Customer Ratings & Reviews

Well it took awhile to figure out how to get the unit to work. Web site info did not do much for wi-fi setup. Went and bought the usb cable and was finally able to download the drivers and software. After much frustration it is a good scanner. Compact, fast, and for the price it does a good job. Easy to save files where you want them. If you are like me and not a Tech wizard, be prepared to be frustrated for a short while.

I recently acquired the Brother ADS-1700W portable scanner to help me finish my 2017 taxes!!! Yes, I know I have only a couple weeks of the extension left to file. That 's what made this such a great test! Honestly, this little device is FAST. It duplex scans your documents in a single pass. Configurable and good quality too! I'm please with the options and quality. I also have a "workflow" or shortcuts feature. I created a workflow to use my favorite scanning preferences and made it into a one-touch butting on the nearly 3" touchscreen. well - actually two-touch - as I have to select "shortcuts first", then my workflow. Setup on both my iphone and Windows 10 PC wasn't bad - just find the software, download and install it. I used ONLY the wireless connectivity to scan to both the PC and iPhone. It worked well, but I did see it "disconnect" a couple times - nothing a reboot didn't fix. It does have a business card or badge scanner - that seemed to work well except I had to crop the image to get it to the smaller size. I do wish, since this is a portable unit, that it had some sort of battery. Also, a carrying case or sleeve would have been nice as well.

Pros: * Compact size - fits nearly anywhere. * Input ADF transforms into something useful. * Business card scanning is easy. * Comprehensive settings and scan-to destinations. * Wireless connectivity to mobile devices, networked computers or email recipients. * High-quality and speedy color and duplexed scans. Cons: * Compact size implies battery use but needs its AC adapter. * Some on-screen touch buttons are too small for finger access. * Missing some useful touchscreen customization options. This compact, fully-featured ADF scanner does just about everything that bigger models do but in a fraction of the desk space. The transforming ADF can handle most paper sizes and there’s even a special slot for business cards to both insert and eject from the front. It scans quickly in color or grayscale and can do both sides of the page simultaneously. The unit has two USB ports for wired connectivity; one to connect to a computer (Mac or PC) and a separate one to scan directly to a USB memory drive. Both work well and easily, but the unit has built-in WiFi that enables it to scan to or scan from networked computers and even mobile devices like iOS and Android phones and tablets on the same wireless network. You can even set it up to access an SMTP server (like a free one from Gmail) to send scans to an email address without the need to install anything on the receiving end. Everything worked well and was easy to set up; just get the scanner on your wireless network and install either the computer app/drivers or the mobile device app and you’re ready to go. The top cover closes over the unit to protect the screen and buttons and also keeps the size compact when not needed for scanning. Opening the top cover is like a scene out of a Transformers movie. with numerous adjustable paper guides and supports that do their respective jobs well. A few of my small nits on this otherwise-great unit - the resistive touchscreen works, but some of the buttons are not easily to press with a finger. For example, the onscreen QWERTY keyboard used to type in email addresses is an exercise in frustration with a typical finger. Most things can be set up in the apps or by pointing any web browser to the unit’s IP address to use the built-in web-based settings. You can even enter frequently used email addresses for selection on the unit rather than having to type them in each time. Although not the unit’s intent, the compact size almost implies that it would be truly portable and have a built-in battery. This unit is not advertised as such so you can’t really complain. It needs the included AC power adapter to work. It’s easy to move around and doesn’t take up a lot of desk space, but it is not a truly wireless and portable scanner. My last nit is a small recommendation for improvement - the home screen has big buttons for scanning destinations like scanning to a computer or scanning to email. While you can set up “shortcuts” and go to them, you can’t reorder or remove those main destinations to make the home screen customized. I will probably scan to email often, but it will always be on the 2nd “page” of home buttons rather than being on the primary home screen. Overall, this is a fully-featured and well-rounded compact desktop scanner that does everything the bigger ones do but in a fraction of the size. The wired and wireless options work well and as long as you’re not expecting a battery-powered scanner, it will do everything you need without reserving a huge spot on your desk.

Travelling & need a portable scanner in your bag. Maybe. Home Office: One page documents, usually OK. Multiple page docs: Will scan first few pages - then stops. Ooops. Something went wrong - Please Start Over. Scans the first 8 pages then crashes/ After a year and a half of wanting - so badly - to like it. Other than an old VCR it is the most unreliable piece of equipment in the house.

