Brother - ADS-2700W Wireless High-Speed Color Duplex Desktop Document Scanner with Touchscreen LCD - White

I was happy to receive and test out this new scanner from Brother. For the past four years I have been using a sheet-fed scanner from Fujitsu and I have been very happy with it. But as time goes on, I wonder how much longer it will be supported through the annual “upgrades” from Apple. So that is my baseline for comparison. Fujitsu makes a comparable scanner and hopefully soon I’ll have the opportunity to test it as well. Setup This can vary depending on your intended usage. The setup is different (if only slightly) whether you are going to be using it as a wireless to mobile device, WiFi networked, wired networked, direct to a USB flash drive (rear USB port), WiFi Direct or a direct USB connection to your computer. Both Windows and Mac are supported on the desktop, on mobile they support iOS and Android. Right out of the box, my first attempt was to use the mobile app on my iPhone 8+. Simple download, search, link and viola I was able to scan a document straight to my iPhone. It happened so fast that I expected a low-resolution nasty scan. So I sent the file to my desktop and opened it there. Much to my surprise, the document was a 300 dpi full-color scan of a brochure. The quality was impressive. So then I wanted try it out on the desktop. I installed the software (more about that next paragraph) and after giving it the AP name and password, it immediately found the scanner on my WiFi network. I loaded a 16 page document and touched the color screen on the scanner with “To PC” and then “Start”. Sumbeatch! It started pulling the pages through so fast that I feared it might just shoot them across the room! I saw the file appear on my desktop. When I opened it, I was greeted with a high-quality, 300dpi color facsimile of my document. Turns out, nothing was wrong…..it was a SPEED DEMON! The page per minute (PPM) rate quoted by the promotional literature and on the website is 35 PPM. In my tests, I timed it from the moment that I pressed “Start” on the scanner to the moment it was finished processing and I had the complete file(s) on my computer. In that I found for 300 dpi Letter size it achieved 35.4 PPM. Better than quoted! But when switching to 600 dpi it was 9.8 PPM. For 4x6 photos at 300 dpi, 53.7 PPM; and for 600 dpi 19.1 PPM was the average. When you consider that the difference between 300 dpi and 600 dpi is not double, but four times the amount of data captured this is not bad at all. The maximum optical (real dot-for-dot capture) is 600 dpi. Software interpolation will create a simulated 1200 dpi, but this is not available through the basic interface. Rather, you have to use the TWAIN driver in other software to have this option. Software Their website lists the following software included: Nuance PaperPort 14SE (Windows), PageManager(Mac), NewSoft Presto! BizCard OCR (Win & Mac). But the software package that you download from the Brother website does not include any of these. You have to hunt around to find the links for download from their respective developers websites. This process really should be clarified as a less tech-savvy user may not find these at all. The base packages installs the configuration utility and the TWAIN driver. You can also pick the Support app and in the Utilities folder there is a Wireless Network Wizard available. I made use of the configuration utility extensively in my testing and was pleased with it’s operation. It will find and alter the configuration whether you’re connecting by USB to PC, USB flash drive, WiFi, or Ethernet. Its operation is straight-forward and gives a lot of options. I also discovered that when connected by WiFi or Ethernet, there is a built-in web configuration utility available from your browser. This is a very nice feature when not connected to the desktop. With it you can setup the network file location to save your scan to, setup various Cloud services and even setup the scanner to email your files to any address. But you must have unrestricted access to an SMTP server to make this happen. Most email providers do not allow this. Since I primarily use a Mac, that’s where my testing took place. The PageManager (PM) software is very similar in operation and function to PaperPort. So if you have used that in the past as I have, you’ll pick it up rather quickly. Figuring out how to OCR documents was the most difficult part and the results were mediocre at best. Accuracy is around 50% and it’s slow. Fortunately, since the driver is TWAIN compliant, I was able to scan and OCR from some 3rd party software that I already have. There’s also a serious bug in the PM software when using the Scan Button feature. All parts of the PM software show the appropriate English as set by my system. But for some reason the Scan Button menu shows only French. Presto really needs a fix for this. Hardware As I said before, the scanner drags the pages through quickly and with great ease. It also seems to handle a variety of paper sizes and types reliably and without jamming or excessive skewing. There were only two issues that I have uncovered that can present a problem with regard to paper types. First, if you are scanning a stack of cards (60lb) it will be sporadic in its ability to continuously grab them one after another. But this is not a major drawback, and the specs of the scanner clearly state that its design is for 14-29lb bond. The other minor issue was when scanning a stack of tear-off slips measuring 3.25” x 5.5” they would “skew” in the resulting image. I did not notice the slips twisting in the least as they fed through, but the images were significantly skewed by about 20 degrees. This only seemed to happen when the slips (since they are tear offs) had an irregular leading edge. This causes me to question; does the scanner/software have a “deskewing” routine? And if so, is that it’s incorrect attempt at resolving? Also, the scanner/driver does not seem to