Pandigital PhotoLink portable scanner review
If you're anything like us, you may find yourself in need of scanning in a few last-minute receipts for reimbursement. Or maybe your oldest youngster left his essay sitting on the kitchen table, and you need to shoot him / her over a PDF on the double. Or maybe you've just got way too many tax-related documents cluttering up your basement. Point is, just about anyone could find a reason or two to invest in a scanner, and Pandigital's making things a lot easier with the PhotoLink personal photo scanner / converter. The $149.99 device was launched last week, and we've been toying with it a few days here at Engadget HQ. If you've been on the fence about buying a portable scanner, join us after the break for a few impressions along with a riveting video of this thing... well, scanning.
Truth be told, our interest was piqued as soon as we read that no PC was required. Owners of conventional flatbed scanners likely know just how much of a pain setting one up can be, particularly if you've got an older model (CanoScan LiDE 30, we're looking at you) that the manufacturer (Canon, we're looking at you) refuses to support on newer operating systems (OS X 10.6 and Windows 7, we're looking at you). With the PhotoLink, compatibility is never an issue; you simply scan in a document, pop out the SD card and do whatever you please with the resulting JPG. Unlike most things that promise ease of use, Pandigital's latest actually is shockingly simple to operate. You simply plug it in, tap the Power button, press it once for 300dpi (the default) or twice for 600dpi, and then feed your document in. The startup process takes around four seconds, and Pandigital even tosses in a 1GB SD card for good measure.
There's even a USB cord throw in on the off chance that you'd rather have your resulting images shot straight to a computer, but sadly, there's no power-over-USB functionality. Trust us, we tried. As you'll notice in the video embedded below, the 600dpi scans do take noticeably longer than the 300dpi scans, but neither are awful waits. Image quality is certainly good enough for home archive purposes and scanning business receipts, but if you're looking to perfectly capture your son's work of art, you'll obviously be spending a lot more than a buck-fifty to begin with. We tossed a 4- x 4-inch color card through the device and scanned it in both 300dpi and 600dpi modes. The resulting image files were 201KB (300dpi) and 758KB (600dpi), with resolutions of 1,472 x 1,472 (300dpi) and 2,960 x 2,960 (600dpi). We compressed each to a maximum of 800 pixels in the gallery below to give you an idea of the image quality differences.
For $150, it's hard to gripe too much about this gem. It's lightweight, compact, easy to travel with and able to function on its own. Our only gripes are as follows: we desperately wish it had room for a few AA batteries in case you needed to use this where there's no AC outlet in sight, and we certainly wish that it could be powered over USB (a pipe dream, we know). And while it would obviously enlarge the device, being able to scan an 11- x 14-inch sheet would be a huge boon for office dwellers. Outside of that, it's a fantastic addition to your gadget family if you're the type who just occasionally scans or needs a quick solution for digitizing a wad of paperwork, but we'd caution you to look elsewhere (and spend more) if you need the absolute best in color capturing.
Truth be told, our interest was piqued as soon as we read that no PC was required. Owners of conventional flatbed scanners likely know just how much of a pain setting one up can be, particularly if you've got an older model (CanoScan LiDE 30, we're looking at you) that the manufacturer (Canon, we're looking at you) refuses to support on newer operating systems (OS X 10.6 and Windows 7, we're looking at you). With the PhotoLink, compatibility is never an issue; you simply scan in a document, pop out the SD card and do whatever you please with the resulting JPG. Unlike most things that promise ease of use, Pandigital's latest actually is shockingly simple to operate. You simply plug it in, tap the Power button, press it once for 300dpi (the default) or twice for 600dpi, and then feed your document in. The startup process takes around four seconds, and Pandigital even tosses in a 1GB SD card for good measure.
There's even a USB cord throw in on the off chance that you'd rather have your resulting images shot straight to a computer, but sadly, there's no power-over-USB functionality. Trust us, we tried. As you'll notice in the video embedded below, the 600dpi scans do take noticeably longer than the 300dpi scans, but neither are awful waits. Image quality is certainly good enough for home archive purposes and scanning business receipts, but if you're looking to perfectly capture your son's work of art, you'll obviously be spending a lot more than a buck-fifty to begin with. We tossed a 4- x 4-inch color card through the device and scanned it in both 300dpi and 600dpi modes. The resulting image files were 201KB (300dpi) and 758KB (600dpi), with resolutions of 1,472 x 1,472 (300dpi) and 2,960 x 2,960 (600dpi). We compressed each to a maximum of 800 pixels in the gallery below to give you an idea of the image quality differences.
