Fujitsu's ScanSnap fi-5110EOX2 is as easy to use as it is difficult to spell out. This sheet-fed document scanner has dual functionality as a business card scanner and works well at both.

The fi-5110EOX2 automatically detects what size document you've placed in it (from legal-sized pages down to business cards), scans it, and straightens the image and reskews misaligned text. You can even set parameters so scanned-in business cards automatically go into Outlook or another contact program.

The fi-5110EOX2 holds up to 50 documents in its automatic document feeder and can scan up to 15 pages per minute. Those speeds are for 300-dpi black-and-white documents or 150-dpi color documents. Scan speeds slow incrementally as you beef up the resolution. At the maximum 600 dpi for color or 1,200 dpi for black and white, it takes nearly 2 minutes to scan a page.

The fi-5110EOX2 features a duplex mode as well, so if you have double-sided sheets, it can scan both at once for up to 30 images (sides) per minute. It also notices blank pages if they've slipped into a stack of sheets, so you won't get scanned blanks in the output.

Since it's a sheet-fed scanner, the fi-5110EOX2 doesn't take up much room on a desktop, with a width of less than a foot and a depth of less than 6 inches. It connects to a computer via USB 1.1 or 2.0, so installation is easy quick and straightforward.

The fi-5110EOX2 comes with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard edition, and scans default to PDF format. You can easily browse scanned-in PDF in thumbnail mode without having to open the file (but not with Windows 98SE). You can also choose up to five other destinations for scanned images, including Adobe Photoshop or an OCR (optical character recognition) application for the creation of editable documents.

In the ScanSnap Organizer application, you can also set up nine different user profiles based on parameters such as frequency, scanning destination, and preferences, so you can share the scanner in an office and retain your individual settings.

Fujitsu's ScanSnap fi-5110EOX2 can be found for under $400, has decent document scanning speeds, and works well as a business card scanner so you can digitize that stack of business cards on your desk.

Pros: Good speed, nicely priced.
Cons: Can't scan bound material.

Warranty
1 year limited