Review: Visioneer OneTouch 7300 USB

The One Touch 7300 USB is a quick, well-designed scanner that is well suited for users who want a flatbed scanner that can be easily carried from site to site.

Description

There's something that's just plain neat about compact devices, and the Visioneer OneTouch 7300 USB is about as compact as you can get and still be capable of scanning an 8.5x11-inch sheet. It is 10.13 x 14.85 x 1.4 inches, which means that it's hardly thicker than a notebook. And at 3 lbs., 3 oz., it's light enough to add to your luggage without causing a backache.

Keep in mind, though, that because the 7300 is so small, you won't be able to scan any document larger than letter-sized; if you think you'll need to scan anything larger (and many of us do need to scan contracts, magazine articles, and other larger documents), you'll want to look elsewhere.

The slim scanner is a handsome device, with a silver cover over a dark grey body. On the front are five buttons labeled Copy, OCR, E-Mail, Custom, and SCAN; a single USB 2.0 port on the right front side of the device provides both power and the connection to your PC. The USB 2.0 connection means that, if you have a USB 2.0 port in your computer system, this scanner will be faster than its USB 1.1 cousins. If your computer only has a USB 1.1 connection, don't despair: The slower connection will work fine.

One nice feature: The cover is very well designed. A hinge at the back lets you lift the cover several inches away from the scanner bed, giving plenty of space for books and other bulky documents.

This is a perfect scanner to travel with. Although not on the same level of portability as a hand or line scanner, it seems ideal if you want a flatbed and you're on the go. For one thing, the 7300 gets all its power from its USB connection - so if you're working with a notebook, you can hook up the scanner without having to look for another power source. (If you're using a USB hub, by the way, the company suggests that the hub have its own power source).

Installation

Installation of the 7300 went quite smoothly. The device comes with a CD that installs both the scanner driver and Paperport 8.0 software (you don't get the choice of installing the driver alone). A Quick Install Card instructs you to insert the CD and begin the installation before you connect the scanner to your USB port; just to make sure, a small piece of tape warning you to wait was placed across the USB port -- a nice touch.

By the way, if you're not the kind of person to immediately register your hardware -- and many of us are not -- be aware that the registration window that pops up as you are installing the driver does not have to be immediately filled out. Just hit escape to get back to the installation. (The PaperPort 8.0 installer is a bit more honest -- it asks you to fill out the registration form, or choose to fill it out later.)

Performance

The Onetouch 7300 is a quiet, fast scanner, with a very easy interface. You operate it by pressing the Copy, OCR, E-Mail, Scan or Custom buttons either on the scanner itself or on the button bar that appears when you press the icon on the Windows Quick Launch toolbar.

The scanner worked especially well with photographs; scans of family photos and landscapes seemed slightly duller than the originals, but otherwise, the colors looked clear and true. Plain text scans were also satisfactory.

I was not as pleased with the OCR functionality, which seemed marginal, at best. I ran several different pages through the OCR process, and while it was able to handle a very simple printed page, it did not do well with anything that had very small print, or added graphics, or complex columns.