Fujitsu ScanSnap 1300

Last week I reviewed the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M. I'm unabashedly in love with it. This scanner is going to eliminate paper clutter in my office. If I had written the review on Amazon, I'd have awarded it 5 stars. My only regret is that I didn't buy a ScanSnap years ago.

Fujitsu also sent me the ScanSnap 1300 to try out, as well. As you can see in my photo above (pardon the obligatory Office Space reference), the 1300 is a lot smaller than the 1500M. That's because it was primarily designed as a mobile scanner. I tried it out, and here are my observations:

1. The 1500 doesn't take up much room on your desktop, but the 1300 has an even smaller footprint. If space is at a premium, the 1300 might be the way to go.

2. You can power the 1300 with the included AC adapter, or you can power it via USB. If use the USB power cable, then you will you need two USB ports on on your computer -- one to supply power and one for the data.

3. The 1300 is much slower than the 1500. The rated speed of the 1300 is 8 pages a minute. The 1500 can process 20 pages a minute. I am used to the 1500s speed, so the 1300 seemed too slow for me. But like its bigger brother, the 1300 scans both sides of a document at the same time, and it makes full use of the same excellent software that lets you scan to email, scan to a printer, and scan to Evernote. And like the 1500, you can use a highlighter pen on your paper documents to identify searchable keywords before you scan them - a neat and useful trick.

4. The 1300's document feeder can handle a stack of 10 sheets, compared to 50 sheets on the 1500. Also, I found out that if you don't precisely align the stack of papers into the 1300, some of the sheets could stick together. That means you have to keep an eye out for pages that don't get scanned. I don't like the fact that I can't completely trust it to scan every sheet. The 1500 has an ultrasonic sensor that lets you know when sheets get stuck together and it seems to work flawlessly.

5. The 1300 is cross-platform, so it will work on Macs and Windows machines. This is good news for the traveler. (Be sure to bring the software disc with you if you want to use it on someone else's computer!)

6. If the 1500M is too expensive for you ($419.99 on Amazon), the 1300 might match your budget ($264.99 on Amazon).

Conclusion: If you need a scanner when you travel, I would recommend the 1300, provided you learn how to load sheets into the document feeder correctly so that the pages don't stick together. But if you are looking for a desktop scanner, I think it's well worth paying the extra money for the 1500. You won't be sorry.