ScanSnap iX1300 Wireless Double-Sided Scanner

I’ve had 2 Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners for at least 10 years that have worked great. I needed another small duplex scanner for one of my health care offices to scan insurance cards and driver’s licenses.

I opted for price and first ordered the Brother DS-740D Duplex Compact Mobile Document Scanner. What a piece of junk, lousy interface and zero support. RETURNED!

A buddy of mine with over 40 clinics’ secretary recommends Ambir. That’s what she has on her desk. So I figure, good enough for them, good enough for me, and order the Ambir Technology PS667 Simplex A6 Card for the sake of price. It’s not duplex, and that is a pain in the butt. You have to manually turn the card over and scan twice. I can’t live with that. RETURNED!

So I bite the bullet and buy the Ambir DS490-A3P ImageScan Pro 490i Duplex ID Card and Document Scanner. It has a nice small footprint, and is decent hardware, but the interface was somewhat wonky, and it only scanned cards. I thought maybe I could do better, so… RETURNED! Thank you and sorry Ambir.

Searching further, I discover this affordable, Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 Compact Wi-Fi Document Scanner in white, that duplex scans cards, and documents, the best of both worlds. I figure, “Okay, let’s give it a chance”.

I receive it. It’s a small box. I open it and remove the scanner carefully like it’s a baby. It is a baby! It’s a small footprint, low profile, beautifully designed, smooth, white rectangular box with nothing sticking out. It’s like the monolith sideways in “2001 a Space Oddyssey”, smooth and futuristic. It’s a baby like Grogu in the Mandalorian, tiny and cute, big on power and character like Yoda!

To scan cards, there is a slot on the bottom, with nothing to open. You just place the card partly into the slot, press the scan button, which lights up blue, and zip-zip, in and out. The interface is simple and perfect, and the card is digitized! Once you do one scan, you don’t need to press the scan button again. It’s awakened and takes cards automatically when introduced into the slot.

Finally, there is the greatest surprise ever, the multi-document scanning function. You look at this box and think, “Nah, this is not a full-bore scanner like most ScanSnap scanners. How could a little box like this do it all?” Then you open up the lid and PRESTO! The most wonderful thing happens. The document scanner unfolds like a peacock, or a space telescope being deployed from a space shuttle cargo bay into full array expansion. Then, you put a stack of papers into the feed, and zip-zip, you’ve got scanned documents. And again, the interface is perfectamundo!!! You close up the box with one gesture, and presto-changeo, it’s a cute little box again. A box you respect and love!

All I can say is, it tickles me everytime I use this groovy littl Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 Compact Wi-Fi Document Scanner. Fujitsu, you have outdone yourself. Wow! Let’s do lunch sometime and laugh at the affordable incredibleness you’ve created, together!!! 🙂

Works as advertised. Scans quickly as I’ve been purging paper clutter and old photos. Easy to use software/apps. I love the double sided scanning.

I have been buying, owning & operating tech gadgets since the late 70’s and this scanner ranks up there with the best on that list.

Just look at these features:
a) USB or Wi-Fi option
b) compact size – easy to pull out when needed and then store for later – not a lot of desk space
c) duplex scans of standard paper document in about 2 seconds each
d) duplex scans photos at 600dpi in about 5 seconds each
e) auto top feeder (about 10 sheets) or manual front feed

We have another brand’s multi-function color laser unit that we bought several years ago (for a good chunk of cash) which has served us well. However when the wife suggested we scan all our old photos (boxes & boxes of loose photos and shelves of photo albums) – I knew I was not going to spend years scanning two or three photos at a time with that thing’s flatbed scanner.

I read the reviews and most suggest another brand’s scanner that is almost twice the price of this one. I decided to take a chance and be a bit more thrifty and it has worked out more than I could have hoped for. Mostly that decision came down to this model’s manual front feeder.

In one week I have spent about 4 hours with this scanner and have scanned almost 1k photos. The most time-consuming part is taking the photos out of the albums. I just pop them in the front manual feeder and then let the scanner spit it back out where the photo then drops into a bin underneath for disposal – each photo takes about 5 seconds scanning at 600dpi and the quality is good enough (note: the quality really depends on how good the original photo looks. those old 70’s polaroid’s are not going to scan and then be able to printed at 24″x36″ size down the line – let’s be realistic – but they look good enough to me on the computer reviewing them afterwards).

My only wish is that it could scan at 1200dpi but that would certainly jack up the price. There are a few pictures which we put aside to scan with the multi-function scanner for this reason because those pictures have more sentimental value.

I had two occasions this past week needing to scan a full-size paper bill and decided to use this instead of the multi-function. It scans a piece of paper both-sides so fast that it is done before you blink.

The software is very basic but it is completely functional. Since this is just a scanner I am glad the software just concerns itself with the simple scan settings and not image manipulation or PDF editing. I have purpose-made software to do that other stuff.

I have used this several times since I purchased it, and other than the one time the paper jammed, it has worked really well… and very fast. I love that the a name if given to the file.