Phil Ryan is a writer primarily covering photography gear, printers, and scanners. He has been testing cameras professionally for 19 years.
After a new round of testing, the Brother ADS-1350W is our new top pick, and we’ve added the Brother ADS-1800W to Other good portable document scanners.
We’re looking forward to testing the new ScanSnap iX1300 and iX1600 scanners in the near future. You can read more about that in What to look forward to.
August 2024A small document scanner isn’t something that most people need most of the time, but if you’re applying for a mortgage, dealing with legal matters, or looking to archive a large amount of printed material digitally, it can certainly make your life easier.
The simple-to-use, easy-to-set-up, eminently portable Brother ADS-1350W easily won out in our testing by producing better-looking scans of various kinds of documents more quickly than competing models, whether it was tethered to our computer by a USB-C cable or sending the data wirelessly to a computer or a mobile device. Plus, its optical character recognition (OCR) was best in class, and we found Brother’s software easier to use than that of other brands.
This scanner is fast, accurate, and reliable, but what really sets it apart from the competition is how easy it is to use.
This model is best for people who want a small, lightweight scanner that can do duplex scanning. But since it doesn’t have a document feeder, it can scan only one sheet at a time.
This scanner costs more, weighs more, and takes up more space than our top pick, but it can quickly deliver solid scans of both photos and business documents.
The hardware should be easy to use and able to scan two-sided documents in one pass. And the software shouldn’t confuse you.
The scanner should accurately apply optical character recognition to turn a scan into a searchable PDF or editable text document.
We ran a 20-sheet double-sided document through each scanner over USB and Wi-Fi at 300 dpi and 600 dpi to test scanning speeds.
PortabilityWe tested models small and lightweight enough to bring anywhere that can run on USB power from a computer or a portable power pack.
This scanner is fast, accurate, and reliable, but what really sets it apart from the competition is how easy it is to use.
Simple to set up, easy to use, and portable enough for you to bring it along anywhere, the Brother ADS-1350W is the best choice if you need good-looking scans on the road or at a remote work location. Its text recognition ranks among the most accurate we’ve seen, and its Wi-Fi connection is reliable.
This scanner isn’t the smallest model we’ve tested, and it doesn’t include a battery, but it’s still plenty portable and capable of drawing power from your laptop or a portable USB-C power bank that outputs 15 W or more.
This model is best for people who want a small, lightweight scanner that can do duplex scanning. But since it doesn’t have a document feeder, it can scan only one sheet at a time.
The Brother DS-940DW is a smaller, lighter version of our pick that scans only one page at a time, since it lacks an automatic document feeder. It scans quickly and accurately, and it can handle duplex scanning, also known as double-sided scanning. It has a built-in rechargeable battery and can send scans via Wi-Fi.
This model is good for people who don’t have a high-quality camera on their phone or for those who need to scan pages in poor lighting. But if you have a modern smartphone, scanning with a mobile app is nearly as quick, and the scans look nearly as good.
This scanner costs more, weighs more, and takes up more space than our top pick, but it can quickly deliver solid scans of both photos and business documents.
Traditional document scanners aren’t designed for photos—they bend prints as they scan them, and the rollers can damage photo paper’s delicate finish. The Epson FastFoto FF-680W is different because it can safely archive treasured snapshots in as little time as one second per photo. It’s expensive for a convenience item, but if you have shoeboxes full of old shots, it can make short work of an otherwise annoying task.
I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering photography gear, printers, and scanners, and I have been testing all of those things professionally for 20 years. I also maintain our guides to mirrorless cameras and photo printers, and I’ve written about photographing birds, eclipses, fireworks, and more.
Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
If you have a big pile of documents and receipts that you need to digitize, these scanners offer the quickest way to get the job done. But you might want one for other reasons, too. Here’s what a good portable document scanner can do for you:
If you already own a portable document scanner and like it well enough, you probably have little reason to upgrade. Scanner development moves at a snail’s pace, and models often stay on shelves for as many as four or five years between revisions. That said, if your current scanner doesn’t offer Wi-Fi connectivity, can’t scan both sides of a document at once, scans significantly slower than you’d like, or doesn’t reliably recognize text, give our picks a look.
If you have an all-in-one printer with a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder, you should think about buying a portable document scanner only if you find that you often need to scan when you’re away from home. Portable document scanners aren’t more accurate than all-in-one machines and don’t produce noticeably better OCR results.
The HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e is our favorite all-in-one printer thanks to its ease of use, great print quality, and low cost of operation.
Technically, yes, a phone works for scans. But depending on the lighting conditions or the kind of document you’re scanning, a portable document scanner can produce higher-quality scans more consistently.
We have picks for the best Android and iOS scanning apps, and they’re great for quickly capturing medical forms and travel receipts, but we don’t recommend using them for large, frequent jobs or tasks where perfect character recognition is required.
Portable document scanners are simple devices: They scan documents and deliver digital files. But there are a few boxes they need to check in order to be worth your time and money, so we prioritize the following qualities when surveying the available models.
With the above features in mind, we considered the full range of portable document scanners currently available from top brands such as Brother, Canon, Doxie, Epson, Fujitsu, Visioneer, and Xerox, immediately ruling out bulky desktop models that didn’t collapse for storage and transport.
Once we had a list of likely candidates, we tested the scanners to assess the following:
