ScanSnap Cousins: The S300M vs. S510M

I’m in the market for a scanner that will serve one purpose: Transform paper files into pdf’s. That’s it.

At one of my newspaper stops, I used the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M, which is the standard-bearer of pdf scanners for Macs. It’s where I was headed, until I stumbled across the S300M model.

What holds me back from the S510M model is the price tag. At more than $400, it ain’t cheap. The S300M comes in at just under $300, so I naturally took a keen interest.

The S510M is faster, but the S300M is smaller, can run off USB power and is theoretically portable (I’m thinking between home and office, which is key.)

The last test for the S300M was simple: Are the pdf’s it creates searchable? After all, I’m dumping my pdf’s into a couple of different programs, and I want to be able to read them.

Unfortunately, the S300M does not create searchable pdf’s. That’s a big blow, and may have made my decision for me.

I’ll have to take a closer look at Evernote’s capability to read pdf files, which I remember being fairly limited if they are not created as searchable files to begin with. (Ironically, I’d be better scanning to jpegs for Evernote than to pdf’s…)

For now, I’m leaning back toward the S510M. It’s a great machine, and while it is a bit pricey, I’m sure it will more than pay for itself over a year’s time.