Need *portable* Scanner & Printer recommendations...

[gsaldivar]

I have a client (a truck driver) who has asked me to find a way for him to browse the web, and send/receive faxes while on the road. I was tempted to recommend a fax machine and AC inverter, however, since he also wants to get on the internet, I think the best solution for him would be a laptop (with fax software) and a separate portable scanner and printer.

The scanner I am looking as is the Visioneer Strobe XP. It's reasonably priced, fast, and is powered over the USB bus, so no separate power connector is necessary. I believe these can be configured to scan multipage documents directly to fax software.

For the printer, I really have no idea what to recommend. He will need something that is small and lightweight, USB powered would be preferrable, and it would be really nice if we could buy OEM (generic) ink instead of brand-name stuff.

I'm hoping you guys can help me out with this. This guys is a road warrior, and often spends weeks away from home. I want to put together something really nice for him, but I need your advice to make it happen.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :beer:

 

[Peter]

The neatest mobile printers are Canon's. Brandnew i70 is out already, small, fast and nicely printing.

 

[LED]

2nd the Canon's as I almosty bought one when I saw the results. Packed flat and prints were quite good although not the i series quality. What stopped me was the infared line of site remote as I wanted a radio wave instead but found none in any make/model .

 

[Peter]

LED, did you see the old BJC-85, or the new i70? The latter has 4800x1200 accuracy, and 5-picoliter pixels. Will say its print quality is on par with their previous generation of desktop printers (i300, i550 et al). The drawback with all those mobile printers is that the ink tanks are really tiny (obviously).

 

[LED]

Peter it was the BJC-85. I would imagine the i70 prints would be on par with the i's (hence the i label on it) In any event nothing that I have seen there came close to the BJC...damn I just wish they could make them in radio wave flavors as the line of sight discourages my mobile needs...LOL I instead bought a Sharp VL-WD650 DV Camera's because it was about $400 US and when I notice the lens was a canon 1:16 f=3.5 I couldn't refuse

COS (Change of Subject) I see over on the General Forums the gave some links to Canon new line of Cameras

The A80 and <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://
[L=http://www.dpreview.com/news/0308/03082005canoneos300d.asp">EOS-30</a>]http://www.dpreview.com/news/0308/03082005canoneos300d.asp[/L][/L] .

 

[Peter]

Ye olde BJC-85 was a mere 720x360 with two-step variable dot size. Print quality is nowhere near the i70's.

 

[LED]

Geeez Pete, that's quite an improvement. I'll have to take 1 look see next trip in the City.

gsaldivar I'm not familiar with that particular Scanner but I do know from experience that sheetfed Scanners are not the best , at least the one I had, because I couldn't Scan smaller-thicker items or without it rolling the originals (Pictures, Posterboard). Nowadays there are Slimline flatbeds which I would consider as they have more funtions.

 

[prosaic]

I thought I would add one point of caution, and that point may not apply here depending on the portable computer you choose. Since you mention wanting to have both the printer and the scanner powered through the USB hub it might be good to be aware that not all notebook computers are created equal in this respect. Some portables are, whether by design or by dint of poor execution of design, unable to power many devices through their USB ports. I remember a whole slew of Dell designs that had this problem as recently as a couple of years ago. If it's at all possible it could be a good idea to actually test the proposed equipment combination (or get a guarantee of function from the vendor's representative) before purchasing.

- prosaic

 

[gsaldivar]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Since he hasn't decided on a notebook yet, I will try to arrange some sort of a test before we buy. If nothing else, as long as we get all the equipment at once, we should have 30 days to get it working, while having the option to return it if it doesn't.

Thanks again..