Souped-Up Scanners

Compared with trendy digital cameras, scanners may seem a little past their prime. In a digital office, who needs to convert paper to bits anymore? Actually, paper has proliferated in the digital office, and we all have shoeboxes full of photos and slides that predate those pricey digital cameras. With their relatively low cost and their ability to quickly digitize documents, images, and even small objects, it's not surprising that scanners remain popular.

For this roundup we tested 16 models, ranging in price from $79 for a simple, home-oriented unit to $1000 for a heavy-duty corporate box suitable for high-volume graphics work. We evaluated each scanner on image quality, performance, features, ease of use, and price. Our battery of tests has several new elements, including a close-up look at line art, which we scanned at each model's maximum resolution and then viewed at 100 percent size on a monitor. Though this test doesn't reflect typical real-world use, it really showed our judging panel what these scanners can do. Read "How We Test" to learn more about our revised test suite for scanners.

Both our small-office and our corporate Best Buy selections are new models from the same vendor: Microtek. On the small-office side of the chart, the $150 ScanMaker 4900's robust features, well-designed driver, and great user experience come at a compelling price. For corporate settings, the $400 ScanMaker 6700's attractive image quality, solid overall performance, and versatility give it the edge over the competition.