Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005) Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005)

Pros: This is an incredibly fast and reliable scanner. Load your documents, push a button and go. Since is scans both sides of the document simultaneously there is no chance of a duplexing mechanism causing some sort of failure to feed. Great options for scanning to different cloud services. Excellent Evernote integration.

Cons: Wireless function only works with mobile devices. Why put a wireless card in the scanner at all if you aren't going to allow the main computer to work with it.

Other Thoughts: The power and USB cables that came with this device are long enough to actually be usable without extension cords, or altering your desk configuration too much. I do a lot of large document scanning. This has sped up my process dramatically. I used to use an HP Officejet Pro 8500, and had nothing but trouble with document feeder. Almost every document I scanned I had at least 3 double feeds, or the duplexer mechanism jammed. The Scansnap does not have this problem and feeds the documents way faster.

Pros: Fujitsu has done a fantastic job upgrading their software. It now runs a lot faster. The hardware is also very good. Fast duplex scanning and easy maintenance.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I have purchased 25 of the ScanSnap s1500's and this new version (iX500) of this scanner is amazing. The UI has been improved. These things are bullet-proof. We use them all day long. Aside from some occasional cleaning, they JUST WORK!!

Pros: Fast, grabs a stack of different sized sheets 1 sheet at a time, and has yet to jam in 2 months. Surprisingly good image quality.

Cons: No twain driver, but I knew that before I bought it.

Other Thoughts: Setup was easy with Windows 7 64bit. For taking an office paperless it is very well done. I recently took a 40 page document and scanned it in under 2 minutes. Most pages were properly oriented and the blank pages were not saved. It is good about auto detecting color or black and white. Fujitsu recommends replacing the rollers every year or 200,000 copies in the form of a consumables kit that costs around $77. I plan on waiting until I see some degradation in performance before I replace the rollers. However, in this day of disposable electronics, I’m glad the rollers are available to be replaced when necessary. I would definitely buy this scanner again based on what’s available in the market at this time.

Pros: Speed, duplex scanning, Adobe Acrobat support.

Cons: 1) Feed roller wears eventually, causing multiple feeds, costs $30 to replace.
2) They expect you to be scanning to Acrobat. If you're not, you probably want to be looking at a different scanner.
3) It's probably not as good as a scanner costing 3x as much.

Other Thoughts: This review is mainly based on an older Scansnap S510, although I've got a newer one (not the ix500, though) in the lab that seems just as good. I primarily use it for scanning my expense reports, and scanning graded midterms and exams to hand back to students electronically. This second use means I'm feeding maybe 600 sheets (many double-sided) through it twice a term, and I've been doing this for the last four years or so. For the first use, there are probably other scanners for half the price that would work as well. For semi-heavy-duty scanning, I don't think there's anything else in its league that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars more.

Quick tip - if you've got stapled originals that you don't need to keep, cut the stapled corner off with scissors and the paper will feed better.

Pros: Fast double sided printing. Scan to cloud services. Accurate. Doesn't jam easy. Looks good. Is not loud.

Cons: Wasn't cheaper, or free. No Twain support but I knew that before hand. Not a big deal for me.

Other Thoughts: People that give this a bad rep for no twain support are ignorant, read the descrition and reviews before you spend money. This is a document scanner. It is not ideal for scanning photos, they will not be as good as a flatbed scanner can produce. This scanner is for going paperless in your home or office. If you want to scan photos buy something else people. This scanner does exactly what is supposed to do and does a darn good job. I been wanting a scansnap for three years, I am glad I finally got one.

Pros: I rarely post comments on hardware I purchase because I am rarely impressed enough to waste the time typing in my impressions. With the iX500, I can't resist.

I have been using a Panasonic KV-S2026C scanner in my law firm for years. It has been reliable, functional, and reasonably fast. Nothing to get excited about, but a workhorse nonetheless. Unfortunately, Panasonic decided not to issue new drivers for Windows 8 so the scanner got retired with the XP computer. Being frustrated about having to retire yet another scanner that works fine due to a driver non-support issue, I decided not to buy from Panasonic again and bought the iX500.

My comment: WOW. The image quality is not only excellent, it is FAR superior to the quality of the much more expensive Panasonic.

The scan speed is excellent. The ease of setup (for desktop purposes) and use was excellent.

The footprint is nice and small so it doesn't eat up the whole desk. I already prefer it to the Panasonic, despite the inferior paper handling discussed below.

If you are unsure which to buy, so far I definitely recommend this for an individual desktop application.

Cons: (1) Construction doesn't seem super sturdy but its not like I am going to use it to work the farm...
(2) Sheet feeder is only 50 pages. I would prefer more but, for the price, no complaints.
(3) While the paper intake design is acceptable the paper discharge design is non-existent. In the interest of minimizing the footprint, Fujitsu used a "deposit on floor" discharge design. The sheets feed through and discharge quickly, slide across the smooth surface and take flight at the edge of the desk. It was actually funny thinking of grumpy secretaries having to pickup and reorganize the paper! What a great practical joke! If it weren't for the inefficiency that would introduce, I might have that thought that was a pro rather than a con.

Simple workaround: I put an upside down paper tray under the scanner and a right side up paper tray immediately in front of the scanner to catch the papers. However, I still think it was funny.

Other Thoughts: Not sure about the wireless scan to mobile device thing. Can't see a practical use for that myself. Scanning over a wireless network would be quite slow compared to the USB 3.0 desktop interface. I scan straight through to the server and, if I want something on a mobile device, just copy it to Mozy stash or dropbox. WAY faster than a wireless LAN transfer.

Pros: This thing is fast, accurate, double sided, for Mac and PC, and EASY to set up, figure out, and use. I still haven't read the user's manual and I have had no problem 'digitizing' about 60% of my household files aready (2 weeks). Best technology purchase I"ve made - hands down. I loved another easy "receipt scanner" that I used for the past 3 years and turned several people on to it, but the Fujitusu, for ~$100 more - Unbelievably better, faster, easier. If you get aggravated wasting time with scanning and organizing your papers - get this machine!

Cons: Absolutely none so far - Maybe it's kind of a 'big' machine, but how else would I be able to put 50 pages in at a time and not worry about 'feeding' more papers in?

Pros: it's a scanner for receipts into a folder, and nothing more.
Acrobat X Standard

Cons: No Twain driver support, no WIA driver support.
Don't plan on using any program to scan, this can only scan with bundled scan snap software into a folder.
Newegg should have stated on details page lack of driver support. Once again on hold to RMA this thing.

Other Thoughts: Would be great to scan papers or receipts into a folder. Waste of time for anyone looking to do more.
Newegg RMA is Awesome

Pros: Very Fast easy to use and set up. I have used this to scan Hundreds of photo's already and had minimal misfeeds, matter of fact the only misfeeds I've had were the small school photo's that children give each other they just aren't large enough to reach the next set of rollers. But a clear scanning envelope comes with the scanner and works great for this problem. it also works great for scanning old paper articles.

Cons: The thicker pictures taken back in the 1950's and more recent polaroid's throw off the indicator. it thinks there is a misfeed but this is easily resolved, you are prompted to check and proceed in the application that you install on your computer

Pros: This scanner is by far the best I have ever owned. The images are very good and it is much faster than expected. There are many options for all types of documents.

Cons: The software was a little difficult to get set up they way I wanted.