I bought this scanner to replace my UMAX Vista-S6 scanner, which I'd had for 6-7 years. In general, I am in love with the OneTouch 8700, although it does have its cons for beginners and those who want ease of use and user friendliness.

First, the physical design of the scanner: a million times better than my old UMAX. The fact that it opens on the side instead of the traditional bottom-to-top opening makes it much less awkward to use. This is important for me, as I am disabled and have limited range of motion in my arms. Though not the most compact flatbed scanner around, it takes up half the space of my old scanner, which I'm perfectly happy with.

The 8700 produces beautiful scans. The colors are rich and vibrant, and the images sharp and clear, even at very high resolutions. (High-res scans on the UMAX used to come out blurry.) I recently scanned the front of a birthday card and managed to make it into a beautiful 1024x768 desktop wallpaper, which would have been impossible with the old scanner.

Where the 8700's faults come in is in the software - particularly the software used to monitor the OneTouch buttons. It is confusing and difficult to configure, and often does not correctly detect all available applications to link the buttons to. While annoying, this does not hinder me too much, since I am much more likely to use the TWAIN interface to manually scan into the image editing software of my choice. The TWAIN interface is fairly simple to use, yet packed with options to fine-tune your scan, as well as some helpful presets. The one flaw I have found is the auto-trim feature... not very accurate.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 99
Interface: USB