Apparent’s Doxie Go Scanner Is Worth The Price

Apparent’s new version of the Doxie scanner, the Doxie Go is not only portable, it does things that my big scanner can’t do.

Doxie Go scanner

First the stats. The MSRP is US$199.00. It will scan black and white or  full color pages at up to 600 dpi, in 8 seconds. The battery, which charges via USB connection, can scan and store up to 600 pages (2400 photos) with the built-in memory. There is also the ability to use an SD card or USB Flash drive for additional storage.

The package includes the Doxie Go scanner, a sync/charge cable, cleaning and calibration sheets, photo scanning sleeves for glossy photos, and a carrying bag. Software that supports the scanner is available for download from the company website

Doxie saves multi-page PDF files, JPEG, and lossless PNG files to your desktop. There is also built-in OCR that supports searchable PDFs. The software includes a smart stapler tool that lets you stack multi-page documents together — creating multi-page PDF files.

Scanned documents can be sent to Evernote, Acrobat, iPhoto, Photoshop, or your e-mail client with one click. Scanned documents can be sent to the iPad 2 with the assistance of the iPad Connection Kit

Note: Don’t scan with Doxie connected to your computer; always unplug Doxie before you start scanning. Otherwise, Doxie will connect to your computer between scans, which slows things down.

Using the product

This little scanner is a dream to use. Install the software on your Mac, calibrate the scanner using the sheet included for that purpose and you are all set. A page can be scanned in 8 seconds, even a color photo. The scanned images are stored on the scanner until the user deletes them. 

To upload to your Mac, you plug the scanner into a USB port and turn it on. When it recognizes that there are new scans to be uploaded, the software will open and a toolbar will appear within the Doxie Go window with an export option. Click it and the new saved scans will download to the Doxie Go window. 

Doxie Go software title bar

Once they are there you have options. One of my favorite is the ability to “staple” any pages you select into a single document whereupon you can send them to Preview where they form into a single PDF document.

Pages “stapled” together into one document

You can also easily send any of the saved scans to the other applications listed. To delete scans, click on them and a small “x” will appear at the top left. Click it and the scan will be deleted from the Doxie Go window.

Options for sending scans

There is a Settings option that appears in the toolbar that functions like a preferences window. There you can indicate to the scanner that it should or should not import duplicates, delete originals after import, or eject after import.

Another option offered by the scanning software is the ability to modify your scan. To take advantage of it, just double-click on a specific scanned image and the modification window will open. 

Options for modifying a scanned image

Like any other scanner that will save to an SD card, you take your Doxie Go scans and put them directly on your iPad. It is not difficult, but it does require the use of the iPad Connection Kit. The Doxie Go scanner has connection ports for both an SD card and a Flash drive. When the SD card is inserted, the Doxie Go automatically saves scanned items to it. The SD card is then removed and inserted into an iPad 2 via the iPad Camera Connection Kit. The scanned images are automatically imported to the photo library of the iPad 2. Those who use SD cards equipped with Eye-Fi can upload scans directly to the Cloud.  Instructions for doing so are included in the user manual.

I wondered if the price of the Doxie Go was reasonable and did a search for other scanners of like kind that scanned as fast and offered both the SD card slot and the USB port.  The closest I found is the Fujitsu SCANSNAP S1100.  It scans at the same speed and has the same MSRP, but does not offer either the SD card slot or the USB port.

Do I recommend it?

I do. I recognize that the price may be considered steep by some, but if you need what this scanner offers then it will be worth the price. It certainly does things that my large scanner cannot do. I didn’t really touch on the fact that you can scan and save to a Flash drive by simply inserting the Flash drive into the scanner before you begin the scan, but that too is an asset to many users. The only thing it will not scan is pages in a book. Otherwise it has everything you need.

Product: Doxie Go

Company: Doxie

List Price: US$199.99

Rating:

Pros:

Fast.  Will also scan to iPads.

Cons:

None noted.