Richard Jantz

The $350 (as of February 1, 2011) iVina BulletScan S300 is the only model among the portable scanners we've tested lately that offers a preconfigured option to scan your documents to Google Docs automatically. That feature, coupled with the scanner's solid performance and reasonable price, rockets the S300 past most of its competition.

Google Docs not your thing? No matter: With a minimal amount of manual intervention, you can easily create additional one-click button functionality for automatically scanning and uploading your documents to other cloud-based services, such as Evernote, iTunes iBooks, and YouSendit. Although you can find third-party utilities (such as CloudZap) that automate the process of scanning to the cloud, the S300 has included this convenience as part of its scanning-software architecture. In testing this feature, we had to take only a few seconds to fill in the information required in order to start scanning our documents to our Google Docs account. Kudos to iVina for acknowledging the growing trend of scanning to the cloud.

In years past, scanning a stack of documents required using hefty equipment that gobbled up a fair amount of desktop space. Nowadays the latest document scanners are smaller and more mobile than ever before, yet are just as capable of working their way through piles of pages. If you're looking for a portable scanner for your business or your home office, one of the models we reviewed recently may be just what you need.

All of the products we evaluated are portable sheetfed scanners that weigh less than 4 pounds, have a native resolution of 600 dpi, sport an automatic document feeder, and can scan both single- and double-sided pages from color and black-and-white documents. All of these scanners support both wall-powered and USB-powered operation, so you don't have to lug a power brick and cable around for field use.

The $295 (as of February 1, 2011) Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 is a small, 600-dpi portable scanner that handles up to ten pages in its automatic document feeder, performs double-sided scanning, and provides good-looking images from a variety of documents. The S1300 is one of the few portable scanners available that offer the productivity advantage of a built-in ADF that's designed to travel along with the scanner itself. As such, the S1300 is an excellent choice if you need a home or office document scanner that's also mobile.

This compact scanner weighs only 3.08 pounds and measures 11.18 by 3.9 by 3.03 inches (width by depth by height), or roughly the size of a small Duraflame fire log. Outfitted with a single start button that launches easy-to-use scanner software, the S1300 can run on either USB power or a wall outlet. Its cover lid also serves as a paper-chute extension for holding a stack of pages, and it easily folds up when not in use. A power cord and power supply, a USB cable, and a USB power cord are all provided; you'll need your own carrying bag for toting the scanner and cables on the road, however.

It's no surprise that the $400 (as of February 1, 2011) IRIS IRIScan Pro 3 Office portable scanner is one of the best models for optical character recognition tasks, since IRIS has been one of the leading OCR vendors for several years. This IRIScan scanner is a smart choice if your scanning needs involve a lot of OCR work, since it comes bundled with the full-featured Readiris Corporate 12 OCR application; that app produced excellent accuracy when we scanned a variety of test documents.

In addition to the full version of Readiris, the IRIScan Pro 3 Office ships with IrisFile Pro 12 for document management and Cardiris Pro 5 for business-card recognition, both of which performed impressively during our review.

Weighing just 2.87 pounds, the $270 (as of February 1, 2011) Plustek MobileOffice AD450 is the smallest and least-expensive portable scanner we tested in our latest batch. This 600-dpi model handles up to 20 pages in its automatic document feeder, performs double-sided page scanning, and provides good image quality in scanning a variety of documents. But its scanning speed is sluggish in comparison with other models we tried.

On our performance tests, the AD450 was the slowest of the five scanners in our roundup. That didn't surprise us, however, considering that Plustek rates the AD450 as only a 6-ppm scanner (when processing single-sided color pages at 200 dpi), versus the 15-ppm specification (same parameters) of the three fastest models. The AD450 took 193 seconds to scan a double-sided, 15-page, monochrome text-only document at 200 dpi, far behind the group average of 86 seconds for the same test. In scanning color documents it was equally slow: It required 46 seconds to scan a double-sided, 6-page, color text-and-graphics document at 150 dpi, versus the group average of 24 seconds for the same test. Running on USB power, the AD450 needed a total of 97 seconds to scan two color and two monochrome (both single- and double-sided) pages, as opposed to 67.5 seconds for the next-fastest model (the Visioneer Strobe 500).

The Visioneer Strobe 500's combination of superior performance, excellent image quality, versatile features, and easy operation earned it the top ranking among the five portable scanners we tested for our latest roundup. Priced at $400 (as of February 1, 2011), the Strobe 500 is a bit of a hybrid that's actually two scanners in one. First and foremost, it's a 600-dpi, duplex page scanner fitted with a 20-page automatic document feeder capable of churning through 15 pages per minute (in color or monochrome mode, at 200 dpi). Second, it also functions as a lightweight mobile scanner that you can detach from the ADF dock and take on the road.

