Fujitsu’s ScanSnap scanners are known for scanning large volumes of documents quickly while capturing both sides of a document at the same time. Fujitsu’s new ix100 mobile scanner does neither of those things, but it might be of value to road warriors looking for a small and light weight device to scan documents on the go.

The ix100 is small and very light weight. It’ll easily fit in a briefcase or medium sized laptop bag. It has a built in lithium-ion battery that’s good for about 200 scans over Wifi and can connect directly to a computer via USB. The battery also charges over that USB cable.

YouTube video

The scanner can ingest a page at 300 dpi in about 5 seconds or so. Pretty fast for a small scanner. It does not, however, take more than one page at a time. The software smartly waits for a confirmation before closing a document, so each inserted page will add to the document being created. This isn’t bad for small multipage documents but could get cumbersome with larger ones.

Another problem is that it does not support duplexing. A double sided document will need to be fed through the scanner twice in order to ingest each side of the page. Again not a problem for a few pages but definitely an issue if scanning a larger document.

The battery also must be kept charged. If it’s completely depleted the scanner won’t operate even if it’s plugged into a computer. I found that a 20 minute charge was enough to get it operating again.

The last issue is that it oddly only allows wireless scanning from one computer. A computer needs to be paired to the scanner via USB first, and then it can scan via WiFi. The process needs to be repeated when switching wireless access to another computer, at which point the original computer will be locked out. The ix100 does support multiple wireless devices so it’s odd that it treats computers this differently.

So yes, this scanner is likely not the ScanSnap you’re expecting. But it makes for a good mobile scanning experience despite its limitations. I would be a lot more enthusiastic about it if it supported duplexing.

Lon Seidman is the host and producer of “Lon.TV,” a consumer technology video show that is on a number of platforms including YouTube and Amazon. He creates in-depth, consumer-friendly product reviews and commentary. His YouTube channel has over 300,000 subscribers and more than 100 million views.

In addition to being a full-time content creator, Lon is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Hartford (his alma mater) where he teaches a course in entrepreneurial content creation.

Prior to becoming a full-time creator, Lon was a partner at The Safety Zone, his family’s business that manufactures gloves and safety equipment. The company has locations around the globe and employs over 200 people worldwide. The Safety Zone was acquired by the Genuine Parts Corporation in 2016.

Lon is also active in public service, serving as the Chairman of the Essex Board of Education, a member of the Region 4 Board of Education, and as the Secretary / Treasurer of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. He was endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans for his re-election in 2021.

The views, opinions, positions, or strategies expressed by the author are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of CTNewsJunkie.com.