- Compatible with PC and Mac
- Blazing 25ppm color scanning
- 50-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)
- Built-in GI microprocessor
- PC-less scanning to iOS and Android mobile devices
If you are reading these reviews, you probably already know that the S1500 is currently (January 2013) pretty much the gold standard in the automatic document feeder (ADF) scanner consumer market with excellent user friendly software, pretty fast, reliable, built like a tank, excellent optical quality and on top of that you get the standard version of Adobe Acrobat (worth alone >$100). Not that it is a cheap scanner but compared to other consumer-grade ADF scanners it is a good deal, and like most things in life, you get what you pay for.
That said, I bought the iX500 as soon as I learned it was available on Amazon. It was hard to believe the S1500 could be improved but hey, even as a geek myself technology never cease to amaze me. Well, I've been playing with the scanner for two days so I will give you my first impressions.
Not that it matters but the first thing I noticed is that the box is now very plain and vanilla (pun intended) colored without even a handle as opposed to the fancy S1500 box. I can't care less but I just hope they put the savings in the scanner and not the profit margins because this one costs more. Upon unpacking, the iX500 has a nice sophisticated industrial look with matte/shiny black surfaces and blue LED lights. Unlike the S1500, it does not look like an old cheap plasticky silver colored ink-jet printer from the 90's. Overall the materials and quality of construction seem as good as the S1500. The paper rollers seem improved. Also new is a physical switch to turn on/off the WiFi radio and WPS button to automatically set up a secure WiFi connection.
Pros:
-Faster feeding/scan. I don't think it makes a huge practical difference compared to the S1500 but it is undeniably faster. The higher the number of pages you are scanning, the more significant it will be to you.
-Faster processing. Here is where the difference is very noticeable. With the S1500 the processing can take some time and you will always see the processing progress bar. With the iX500 you barely see it or if you see it it goes way faster!
-USB 3.0 connection. Can't argue about the advantages of having a theoretically max speed of 5 Gbps (USB 3.0) vs 480 Mbps (USB 2.0). The provided cable is truly 6 feet long which is a plus. With USB 3.0 I wouldn't recommend using extension cables because the USB 3.0 protocol is very sensitive to increased cable lengths (>2m). If the cable is not long enough for you, get a powered USB 3.0 hub not an extension cable.
-Improved paper handling mechanism. Regular paper documents rarely jam or misfeed on the S1500. Only if you have stuck, very thin, bended, irregular or wrinkled sheets. I threw in different types of papers and it seems to take them in better! This is a real usability improvement.
-WiFi capability. Meh.. Honestly, this is not one of the main reasons I got the iX500. To me, for this specific task of scanning documents, speed, security and reliability are more important than going all wireless but that is just me. I have the scanner in my home office next to my desktop and scan a fairly regular amount of documents, some with personal, work and financial information that needs to be encrypted before storing, never online or on mobile devices.
It also has scan-to-the-cloud capability using DropBox, GDrive, EverNote, Salesforce, SugarSync (some with never heard before silly names) but seriously, would you trust a hardly profitable -except maybe Googleprivate online cloud company to store all your documents for the long term? Maybe temporarily until you download but that's it. I wouldn't trust them even for just a backup. Also, try downloading just 100 300-dpi full color scans online and you will realize how painfully slow it is. I do however, see some situations were this may be useful like online sharing of docs or as temporary storage of trivial stuff but only as an add-on capability and not as a main way of connectivity. I will try it with my Android phone and tablet, though but nothing serious.
Throughout the years I've learned that the most efficient way to go paperless without wasting time is to: 1)read the document once and decide if you need to scan or throw it away. 2)if its important enough to scan, do it and file the pdf right away in the corresponding computer folder. 3)shred the paper original right away otherwise later on you will waste time picking it up and reading it again. If I were to scan something without my PC I would eventually have to read that paper again online to decide where to put it so that would be 2 reads of the same damn document. Not too efficient if you have say 20+ docs. Also, keep in mind that with this scanner, it is very easy to scan lots of stuff so if you don't have your own paperless system/routine/strategy, you may end up with digital clutter rather than paper clutter. Develop a system that works best for you.
