Get Productive

Need an office to go? Best Stuff road tested three portable productivity products small enough to fit in one bag with room to spare.

Canon i70
No bigger than a laptop, Canon’s four pound i70 color printer delivers excellent results, anywhere. In our tests, this printer not only printed laser-quality like text, but delivered decent 4 by 6 (4800 by 1200 DPI) color photos in under 90-seconds. But in truth this printer is built for the business traveler. Cumbersome hotel room printers never seem to work, and time spent finding a Kinko’s at 2AM is worth the price of the i70. It connects via USB to your laptop and operates on AC power. For true mobility, I recommend purchasing the optional kit that comes with a rechargeable battery, so you can literally print on a train, plane, or beach. (Under $250; www.usa.canon.com).

Visioneer Strobe XP 100
If you do a lot of expensive faxing from hotels and airports, a great alternative is a portable scanner. Scanners allow you to scan documents, edit and then email them –sans fax machine. Our favorite portable scanner is the 10-ounce Visoneer Strobe XP 100. A USB powered sheet fed scanner, it requires no clunky AC cord as your laptop’s USB port powers it. The scanner instantly turns the documents into editable formatted text for use in almost any PC word processing program. Pages scan in about 10-seconds and you can even enter photos or graphics. (Under $200; www.visioneer.com)

InFocus LP120
To get your presentation from Tuscon to Tucumcari to Tehachapi to Tonapah without tearing your rotator cuff toting a ten pound projector, you need to be willing to trade that behemoth in for one of today’s tiny new projectors. At only 1.98 –pounds, that’s right under two pounds, the InFocus LP120 projector is so small it fits next to your laptop in your computer bag. Still, this minuscule marvel manages to deliver a bright 1100 lumens and XGA resolution for excellent Power Point and even video presentations. Other features include a serial port for PC connection and an S-video port for video, a remote control, plus an interactive display and color coded cables to goof proof the setup. (Under $2700; www.infocus.com)