Scanners > UMAX Technologies Scanners > USB > 600 dpi x 1200 dpi

Advantages: reliable, durable and cheap
Disadvantages: Hand-writing recognition not that great.

...and finally decided on the UMAX Astraslim SE. At first I did not expect much from this scanner as it was less than £40 to buy but I must admit I was pleasantly surprised to find it was such a good investment. Along with it's scanning capabilities this piece of hardware also comes with a photocopier (direct image to printer), e-mail function which allows you to avoid the hassle of saving to the hard-drive in the correct format then having to find ...
...also comes with a handwriting recognition option and some limited recognition software. (textbridge and ABBYY) Other software included with the scanner is the Ulead photo express suite. This is a trial version but it has no time limit on it. It offers all of the basic features which are on the full version and it is actually quite good. Using this software you can edit photos with ease by cropping, rotating, changing the contrast and the brightness ... Read review

Advantages: Rather compact, excellent price, scanning positive image is very well
Disadvantages: Poor software, problems with USB, scanning of color negatives is bad

...of performance of the hardware Umax Astra 3450 have appeared much better on a comparison with the 2200 model. The scanner shown the excellent output results and good productivity. It is necessary to mark a high exactitude colors and balance on gray for scanning both in reflected, and in transparent light (for positive images). Essential defect of this model is the unsatisfactory quality of received images for scanning of color negatives owing to ... Read review

Advantages: Inexpensive, easy to install
Disadvantages: Quite bulky

I purchased this scanner to enable me to produce worksheets and leaflets for work and I have been very satisfied with its performance. This flat bed scanner is quite bulky but affordable. It has been very reliable and gives excellent quality output. The scanning process itself is quite slow, but reasonable for the price bracket it is in. The scanner is easy to install with a step by step CD to follow. There is quite a bit of software included with ... Read review

Advantages: cheap, reliable, quick [scsi], incs transparency adaptor
Disadvantages: no scsi support [afaik] under win2k

Looking for a cheap scanner, I happened upon this beauty in jungle? why beauty? well it only cost me £60 INCLUDING the transparency adaptor. and it includes a scsi port [a DB25 type, ie looks like parallel] as well as the more conventional USB type. This is a brilliant idea, although they only provide the cheaper USB cable [and it's quite short at that] It is reasonably quick through USB, not stunning but then I wouldn't expect so for this price. ...
...I was mightily impressed. It has the usualscsi pass through, scsi id etc. The buttons [to-program, copy, user-defined] on the scanner are useful, and it isn't *too* tricky to change what program it uses in the TWAIN drivers - it defaults to the included page something or other - not the adobe one oc! - which is fine for beginners, a pain for anyone else. Speaking of the TWAIN drivers, they aren't too bad as it happens. the basic will get you up and ... Read review

Advantages: Fast Scanning
Disadvantages: Software

I had my scanner for going on 2 years and had no problem with it at all. It has done everthing i wanted it to do and more. It has been like a good electronic friend thats always there. It has helped me on letter heading and putting personal pics onto my desktop with ease. Features Email button so that you can send your scanned document to anyone via internet Copy so that you can make juplicates of a document and scan button to edit you documents ...
...Brill at displaying the image With the sofware you can do just about anything to your image. Scan and edit document of your choise to what you want it to look like. And most of all a good price Very good for beginners and experts as well ... Read review