For $150, it's hard to gripe too much about this gem. It's lightweight, compact, easy to travel with and able to function on its own. Our only gripes are as follows: we desperately wish it had room for a few AA batteries in case you needed to use this where there's no AC outlet in sight, and we certainly wish that it could be powered over USB (a pipe dream, we know). And while it would obviously enlarge the device, being able to scan an 11- x 14-inch sheet would be a huge boon for office dwellers. Outside of that, it's a fantastic addition to your gadget family if you're the type who just occasionally scans or needs a quick solution for digitizing a wad of paperwork, but we'd caution you to look elsewhere (and spend more) if you need the absolute best in color capturing.





























Seems expensive for what it does, but then I don't really have a need for a portable scanner.
Portable scanners are so ancient, who would need that?
@Fox Con Um... Somebody who needs a portable scanner?
Agreed: I always take pics with my Blackberry instead of scanning.
Can't copy my face or rear on that? No buy!
On a serous note, this is a fantastic work tool for any one on the go! nice
I got this scanner from Walmart.com for $99 plus tax and $.97 shipping last week and its amazing for mass scanning photos! I was able to scan about 300-400 photos in an half hour and just pop the SD card on to my computer and copy of the photos. Now I can make digital copies of all my family's photos
I recommend this for everyone! Its great!!!
errr, ok. amazing...
What's the best way to scan old pics, quickly and easily.
Why can't you scan 8.5x14(legal) pages when it can do 8.5x11(letter)? A legal sheet will still fit in the device. Does it just stop at 11 inches? Sounds like a software update could fix that.
@Chris Stoll I'm sure it probably does legal; that old Pentax I mention in the post below will keep on scanning as long as the sheet is continuous.
@Chris Stoll It probably can, just not 11x14 for obvious size reasons.
I have a LiDE 30; love the thing to death. Unfortunately, like engadget humorously put it, the scanner is useless because Canon wants you to buy new gear. It's now sitting in a box. I could fire up my xp vm but that's just a hassle just to use an outdated peripheral. :(
This looks great for the road warrior business person.
@needmoregigs
If you can't use it because of the driver. Get VueScan
http://www.hamrick.com/
It's well worth the price and lets you scan with just about ANY old scanner. I am using it for a 10 year old scanner that Vista/Win 7 wouldn't recognize.
If they implement this in photocopiers, 9-to-5 white collar workers will NOT be happy.
I have had a Pentax DS 600 mobile scanner for about 3 years now and it comes in super-handy in my laptop bag. It is USB-powered, really easy to use, looks to be a little bit smaller than the one in the post here. For a long time it was my only scanner, probably has scanned 1500 or more docs and pics in its lifetime and has consistently produced great results.
However I like the idea of scanning straight to an SD card. That is cool and useful, more so (as Darren points out) if it were backed up with a battery or power over USB (which I can't believe this doesn't do). Another cool feature for this would be sending scans to a smartphone or laptop over BT.
This is great if you're on a vacation doing tours/cruises, etc. Those services usually will only sell you a print copy of your photo they took, even though they took it with a DSLR. Obviously they don't want to give you the actual JPEG file as they want to charge you more money for more prints. This device will be beneficial in these instances. Bring one with you, tell your tour group to just buy 1 copy of their photos from the tour/cruise service, and tell them that you'll scan it into their SD card for $1 or $2. That's a bargain compared to what those services charge you for more prints.
I think the Neatreceipts scanners is cheaper if you want to scan just receipts. This thing is colour though.
How the fluck u gonna know if the scan was a good one or not to rescan if i dont have a pc with me? Atleast in the next revision they should add a small LCD to preview the scan dont u think?
@shift123 Sure, and add another 150 to the price.
Well, how well does it scan business cards? and OCR?
Is it better than the doxy scanner? (scan quality)
End of the ass scan prank as we know it.
But...all those examples could be achieved with a $50 multifunction printer
I'd like to see engadget review the Kodak Playsport...
Oooohhhh this is just screaming out for a Cloud upload capability - Imagine being able to start a scan going, leave the house for work, then you'll find the scanned image available on a secure website, or in your email inbox (no web 2.0 diarrhoea for me), when you arrive at work!
Jeez I'd be happy enough if the file ended up straight on my NAS box.
Umm, I can has A4?