The Brother ADS-1700W arrived on a very timely basis and the manufacturer securely packs the machine against damage from either the day to day trivial bumping to the catastrophic dropping by either shipper or warehouse worker. The good-this scanning machine is very lightweight and easy to transport from area to area, if need be. It essentially folds into itself with a cover that closes over the machine and its LCD screen. It is so ergonomic that it is quite easy to use only one hand to open, close, position the paper, and scan. On the left side of the top of the scanner there are two icons to set up scanning through, either the back doc feeder or the front for smaller items such as credit cards, business cards, driver's licenses, medial id cards, etc.. The back doc feeder has what I call "rabbit ears" that easily go up and then fold back into the machine to guide longer papers. The bad-Brother wanted to get this scanner out so quickly that according to their 1-800 customer service technician, had not yet issued directions to diagnose and help fix items. I think this customer service call center is offshore, but I was still able to understand him. He did not try to help by going into my computer remotely. I was having trouble getting my computer to, by Wi-Fi, recognize the scanner. We reloaded their scanning software and eventually got it to recognize the scanner. The machine is quick in scanning, but unfortunately, I could only initiate the scan from the computer and could not get it to scan using the commands from the scanner's LCD screen itself. We never did resolve that issue and that is troublesome to me;.the technician could not 100% determine why this was going on-whether it was a firewall or something else. The ugly was that within days of loading this scanner onto my computer, I determined that my software used to scan with my Fujitsu FI-7160 no loner worked. Thankfully, Fujitsu also allows their customers to also use their 1-800 customer service for free for life, too. Their technician wound up going in remotely and about 3 1/2 hours later, after much checking and re-checking, we found a corrupt file that both the Brother and Fujitsu. It was very time consuming to find this file and neutralize it. That was a real bummer. I plan to load this scanner to another computer that does not interact with the Fujitsu scanner. I am not a coder or programmer and should not have to be one in order for this to properly operate. While I cannot prove that the download from Brother created a corrupt file that caused all those problems for the Fujitsu, it is too coincidental that the Fujitsu scanning operation that I have used for almost 2 years all of a sudden did not work. Honestly, I do not know what to think. If this had not happened, I would have thought that the Brother ADS-1700W scanner was just fine. Confused in Kansas.

First off this is a very well put together high quality scanner, love the 2.8 color touch screen makes things easier as you can actually use it without a PC and the paper support is pretty sturdy. There are many scan options including the ability to scan to your mobile phone, and to a USB drive which is an excellent option for quick on the go scanning, I see myself using this feature a lot. The scanning process it does it very fast, I guess is all about the feeder it is fast. I also like the option that lets you do automatic scanning it feels like you're using a shredder, just place the papers and watch it go. On the top of the scanner you have 4 buttons, Power, Back, Home and the Cancel. There is a dedicated switch that allows you to go from paper to the dedicated card slot for cards scanning which is pretty neat. The scanning files are on par with other scanners you can switch from different resolution and files extensions. The touch screen allows add scanning shortcuts which is very useful if you use an specific setting all the time, just touch and scan, very nice. It is a portable scanner and it weights a little over 3 pounds, and it does fit perfect in a computer travel bag. This scanner is also the perfect option for small desk with limited space. So far, the only con I found on this device is that it does not have a rechargeable battery for true mobility, so that mean you will always need a power outlet near you. The setup was pretty much plug and play on windows 10, on the mobile side I used they proprietary Brother’s app on Android OS which will prompt you to find for the Wi-Fi printer after launch or you can use the Direct Wi-Fi option. I did not encounter any issues such as paper jam, it worked very smoothly and fast. In the very well over foamed packed box it comes with the scanner, USB cable, power cord, and manuals. If don’t mind traveling with 3 extra pounds and the need of a power outlet, this scanner is a top notch to get the work done, and for a small office or small desk this is perfect as well. Pro: Built Quality USB Direct Scan Fast Scanning Touch Screen Cons: No Rechargeable Battery

You get a lot for the price of $200. It's fast, light, and takes up little desk space (or it is easy to squirrel away in a drawer). It also does what it's supposed to do: make good quality pdf's for turning your paper file cabinet into a digital file cabinet. The app (for Mac) is in the app store, easy to download and install, the app is so easy to use with lots of customization. Brother has done a great job on this one. We'll see how long it lasts, I've only been using it for 1 week. I have a flatbed scanner, but what used to take me 20 minutes to scan a 10 pages double sided doc, now takes 10 seconds!!

