An update to the Panasonic KV-S1026C we reviewed back in 2013, the Panasonic KV-S1026C-MKII ($600.99) is not only significantly faster than its predecessor, but it's more accurate and comes with a better software bundle.
This latest iteration really is a fine entry-level desktop sheet-feed document scanner, but it's up against some stiff, less-costly competition, such as the Editors' Choice Brother ADS-2700W Wireless High-Speed Desktop Document Scanner.
The KV-S1026C-MKII is designed for use in home-based and small or micro offices or workgroups, or even as a personal desktop document scanner.
While it is unquestionably well-suited for these environments, it simply costs too much to take its place among our top-choice candidates.
Good Design and Strong Feature Set
Measuring 5.4 by 11.9 by 7 inches (HWD) with its trays closed and weighing 6 pounds, the KV-S1026C-MKII ($522.00 at Amazon) is a little shorter and lighter than most of the document scanners in its category.
They're all close enough in size and weight, however, not to make a lot of difference as to how much space each model requires on your desktop.
It is important to note that all of them more than double in height and triple in length with their trays open, ready for deployment.
In other words, the KV-S1026C-MKII, like its competitors, requires a lot more space when in service.
The KV-S1026C-MKII comes with a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that supports documents up to 8.5 by 100 inches, as well as plastic cards, such as driver's licenses, insurance cards, credit cards, and so on, via a guide that attaches to the chassis just above the input slot, and it has a 2,000-page daily duty cycle, which is the smallest of all the machines discussed here.
The Brother ADS-2700W's ADF also holds 50 sheets, and its duty cycle is 1,000 sheets higher than that of the KV-S1026C-MKII.
The Epson WorkForce ES-400 Duplex Document Scanner ($374.95 at Amazon) and the HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s3 Sheet-Feed Scanner also have 50-sheet ADFs, and their duty cycles are 2,000 and 1,500 sheets higher, respectively, whereas the Kodak ScanMate i1150WN's ADF holds 25 more pages, and its daily volume is 1,000 scans higher.
The Xerox DocuMate 6440 and the HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow 5000 both hold 30 more pages than the KV-S1026C-MKII does, and their recommended daily volumes are both 4,000 pages higher.
The KV-S1026C-MKII's control panel consists of six buttons—power, Skip (for skipping, or ignoring, double feeds), Start, Stop, and three definable buttons for assigning one-touch workflow profiles, such as scan to network folder, to email, to a cloud site, to FTP, and so on—and two status LCDs, Error and Ready.
You define the three profiles in the bundled Panasonic Image Capture Plus software, which I discuss below.
Bundled Software
One of our complaints about the previous Panasonic KV-S1026C was that it came only with the Image Capture Plus software, with no document management or optical character recognition (OCR) programs.
This time around, not only do you get Image Capture Plus, a full-featured and competent scanner interface utility, but the scanner also comes with Image Capture Express, a scaled-down, easier-to-use version of Image Capture Plus.
Unfortunately, Panasonic still doesn't provide document-management software, but you do get Abbyy FineReader Sprint, a lite version of Abbyy's industry-standard OCR software.
Additionally, all Panasonic units recently began shipping with a free trial of the PremierOCR/PremierCompression applicaition.
Faster Than Expected
The previous Panasonic KV-S1026C's scan speeds didn't come very close to Panasonic's ratings, but I'm happy to report that the KV-S1026C-MKII matched or exceeded them (30 pages per minute, or ppm, for one-sided pages and 60 images per minute, or ipm, where each image is a page side, for two-sided pages) during my tests.
(I tested the KV-S1026C-MKII over USB at the default 300 dpi from our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC running Windows 10 Pro.)
Without the lag time (that is, the time between when the last page hits the output tray and the scan job is subsequently processed and saved to a useable file format), the KV-S1026C-MKII scanned our 25-page, one-sided document at 33.3ppm and our two-sided 50-page (25 two-sided sheets) at 61.8ipm.
The good news is that, at 31.6ppm and 60ipm, it didn't fall much behind these numbers when saving the same documents to image PDF.
Granted, these print speeds were slower than all but those of the Kodak i1150WN (27.3ppm and 54.5ipm), but then the KV-S1026C-MKII is rated slower than these other models.
The Brother ADS-2700W beat the KV-S1026C-MKII by 13.2ppm and 13.2ipm; the Epson ES-400 managed about 4ppm and 8ipm faster; the Xerox 6440 came in about 8ppm and 8ipm ahead; and the HP 3000 ($479.99 at HP) and the HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow 5000 s4 Sheet-Feed Scanner ($899.00 at Amazon) bested the KV-S1026C-MKII by around 2ppm and 4ipm, and 12ppm and 19ipm, respectively.
When scanning to searchable PDF, the most versatile format for archiving documents, the KV-S1026C-MKII scanned and processed our two-sided, 25-page (50 images) document in 48 seconds.
That's 2 seconds slower than the Brother ADS-2700W, 15 seconds faster than the Epson ES-400 and the Xerox DocuMate 6440 ($486.13 at Amazon) , 47 seconds faster than the Kodak i1150WN, 7 seconds faster than the HP 3000, and 3 seconds slower than the HP 5000.
Superb OCR Accuracy
Fast scans are one thing, but having to spend several minutes correcting errors is entirely another.
While it didn't beat several of its competitors mentioned here, the KV-S1026C-MKII performed well above average and plenty well enough to ensure accurate scans of most documents.
It scanned both our Arial and Times New Roman font test pages down to 6 points without errors.
The average is about 8 points for desktop document scanners.
At Arial 6 points and Times New Roman 4 points, however, the Brother ADS-2700W is the best we've seen in some time.
Otherwise, the KV-S1026C-MKII tied the Kodak ScanMate i1150WN ($749.99 at Amazon) and beat all the others, except the Xerox 6440, which managed 5 points without errors on the Arial font and 6 points on Times New Roman.
Thrown to the Wolves
Those extremely close OCR accuracy scores in the previous section prove my point that this entry-level to midrange section of the document scanner genre is downright cutthroat.
And while the Panasonic KV-S1026C-MKII's price either matches or exceeds all these other scanners (and several others), many of them are much more robust, capable machines.
The feature-rich and network-savvy Brother ADS-2700W, our Editors' Choice, is a prime example.
That's not to say that the KV-S1026C-MKII isn't a fine product; there's nothing—aside from the price and perhaps the lack of document management program—wrong with it.
The problem is that there's nothing wrong with its competitors, either, and they cost less or provide better value.
Even so, it's fast scan speeds and strong OCR functionality make the KV-S1026C-MKII an excellent entry-level scanner for small or home-based offices and workgroups, especially if price isn't one of your primary concerns—or you can find it on sale.
The Bottom Line
The Panasonic KV-S1026C-MKII is a relatively fast and highly accurate entry-level desktop document scanner; all it really needs is a lower price.
