This would make for an easy setup if not for the extremely short USB cable, which at just four feet can make for some positioning headaches. Worse still, the AC connector doesn't fit well and can easily come loose when you're moving the scanner. Despite its quick-moving scan head, the Astra takes longer to complete a scan than most other models. The Astra takes well over a minute to warm up before the first scan and nearly as long on subsequent jobs. It produces generally underexposed scans at the default settings, which results in severe loss of detail in shadow areas as well as poor highlights.
Photos are somewhat dark with concomitantly oversaturated colors.
Four quick-scan buttons adorn the front of the Astra. The Scan button lets you scan directly to an application, while the Copy button lets you make copies. The Custom button can be configured for e-mail, fax, or OCR, and the Power Savings button lets you power off the scanner's fluorescent lamp without losing the connection to your computer. Umax supplies a bounty of worthwhile software, including Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 3.0, Caere OmniPage LE OCR, and Umax Copy Utility. The Astra also comes with NewSoft Presto PageManager, which can be used for filing scanned items and directing them to other applications, and Umax Vista Shuttle, which can turn scanned images into fun projects such as greeting cards and calendars.