Plustek OpticSlim M12 Plus Mobile Scanner - A Few Thoughts

[bbusybookworm]

Well, I got the Plustek OpticSlim M12 Plus Mobile Scanner a few days ago so that I could go as paperless as possible, especially when travelling.

(Especially after the 10th time someone asked me to fax them something, and I had go around like a headless chicken to find a Fax Machine, or even a proper land line as we were completely off the grid and dependent on Cell's )

Any way, this scanner is not going to be able to scan books ( raison d'être for many to get a scanner) as it is a single sheet fed scanner.

Specs are basic, with Colour scanning upto 600dpi.

It does have two advantages over most scanners you might have at home or in the office.

1) Its Super light and small - 47 x 247 x 33.8 mm and weights a paltry 370 Grams. Have a look



2) It runs of the USB. Yes a single USB port. Bye bye Ac adaptor, hello mobility . Finally you don't need to be near a power point or have some expensive battery to be able to scan a few documents to either fax or email.


Now I've only had it for a few days, so I'm still learning to use it so take my points with a large grain of salt.

Lets look at the Pros and Cons

+ Small & Light

+ USB Powered

+ Reasonably fast - A4 B&W page aprox 10 Seconds, Colour 20+ seconds. Not bad for such a small scanner

+ Comes with a comparatively easy to use Setup, and includes all the basic including a Copy of Abby Finereader 6.0 Sprint for OCR

+ Scanning is easy , just feed in the paper and hit the scan button, and after that keep on feeding pages. you can choose what output you want.

+ Outputs Jpeg, Gif, BMP, PDF, or OCR'ed text into txt & doc.

+ Option to scan multiple pages at a time and auto generate a PDF or a OCR'ed Word doc. Very handy for emailing stuff.

+ Has two hardware buttons so you can set your preferences and not have to bother with the settings unless you want to change something


- It is not the highest quality, and I haven't found a way to do preview to tweak the settings inside its own software. So its probably not going to do for High res Photo scanning, but for most everyday stuff it should do quiet well.

- The feeder does require you to feed sheets in, in a certain way otherwise it tends to get skewed. It does take a few tries to get it right, especially if its on a non flat or moving surface. So its best to keep Autoskew correction on for all but the trickiest scans.

- Colours are kind of muted, but that may be because i've not really played around with the settings yet.

- OCR is ok but not the best, but its probably because this is a basic version of the software and I haven't dialled in the optimum settings yet.

This is just a preview. Hopefully I'll be able to do a full review in a couple of weeks.

Still, it does strike me that this could be very useful for a Illiad or Tablet Pc owner, as they could get in their documents in a Digital form and work with them.

[shighfield]

Thank-you for posting this review. I've been looking at this scanner online for about two weeks now thinking it would be great for just the reasons you posted. If someone needs something faxed and I'm working out of a coffee shop somewhere this will be a life saver.

I think this is going to go on the short list now. My "fax machine" is already an internet service anyway.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by shighfield

Thank-you for posting this review. I've been looking at this scanner online for about two weeks now thinking it would be great for just the reasons you posted. If someone needs something faxed and I'm working out of a coffee shop somewhere this will be a life saver.

I think this is going to go on the short list now. My "fax machine" is already an internet service anyway.

Glad to help.

I was considering one of the handheld scanners like the Docupen, etc, but decided that they were too expensive for what they did.

I.e. Black and white only, low resolution, and the need for a very steady hand to get a useful result (which after drinking coffee all day, I often don't have )
Plus the Price especially for the Docupen is double the one for the Pro Version of this (The non pro is a little cheaper, but you lose the ability to scan straight to PDF, which is really worth it IMHO)

The only drawback for me right now is that I don't have a tablet so I still need to print off some stuff to sign and send back.

Still, I'm hoping to upgrade my Current machine in the next few months and I have my eye on one of the HP TX's. The price is decent and is small enough to be portable and mobile enough for my needs

[shighfield]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

Glad to help.
hand to get a useful result (which after drinking coffee all day, I often don't have )

You and me both! I had a hand scanner a dozen years ago from Logitech and I couldn't scan a picture to save my life with it.

Version of this (The non pro is a little cheaper, but you lose the ability to scan straight to PDF, which is really worth it IMHO)

Agreed, scanning directly to PDF is a great feature! With the mac's I use that's pretty much built in, but at home on teh windows box I had to buy Omnipage 16 as it was the only software I could find that did a good job.

The only drawback for me right now is that I don't have a tablet so I still need to print off some stuff to sign and send back.

I have my signature stored in an encrypted file that I can import into most doc files for a sig, so for the most part a portable scanner for me is when clients bring me papers (As I meet them at their house or coffee shops) I wouldn't need to run around looking for a scanner / fax machine.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by shighfield

Agreed, scanning directly to PDF is a great feature! With the mac's I use that's pretty much built in, but at home on teh windows box I had to buy Omnipage 16 as it was the only software I could find that did a good job.

Well, the Built in version here is pretty decent and works reasonably well ona XP system. I've still only put in a few things through it, as I've not had the time to sit down and do a thorough testing (i.e. throw everything but the kitchen sink at it )

The Only drawback to this version is that the Abby Finereader version supplied cannot do an OCR inside a PDF. For that you need to upgrade to the Professional version. There is a corporate version of the M12 which does come with the Pro version, but you do pay a premium for it.

I have my signature stored in an encrypted file that I can import into most doc files for a sig, so for the most part a portable scanner for me is when clients bring me papers (As I meet them at their house or coffee shops) I wouldn't need to run around looking for a scanner / fax machine.

I really need to do this as it would really simplify a lot of things for me.

The main problem i've been running into has been forms in PDF format that have been incorrectly created, or not meant to be filled up on a computer.

I've had to print them out and fill them by hand. Something like a Tablet would probably help there. (Also, as a gadget geek, I'm always looking to try out something new, and Tablets are something I've wanted to get into for a while, but the cost of entry was usually too high for me to justify)

But I agree, that if you're on the move and the client has some papers, it's a pain to try and find a scanner, or have to ask the client to fax it to you or scan and email it to you. Something like this would really help.

And if you combine this with a portable printer like the Canon / HP Mobile Printer (Can't remember the model) you've got a completely mobile office.