HP 5200C review

The speed at which the 5200C carried out this task was respectable too. The initial scan and region-recognition process took 30 seconds, as it does with most documents, and final processing and OCR added a further 24 seconds giving a total of 54 seconds. Performing the same task on a normal scanner with separate OCR and word-processing applications would take at least three times as long.

Surprisingly, when scanning single images, the enforced preview doesn't affect speeds: at 600ppi - the optical resolution of the scanner - in greyscale mode, the 5200C scanned a 10 x 8in print in just 66 seconds, and a 6 x 4in print scanned in colour at the same resolution was completed in 75 seconds. It's faster than the best non-SCSI scanner we've seen - Agfa's 1200P (reviewed issue 50, p186 ) - but not quite up there with the Umax Astra 1220S SCSI scanner (reviewed issue 47, p165).

I had no serious complaints with its scan quality either which, although not quite as crisp as with the Umax or Agfa scanners, was extremely good. In general, the results looked slightly more blurred and a touch over-exposed, but there was no loss of detail as a result. It will certainly be good enough for most purposes.

At the end of the day though, with scanner prices the way they are at the moment, you have to ask yourself if the premium you pay for HP's unrivalled ease of use and build quality is worth the money. At a relatively expensive £199, the answer to this question is, unfortunately, likely to be no unless you're going to be using it for lots of complex OCR work.

Author: Jonathan Bray