This review is a guest post by Sean Evans.

I hate paper.

Like many people, I subscribe to e-bills whenever available, bank online, shop online…I even have a sign outside my house that says, “No junk mail, please!”

The “green” in me likes the idea of the world going digital and saving our precious forests, but it’s more that I hate how no matter what you do to get organized, the paper keeps piling up. This wouldn’t be such a big deal, if it weren’t for the fact that I also am loathe throwing anything out. Old receipts, manuals for appliances, recipes, old pay slips, and credit card statements. You name it, I hold onto it.

So this leaves me few options. Essentially, learn to live with the stacks of paper or digitize everything myself. And so a scanner is what I crave. Yes, I know, it’s old technology and almost a no-brainer. Yet every time see one in action, I’m left wanting…wanting for one of those giant, awesome scanners you only find in Kinko’s.

And now comes along the ScanSnap S1300 from Fujitsu. The elevator pitch sounds enticing! “Take document scanning to a whole new level with the ScanSnap S1300 mobile scanning solution. Whether you’re at home digitizing receipts, bank statements or term papers, or at the office capturing mission critical documents for a business trip, ScanSnap takes scanning beyond the desktop and into your world.”

And my test begins.

To make this even more challenging, I’m couch-ridden having just undergone knee surgery. So it this mobile scanner really is my slice of scanner heaven, it will have to pass the ultimate test of physical immobility.

The Unboxing
First impressions – this scanner is small (28cm x 7.5cm x 9.5cm). It’s briefcase-light (weighing only 1.25 kilograms). And it has only one button – Scan. Can something this small live up to the hype?

Software Installation
The scanner comes with both Windows and Mac software. I’m using an Acer Ferrari running Vista Ultimate. With the exception of the somewhat inconvenient extra “security” click that Vista requires and a reboot, installation was a snap.

Powering Up
It’s no surprise tha, the scanner requires a power supply in addition to the USB data connection for actual scanning. But much to my surprise, fully expecting that I would have to shuffle my way over to a wall socket, Fujitsu includes a secondary power cord that plugs into a spare USB slot. Great foresight and a nice feature if this is truly to be a scanner for the road warrior. Fortunately, having one to spare, I saved myself the pain of lifting my knee off the couch and plugged right in. Within seconds, the blue “Scan” buttons lit up and we are ready to go.

Basic Specifications
The SnapScan S1300 holds up pretty well at first glance.
• Scan up to 8 double-sided pages per minute
• Holds up to 10 pages in the automatic document feeder
• Cross-platform compatibility for PC and Mac
• One button Searchable PDF creation, PDF, and JPEG
• Scan to editable Word and Excel files.
• Create searchable keywords from highlighter text
• Business card scanning software.
• USB or AC-powered

What I really like with the fact that it can scan both sides of a page at once, making the most out of the 10-page hopper. It is worth noting that powering the ScanSnap via a USB port does reduce speed by 50%, but this is a pretty fair trade-off in my mind.

First Test
What better a test than my post-op rehabilitation instructions from the hospital? A combination of test, grid, handwriting, and drawings. And double-sided, no less.

Two double-sided pages and 42 seconds later, ScapScan presents the user with a raft of options, from saving to the Fujitsu’s proprietary document manager to Word to printing. For this test, I chose the document manager and the results were fantastic.

Given the number of options, the one not listed is linking this scanner to the cloud, using something like Evernote as my document client. This is definitely on the cards to try and would make my goals of going paperless even more interesting as being able to use the SnapScan on multiple computing devices would be a real bonus. (Hmm…I wonder when they will come out with the iPhone and iPad apps?!)

Second Test
For a second test, I combined the ScanSnap instructions with my cable company’s station guide pamphlet, wanting to see how the scanner would treat to pages of different sizes. Given that the hopper obviously only adjusts to the larger paper size, I assumed that the smaller scan would come out a bit wonky. No surprise, the smaller page went through the scanner slightly askew, yet SnapScan’s software corrected for this and the results were very good.

Third Test
On two pieces of blank paper, I wrote “This is a test.” The first with a Sharpee, the second in blank pen. Not having any expectations, trying to scan them into a Word document was a failure. With extensive further testing, it seems clear that this is not what I would use it for. Copying the same pages into a PDF worked great and considering that SnapScan’s document management makes them searchable, this is clearly the way forward for any hand written notes.

Final Test
For my final test, I scanned a Sudoku that I had ripped out of the newspaper. Not only did the ScanSnap handle the folded newspaper admirably, but the PDF produced was excellent! While it did include the backside of the page (having not indicated that I only wanted one-sided scanning) this was easily fixed with a right-click, page delete request.

Conclusions
The SnapScan S1300 is light, portable, flexible and comes with a full suite of scanning options. While this scanner certainly isn’t the most expensive one on the market, you have to decide for yourself whether the list price of $265 price tag is worth it. It may not be good for large batch jobs, but for the home office and road warrior, it has to be one of the best options in the market. For me, it is definitely a good investment in my drive to go paperless.