Visioneer OneTouch 8920 USB review

Visioneer's OneTouch 8920 uses the same landscape design as its previous models. This gives it a shorter depth on your desktop, but means it's still one of the bulkier devices on test. It has an optical resolution of 1,200 x 4,800ppi, the high vertical resolution achieved in exactly the same way as other 4,800ppi units - a precise stepper motor moving the carriage tiny distances. But it's the 1,200ppi figure that means the most; for more technical information, see Scanning technology opposite.

The relatively high price can be partially attributed to the integrated transparency lid, but this can only scan 35mm film. Software comprises Photoshop Elements, TextBridge Pro 9 and PaperPort Deluxe 7. This is one of the best bundles on test, with PaperPort being a particularly well-designed document-management application.

The driver itself is comprehensive yet simple to use; for instance, it allows batch scanning for separate areas of the scanning bed, with individual settings for each. Seven 'one-touch' buttons line the chunky, grey unit's front panel and include a cancel function that we found to be quite responsive.

Sadly, lacklustre image quality let the 8920 down. In all three of our test photo scans, colours were oversaturated. This can be corrected to a degree in Photoshop, but the colour accuracy itself wasn't overly impressive. The jewellery scan was the 8920's best effort and the overall image looked much truer to the original than the other two tests. Gold proved difficult for the Visioneer though - it turned too yellow in the scan.

Our scientific tests indicated that the sharpness wasn't as bad as other scanners, with a score of 1.16MTF putting it ahead of most others on test. Generally, though, our panel found the scans to be slightly out of focus. A signal-to-noise ratio of 83:1 was good, but not outstanding.

Testing the 35mm film scanner capabilities proved a disappointment. Colours were way off, and checking the histogram revealed huge gaps in darker areas, making our portrait shot look blotchy; unfortunately, this couldn't be corrected even using Photoshop.

Visioneer usually places a big emphasis on the fact that its scanners are fast, so it was no surprise that the 8920 was above average in this Labs. It took 32 seconds to scan the A4 photo at 300ppi, and the 10 x 8in photo at 1,200ppi was delivered to Photoshop in under nine minutes.

Ultimately, as image quality is so important when buying a scanner, the OneTouch 8920 USB is disappointing. It has some nice features, but at this price we can't recommend it.