB. If size is not an issue, many all-in-one portable computer scanners are a great choice for one stop solution. The HP Photosmart C4680 provides printing, scanning, copying and fax all in one and with high performance. This device is an ultimate choice for mobile offices.

TEXT SCANNERS

If you are a student or a professional who requires text scanning, the WIZCOM InforScan TS Elite is an excellent choice. It is a pen scanner and scans text at 400 dpi and has built-in dictionary function. This device can store up to 20,000 lines of text and has a touch screen for easy menu navigation.

Handheld scanners are devices used for scanning images. Unlike flatbed scanners a handheld scanner needs to be moved across the image that needs to be scanned. The handheld scanners are generally inexpensive than the other counter products available in the market.

There are various types of handheld scanners available. The product varies from technical details to prices, usage and manufacturer. In this article we will provide the prices of a few popular handheld scanners along with their usage and features.

First is the handheld barcode scanner category. These are small and handy devices used in the supermarkets or any retail outlets. Their purpose mainly is to scan the barcodes available on each product or item, convert them into numbers or letters and transfer them into the computer for further evaluation.

The Royal Machines PS700 is a popular handheld barcode scanner. This device comes with a 9-pin female convertor and has a 1-inch scan distance capability. It has a weight of only 11.2 ounces and the listed price for this handheld portable scanner is $129.99

The Ccd Contact Barcode Scanner is another popular device. Using a USB connection and barely weighing 5.9 ounces this handheld barcode scanner is very reliable and can be used for many applications. Manufactured for durability, the NuScan 1000 barcode scanners are the best in their class. The listed price for this device is $144.31.

The LS2208 Barcode reader from Symbol Technologies offers a high performance scanning. Weighing 1.4 pounds this is a high performing reliable device. This handheld portable scanner is listed for $144.00.

The Wasp Bar Code 633808181031 scanner is a long range scanner. This product weight is 13.6 ounces and is listed at $189.99

The second category is the handheld page scanner. These devices are general purpose scanners and are mostly used for scanning documents and images.

The Brother Dsmobile Scanner DS-600 is a powerful, compact and light weight device. This 600-dpi color scanner provides exceptional quality scanning of documents and photos. It uses a high speed USB 2.0 interface. The listed price for this device is $149.99

The Wizcom Infoscan TS Elite dedicated handheld scanner is for scanning text. It is considered to be a perfect note-taker. This device has a storage capacity of 500 pages of editable text. This device is listed at $229.00

The Portable Wand Scanner by Frontgate is an excellent handheld page scanner as well as a photo scanner. Weighing only 1 pound, this device scans documents, photos, newspaper clippings, business cards and labels with speed. It captures monochromatic and high resolution 600 x 600 dpi color images from any flat surface. The listed price for this device is $119.50

A wireless portable printer can be a great companion for people who are traveling and want an instant printing solution instead of searching for the internet cafes and print shops. They can use these devices to immediately take prints of important documents and save them in their file folders.

A wireless portable printer is available at affordable prices and you will not have to spend a fortune on purchasing these products. A focus on printing speed and quality will land you the best products.

Canon BJC-80

This is among the best wireless portable printers. Perhaps the best feature of this printer is its compact design. You can take it anywhere you want as it is just 3.1 pounds in weight. It offers a resolution of 720 x 360 dpi and has a printing speed of up to 4.5 ppm for black and white and up to 2 ppm for color prints. It uses parallel and infrared interfaces and has dimensions of 11.8 x 6.2 x 2.2 inches. A 30-sheet input tray is included in the package.

HP OfficeJet H470 Mobile Printer

This HP wireless portable printer is equally good. It uses AC power supply through a cord and has an option for battery power that can also work with cigarette light adapter. It has a printing speed of up to 22 ppm for black and white and up to 18 ppm for color prints. It has a high resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi for Black-and-white prints and up to 4800 dpi for color prints. It uses a 50-sheet foldable input paper tray along with a manual duplexer. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless adapters are included as optional objects. It weighs 4.5 pounds and has product dimensions of 13.4 x 6.4 x 3.2 inches.

Canon PIXMA iP100 Mobile Photo Printer

This printer wireless comes with photo printing option. It is rather heavy at 10.7 pounds and has dimensions of 7. 2 x 12.7 x 2.4 inches. It has a printing speed of up to 20ppm for black-and-white documents and 14ppm for color prints. Its patented print head uses 1,856 nozzles that generate a magnificent print quality of 9600 x 2400 dpi. It fully supports

IrDA and PictBridge interface and let you print your pictures directly from your cell phones and digital cameras.

Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Inkjet Printer

This mini portable printer offers a printing speed of up to 12 ppm for color prints and up to 16 ppm for black and white prints. Resolutions are 4,800 x 1,200 dpi for color and 600 x 600 dpi for black and white, respectively. It comes with USB interface and is fully compatible with PC and Mac systems; PictBridge is also fully supported on this device. Pick any printers among these especially those offering high printing speed and quality.

A portable scanner printer has become a must have item for most people. They have become extremely mobile in recent years and offer you the option to take them with you to any place that you visit. The following tips will help you in finding the best devices.

