Xerox DocuMate 3115

Xerox DocuMate 3115

The Xerox DocuMate 3115 ($399.99 direct) is the third scanner we've seen with essentially identical hardware in the form of a portable scanner that changes into a personal desktop scanner by slipping into a dock with a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF). More significantly, it shares essentially the same set of software as one of those hardware twins - the Editors' Choice Visioneer Strobe 500 ($399.99 direct, 4 stars) - making it a nearly identical package overall, and an Editors' Choice as well. As with the Strobe 500 - and as with the third scanner, the iVina BulletScan S300 ($270 street, 3.5 stars) - the 3115 is best understood as primarily a desktop scanner that can be used as a portable, but is a little big and heavy for the role, at 2.8 by 11.7 by 3.3 inches (HWD) and 2.2 pounds. Mounted in the docking station, the combination is a typical size for a personal document scanner, at 4.8 by 11.7 by 4.7 inches (HWD) with the input tray folded down and 9.3 inches high with the tray up. Note too that you can use the scanner in a kind of semi-portable way. Buy additional docks ($99.99 direct each), and you can move the scanner between, say, home and office, and have an ADF in both places. You can buy the scanner without the ADF as well, for $299.99, with all the features of the $399.99 version except for the dock.