Compaq S200
Inexpensive scanner stumbles on image quality.
Richard Jantz
WHAT'S HOT: The Compaq S200 is easy to operate, has 48-bit color, and at only $80 is very inexpensive. It comes in at only $1 more than Canon's CanoScan N670U, the least-expensive scanner reviewed in our August 2002 comparison. The S200 scored a throughput rate of 363KB per second in the maximum-resolution test--considerably better than average compared with other current small-office models.
WHAT'S NOT: The S200 did very poorly on our image quality tests, placing last in our August 2002 comparison. All the photo samples appeared too dark and rather blurry; line art, while reasonably clean looking, didn't show the original's fine detail.
Although Compaq provides around-the-clock tech support for the S200, it's free for only 90 days; after that it costs $39.95 per call. The limited warranty also lasts only 90 days, whereas most models we test come with a one-year warranty. If you want to upgrade this scanner in the future, you'll be out of luck: Neither a transparency adapter nor an automatic document feeder is available for the S200.
WHAT ELSE: The S200 comes with an easy-to-install USB 1.1 interface and handy push buttons on the front panel to quick-start different scanning tasks. These buttons are set by default to scan automatically to a file or printer, to an image editing application, or to e-mail. You can also change the buttons' functions with Compaq's S200 Button Manager. Other software that comes with the S200 includes a TWAIN driver (called S200 Scan) with both beginner and advanced modes, ABBYY FineReader 4 Sprint for optical character recognition, and Ulead's PhotoExpress 4 CE for image editing.
UPSHOT: The Compaq S200 boasts a great price and good speed. But for the same price, the CanoScan N670U provides much better image quality.
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