The Wife's Christmas Present.
Written: Jan 17 '01 (Updated Jan 17 '01)
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Pros: Easy install, easy use.
Cons: Lack of documentation for Software Bundle, HP printer problem
The Bottom Line: An excellent scanner for an excellent price. Balanced right between high and low end scanners. Easy to install and use, it still manages to provide excellent performance.
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| ArmofJustice's Full Review: Epson Perfection 1200U Flatbed Scanner |
Like most computer enthusiasts, when my wife said she wanted a scanner for Christmas, I was all smiles. A scanner for her meant a new toy for me. It did however need to meet certain criteria. For me it had to be fast, quiet, USB, have a high resolution and be small (only so much desk space). For her, it had to be easy to use, come with a good software bundle and look acceptable. After quite a bit of research, I finally landed on the Epson 1240U (don't worry, its the same thing you call the 1200).
I ordered the scanner and awaited its arrival. Just as luck would have it, I was at work when it arrived. So I called home during lunch and told my wife to install it. My wife was brought up in a home in which the women did not touch the computer other than to use the word processor (I've been trying to break her of this habit). You can imagine her response. Even with her limited computer experience, however, she had no trouble installing the scanner and the software. This in my book is a BIG plus.
I'll stop my narrative there and get on with the details your all looking for. First, the scanner is easy to install. I have the USB version of it. It took about 5 minutes. There was 1 problem, I could not use the copy function from the smart panel. A quick visit to the Epson website and a downloaded patch and this was fixed. I listed this as a con for a good reason though. Epson does not support the patch. They have a link to it, but mention quite clearly the link is only for reference sake.
The scanner is not as quite as I would like. It is rather noisy in fact compared to some. The Twain software is excellent, but threw me a couple of curves learning to use it (ie:when it says inches, it means inches on the paper. At 1200 DPI, a 1' picture will scan in as 1200x1200. Even on my screen, the resolution wont support viewing the whole picture. I finally had to specify the pixel size to get the size where I wanted it). The scanner is not the smallest you can buy, but did fit nicely on my desk (along with the HP printer, a 17" monitor, keyboard and mouse). The buttons on front of the scanner are easy to use and even customizeable to an extent.
I have been able to successfully use the scanner to sent pictures in email, faxes, scan pictures for printing, photocopy documents and even some OCR (although it wont recognize the Greek letters from some of my physics documents). It scans with excellent quality, and very quickly.
Just for reference, my system is an Althon 600 with 128M memory. I am not running any other USB devices at the moment. I run Windows 98. I'm sure performance will vary depending on platform.
The biggest complaint I have is that there was almost no documentation provided for the Software bundle. I know us real men don't read it (coming from an internet tech, I hope you all recognize that as sarcasm) but my wife does. She had more trouble learning the various functions of the software than she did installing the scanner.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
ArmofJustice
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Member: Adam Blake
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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