-I haven't replaced any "consumables" on my S1500 in almost 4 years so I wouldn't be worried about that with the iX500. Seems to me like a marketing ploy from Fujitsu to make more money. I have emptied two big 3-drawer file cabinets plus regular scans all these years without any problem. Just keep the rollers sticky clean and vacuum the paper dust that accumulates after a while and you should be fine.
-All the nice "smaller" features on the S1500 that make it so great are also on the iX500: ultrasonic double paper-feed sensor, automatic de-skew, double side scan, auto color detection, automatic paper orientation, scanning long papers (legal size), blank side auto deletion, etc. I'm sure they must have improved some of them too.
Cons:
-The optical sensors on the iX500 are CIS and not CCD like in the S1500. Theoretically, CCD is better, especially for color reproduction. CIS is better for text and details however, honestly, I don't see any difference compared to my S1500 which basically uses 7-year old technology. This means that probably current CIS technology has caught up with the older CCD quality in the S1500. Of course this doesn't mean that current CCD quality is not better yet. Anyway, I use a Canon flat-bed for high-quality scans like paper photographs, cards and the likes so not really an issue for me.
-no Adobe Acrobat XI, just the same version X as before even though XI has been out for a while now. (Note that the provided Acrobat is Windows only. If you have a Mac, you can use Preview which comes with MacOS). Regarding software, I will also mention that personally having gone completely paperless for many years, I avoid like the plague using commercial "paperless office managing software" (read Rack2-Filer, ScanSnap Organizer, FileCenter, PaperPort, Sharepoint, etc). Nothing wrong with them at all, its just that many of these programs and their supporting software companies may not be around 10+ years from now so you don't want to depend too much on their proprietary file indexing system or formatting or deal with some compatibility issues that may arise in the future if say you switch to a new operating system. This is very important because the reason you are digitizing documents/photos, etc is for archiving and future use. I only trust the PDF format which is an open standard (many programs and platforms can open it) and plain hierarchical file directories (regular Windows folders) for organizing the files. This will guarantee that 20, 30 or 40 years from now your files will be as organized and usable as today.
-no TWAIN support but this I knew beforehand so in my case it is not really an issue. It can be an issue for small business that rely on specific software for scanning. I mostly scan directly to PDF. TWAIN is a standard protocol that most scanners and imaging hardware use to communicate with software programs. This means that you cannot directly scan images from within some graphic or other type of software that require a TWAIN driver. You will have to scan and the open the image file.
In summary, I will say that coming from the S1500, other than the new wireless capability, the iX500's big overall improvement is in speed. The iX500 won't make your S1500 obsolete, not at all unless of course you must have the wireless connectivity. The improvements are more evolutionary than anything else because the S1500 is already very fast. We are talking about differences in seconds. If you add all the speed improvements: a faster feeding mechanism/optical scan + faster image processing due to the new "GI" dual microprocessor + USB 3.0 connection, you get a much faster experience, specially if you scan a lot. Few years ago, a scanner this good and fast would have cost thousand(s) of dollars like commercial grade Canon and Fujitsu doc scanners. I have recommended the ScanSnap series to friends and family who were interested and from their feedback I can say that the iX500 would also be perfect for both beginners and experienced users alike more so with all the improvements.
Couple more things: 1)from personal experience, having a good file backup routine is as important -if not moreas having a good scanner. Going all digital is fantastic and very practical but it also makes it extremely easy to lose it all, so I wouldn't skimp on that side. 2)The scanner doesn't come with a paper manual -that would be ironic..ha ha!. You can download the 480-page PDF manual from Fujitsu.
Hope this was helpful.
**** UPDATE 02/11/13 ****
After almost a month of daily use, I've had no problems with the iX500 whatsoever. It definitely is as reliable as the S1500. I'm very happy with my purchase. My setup is a custom built PC i7-3770 w/Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits. Haven't tried it yet on my Win 8 laptop.
I had the opportunity to play with the wireless function... Well, the WiFI wireless function does NOT replace the USB cable. In other words, it does not connect directly to your PC via WiFi only. It only connects the iX500 to your tablet or smartphone. You cannot have both the USB cable and the WiFi mode active at the same time. Also, you *need* to turn on the ScanSnap App on your smartdevice for the iX500 to be able to start scanning (the Apps are free to download on the iTunes and Play Store). The "PC-less" wireless scanning does work as advertised, though. It is very cool and surprisingly fast. I tried it on my Google Nexus phone, tablet and iPod Touch and they all worked very well. Using a Google device you could also save files to the micro-SD memory card.
