Benq Scanner 5250C 6.1 WHQL

In last month�s scanner Lab Test, Canon�s LiDE 80 was very much the odd one out. The quality was so good that we wondered why other manufacturers didn�t produce more LED scanners. BenQ has now answered this question by bringing us the 5250C.





As an LED scanner, the 5250C requires no power supply, taking all the juice it needs directly from a USB port (USB 2.0 preferably, for extra speed). The scanning lamp also needs no warm up time, so you can just plug it in and start scanning immediately, instead of waiting around for up to a minute for a CCF lamp to come up to temperature. Finally, the 5250C is a lot slimmer and lighter than CCF scanners, at 38mm and 1.7Kg.

All these things make the BenQ an ideal travelling companion for any laptop, and its good looks are a bonus, too. The style and finish of the 5250C is exceptionally good, with two-tone metallic blue and cream colouring that boosts the impression of quality. A neat row of five chrome buttons along the front gives one-touch operation for a variety of common scanning needs. The MiraScan software driver is particularly well laid out and easy to use, and enables a good degree of customisation for the one-touch operation buttons.

Scanning times are pretty swift, with an A4 preview time of nine seconds. Following that, a 5x7in photo at 300dpi resolution took 12 seconds to scan in our tests, while a mono A4 text page at 300dpi in �line art� mode took 23 seconds � all pretty respectable. However, in terms of quality, reflective scanning wasn�t that impressive for photos. Sharpness was reasonable, but the colours were a bit on the dull side, often lacking the vibrancy of original photos. Contrast was also a bit down, but can be cranked up in the Mira software driver.