Feature: How Portable Is the Portable Office?

I recently flew cross-country on short notice to help a friend in crisis. At the time, I was dealing with inordinate deadline pressures, but I decided to stay a week anyway and work out of my friend's home. Knowing that his idea of home-office technology is a cordless phone and a sticky pad, I decided to bring an office with me.

Ordinarily, I travel with my Dell Inspiron 8100 notebook, a mobile phone, and my Palm M515. But before departing on this particular work-laden journey, I also ordered Canon's portable BJC-55 bubble jet printer and Ambir Technology's TravelScan Pro portable scanner to take along. As I sat on my Samsonite to force it closed, I asked myself: Would the portable printer and scanner truly be worth lugging along, or could I just as easily get by without them? What kind of quality could I expect from them? And could I get all these gadgets past airport security without incident?

To my surprise, not one airport security official asked me about either the scanner or the printer in my carry-on notebook bag. Nor did they require me to remove them from the bag and have them scanned separately, as they did my notebook. As for the usefulness and quality of the portable devices, read on.

Canon BJC-55

There are different flavors of portable printers. Some, such as Pentax Technologies' PocketJet 200, have a thermal printhead, which requires the use of special thermal paper and can print only monotone text and images (with fax-machine-like quality). Others, such as the Olympus P-200, are designed to be portable photo printers, capable of producing good-looking color images. But they, too, require special paper and generally aren't geared for printing documents.

The last thing a harried business traveler needs is to run out of a special paper at a crucial moment. So I set my sights on a general, all-purpose color printer that could fit easily into my notebook bag (along with the laptop and scanner) and didn't require special paper. The Canon BJC-55 ($349) seemed a promising match.

The BJC-55 weighs just 2.1 pounds. At 11.9 inches wide, 4.4 inches deep, and 2 inches high, it's easy to slip into a computer bag. Canon's other portable model, the BJC-85, is less expensive ($299) but is heavier and bulkier: It weighs 3.1 pounds with battery, and is 2.3 inches wide, 3.1 inches deep, and--here's the deal killer for me--6.2 inches high.

After several weeks of regular use, I have almost no complaints about the BJC-55. With print resolution of 720 by 360 dots per inch, its color image and text quality are quite good. The quality isn't the best I've ever seen, but I'm willing to make concessions for a printer this portable. The BJC-55 spit out pages fairly quickly. It offers both USB 1.1 and infrared interfaces. And it was delightfully easy to set up on my Windows XP notebook; I just plugged in a USB cable and it almost instantly recognized the printer.

The unit I received from Canon didn't include the optional Auto Sheet Feeder ($60). But unless you'll regularly print long documents, you probably won't need it. Feeding one sheet after another into the printer at a time was easy, thanks to an on-screen prompt and the printer's front cover that, when popped open, serves as a single-sheet feeder that keeps pages in a straight line.

Another optional purchase is Canon's IS-12 color image scanning cartridge ($99). By inserting it in place of the ink cartridges, the BJC-55 is transformed into a scanner with up to 360 dpi resolution. Unfortunately, Canon didn't have a scanning cartridge available for me to evaluate.

As with most color printers, the BJC-55's cost of consumables can get expensive. My unit shipped with the BC-11e Color BJ Cartridge ($45), which can be refilled using color ($22) and black ($12) ink tanks. Also, the printer didn't ship with a USB cable--a small annoyance if you have an extra one, a big pain if you don't and you're heading out for a trip.

Was it worth the trouble to take the BJC-55 with me? Absolutely. During my trip I received several faxes via my EFax account (which delivers faxes to an e-mail in-box) that needed to be printed. And more than once I printed maps and driving directions from MapQuest that helped me navigate an unfamiliar city.

For more information about the BJC-55 printer, go to Canon's Web site. For the best prices, check out the PCWorld.com Product Finder.

TravelScan Pro & PaperPort

Ambir Technology's TravelScan Pro & PaperPort ($129) is a hardware/software combo that includes a USB 1.1 scanner, which weighs only 12 ounces, plus ScanSoft's PaperPort scanning and document management software. The TravelScan Pro's slim design measures just 10.75 inches wide, 1.75 deep, and 1.25 inches high. It looks like one of those keyhole punchers that no one seems to use anymore.

Aside from a slight setup scare and a minor glitch, I got plenty of use from this portable color scanner. During my trip, for instance, one of the faxes I received was a contract requiring my signature. After printing the fax, I signed on the dotted line, scanned the document, and faxed it back via EFax. The entire process took only a few minutes. In addition, I scanned 4-by-5 color pictures and edited them using the included PaperPort 7.0 LE software.

To begin scanning, I launched the PaperPort application, clicked the Twain button, and selected the icon matching the desired scanning job (such as a document to be faxed). The icons invoke pre-set scanner settings for each of five scanning job types, a big convenience for busy users or neophytes. Feeding pages into the scanner was easy, and the PaperPort software simplified the inevitable image straightening chore.

With its 300 dpi resolution, the quality of the TravelScan Pro's scanned color images and text documents was good, though a bit dark. The software includes enough easy-to-use editing tools to satisfy most casual users. The Adjust Picture command, for instance, displays multiple versions of the same image so you can pick the one you like best. Admittedly, though, I got better image results when I imported the TravelScan image into Adobe Photoshop

As for the slight setup scare, I received a Windows XP notice during the scanner's installation stating that the TravelScan Pro "has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows XP." The message said that installation "may impair or destabilize the correct operation of your system either immediately or in the near future." I gulped, said a little prayer, and continued the installation.

An Ambir spokesperson assured me the scanner works just fine with Windows XP; the company simply hadn't submitted to Microsoft's lengthy and costly Windows XP certification process. Ambir's new scanner, the TravelScan 464, will be submitted for Windows XP certification, he added, followed by the TravelScan Pro.

Despite the unnerving message, I had no problems with the scanner or anything else on my system. Days later, however, I plugged the scanner into the USB port for the second time, and Windows XP thought it was new hardware. I had to install the scanner driver again (and endure that scary message again). On subsequent reboots, however, the scanner worked without a hitch.

The TravelScan Pro isn't the only portable color scanner available. But it's one of the smallest, the price is reasonable, the image quality is good, and the included PaperPort software is easy to use and efficient.

For more about the TravelScan Pro & PaperPort, go to Ambir's Web site. For the best TravelScan Pro & PaperPort prices, look on our Product Finder. (Ambir also sells the TravelScan Pro without PaperPort.)

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