Customer Reviews

Visioneer Strobe XP 100 Mobile 600 DPI USB Scanner with One Touch Technology (SXP1001-DB)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Let me clear up a couple of mistakes other people have written in their reviews:

1 - This device is ABSOLUTELY 100% Windows XP compatible. I am using it on a Windows XP, SP2 machine and it works fine.

2 - All sheet fed scanners can suffer from the problem of pages feeding in irregularly - it's inherent in the design. I have had other sheet fed scanners and can certify that this problem is not unique to this specific scanner.

3 - The XP 100 has gone through a couple of versions. This version on Amazon is the newest model. Some of the reviews were written back in 2003 or 2004 - those reviews were for a previous model.

I wouldn't lower a motorcycle's score because I get wet when I rode it in the rain. This device should not be compared to a flat bed or a bulk document scanner.

To be clear, this device will not replace a flat bed scanner. I definitely would not buy this scanner if you are primarily going to be scanning in your photos, or documents that you need immaculate copies of.

However if you are looking for a scanner with a small footprint that will allow you to quickly and easily scan in business or personal documents on a regular basis, this may be the perfect device.

I am in the shipping business. We have a high speed b/w network scanner for bulk work and a I had a flat bed scanner for color/fine work on my desk. However the network scanner is in another room and the flat bed was taking up too much space on my desk. The flatbed scanner was overkill - I didn't need to scan in many color documents and having to go through complicated preview/scanning procedures just ate up my time.

Most of the scanning I need to do involves single page documents - things like purchase orders, shipping confirmations, releases, etc. Walking to the network scanner 30 times a day was getting old, and I probably only scanned in 20%-30% of the documents that I could/should retain digital copies of.

The Visioneer scanner has been an amazing time saver for me. I can scan in a one page document in under 10 seconds. From there, I can drag-and-drop my scanned images to my Filemaker databases. The entire process takes less than 20 seconds. This saves me a huge amount of time every day AND I procrastinate less. The result is that I have cut down on the paper clutter AND I'm getting close to 100% on scanning in my documents.

The fact that it draws its power from the USB port is a bonus - fewer wires snaking around, over and under my desk.

I have been using it for 3 weeks and have not had a single crash or hang-up. In some of my other reviews I mention that it is critical for people to run WIndows Update regularly - I bet the crashing problems most people are experiencing are a result of Windows errors, not problems with the Visioneer software.

I logged in to Amazon today to purchase two additional scanners for other people in my office. Let's see if I can get them to be better at scanning in their documents so that we can better share information...

I will report back on how that effort goes.

Update - I actually purchased three more of these devices instead of the two I planned on. I have given one to my bookkeeper, one to my sales clerk and one to the traffic manager. The results have been amazing.

I now can, with almost 100% certainty, find digital versions of all paper documents related to any order from the past 3 weeks. My staff tells me that this device is MUCH easier and quicker to use than the other scanners in the office. The fact that it takes up almost no room on their desks is also a big plus.

It took me exactly 10 minutes to show all three users how to use this device. To date there have been no problems.

EDITED: After one year of use, my earlier claims were overly optimistic. The hardware seems good, as far as it goes, but the software is ridiculously buggy and unreliable.
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First--this is not a flatbed scanner; so keep one handy. This is not a high-speed sheetfed either; don't try to use it for those purposes and things work out well. SOMETIMES.

Ideal for portable scanning--the kind of scanning where you go into a library, or an office, or other location. Use it as a fax replacement for printed docs, as an alternative to photocopying and carrying, as a convenient device for sorting and recording receipts, bills, and what-not while traveling on the go, and it works great.

Many earlier gripes compared this scanner to very different products--or simply slammed it for lack of support. (Concur: the support sucks, the downloads don't work - and reinstalling drivers adds SPYWARE - that BMupdate.exe is ugly).

The interface seems intermittent (REVISED: TOTALLY UNRELIABLE): sometimes, I have to unplug/replug the scanner after a particularly long job, and it seems pretty random. That slows things down, but isn't a fatal flaw.

Still, for real estate, student, legal, design, and other niches, this scanner is ideal. Don't like it for it's portability? Try lugging a flatbed or fullsize sheetfed + power supply to the library!

The great thing about this scanner is its size. It is very small and is powered by the USB port so it doesn't even require an external power supply. I bought this as a replacement to my old visioneer strobe scanner which wasn't supported after my upgrade to windows xp.

The Strobe XP is a great scanner although there are two downsides:
1. This scanner is slow- much slower than my old Strobe scanner, even at 100dpi scanning.
2. The USB cable that came with this scanner was defective, and I can't even begin to tell you how much trying to debug it frustrated me until I tried another cable. If your cable works, the install is easy.

The positives are as follows:
1. Small size
2. Paperport software that comes with it is great
3. Good quality scans even color photos come out great

If you're looking for a small sheetfed scanner that doesn't take up much desktop space, this product is for you. Otherwise, I'd buy a better (and faster) scanner.

I just installed the Strobe XP 100 scanner under Windows 2000 Pro. It was easy to install both software and hardware. This is my third Visioneer sheetfed scanner in 6 years. I have found them to be useful and reliable, but, as others will tell you, tech. support is weak. My advice is to try it and, if it works from the get-go, you will probably have a good experience. If you have problems with the installation, you may be better off sending it back and buying another brand.

GOOD review follows! First, this is NOT the best choice for PERFECT scans of photos or fragile documents. It does a perfectly adequate job with snapshots and newspaper clippings, an EXCEPTIONAL job with color or B/W letter-size material. It scans for fliing/fax, OCR or color images, up to 600 DPI.
If you are careful, you can easily feed sheets into this device without trouble. Be patient. It has an included software application that allows scanning multiple succesive sheets to one document, for convienence...but you can separate the pages later! Cool. Or you can group different scans to one document later. Cooler!

