Why You Can Trust CNET Get Canon's portable P-215II scanner for $175 just in time to do your taxes
Despite its tiny footprint, the Scan-tini has a 20-sheet ADF and does full-duplex scanning.
The first time I can remember hearing the term "paperless office" was back around 1990. We've come a long way, 30 years later, but we still need to print and scan documents with distressing regularity. If you're working from home these days, you might resort to clumsily using your phone's camera to "scan" documents. And with the revised tax day, July 15, barreling toward us, you might need to do some scanning for the IRS. I can help you fill the scanner gap at home with the Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini Mobile Document Scanner. The scanner lists for $300, but the price has been dropping. Right now, Amazon is offering the Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini for $175.
I've been using the Scan-tini for a while now. It's quite compact -- it takes up almost no space on your desktop, and it packs easily in a laptop bag if you need to take it somewhere. Weighing just 2 pounds, it's literally lighter than some laptop power bricks. Even so, it has both an automatic document feeder (it can hold about 20 sheets) and does full-duplex scanning.
I also love the fact that you don't need to install any software if you don't want to. That means you can use the scanner on a "guest" computer using a small utility that's resident in the scanner itself -- but a much more full-featured app comes in the box for your main computer. And speaking of lightweight, the scanner has its own AC adapter, but it too is entirely optional. You can simply plug it into your PC's USB port or use the included Y-adapter to plug the scanner into two USB ports for faster performance.
Just in time for tax prep, you can use the Scan-tini to capture documents, receipts, photos and business cards as fast as 15 pages per minute, with both sides of the page scanned simultaneously in duplex mode.
If the Amazon price goes up, you can still get it for about the same price directly from Canon. From now through September, you can get the Canon imageFormula P-215II Scan-tini for $179 and with expedited two-day shipping when you apply discount code CANONCNET20 at checkout.
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