Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is the successor to the popular ScanSnap S510. Unlike a flatbed scanner, the S1500 is a sheet-fed scanner, allowing it to process multiple pages very quickly, and it takes up less space on a desktop. Since its primary purpose is scanning documents, the S1500 has a relatively low scanning resolution (600 dpi), though that is typical in its class. Reviewers say the S1500 is a leader, boasting real-time speeds better than Fujitsu's estimate of 20 pages per minute. It has an auto-duplexer, allowing it to scan both sides of a page at once, and it even scans business cards. The only real complaint from reviewers is that the ScanSnap S1500 doesn't come with drivers for third-party applications; users are stuck with the included utilities. However, the S1500 comes packaged with an impressive collection of applications, including Fujitsu's ScanSnap Organizer and CardMinder software, as well as Adobe Acrobat 9 for editing PDFs and ABBYY FineReader, an optical character recognition (OCR) program. A separate model, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M (*Est. $425) is available for Macintosh computers and otherwise differs only in its color scheme.

PCMag.com, currently the best source for scanner reviews, has a thorough look at the ScanSnap S1500, and Britain's IT Reviews evaluates the model too. Macworld doesn't test the S1500, but the site does have a good write-up of the S510M, the similar Mac predecessor of the S1500. Both the S1500 and S1500M get about the same amount of user reviews on Amazon.com, with equally positive feedback. Newegg.com's contributors are also quite pleased overall with the S1500.