HP Scanjet 6390C

This high-end scanner from Hewlett-Packard has an optical resolution of 1,200dpi, and most of the extras that you could ever want. It comes with a 25-page document feeder and a 127x127mm transparency adaptor, which is activated by changing a setting in the supplied TWAIN software.

Both USB and SCSI interfaces are situated on the back and a PCI SCSI card is also included if you can't or don't want to use the USB port.

In our tests, the 6390C performed reasonably well, and it was up there with the best of the scanners we have seen recently. It's fast, too, managing to scan an A4 target in 34 seconds, and a photo measuring 255x178mm in 27 seconds.

Colour accuracy was good, as was text and picture quality, but it didn't quite match the top three in our last group test. This was a little disappointing as, although it did perform well, we expected the higher price to hint at higher performance. Having said that, the system was very easy to set up, with both the drivers and the software being installed through a single program that included a video guide on how to set up your scanner.

A five-button front panel - including scan, copy, email, fax, and file functions - allows you to send images and documents electronically. There's also plenty of bundled software, including Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Adobe PhotoDeluxe Business edition 1.1 and Caere PageKeeper Standard 3.0.

Contact - HP 0990 47 47 47 www.hp.com