Mustek Be@rpaw 1200CU Plus review

For only £23, Mustek's Be@rpaw is just about as cheap as scanners get.

It's amazing that something so complex can be made for so little money. The optical resolution of 600 x 1,200dpi is considerably lower than that of the Canon or Epson. But then again, the 1200CU is the most compact scanner here, and the neatest, since it only needs its USB cable to be connected to your PC - there's no separate power cable.

There's even a stand that hinges out of the base so you can place the Be@rpaw on its edge, saving more room on your desk. This doesn't work too well when scanning, as the documents fall out (a bit of a 'duh' moment there for the designers), so it's best used horizontally.

The reason behind the name is evident when you notice the five buttons at the front, which are arranged in the shape of a pawprint. They let you scan to various destinations, including your email program. When you load the scanner's main software interface, it looks outdated, lacking the polish and shine of the other TWAIN drivers here. But it's straightforward to use and has all the options you need. You can use it in the Automatic mode or Advanced, with controls for sharpening, colour correction and descreening (which smoothes out the interference patterns caused by scanning a photo from a book or magazine).

The Mustek uses a different method of scanning to the Epson and Canon: its CIS sensor (as opposed to CCD) doesn't contain cells sensitive to different colours. Instead, the LED that illuminates the document cycles between red, green and blue on each scan line. As you'd expect, this means the Be@rpaw took longer to complete our tasks: 55 seconds for a 6x4-inch photo at 600dpi, and 41 seconds for an A4 document at 150dpi. Colours were fairly accurate overall, but scans weren't as sharp as we'd have liked. You could fix this to some extent using Unsharp Mask in your photo editor.

You don't get negative or slide scanning at this price, but if reflective documents are all you need to scan and your budget is tight, the Mustek is decent value.

Author: Jim Martin