The image editing software is pretty darn good. Why? Because it has a decent selection of tools while not being overly complicated to use. You can use it as a desktop-type filing system too.

Some versions of the "Paperport" software export scans to PDF! If you understand what that means, you'll jump for joy...

But you know where the Strobe REALLY excels? You can quickly scan a document, drag it to Word and have about 95% immediately recognized as an editable Word file. Very little re-typing. How many times do you need some information IN your computer at school or work that exists only in a printed form? Wow! And you did this in about 30 seconds...

The Strobe is not perfect, but it does many jobs well enough to overlook that it is not the best solution of any ONE job. But it's the 90% solution for a TON of jobs! Buy it. You will not regret it.

This is my fourth-and probably last--Visioneer scanner. And I plan to return this one. If you already have PaperPort (I had version 9.0) you have to completely UNINSTALL it in order to add this scanner. (Huh?) And removal is not straightforward. (Read some of the troubleshooting instructions on Visioneer.com; they should be embarrassed.) The uninstall did not work, so I had to download 2 different files from Visioneer.com to clean up the mess. Finally, PaperPort 8.0 installed, but it never found the scanner. Prompted by the web site, I deleted the twain files on my computer and installing a downloaded driver-which resulted in a strong Microsoft warning that this file was not compatible with Windows. At one point, PaperPort would consistently close immediately after being opened-it didn't crash, it just closed itself.

Meanwhile, the tech support number included in the scanner package was "disconnected or no longer in service." The number provided on the web site has hours so short that I can't use their support for my home computer. And have you tried their touted "SARA" to troubleshoot a problem? Don't bother.

These are just a few of the problems I encountered. I had been perfectly satisfied with my old Strobe (which was also a headache to install), but Visioneer doesn't support Windows XP for the old Strobe. (I don't trust them to support the next OS upgrade either.) If you like nightmares and complex computer challenges, then Visioneer scanners are for you. As for me, I'm going shopping.

The Visioneer XP is a worse product that the previous sheetfeed scanners like the Strobe, Strobe Pro and even the eariler ones like the MX. The software is now being produced by Scansoft and it is better in some ways and worse in others than earlier versions. The Strobe XP 100 or Xp 200 should just not be bought. It's a given. Buy something else. There is no question that this product is just plain bad. If you can get away with it find a used Strobe Pro and use Version 7 of Paperport. Can't do that on an XP system though or a Microsoft 2000. You need version 8 or 9. But if you use Windows 98, then that is a good system. You might as well get version 9 if you need it, it's the same price. Version 9 is clunkier than earlier versions and less intuitive. You cant't even find the "calibrate" button. Anyway, it's one solid benefit is that it can make, translate and read PDF files. That is very handy. And it works with all TWAIN scanners. By not buying a new Visioneer you can save yourself the aggravation of talking to their tech support people, who are invariable rude and unaccomodating--so far as I have seen. Visioneer has always had bad support people but they've actually got worse with time. If you have a Strobe Pro you're better off, since they won't even talk to you at all as they no longer seem to support it even though it's a very recent product. It still may be sold new somewhere. That saves you the aggravation ahead of time. But it's a better machine than the Strobe XP by far. The new Strobe for example does not automatically crop scans, and does not scan paper over 12 inches long as far as I can tell. It's smaller and tinnier than the Strobe Pro. On the whole my advice is to avoid Visioneer products altogether if you can. Remember that Paperport is now a Scansoft product and can be run better on other than Visioneer machines. Their support is half-way decent but they will not help you out with a Visioneer scanner problem unless it is Paperport version 8 and above related.

Once the manufacturer of the BEST sheetfed scanners on the market, Visioneer has turned ugly. Whatever vision they may have had is now myopic and fading fast.

Why, you ask? Products marketed as XP-compatible aren't; they dump their products into the 'unsupported legacy' bin faster than any company I've ever seen; drivers require several patches and confusing trial-and-error workarounds; tech support staff are rude, untrained and unhelpful. Can 'new economy' companies really survive on a culture of indifference and limp technical savvy? We'll see, because that's the consistent denominator in Visioneer's offering.

Check customer reviews and the (significant amounts of) outrage-infused newsgroup postings on the company before you even THINK about buying from them. Good luck, and don't say you haven't been warned...

Scanning used to be a hideous ordeal for me--fire up the scanner software, wait for the scanner to warm up, position and re-position the item to be scanned on a huge flatbed scanner inconveniently out of reach of my desk. This tiny device has changed all that: It works quietly, instantaneously and seamlessly with my Windows XP system. I particularly love the tiny footprint and lack of a power cord. Serious paperless-office freaks should definitely consider this item.

I bought this scanner to truly go "paperless" with all but my most important documents. Using this product in conjunction with PaperPort 9.0 Deluxe, I have accomplished that goal quickly in comparison to doing it with a regular scanner. This has allowed me to scan & shred thousands of documents - a welcome organizational relief. The model takes up very little room and I can scan my documents in a matter of seconds. I like that I can scan receipts and smaller pieces of paper - something that would challenge a good sheet fed scanner. Generally speaking, my documents come out straight and and scan quickly in high quality at 200dpi grayscale.

Despite this, I would add that the product driver installation was rather clunky and awkward - somewhat challenging for a user with 15 years PC experience. The other major gripe I have about the product is that it fails to scan the very last 1/2" of a scanned page. This means that I sometimes have to scan a document both ways on documents that have text in the last 1/" of the page. The other drawback is the product is rediculously expensive for what it is...I think a price tag of $100 would be more suitable than the $200 retail in goes for.