Brother ADS-4700W Professional Desktop Scanner with Fast Scan Speeds, Duplex, Wireless, and Large Touchscreen, White

Why it's worth it

This is an office scanner that happens to fit on a desk: an 80-sheet feeder, 40-page-per-minute duplex, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and a 4.3-inch touchscreen with room for dozens of shortcuts. It scans straight to a shared network folder with no computer involved, which nothing else here does as cleanly.

Start with the feeder. Eighty sheets is the biggest capacity here by a wide margin, and it changes what a scanning session feels like. You load a genuinely large batch, walk away, and come back to a finished file. If you process incoming mail, client paperwork or patient forms every day, the reloading you skip is the actual benefit.

It's the only pick here that doesn't need a computer at all. Put it on your network and it drops files straight into a shared folder, an email, SharePoint, an SFTP server or a USB stick. Small offices are where the enthusiasm concentrates in owner feedback — one device, several people, no cables, no host PC sitting there babysitting the job.

From our review of 7 document scanners for home offices, by Ben Carter, Tech Editor

What we like

• +Start with the feeder
• +It's the only pick here that doesn't need a computer at all
• +Driver support is the other reason to pay up
• +Brother layers on security features, which reads like box copy until you're scanning tax documents onto a drive other people can…

What to know

• –Configuration is the recurring complaint, and it's a serious one
• –It's also more scanner than a solo user needs