A nice, lightweight, compact, portable scanner by Brother, the ADS 1700W High Speed Desktop Scanner creates either color or monochromatic documents. Documents can be scanned into a variety of type of files including, JPEG, PDF, PDF/A, Bitmap, PNG, Text, TIFF, RTF. Setting up the device is easy, and scanning is fast. Color and monochrome scan speeds for letter size produces 300 dpi documents. Double sided documents can be scanned as fast as single sided documents with both sides scanned at once. The product can scan either wirelessly or direct to a PC, a mobile device and/or network device. It also has a micro 8 USB 3.0 for local connection or saving scans to flash drives. What makes the scanner so compact is that it has a nice lineal design with a cover that folds over the touchscreen and input feeders, concealing and protecting these areas from any damage in transport. This makes the scanner ultra-portable. When the cover is open, up to 20 sheets can be feed thru the document feeder which has slides to adjust for multiple sizes. With the flip of a switch, the scanner has a designated slot for business and other wallet cards. Documents and cards can be easily scanned to a network, computer, USB Memory Flash Drive, etc. The touchscreen display allows the user to use program shortcut buttons to customize work most frequently done with the use of the scanner by individual users. Multiple scan destinations, i.e., OCR, email, email server, a network FTP, USB Flash Memory Drive, files and images are also easily produced, result in clear and crisp scans, and easily accessed. The iPrint & Scan app for apple mobile devices was extremely quick and easy to set up and use. The same IPrint & Scan app for Windows 10 was equally easy to set up and use on my desktop computer. However, the app was more difficult to install on my laptop, which is also widows driven. I really think the difficulty was with the laptop and not the Brother software. Packaged with a USB Cable and a power cord, addition software is on the Brother support site where downloading the initial and complete installation software is necessary to begin the installation. After installing the system and setting up a wireless connection, I also updated the firmware with an update from early October 2018. Additional software includes PaperPort, which is a document management software package that helps with organizing, accessing, editing, sharing, and managing documents and image files on your computer. PowerPDF is the other software, and it allows the user to read, create, edit, and convert PDF files. Several setup buttons allow for easy network connections, setting automatic off or sleep time, LCD backlight intensity for the touchpad, and other screen settings. With all these features and the Time Saving AutoStart, I highly recommend this product for anyone wanting a compact, extremely easy to use, fast and efficient, dependable scanner which produces very crisp and clean scanned documents.

This is the quintessential small/home office scanner. I work from a home office on a regular basis, so having devices like this that are small, compact, but high quality is very important. Especially if the device can be used for personal reasons as well, and the Brother ADS-1700W fits that bill perfectly. Setup -- Basic setup was very simple, you will want to install the Brother Scanning software, the link to which is in the quick setup guide. If you are going to use local usb for connectivity, you just plug it in, follow the onscreen steps, and you are good to go. Where this device really stood out for me was just how functional it was beyond that. I was able to setup my wifi info and put it on my home network in a matter of a few minutes. Using the Brother Software, or by going directly to the devices web page, Customization - The Brother 1700W is able to scan to a directly attached usb device or pc, which is great of course, but it can also scan to a file share, FTP location, or e-mail you the file. For the slightly more tech savvy - I was able to connect my personal email account to it, select scan to email from the main screen, pick my address I entered from the address book I had created, and within a minute my 600 DPI resolution scan was in my inbox ( watch your spam folder too just in case! ) I added my work email, personal email , as well as a few family members - making this incredibly convenient for home personal, and home office use! Quality - there are several settings for picture size, or an auto detect feature, and it can scan up to 600 DPI - ( the file size generated was around 6MB) I was able to scan a double sided 10 page document in about 30 seconds, with perfect quality. On the home side of things, I found an old picture sitting in a box, and you can clearly see the quality of the scan and the vibrant color it was able to capture. In short this is a compact heavy duty device, that is easy to use and setup, can handle both high quality and reasonable size scan jobs, and has a multitude of ways to interface to it based upon your personal preferences. I am very pleased with the quality and functionality of the Brother ADS-1700W and look forward to using it more! I also included a screen shot of the web admin page where you can configure customized settings for address books, file quality defaults, file naming conventions, and so forth. This can all also be done from the software or the screen on the device, I just found the web page to be the most convenient.

