Of the many portable scanners that Epson makes, the WorkForce ES-50 ($119.99) is one of the smallest, lightest, and least-expensive in the bunch, but it's also one of most bare-bones. It supports only USB connectivity, making it unusable by most mobile devices, and it has no control panel. If you can stretch your budget by $40, you can go truly mobile with the Editors' Choice Epson WorkForce ES-60W, which comes with a built-in rechargable battery and wireless connectivity. But if all you need is to scan one- or two-page documents to your laptop while on the go, the ES-50 is more than adequate.
Just the Necessities
Before talking about the ES-50 specifically, it's important to point out that there are two basic types of portable document scanners. There are the manual-feed models, like the ES-50, that you feed a page at a time to; and then there are the sheet-feed models that come with automatic document feeders (ADFs) for scanning multipage documents. If you foresee yourself needing to scan multipage documents or scan jobs, you should consider a model with an ADF, like the Epson's Editors' Choice ES-300W. (Keep in mind, though, that those scanners are often more expensive than the manual-feed variety.)
As mentioned, the ES-50 is a bare-bones machine. Not only are its connectivity options limited, but unlike competing models like the DS-80W and the IRIScan Anywhere 5 WiFi, it has no battery for cordless operation. In fact, it draws its power over the same USB connection used to communicate with the computer to which it's tethered.
At 1.3 by 10.7 by 1.8 inches (HWD) and weighing a mere 0.6 pounds, the ES-50 is very small and light. Compared with competing models, including the Anywhere 5, the Xerox Duplex Travel Scanner ($125.39 at Amazon) , and the Visioneer RoadWarrior X3, Epson's latest round of manual-feed portables are the smallest and lightest machines available.
Similar Products
Like its siblings, the ES-55R and the DS-70, the ES-50's controls, as shown in the image below, consist of one button, Scan Start/Stop.
Otherwise, all aspects of your scans—resolution, simplex or duplex, destination, file format, and so on—are preconfigured in either ScanSmart, Epson's latest scanner interface and document-management utility, or Epson Scan 2. The latter is the scanner UI that the company includes primarily with its consumer-grade "DS" model scanners, but it's also an option with business-oriented "ES" iterations. You also get Nuance OCR for converting scanned text to editable text and exporting it to searchable PDF, Microsoft Word, or Excel.
On the right endcap you'll find the mini-USB port for tethering the scanner to your computer for charging and transferring data (the USB cable is included in the box). On the left edge, as shown in the image below, there's a designated area for scanning narrow items, such as business cards, credit cards, and receipts. There's no support for memory cards.
Epson's latest scanner interface software, ScanSmart, is easy to use and relatively powerful for what it does, which includes allowing you to create workflow presets that handle your scans from beginning to end, or from scanning to archiving and everything between.
The software comes with a few presets that you can edit, or you can create your own.
Fast Competitor
Epson rates the ES-50 at 5.5 seconds per page, which comes out to 10 pages per minute (ppm). Of course, the speed you get depends on how diligently you feed the scanner, one sheet at a time, one right after the other, after each subsequent page passes through the machine. My tests bear out that the DS-50 is certainly capable of 10ppm when scanning to image PDF and a little slower when scanning to searchable PDF. The ES-50 was about twice as fast as the Xerox Duplex Travel Scanner and the Visioneer RoadWarrior and about 3ppm faster than the IRIScan Anywhere 5. The ES-60W is rated at 15ppm, and kept that pace in our testing.
Little Editing Required
The best news about the ES-50 is that ScanSmart and Nuance OCR are very consistent at converting imaged text to editable text. The scanner and its software scanned and converted both of our Arial and Times New Roman test pages to editable text without errors down to 6 points, which should cover the scope of most of the documents you'll be scanning.
Of its competitors, the Xerox Travel Scanner did slightly better by scanning the Arial font test down to 5 points error-free, as did the Epson ES-60W. Five points error-free is the best we've seen from any scanner—even those that cost thousands of dollars. The Visioneer X3 and the IRIScan Anywhere 5 managed 8 points without mistakes.
No Frills
The Epson WorkForce ES-50 is an inexpensive solution for those road warriors who need simplicity. You connect it to your laptop and you're ready to go. At about 10 ounces, it adds next to nothing to your carry load, and the only accessory you need to bring is a USB cable. If you want to ditch the wires and really go mobile, it's worth spending an extra $40 on the Editors' Choice ES-60W. Otherwise, for simply scanning one- or two-sheet documents to your laptop on the go, the ES-50 will do just fine.
The Epson WorkForce ES-50 is a fast and accurate, if bare-bones, portable document scanner.
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Sign up for other newslettersAbout William Harrel
Former Contributing Editor
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