My Macworld review of the Doxie portable document scanner
When I first heard of Apparent’s Doxie Go, it struck me as a brilliantly useful device—a small, portable scanner to help reduce paper clutter by making scanning as easily as possible, without a computer.
The actual product comes close to that. Scanning is very easy, but getting really good results requires practice, skill, and luck. Even so, most scans turn out acceptably well, but I still found myself tweaking them, which adds friction to the process and makes the device a little less useful overall.
Apparent also makes quite a bit of the scanner’s optional WiFi connectivity (through an Eye-Fi SD card and iOS compatibility (through the Eye-Fi client or Apple’s digital camera connection kit). But I think both would be more useful if they didn’t depend on third-party products.
Despite this, the Doxie is the most useful scanner I’ve ever used—but its $200 price tag and minor flaws keep it from being a “must buy”1.
The Doxie can be purchased directly from Apparent, or, if you prefer, you can buy the Doxie Go through Amazon, and if your order via that link, I’ll get a small referral fee from Amazon.
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For two alternate takes, check out Shawn Blanc’s review and Ben Brooks’ review. Both liked the scanner, and both had a few complaints (as was the case with me). ↩
