Epson claims perfection with its brand of scanners, at least with the name, and indeed the older 610 model has certainly impressed us in terms of "bang per buck" in the past.

The 1240U is the newer model and it's best described as fairly compact and well built. As with most Epson scanners there's a rather clever touch in that the scanner lock (used to keep the internals of the unit safe during transit) blocks the power input, so it's impossible to power it on with the mechanism lock on (since turning on a locked scanner can damage the mechanism). A great idea.

It's a USB-only model which boasts 1200 x 2400 dpi scanning at up to 42-bit colour depth. Bundled with the 1240U is Epson's Smart Panel and Twain 5 driver software, plus Adobe Photoshop 5.0LE, PhotoDeluxe 4 Home Edition and Textbridge for OCR. Another decent bundle of software.

The three buttons on the front of the scanner are somewhat different to the norm. One activates the driver software on the PC (though it can be customised to a number of different functions), one sends a scanned copy to the printer, and the third automatically scans the image into PhotoDeluxe.

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On the positive side the Smart Panel, which is the central interface for the 1240U, is very easy to use - in fact, it couldn't be simpler. You can scan into any application, automatically attach an image to an e-mail or use the OCR software with just one click from the main menu. However, the more advanced user will probably find the Smart Panel a tad claustrophobic with its lack of options.

Overall the 1240U is a highly user-friendly but pricey model. It produced a reasonable test scan with decent clarity and good colour representation, plus it was quick; weighing in on average at 53 seconds for the 300 dpi full colour test scan.