PC makeover with Best Buy $1,199.99
CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/05/2001
At just $99, the pint-sized Hewlett-Packard Photo Scanner 1000 costs slightly less than most full-featured flatbed scanners. Its simple design and easy-to-use interface make scanning, organizing, and sharing your photos effortless. However, the Photo Scanner 1000 may be simple to a fault. For example, you won't find quality, resolution, or color-depth controls. Still, if you just want to scan snapshots, the Photo Scanner 1000 fits the bill.At just $99, the pint-sized Hewlett-Packard Photo Scanner 1000 costs slightly less than most full-featured flatbed scanners. Its simple design and easy-to-use interface make scanning, organizing, and sharing your photos effortless. However, the Photo Scanner 1000 may be simple to a fault. For example, you won't find quality, resolution, or color-depth controls. Still, if you just want to scan snapshots, the Photo Scanner 1000 fits the bill.
Simplify, simplify, simplify
Even the most crowded desk can find room for the 9.5-by-6.5-by-1.5-inch scanner, which weighs a mere pound. The Photo Scanner 1000 includes its own USB cable from which it draws all of its power. As with many other USB peripherals, you should install the drivers before you connect the scanner; the jewel-case-sized manual describes the installation in full. The Photo Scanner 1000 works with Windows 98, Me, XP, and 2000.
All of this simplicity comes at the expense of choice, however. The Photo Scanner 1000 offers a limited range of features, compared with more expensive models. And unlike the average scanner, the Photo Scanner 1000 doesn't let you change settings for image size, resolution, color depth, or exposure. It has a modest 4-by-6-inch scanning bed with a fixed resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch), and the contact image sensor (CIS) reads 30 bits of color per pixel, which it distills to 24 bits. You can't even choose the format in which you save your images; the software saves scans as JPEG files only.
Jammin' with ACDSee
The software bundle goes a long way toward making the scanning process idiot-proof. The key component is ACD Systems' ACDSee 3.1, a graphics-management program. When you press the scan button on the side of the Photo Scanner 1000, ACDSee automatically launches and shows you a thumbnail of the scanned photo. The toolbar buttons let you e-mail, print, or edit the picture. The bundle also includes HP Photo Imaging, which lets you post pictures to the Web or choose the size of the image to e-mail. Finally, HP's Photo Printing software comes with preformatted layouts and lets you print everything from wallet-sized photos to 8x10-inch prints.
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