Out of the box, the Strobe 500 measures 11.7 by 4.8 by 4.7 inches (width by depth by height); its extendable input and output trays add several inches to its overall height and depth, but they fold up nicely when not in use. When detached from the ADF docking station, the scanner module alone measures 11.7 by 3.3 by 2.8 inches, and is only about as large as a box of gallon-size storage bags. A power supply, power cord, USB cable, and USB power cord are also included.

The slender Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 ($199 as of February 1, 2011) is barely the size of a slim, three-hole paper punch, but this USB-powered, single-button portable scanner packs quite a punch of its own.

Weighing barely 12 ounces and measuring 10.7 by 1.9 by 1.3 inches (width by depth by height), the S1100 is a 600-dpi, simplex (one-sided) page scanner capable of digitizing both single- and multiple-page documents with aplomb. I was impressed by the overall speed and fine image quality (accurate colors, sharp edges) of the production unit I tested, and I recommend it to anyone who needs a mobile scanner that's both easy to carry and easy to use.

3M's MPro120 delivers bright, high-quality images. Measuring just 0.9 by 2.4 by 4.7 inches, the 5.6-ounce MPro120 isn't much bigger than a thick candy bar, and it fits into a pocket just as easily.

Though it has the same basic design as its predecessor, the MPro110, this version has a sharply higher brightness rating (12 lumens, versus 8 lumens for the MPro110), a better battery-life spec (2 to 4 hours, up from 90 minutes), and a longer warranty (one year instead of 90 days). Most significantly, the MPro120 comes equipped with 3M's newest LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) projection engine, the MM200, which delivers higher-quality images than the earlier MM100 LCoS engine could.

Aaxa's P2 combines SVGA (800 by 600) native resolution, a brightness rating of 33 lumens, and 30,000 hours of LED light--some of the strongest specifications we've seen in a pico projector.

This LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) unit also displays sharp, legible text and has a built-in media player with 1GB of memory, a 4GB MicroSD card reader, and dual 0.5-watt speakers, so it can independently display presentations, photos, and video.

If you want a pico projector that can display bright and colorful presentations all by itself, Optoma's PK102 may be what you need. Weighing 4.4 ounces, the 0.6-by-2.0-by-4.1-inch PK102 is the smallest pico projector we've recently tested. Despite being roughly the size of a deck of cards, however, this model packs enough power for solo business presentations for small audiences under low light conditions.

The PK102 has a brightness rating of 11 lumens (8 lumens in economy mode); delivers 20,000 hours of LED light; and has 4GB of internal memory for storing presentations, movies, video clips, and digital images. It uses Texas Instruments' DLP (Digital Light Processing) projection technology, and comes bundled with VGA, USB, and composite (RCA-type) A/V cables for connecting it to any device that has video signal output. To use the PK102 with an iPod or an iPhone, however, you'll need a third-party cable (not included). Or you can leave the cables behind, and use the PK102's built-in media player to project your presentations, photos, and videos. Depending on the brightness mode you select, its battery capacity is 60 to 90 minutes.

Aiptek's versatile PocketCinema V10 Plus pico projector has features that its rivals lack, along with some limitations. Its best attribute is its ability to display presentations, photos, and videos without being attached to an external device.

With a brightness rating of 10 lumens, the V10 Plus can put on a show for a small audience in a room with minimal ambient light. Its small metal tripod and useful remote control simplify setting it up and controlling your presentation from anywhere in the room.

WowWee's Cinemin Swivel pico projector is made for watching iPod videos or playing games on the ceiling. Of course, you can point any handheld pico upward to display images overhead, but the Cinemin Swivel does it without requiring any handholding. Its unique, adjustable, 90-degree hinge lets you swing the lens through a wide arc of display angles while you relax on your sofa or bed. In addition, the Cinemin Swivel can handle business presentations for a very small group in a dimly lit room.

The Cinemin Swivel permits you to deliver an iPod presentation or show an iPhone video right out of the box, thanks to the bundled iPod/iPhone 30-pin adapter; other pico projectors require an extra-cost, third-party cable. If your main goal is to use a pico as an Apple accessory, the Cinemin Swivel is a solid choice. It also comes with a composite (RCA-type) A/V cable for connecting the projector to a digital camera, video game console, or other mobile device. You'll have to pay $40 extra, however, to get the VGA-to-A/V converter accessory (Cinemin Swap) you'll need to hook up the projector to a computer.