By Jayesh Limaye
Now you can scan wherever you are, whenever you want Whenever you think of a scanner, the image that comes to mind is of a large glass platen scanning surface, which is part of a bulky device called the scanner. Well, how about a scanner you could carry right in your coat pocket and scan anywhere, anytime? Portronics has made this possible, thanks to their product called the Scanny.
This lightweight battery powered scanner is capable of scanning an A4 size document in less than 2 seconds by just swiping the device over the document. The scanner can accept a document that is up to 127cm in length, something that is not possible for any flatbed scanner. It can scan in full colour mode in two preset resolutions of 300dpi and 600dpi, which can be toggled on the device. Let us see how well this scanner performs in real-world situations.
Design and FeaturesFor those who remember the Planon Docupen scanners from a few years ago, the Scanny may seem a bit bulkier as compared to the pen-like design of those early portable scanners. But at the same time, we must emphasise the fact that the build quality of the Scanny is ten times better with a body mostly made of metal. The Scanny is almost like a 25 cm long bar with a rectangular cross section of 3 cm x 2.8 cm. Weighing just 212 grams, this device is considerably lightweight and easy to carry around.Scanny comes with ABBYY Screenshot Reader, which is an OCR software. It is capable of converting the scanned documents to Word, Excel, image file or even an email attachment. In our tests, we found that it works consistently well in conjunction with the Scanny.Micro SD slot lets you use any Micro SD card with capacity up to 32 GB in this device.
That being said, the device does not have any internal memory of its own.PerformanceFor the performance test, we scanned a few documents to find out how well this scanner does its job. Then we scanned the same documents using a flatbed scanner to compare the results. As expected, we did find some amount of skewing in the document scan results from Scanny. The problem increases if the surface on which you are using the Scanny is not flat. With a little practice, however, considerably good results can be obtained.VerdictThe Portronics Scanny is a very good scanner. The colour reproduction and sharpness are on par with a flatbed scanner. That being said, it is not as good as a flatbed scanner, but it still gets the job done quite well, and you can master its use with a little practice and a pair of steady hands. Built ruggedly, it looks good with a black and silver body. Operating on two AA batteries, this portable scanner is small and light enough to carry in your coat pocket and the leather carry pouch gives it
adequate protection.
The provided ABBYY Screenshot Reader OCR software converts scanned documents into word-processor editable documents and it greatly increases the value of this product. The skewing problem is also taken care of by the software to some extent.Who would want to use this scanner? Probably James Bond 007? Jokes apart, this scanner has several applications if you look at it from a practical point of view. You can scan reference books in libraries which you are not allowed to take outside with you. You can scan brochures at a shop and later mail them to a friend. You can scan charts, time tables, maps, hotel menus, and several other things and you can do all this wherever you go.Overall, we liked this product and it is priced at Rs 5999, but you can get it for Rs 5,500 in the market, which is a lot less than the Planon Docupen. It comes with a one year standard warranty and the manufacturer claims to be able to replace or repair the product within four days. On second thought, you can probably get the most of the same work done with an inexpensive digital camera, but the Scanny would be able to get better quality results, especially when scanning subjects such as photographs and magazines.
