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Frequent business travelers will need to balance wanting the smallest and lightest scanner with the need for particular features such as two-sided scanning, high resolution, and high scanning speed. Many factors to consider come into play when choosing a portable scanner. Truly wireless scanners transmit data to your computer, phone, or tablet over Wi-Fi, and some support memory cards that allow you to scan without a computing device of some sort present. A few have batteries, and others get their juice via a USB tether to a desktop PC or laptop. Most portable scanners don't need to be plugged into an AC outlet to function. Following that, look for our buying guide with general advice on picking a portable scanner, and a spec breakout of our top models. They include a few specialty scanners for tasks like collecting business cards at trade shows, or digitizing book pages in libraries. We've pulled together our favorite tested picks for a broad range of applications.
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