Also, it is not really standalone-connected-to-the cloud as one would think. It cannot send the scans directly to say DropBox without your intervention. Not even using the App. You must go through the Quick Menu while using your PC and choose one of the cloud services and then save "directly" to DropBox but only when connected via USB. It cannot be done just by pressing the "Scan" button on the iX500. You need a PC for that. That makes sense because you need a computer to do the log-in into a cloud file hosting service. The iX500 alone can't keep your login information. They should add that direct capability to the App, though. If you don't want a PC attached, you can still scan with your smartphone and then once in your smartphone, you can send the documents anywhere you want (Google Drive, Dropbox, text message, email, printer, SD memory card, etc).
Regarding the wireless setup process, as a first step your scanner needs to be connected to the computer via USB and run the "ScanSnap Wireless Network Setup" program. If your network is protected, you will also need the security password unless your router has a WPS button (Wireless Protected Setup). I don't like to read manuals (I'm a guy, ha ha) so I just followed the easy interactive steps. It will also tell you that your iX500 has a unique PIN number that you will need to enter in you ScanSnap App. This is in case you are in an office with more than one iX500s; it will only connect to yours. After that you can unhook the USB cable.
Again, in my specific case I don't care much for the wireless connectivity but I already can imagine interesting uses for it. BTW, I also tried to use my Google phone as a WiFi HotSpot and connect it directly to the iX500 but it doesn't work that way. Apparently the iX500 needs a common access point for both. My phone has WiFi-Direct but not the iX500.
Buy Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005) Now
I'll start out by saying that I've been the proud owner of a Fujitsu S1300 scanner for the past two years. I have gone almost completely paperless at home through a combination of scanning to Evernote and Dropbox and haven't looked back since. The quality and convenience of my previous scanner was unmatched over the last couple years, but there had always been some items on my wish list.Enter the iX500
I really believe this to be the end-all-be-all as far as scanners is concerned. I'll try to go through this review in a logical fashion.
Purchase/Install
I actually received this unit on the first day it was released due to a connection I had (always love to be one of the first to have something). Bringing it home and unpacking it was familiar as this is my 3rd Fujitsu scanner (s1300 and s1300i for my parents) and setup was straight-forward. The install file on my MacBook was large, as usual, but took little time and was up and running. One of the main features/draws for this product was the wireless ability which I'll go into more detail later, but was easy to get setup. Overall took less than 10 minutes to start scanning. Nothing exciting.
Initial Impressions
This thing is FAST. I never had a complaint about the speed of my s1300 or especially the s1300i, but holy cow, this thing scans documents like it's going out of style. Even at full resolution color on both sides it is hard to keep up with it.
Secondly, this is by far an improvement over the s1300 in the aesthetics category. It looks like a very high end piece of AV equipment or something. So far my wife has not even attempted to make me move it off the kitchen counter where it currently resides. When folded up it is very unobtrusive and is very unassuming.
I have to reiterate that I truly enjoy the fact that, now that this is 100% wireless, I don't have to keep it in my home office or attached to another computer (with 2 USB ports like the s1300s).
Build quality is similar to the previous generations of Fujitsu scanners superb.
Testing
Speed I was easily able to get the 25 pages per minute claim and even hit 32 pages while doing my latest mortgage refinance documents.
Reliability I put several documents through that either had a business card taped to them or a post-it note to see how it would handle them. All fed through perfectly fine and showed up as desired.
Wireless This is honestly the main reason for my upgrade. Having the ability to detach this device from any and all computers and allow for the scanning of incoming mail directly to Evernote is a godsend. The iOS app worked flawlessly to get the scanner to do whichever type of scan I wanted and instantly made available my documents. This means not having to pile up my mail on a weekly basis and batch scan it when I take everything up to the office. It also means I'm far more likely to scan a document before trashing it, ensuring that nothing is overlooked. In the past I've shied away from wireless peripherals like printers as I've had bad luck with them, but with the rigorous testing I've done this far I have yet to break this.