support any method of auto rotation of scans. If you scan something upside down or rotated, then the image will for sure be in that orientation. My other scanner does it’s best to correct for this with about 80% reliability. Also, I did notice on a few of the slips that ran full bleed, the edges were slightly cropped. Next up, let’s try some color photos. I altered the setting to force full color and 600 dpi scanning. As you would expect, the scan speed was reduced since I was capturing at least four times more data. In comparison with my other scanner, the colors were not as rich and vibrant. There were also occasional phantom lines that looked like the streaking that occurs from debris on the scanning element. But they ran horizontal instead of vertical so I can be sure that was not the source. Other software notes When scanning to an Excel file, I ran into issues with having to grant file access just to open them. Also, when I instructed PM to OCR to an Excel file, it opened Excel with the raw text of the file rather than a spreadsheet. (screenshot included) Summary The Brother ADS-2700W is a very fast sheet-fed scanner with good paper handling and decent color rendering. It is mostly limited by the bundled software, but if you have more robust needs better software is available at a reasonable price. I really appreciate the variety of transfer methods supported. (e.g. WiFi, Ethernet, USB PC, USB Flash) The menus are easy to navigate and it’s definitely a keeper. This scanner will be a welcome addition to my drive to become completely paperless.

BROTHER ADS 2700w My BROTHER ADS 2700w arrived without the standard introductory paperwork: No Quick Set Up Guide, No Product Safety info and no Warranty info. At first, I thought the company was trying to save money until I went on line to see that, yes, the aforementioned materials are listed as “should be included”. But, on second thought, I did not see listed that a printed version of their comprehensive manual comes with the unit. As far as I can tell, you must download the full version of the manual in order to consider all of the many options the unit has to offer. At 203pp, I can see how the length of the online version of the set up guide warrants those at Brother eliminating the cost of printing at their end. But, unfortunately, the consumer may not want to assume that cost and effort, even if the online version allows the owner to shuffle through the pages to pick and choose to print only the options applicable to your needs. I found the online shuffle somewhat cumbersome; but, others might not. The scanner does have a variety of set up options such as to scan in standalone mode or to connect to your Windows or MAC cpu, to your mobile device, to your network, etc. What I find most useful is the unit’s ability to eliminate my always expanding stack of business cards. Moreover, I can scan either paper or plastic business cards. So, in addition to reclaiming office space previously lost to business card storage, I can also save time since I can stack up to 25 business cards per scanning session (as long as the card thickness is less than 0.2 in (5 mm). What I am not happy about is that NOT included with the unit is the CARRIER SHEET required to scan the odd sized and/or crumpled receipts. To have a scanner dedicated to transferring my daily collection of receipts to the cloud without having to stand at my all-in-one for the flat-bed lifting exercise was the very motivation for wanting the Bro ADS 2700w. This experience is another object lesson that reading the entire manual of any technology before purchase is a wise first step while taking (with a grain of salt) the online reviews. I would have known to either purchase the CARRIER SHEET or SHEETS at point-of-sale or move on to another option. Now, I am disgruntled that I got stuck at start up without the very tool that I need to move forward with my “receipts to cloud intention”. In order to move forward, the owner must buy the CARRIER SHEET(s) a-la-carte from Brother or search the local office store to resolve the hold up. Turns out that the CARRIER SHEET may be the main trouble shooter to allow scanning all of the docs that the long version of the manual says are NOT ACCEPTABLE including such docs as the following: • Docs written in pencil • Envelopes • Docs with wrinkles and curls….the receipts I sorely wanted to scan at start up • Coated paper • Perforated paper • Photographic paper • Docs with carbonless paper • Glossy media …all docs that I thought would be trouble free scanning for a unit dedicated to scanning. See page 16 of the full length manual for the entire list of UNACCEPTABLE DOCS; but, geez! Marketing-at-Brother, the list wouldn’t exist if you just included the CARRIER SHEET(s) with the machine. From what I can discern, the CARRIER SHEET is the device that eliminates the machine’s proclivity to jam. But, when odd items are inserted into the CARRIER SHEET that acts as a document-smoothing, transparent sheathe then the odd-doc can be transported easily through the rollers. Moreover, lots of caveats are listed if you want to do a mixed batch of docs. Bottom line, this is another problem the CARRIER SHEET would solve: The manual notes that the machine gets jammed if there are differences in paper weights, friction coefficients and paper sizes. It’s suggested that docs of varied dimensions be stacked in “descending order with the largest at the back and the smallest at the front”. Maybe I’m wrong but if you have a collection of CARRIER SHEETS within which to install your odd docs, you could possibly get your scans accomplished if you eliminate their variable friction coefficients and paper sizes. Seriously doubt that the CARRIER SHEET can eliminate the impact on the machine’s intolerance for differences in paper weights. Nonetheless, I will update with additional assessments as the experiment unfolds. But, feel confident that expeditious scanning of docs within specific parameters can be accomplished.