The first thing to note before buying a portable scanner printer is the extent of use. Will you use it extensively or only sparingly? This question needs to be answered because you may end up buying a larger device that is difficult to carry and operate in a remote location if you do not pay much attention to this point. If you have an average printing need of 20 to 40 pages then you will need a portable printer and scanner. If the need is less then you can use an internet café or print shop instead of buying this device.

Canon portable printer scanner

Canon is one of the most popular manufacturers of portable printers. It manufactures so many devices that you can easily find one that best suits your needs. Portable devices generally offer a printing speed of 10 to 15 pages per minute. This is the second most important thing to take care of during a purchase. This speed is more than enough for you if you are traveling and you can also opt for devices that offer printing speeds of up to 20 pages. These are generally the higher end products that may cost you a little extra. Some of the smaller devices offer printing speeds of five pages per minute but are extremely compact and perfect for use in traveling.

You can also opt for portable printer scanner for laptop manufactured by other companies. HP is the name that instantly comes to mind when one thinks about printers. HP offers a number of products like HP mobile printers and other products that are good for travelers and people who want portable devices. With an average printing speed of 10 ppm, you can easily use it during your travel trips and during your train and airplane travels.

An ideal portable laptop printer scanner should have two basic qualities: light weight and moderate typing speed. You can add a third quality and that is the print quality. Focus should be on the first two priorities as the third one often comes as a bonus if you pick a high quality brand. Resolutions of at least 1200 dpi is recommended though some higher end devices offer color resolution of up to 2400 dpi and even higher. Lower end devices will offer a resolution of 600 dpi but are still good given their small size and light weight along with a very moderate price.

The travel scanner is making new head ways in today’s world, thanks to more compact technology and a fast paced lifestyle. To cater to all your documents needs, this innovative new product is on the market, available at different prices and with varying features.

The Ambir TravelScan Pro600 is a lightweight, portable scanner – perfect for a trip to the library. It is a sheet feed scanner with a resolution of 600 dpi. For a scanner so small, it can scan pages as large as legal size. As one of the best travel scanners on the market today though, it is not compatible with Macs.

In contrast, the NeatReceipts is another travel document scanner, priced at about $200 though with many more features.  It is perfect for traveling and scanning documents like business cards, ID cards, passports, copies of receipts etc. It was specially designed for vendors and a business market, and so is able to extract key information from the documents themselves, such as name, address, company title, etc. By saving your documents in as many formats as you want, you can create a database on your computer very easily.

Another travel scanner is the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner.  It is currently the world’s smallest travel scanner with ADF duplex technology, which means that it can scan your documents with more ease and speed than any other travel scanner on the planet. Weight about five pounds, the S300 scanner can be powered by a USB and instantly creates a searchable database in your computer through PDF and JPEG files. You can easily drag and drop, edit and delete scans and view thumbnails. This is one of the best travel scanners on the market, and is even giving flatbed scanners a run for their money!
Another of the many travel scanners available today is the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner. Small and portable, it is compatible with Macs and PCs. It scans in standard and high resolution, and can scan colored and monochromatic images very quickly. At high resolution the scanning speed is usually twenty eight seconds while with low resolution it is as quick as eight seconds. As a travel scanner, its uniqueness lies in that in can scan even A4 sheets: most small scanners do not support anything larger than an A3 sheet. It thus becomes an essential for scanning newspapers and magazines, for example, from library archives. USB powered, it is available for $90.

Today’s on the go lifestyle and home office culture has given way to new innovative office technology – such as small scanners. These scanners are small, portable and highly functional. They usually weigh a lot less than usual scanners and this means that they consume less electricity and produce less heat. These are ideal for businesspeople who travel a lot and for field researchers who may need to scan documents away from an office setting, etc.

The HP Scanjet offers three different types of small printers. The G3110 Photo Scanner, which is priced at $90 has good resolution and features available, but is lacking in speed. For $150 is the G4010 Photo Scanner which has better resolution than the aforementioned photo scanner, and also has better image resolution and features available. For a slightly larger budget of $200 you can get the G4050 Photo Scanner, which gives you the maximum and optimum combination of all three of these features combined in one. Ofcourse, though, the price reflects this.

The world’s smallest scanner is the DocuPen. As its name suggests, it is the size of a pen. But while most small scanners this size can scan only one line at a time, the DocuPen scans a whole page at a time. It also scans graphics, unlike normal pen scanners, and does this all in just four seconds!  It is priced at $200. Though this is mostly a small scanner for fashion and not so much for function, with its memory space limited to two megabytes and can store up to one hundred pages. With a weight of two ounces and measuring eight inches only, what more could you want?

Another option is to buy a small scanner printer.

For $167, you can get the Canon Pixma iP100, which is notorious for being small and portable and yet give you incredibly high quality photos. It prints up to twenty pages a minute and can hold up to fifty at a time. It has USB connectivity, as well as Bluetooth. With dimensions of 2.4 x 12.7 x 7.2 inches, the only disadvantage this scanner printer has is that it does not come with a case. But you can easily get a casing for it online.

If you’re looking for something cheaper though, the Canon BJC-50 is priced at $150.  For such a small price difference though the quality of your prints and scans is greatly changed. The BJC-50 can only scan five pages per minute and can feed only one page at a time. So even though it is highly portable as a small scanner, it takes away a lot from the quality and speed of your scans.