Quality As good as the S1300/S1300i as far as quality and OCR accuracy. This is somewhat secondary to main my needs but works well.
Overall Thoughts
This isn't the cheapest scanner you can buy but I honestly believe it to be the most convenient and well equipped. Aside from the cost savings of having to purchase filing cabinets, the psychological benefits of nothing have paper-clutter around the house and being able to find any document you need in an instant are huge. The iX500 has lived up to all my expectations and more so far.
Future Updates
I do plan on updating this review in the future with a few items. First, I am trying to get a video of the insane speed of this device uploaded. Secondly, I'd like to give some more insight into the reliability/long-term build quality of it. Perhaps in 3-6 months the latter will come. Please comment with any questions and I'll respond ASAP.
Thanks
Read Best Reviews of Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005) Here
This is the most effusive review I've ever written. This product will blow you away.I've had it only one week. So far I've cleaned out over 250 pounds of paper files from my once-clogged office. Everything is now filed in Evernote. It's backed up locally and in the cloud and instantly searchable and accessible.
I've had Neat Receipts for years. Gave it up after losing 5 months of receipts (poof gone). When looking for another solution I stumbled into the Fujitsu S1500 and it's rabid following (they are like groupies and now I see why). After a ton of additional research (check out the many YouTube videos and reviews here on Amazon), I was about to order the 1500....then...
As I was about to buy it, Fujitsu announced this new machine; the iX500. It's not inexpensive, but based on the strong recommendations for its predecessors, I took the plunge. Amazon did not even have a picture of it up yet but they took the order and shipped a few days later.
The product LOOKS great. It's small amazingly small about the same footprint as an old personal fax machine. It's sleek and it's almost silent. Most all it's FAST. Blazing. 25 page per minute.
Look at that shelf behind you. The one will all those binders from those conferences you attended. You know you'll never read those things...but you can't throw them out, can you? I scanned over 3,000 pages of journals and binders. Throwing them out felt GREAT. I have the space back, and now can search through any of those once-dusty tomes instantly.
Receipts. What receipts? That huge box of them that was getting bigger by the day...All gone. Scanned into the system. Tagged, sorted, filed and ready for tax season.
Staples are EVIL. Make sure there are none in your docs. One week in and nearly paperless.
Look. I'll make it easy for you. Just buy it. If I'm wrong, Amazon will take it back -but once you have it you won't let it go.
Lastly I believe I'd give up my iPad before I'd let this thing go.
Enjoy.
Want Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005) Discount?
It's a true delight to find a product that is as carefully thought out, as well engineered, and as user friendly as Fujitsu's ScanSnap scanners.I've been using the S1500 at my office, and my wife and I have have been using one for our home office, since 2010. It's been a workhorse appliance that we've used every day for paperless home and business needs, with our only problem being some very occasional finickiness in document feeding. When I started seeing reviews for the iX500, I figured it was time to pass the S1500s on to some office staffers and upgrade the office and home. I did that today, and I'm very happy I did. The iX500 is much faster than the S1500, and from what I've read I don't expect even the minimal finickiness we had with the S1500s.
Beyond the excellence of the product, I've rarely seen such simple installation. The software installs almost entirely on its own, preserving settings from the prior version that came with the S1500. You basically just run the installation program, plug in the scanner, follow some on-screen prompts for both wireless and hard-wired connections (with built-in trouble-shooting if things don't go quite right), and you're done. Very few products are this easy. Yes, I'm pretty tech-savvy, but it's hard to imagine anyone having trouble with the setup. Both at the office and at home, everything went flawlessly. Most important, the installation preserved all my preferences, including the location of the destination folder for scans (a Dropbox folder, not the program default). Once the installation was complete, I did a scan and everything worked just as it had with the S1500, Hard to beat that.
Particularly simple is the wireless facility. This isn't a wireless connection to your computer, but rather a connection to iOS or Android devices through local Wi-Fi, so that you can send a scan to these devices. I have to say that I'm not sure why Fujitsu devoted so much attention to this -it's not obvious to me why anyone using Dropbox or a similar service would have a regular need for it. In my case, my default folder for scanning lives in Dropbox, so when I scan something it's available on both my office and home desktop computers and on my wireless devices. So, I don't know how often this will be useful to me. That said, I can see the value of being able to do a quick scan to a handheld when the computer is turned off and I don't want to have to fire it up. Regardless, the wireless setup is as straightforward and quick as anyone could possibly want. Again, even the tech-challenged should find this easy.