I was looking for a scanner that would easily move across various workstations and keep up with my busy pace. I am impressed with the flexibility and speed this scanner offers. Out of the box the scanner comes with a power cord, so if you don't have a wireless network, you will need to purchase a USB to connect directly to your laptop. I plugged the scanner in, used the touchscreen to set up the wireless and downloaded the scanner app to my Android phone. This took less than a minute from un-boxing to being ready to scan. The app is very simple with only 2 options, machine status and scan. From the app you can select: color, color (fast) and black & white, two sided paper, flip on long edge or flip on short edge, and document size. After the file has been scanned, you can then chose to save the file as jpeg or pdf, and then to share or save it. Luckily for me, the app will alert you prior to deleting the file if you didn't save it. To ensure this scanner can keep up with me, I ran a few tests. I loaded the maximum of 20 pages, black/white, and started the scan using the app. My file was done in under a minute and ready to share. It also manages double sided color scanning with no issues, I was pleasantly surprised that double sided scanning occurs with a single pass versus reloading or the machine re-feeding the paper. The only small imperfections I have found is that to ensure the papers are scanned straight you need to adjust the guides to the paper size and ensure there is no room for movement. The second issue is that the scanner leaves a pile of papers on your desk / floor, so if you are planning on scanning multiple documents you will want to invest in a tray or some other type of paper keeper. Overall this is a phenomenal portable scanner that can be setup and ready to scan quickly while providing the options I expect with a full sized office scanner.

Amazing scanner! + has 20-page ADF, and duplex (front/back) scanner + both Document & Photo scans are great + Touch Screen is perfect - no need for a phone/laptop + very quick & quite portable (its charger is very small/light) I use the touchscreen and pre-set email set up to use this. Within 2 seconds I can a document and get it in my gmail. I got a separate gmail address for this machine alone, and give (less secure) app access for that email address. Works perfectly!

Fast scans, easy to setup with the included app. Able to wirelessly scan from a PC, laptop and phone. Biggest pro is its compact dimensions and ability to scan automatically double-sided pages. Small foot print so you can place on a small table or desk. If space isn't a big factor, consider spending slightly more for larger ADF scanners that can scan faster with higher output.

I LOVE IT. IT MAKES SCANNING QUIKER AND EASIER. IT GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO SCAN BOTH SIDES IN ONE PASS. IT IS LIGHT IN WEIGHT AND EASILY PORTABLE. IT COULD BE PRICED MORE REASONABLY.

I won't bash other brands of scanners or big-name-multi-function machines-- but most of those are horrible. Bloated software and underperforming hardware is the standard. Not with this Brother. I did a lot of research and this seemed to be worth a try. Wow! I am so pleased with the versatility, the speed, and the small footprint. This really is an easy to use and speedy single purpose scanner. The software has upgraded a couple of times (one time it was painful) but the current version is perfect. You will not regret owning this.

Light weight, fast and easy to set up. I like the wireless feature as it makes it easier to scan from anywhere. Very reasonably priced. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a small scanner.

I have used this scanner on both Windows and Chromebook. Easy setup. I should note that the Chomebook uses the Android mobile version of the user software, which is significantly less useful than the PC version. Both sets of software are free. The ability to scan both sides of documents from a document feed is a great timesaver over the single sided All-in-One unt i was using before. I strongly recommend this to anyone who has both documents and photos to scan. The setup and operation could not be easier.

I purchase this to use in my home office and to start cutting down on paper clutter. I am so glad I bought this as it is easy to use and a great size. It takes a bit of getting used to but was totally worth getting the slightly larger capacity than other models I was looking at. I also went with this one that needs to be plugged in on its own. I could see that if it had its own battery source and/or wireless capability, it would be much easier to use but this was great for my purposes and had a friendlier price tag.

This scanner is so very easy to configure and use with a Chromebook. The pages can be scanned two-sided and the built in automatic document feeder makes the process very easy. The scan is very fast and resulting images can be saved in the machine or to a location in the PC. Terrific for sharing documents to team members. The machine is a little pricey but worth the investment.

This is an extremely compact scanner. I had some challenges setting it up to communicate with my MacBook, but eventually it worked. Also, multi-page scanning takes some learned finesse. You need to stagger the pages, (which is explained in the manual) and also use the page holders on the side (which is not explained in the manual.) Took some initial trial and error. But it doesn't take a lot of space (I use it at home) and scans very quickly. I love that it scans both sides and in color. Now that I've gotten used to how to feed multi-page docs (which does take a little bit of extra prep work) I'm very happy with it. Perfect for my needs, and a good price point.

I wanted a duplex scanner with sheet feeder and wi-fi capability that was in the <$200 price point. I’ve scanned a few hundred pages so far and this scanner has done everything as-advertised (duplex / sheet feeder / wi-fi). The Brother Software has room for improvement, but it gets the job done. Perhaps it’s a commentary on the printer/scanner market that an adequate product is cause for elation - but I’m pleased with my purchase. It’s important to note that the scanner does have to be plugged into a power outlet with the included cable so it’s not quite as portable as some advertising might have you believe. My main hesitation was a review stating that multi-page document scans resulted in each page saved as an individual file (which would be a deal breaker for me). Fortunately, when saving in PDF format multi-page scans can be saved as a single file. Thank goodness!