Scanners > Flatbed scanner Scanners

Advantages: Cheap, USB powered, not bad software (except text recognition)
Disadvantages: Slow, Text recognition software is hopeless

I've had this scanner for ages...so long that I can't remember when I actually got it! But this does show that it is built well, as it has been moved around my house to a number of different locations, and been bashed around a bit, and still works fine! However, even though it is durable, it is slow, taking about 30 seconds on average to scan 1 page. This doesn't sound too bad, but compared to some it is very slow, but for the price you really can't ...
...is hopeless, to test it I printed off some text from Word (at about size 14), scanned it using the software and it had trouble picking that up, it came out with about 3 different sizes of text and about 3 different fonts! The speed of scan and text recognition are about the only bad things I can think of about this scanner, considering the price. The colour sensitivity is very good and when it is on SuperFine resolution, the scan quality is excellent. ... Read review

Advantages: good quality, good price
Disadvantages: noisey

Buying this on recommendation from Staples, I was pleased the salesman was honest with me. My mum had bought me a scanner that needed extra cables and port-things (technical eh?!) to go with it, and they were going to cost an extra thirty or so pounds. The bloke said this one was actually better, despite it being 20 or 30 pounds less, it seems the cut in price has not affected anything much quality wise. I had used the scanner I replaced once, not ...
...one was much better, in terms of quality, speed and options when scanning. This scanner is probably not the fastest one around, but it gets the job done, and it gets the job done well. It will pre-scan the image for you, which takes just a few seconds, this is mainly so that you can get a rough idea about what the image looks like without wasting time on the full scan. The full scan does take a minute or two (A4 obviously) but the results are worth ... Read review

Advantages: Good resolution, good build quality, good drivers, price
Disadvantages: A little slow

I bought this scanner for about £90 December 2000. The scanner is quite a big machine in comparison to others like Canon but at least it's sturdy and well built. The quality of the scans are very good although the scanner is very slow. The parallel interface is partly the problem but the scanner head moves slowly anyway. Fortunately, speed isn't much of an issue here but because of the interface you can't do anything else with the computer while ...
...very easy to use and has some good features. There is an online scanner manual as well as the paper manual and an online driver manual. The driver is an industry standard TWAIN driver so it can be used in all supported applications. The scanner features a 1200 x 1200 PPI (optical resolution) scan head which offers single pass 36 bit colour scans and 12 bit grey. The maximum interpolated resolution is 9600 PPI. The scanning area is 8.50 x 11.70 inches. ... Read review

Advantages: Build Quality Looks Like It Will Last Forever
Disadvantages: No Longer Made

...the TWAIN driver from the Epson website which also includes support for Windows 95,98,Me,NT 4.0,2000 as well as Mac 7.5.1 and later. Which is good to see as so many firms don't seem to provide drivers for Windows Me. I so pleased with this scanner I strongly suggest you try and pick one up secondhand as they are so well built compared to the new models. ... Read review

Advantages: Pocket friendly price tag
Disadvantages: Not the fastest scanner in the world

...having a sale and the Mustek 600 CP was a good price, £44.94. I had heard of Mustek's reputation for quality and reliability and thought this to be a bargain. On getting my brand new, shiny scanner home it was a doddle to set up and configure, just follow the instructions and you're there. Even the supplied software was easy to install - Textbridge and iPhoto Plus. The installation guide booklet is handy and gives step-by-step instructions on how ...
...for. To summerise, the Mustek 600 CP is an adequete scanner for most uses. It is affordable to most people and it does a fairly good job of it. If you can reach a little deeper into your pockets, you may want to spend a little more for a higher resolution USB scanner, if not, this one will do the job. ... Read review