And that's the real virtue of this very virtuous product: Anyone can use it.
The S1500 was absolutely solid and reliable. The ix500 continues the tradition of excellence.
Thank you, Fujitsu!
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2nd update Received 3rd ix500 scanner today from PCNation Scanner installed and worked perfectly first time. I would advise anyone who receives this scanner, and who is finding that it is not working properly after installing, that it is probably a waste of time to talk to Fujitsu support. The problem, as I've experienced, is defective machines.Just to recap below comments, the first 2 scanners I received would not work properly or would not install. Clearly, they were defective scanners. I haven't seen a lot of comments relative to defective ix500 scanners online, but I'm guessing they are out there. Unfortunately, I spent numerous hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer or my installation skills only to find out the scanners were defective.
Since the scanner is such a great product, I'm upgrading my rating from 1 star to 3 stars. It looses 2 stars for Fujitsu's poor quality control and the hassle I had to go through to get one that works.
Update regarding review below: Returning 2nd scanner today for refund. Attempted install on 3rd computer (windows 7 operating system) and scanner failed to initialize. I'm starting to think this product was rushed to market with poor quality control. After all, it came out on 1/7/13 (I believe) at $495 and has already dropped in price several times. It can be purchased now for $428 at a different website with free shipping.
Posted a review a few days ago, but it appears I can only edit the one I posted, not post a new one. So, this is the sum of my disappointing experiences with the ix500.
Previously purchased the scanner from Newegg. Installed software, plugged device in and it worked. Temporarily. The cover needs to be opened to power on the device. Shortly after closing the device, I opened the cover and the blue scanner button did not turn on. After a series of reinstalls of software (1 reinstall worked briefly until the same issue occurred), the device would not power on at all (no blue scanner light). I contacted Fujitsu and it took them about a minute to tell me the unit is defective.
Returned the unit to Newegg for a refund. Ordered same unit from Amazon with overnight delivery. I do want to say that if this unit works, it is a great piece of technology. But, the sum total of it actually working, since this experience started, has been about 10 minutes.
So, now I have the new unit. Install the software and plug and play. That's all you have to do. IF IT WORKS. The software installs fine, turn on the machine and the blue scanner light works, just plug in the usb and away we go, right? Wrong!! Plugged the usb in and nothing, nada!!! The computer does not see the device.
Called Fujitsu support. Spent about 3 hours on the phone. Level 1 (very pleasant guy named Bob), Level 2. Do you think they could get this scanner to be recognized by the computer? Nope.
I would also add that I connected the scanner to my MAC laptop and it was not recognized by the computer. The other machine I've connected to is a Windows 7 desktop.
You all know how frustrating it is to spend countless hours trying to get a piece of technology working! To say the least it is a very frustrating deal.
So, is it a problem with USB ports on my computer? Nope. Plug anything else into the ports and the computer recognizes them. Is it a problem with the USB cable? Nope. Changed cables and that didn't fix anything. Is it a problem with the installer (me)? Maybe, but this is a pretty simple straightforward process of installing the software and attaching the device. So, I don't think so. Now, could it be a problem with the machine? I had one defective machine. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT FUJITSU IS PEDDLING A NUMBER OF DEFECTIVE SCANNERS? Well, how am I to know.
I do know that of 19 reviews on Amazon 5 are less than 5 stars (2 or below). Further, I've checked the few other sites that have user reviews of the ix500 and there are some other issues with installation and the product failing.
As I did with the original review, I want to reiterate that, when this product is working, it is everything they say it is. It is a 5 star product. But, as another reviewer on Amazon stated, "Maybe it's not ready for prime time"!!
I'm up to level 3 now with Fujitsu support. The last guy said they'd call in a few days. I'll update when I see what happens next. I'm pretty sure, at this point, that I may be the unlucky purchaser of 2 defective ix500 scanners from a company whose profits have been falling.
All I want this scanner to do is work like the numerous printers, scanners and other plug and play devices I've purchased. PLUG IN AND WORK!!!
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