The best scanning option for old and low-storage phones

Older phones face a squeeze: scanner apps balloon past 200–300 MB with SDKs and asset packs, while the phone's free space is a rounding error. The browser route flips the economics.

Footprint math

	Typical scanner app suite	ToPDF in the browser
Install size	Often 150–400 MB with data growth	0 (uses the browser you have)
Cached engine	—	~55 MB, evictable by the browser anytime
Background services	Sync/notification services common	None
Account/RAM pressure	Suite features resident	A tab, closed when done

Performance expectations, honestly

On a 2019-class phone, expect a few extra seconds per page — detection and enhancement are real computation. The pipeline is deliberately single-threaded-friendly and processes one page at a time, so it completes reliably rather than crashing on big batches. Old phone + patience beats old phone + app that won't even install.

Squeezing the best from weak cameras

• Light matters double when the sensor is small — get near a window.
• Hold or prop the phone extra-steady; older sensors need longer exposures.
• Fill the frame with the page; cropping from a distant shot wastes scarce pixels.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the minimum device that works?

Rule of thumb: if it runs a current Chrome/Safari reasonably, it scans. Very old browsers (many years without updates) may lack the WebAssembly features the engine needs.

Will scanning fill my storage?

Only with the PDFs you keep — each page is typically a few hundred KB. The engine cache (~55 MB) is reclaimable by the browser automatically under pressure.