Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 review: Affordable, versatile and impressive

Small businesses and home workers short on desk space will appreciate Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX1300, as it packs plenty of document-digitising features into a footprint that’s only 296 x 114mm. It’s good value, too, with the scanner combining a choice of USB or 802.11n wireless connections with fast 30ppm scan speeds.

The iX1300 doesn’t need any space in front for ejected documents either, as it employs a smart motorised telescopic stacker. Just put your documents in the pop-up 20-page ADF and when scanning starts, the stacker automatically rises, extends itself and then closes back down again after the last page has been scanned.

The iX1300 comes with Fujitsu’s ScanSnap Home software, which is designed to make scanning a simple, one-tap operation. It’s swift to install; we visited the website provided in the quick start manual, downloaded the latest version and plugged in the scanner to a USB port on our Windows 10 host when instructed.

The utility ran a firmware update and guided us through creating a wireless connection, after which we dispensed with the USB cable. The routine loaded Fujitsu’s online update utility, which checks for new drivers plus OCR language packs and also downloaded the free ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap software.

ScanSnap Home provides a set of default scan profiles, with the Auto-Scan profile initially assigned to the scanner’s button. This makes light work of scanning as it detects the type of document loaded, automatically applies the most appropriate scan settings and saves them to a folder of your choosing.

You can create new profiles or use existing ones and modify their settings for resolution, colour, greyscale or mono scans, simplex or duplex operations and scan destinations. Output formats can be JPEG, PDF or sPDF, and the latter two options can also be password-protected.

A standout feature is support for direct scanning to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and OneDrive cloud accounts. To use them, you need the relevant desktop app loaded on your host PC and logged into the accounts you want to send the scans to.

You’ll need to use ScanSnap Home for all scanning operations, as Fujitsu doesn’t provide a TWAIN driver for acquiring images into third-party products. This isn’t a deal breaker, though; we created new profiles that loaded the ABBYY FineReader app, applied OCR and converted documents to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and sPDF formats.

Scans are started by selecting a profile from ScanSnap Home and clicking on its central display or by highlighting a profile and using the scanner’s button. Either way, the iX1300 delivered on its speed promises, with a sheaf of 20 bank statements returning a perfect 30ppm for greyscale and colour scans at both 200dpi and 300dpi resolutions.

Stepping up to the top 600dpi setting saw speed for greyscale and colour scans drop to 9.4ppm. You’ll only need to use this higher resolution for photos, though, as output quality and OCR accuracy for general document scans at 200dpi are excellent.

Paper handling was fairly good, although the ADF can only take 20 sheets of 80gsm paper and occasionally fell over with double feeds when we used heavier 100gsm paper. That said, the iX1300 has a handy manual feed slot at the front for bulkier items such as booklets, and its return path feature means you don’t even need to open the scanner’s cover to use it.

The iX1300 is a clever little wireless desktop scanner that’s an affordable choice for small businesses and home workers. The versatile ScanSnap Home software makes scanning a breeze, and it delivers good speeds and output quality.

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1300 specifications