I’ve been reviewing one of Planon’s DocuPen handheld scanners for the past week or so and will have the review up in the next few days. Small enough to carry everywhere, the device lets you quickly and easily create accurate scans on the go. As I said, I’ll have the full review up soon but in the meantime here’s a quick-take: It is a pretty amazing productivity tool. It is accurate. It is fast. It is convenient. It is pricey. Uhm… scratch that.

PlanOn’s handheld scanners work quite well but were priced in a range where, once the review unit is shipped back, I was going to be done using their product. Yesterday, however, they dropped the price of their RC805 handheld scanner from $299.99 all the was down to just $159.99. The scanner comes with a leather case, a USB cable, PaperPort SE for Windows users and ABBYY FinerReader OCR for both Windows and Mac users. It scan at 400 dpi and, if the version of the DocuPen that I am reviewing is any indication, it works quite well.

At $299.99 the DocuPen RC805 was priced it out of my range. At the new price I may just end up buying one for myself.

The full release follows… There was, however, one huge pitfall with regard to this device. It was something that I was going to have to take issue with in my review but fortunately that’s now been solved.

PlanOn Makes Convenient Portable Scanning Accessible To All Consumers With Aggressive New Pricing

DocuPen RC805 full-color pen-sized portable Full Page scanner now retails for just $159 USD

TORONTO, ONTARIO — (Feb. 1, 2010) – PlanOn, a leading provider of portable scanning and printing solutions, today introduced new pricing that dramatically lowers the list price of its popular DocuPen RC805 full-color, full page, high speed handheld portable scanner from $299 to $159 USD. The new pricing goes into effect Feb. 1, 2010.

The price change now makes the DocuPen’s convenient document and image scanning capabilities easily accessible as an affordable personal tool for all consumers. DocuPen scanners have long been popular with mobile business professionals such as “road warrior” executives who travel extensively, real estate agents, lawyers, sales people and others who spend a lot of time away from the office. The DocuPen scanner is small, compact and lightweight, fitting easily into a pocket or purse.

“In an increasingly mobile world, consumers today are relying more and more on portable devices to access, share and manage information,” observed Douglas Verkaik. “The DocuPen offers a highly effective multi-purpose mobile alternative to old fashioned desktop scanners that fits perfectly with individual consumers’ on-the-go lifestyles.”

“Recent improvements in manufacturing efficiency and processing have significantly reduced our production costs, and we’re happy to pass these savings on to consumers with the new lower list price. In the more cost-conscious ‘new normal’ economy emerging from the recession, the lower DocuPen pricing makes the convenience of professional-class portable scanning tools accessible to the average consumer – families, students, teachers, grandmas and grandpas – just about anyone,” added PlanOn CEO Douglas Verkaik.

An Endless Variety of Benefits

The DocuPen scanner gives consumers the ability to capture documents and images anywhere, anytime. Students can scan pages from books at the library, sports practice schedules posted on a bulletin board, handwritten study group notes. A mom can scan a treasured family recipe from Grandma’s index cards or an interesting article from a magazine in the dentist’s waiting room. Because DocuPen is small and handheld, it can scan non-flat surfaces, as well, like the label on a special bottle of wine shared over a romantic restaurant dinner.

With a DocuPen scanner, families can protect important records and information. By scanning vulnerable paper copies, they can quickly create digital images that can be safely stored on computers and backed up on CDs. DocuPen easily scans family papers and forms like deeds, mortgages, tax returns, wills, checks, marriage licenses, birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, warranties and other critical documents. While paper originals are filed away deep in some closet or bank safety deposit box, the scans are instantly accessible on the family computer.

DocuPen can also create permanent digital images of precious family memorabilia, like a perfect report card, children’s artwork, family photos, handwritten notes, birth announcements, the menu at that wonderful little bistro from the last night on vacation, the newspaper article about a son’s winning touchdown in the championship game or a daughter’s first piano recital program. And all of the scanned images are sharable, easily emailed to family and friends anywhere in the world.

Adding additional value, the DocuPen RC805 now comes with Optical Character Reader (OCR) software included at no extra charge. Formerly sold separately as an optional add-on for $150, the OCR feature reads a scanned page and converts it into editable document form. It allows users to scan any paper document and import the text into Microsoft Word, Excel spreadsheets, plain text or HTML for posting online.

About the DocuPen Portable Scanner

The Planon DocuPen 800 Series pen-sized full page color scanners allow users to scan and capture high resolution digital images of documents wherever they may be, including text, graphics, signatures, book and magazine pages, receipts, handwritten notes, pictures, photos and virtually any printed materials. The high speed scanner takes just 4 to 8 seconds to capture a full page. DocuPen is battery-operated, with a unique self-contained on-board processor that enables DocuPen to be used anywhere, with no computer connection required. The scanned images are created and stored directly in DocuPen’s memory, which can be readily extended with a micro card to store thousands of images. DocuPen connects to a computer’s standard USB port to automatically download scans.

The DocuPen scanner works with PlanOn’s PrintStik, the world’s smallest full page printer. The DocuPen scanner captures the content, and the PrintStik mobile printer produces high resolution paper copies of the scanned page or image anywhere, anytime. The DocuPen and PrintStik together comprise PlanOn’s signature “Office in a Pocket” solution for busy people on the go.

About PlanOn System Solutions Inc.

PlanOn System Solutions, Inc. has been providing scanning and portable computing solutions that enhance the mobile office for over a decade. PlanOn’s talented R&D team has successfully brought the results of our market research on unmet needs in the mobile computing market to innovative, visionary solutions. PlanOn is the developer of the DocuPen, a full-page, portable, pen-sized, scanner which provides the ultimate in flexibility and versatility through its ergonomic and lightweight design, and the PrintStik, the world’s smallest full page printer with a self-contained roll of paper, rechargeable battery and embedded Bluetooth technology. The company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and located in Cheektowaga, New York. Planon can be reached at 1 888-507-3926 or through their website at planon.com