Xerox Mobile Scanner

Nearly identical to the Editors' Choice Visioneer Mobility ($199.99 direct, 4 stars), the Xerox Mobile Scanner ($249.99 direct) adds a single feature to justify its higher price: an Eye-Fi card that can automatically send scan results to your Android or iOS phone or tablet by WiFi as you scan. As with the Visioneer model, this solves the key issue for scanning without a computer: it lets you see the scan quality while you can still rescan if you need to. The Mobile Scanner's Eye-Fi card is a more expensive solution than the Mobility's USB cable, but it's also a lot slicker, making the Xerox Mobile Scanner just as much an Editors' Choice.

Eye-Fi cards, like the Editors' Choice Eye-Fi Mobile X2 ($79.99 direct, 4 stars) are separate, standalone products. The size of an SD card, they slip into a card slot to provide various amounts of memory, and WiFi capability. They're also meant to be used with the Eye-Fi Web site, which I'm basically going to ignore for purposes of this review.

Although Eye-Fi cards are generally used with cameras, you can buy one separately to use with the Visioneer Mobility if you like. According to Xerox, however, the version that comes with its Mobile Scanner is available only with the scanner, adding support for PDF as well JPG files. In addition, the Xerox version of the scanner itself includes firmware changes to work more efficiently with the card. So if you got a Visioneer Mobility and a separate card, you still wouldn't have quite a match for Xerox Mobile Scanner.

The Basics
The Mobile Scanner, like the Visioneer Mobility, is a little large and heavy for a portable, at 2 by 11.7 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and 1.5 pounds. Keep in mind, however, that it eliminates the need to bring along a computer for scanning, which would be even heavier. The scanner comes with a soft protective case to make it easier to carry.

Basic setup for the hardware consists of charging the battery. Beyond that, you have several options, depending on how you want to scan. You can plug in a USB memory key or standard SD card to scan to, you can connect by USB cable to your computer to scan to your PC, or, of course, you can plug in the Eye-Fi card to scan to it. For my tests, I used the Eye-Fi card.

Setting up the card isn't as easy as it should be. There are no instructions in the printed quick start guide, and trying to jump back and forth between the PDF User Guide in one window and the setup screen in another window is annoying at best. The actual setup isn't all that hard, however, and once you get through it, the card works as promised. As you might guess, part of the setup includes downloading a free app to your phone or tablet.

Eye-Fi offers a variety of setup options to choose from. For my tests, I set the card to talk directly to my Android phone, and also automatically upload the files over the Internet to a designated folder on my computer. With this setup, I could check the quality of each scan immediately after scanning, and then find the files on my system later to work with them, without any additional steps.

Scanning
Scanning with the Mobile Scanner couldn't be easier. The one setting option lets you scan to a color JPG file, a black and white PDF image file, or a color PDF image file, all at 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Turn the scanner on, choose the file type, feed paper into the front slot, and the scanner will grab it and scan. After a short wait, you can use the Eye-Fi app on your phone or tablet to look at the scan, and optionally send it elsewhere manually. If you've set it to upload the scans to your computer, however, that part will happen automatically.

The programs that come with the scanner are among the best available for their individual applications. PaperPort 12, in particular, offers excellent document management capability. In fact, it's responsible for the Mobile Scanner getting as a high a score as a manual feed, simplex (one-sided) scanner can get for document management. Also included are Nuance OmniPage 17 for optical character recognition (OCR) and NewSoft Presto! BizCard 5 for business cards. All of these programs can import scanned files to work with.

Results
The combination of the Mobile Scanner and OmniPage 17 did a remarkably good job on text recognition. In my tests, the scanner read both our Times New Roman and Arial test pages at sizes as small as 5 points without a mistake. It also did will with BizCard for business cards, making one or no mistakes on the vast majority of cards, and synching with Outlook without problems. The only potential issue for business cards is that BizCard can read JPG files only, so if you accidentally scan to PDF format, you have to rescan.

The Xerox Mobile Scanner offers everything that made the Visioneer Mobility an Editors' Choice, and more. Setup could be improved, simply by including printed instructions for the Eye-Fi card, but that's a one-time issue. Once you've set everything up, any frustrations quickly fade into the past. And although using a USB cable with the Mobility scanner and a smartphone is far from onerous, not having to connect it and still being able to see the scan results is better. The Mobility is still Editors' Choice material, but if you don't mind spending a few extra dollars, the Xerox Mobile Scanner is better, making it a higher-end Editors' Choice.

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