Brother ADS-2700W Scanner. I have found this scanner to be easy to setup and easy to use. The software has almost no footprint on the computer startup and does not appear to run until requested. It scans double sided in 1 pass. It scans very fast, there is a small delay while it’s contacting the computer over Wi-FI but once it establishes the connection the scan is completed in about 1 to 2 seconds. On the scanners default setting you will get a 300 dpi color scan, saved as a PDF to your computer. The file size will be about 6 megs for full color pages. For regular documents, with no color, you can set the scanner to Black & White at 600 dpi and get a beautiful PDF at about 500kb. The scanner slows down a bit to do 600 dpi but still manages to scan a page in just under 5 seconds. If you have the full version of Acrobat you can let the scanner do a default scan and then optimize the file in Acrobat. For best quality on Black & White documents I’ve found the best results is to scan at 600 dpi, Black & White. You end up with a good file size and a great re-printable document. If your not interested in printing what you scan, you can set the scanner to scan at a lower dpi and Black & white for regular documents. It will be fast and the file size will be small. Readable on your computer but not so great for printing. When the scanner is set to 600 dpi, and save as .jpg you can use it to scans pictures. I have found the output of a scanned picture to be completely acceptable. Comparing it to a full size flat bed scanner, that takes 3 times longer to do the scan. For everyday scanning I wouldn’t hesitate to use this scanner. Quick and easy with a great output, as long as you take a second to change the setting before you scan something other than a document. For some reason the scanner will lose connection with my computer once the scanner goes to sleep. The scanner itself wakes up just fine but once the scanner is gone from the network my computer fails to see it. All I need to do is open the scan software and all is fine again. I can close the software and the scanner still works. So in my case it doesn’t make sense to leave the scanner on all the time. If it’s not going to work without me starting the software, I’m not saving any time on startup. Startup time is fast enough for you not to get bored while waiting. It comes with options to install 2 other pieces of software. A business card scanning software and Paperport software to organize your scans. Paperport is redundant, if you cant organize your files the way you want them, how could you use software that does it for you. You’ll never find anything you scanned later. The Business card scanner software looks great, but oh my, it is broken beyond usability. The tools that you need to actually organize your scanned business cards are all grayed out. Like it’s demo software or something. To purchase the software it’s another $69.00. I believe that Brothers includes a “lite” version of the software. Some of the time it reads business cards correctly. That’s the good. When it doesn’t read the card correctly, all the buttons to do the things you need to do to fix the issue are not available to use. You can’t swap the front for the back if it got confused. You can’t recognize text on the back of a card. The buttons are all there but not usable. You can only add a back to a card. If the software decided the back was the front, and it does do that, you’re done. It will not allow you to add a front. You can add a back, but then you can’t swap them to make it correct. I spent the better part of an hour reading instructions. What it says to do is all fine, problem is you can’t do it because the buttons or selections are grayed out. I found I could just drop a business card in the scanner, scan it, then rename the scan to what the card is and put it in a business card folder. If it was 2 sided it will be a 2 page PDF. If it was single sided it will be a single page PDF. My bottom line. The scanner alone is great. Does a great job fast, double sided. The scanners output tray folds up to protect the front and LCD display. The input tray is stationary. It should fold down to protect from things falling into the scanner. The scanner opens easily so you can clean it. The additional software is complete junk. If you intend to buy your own business card software make sure it will work with this scanner.

All notes in my review are based on Windows 10 PC. Basic setup is a breeze and takes about ten minutes. Settings can be managed at either the scanner or remotely from the PC in the Brothers Setup/Management package that you need to download from Brother. Things I like right off the bat about the ADS-2700W: It’s size. A great choice for a cluttered desktop or for a student’s workspace. Wide range of networking from Wi-Fi, wired, USB to server based configurations. The network side is robust. The range of documents that can be scanned to include plastic coated cards, business card, photos as well as a long list of standard office sizes through its 50-page auto document feeder. Again, a robust list of supported documents. Scan to choices include File, USB flash memory drive, Image, Network, OCR, Email, FTP, Mobile Devices. Scanning formats include; JPEG, PDF, Secure PDF, Signed PDF, PDFA, And TIFF. Has crisp scanning resolutions of 600 dpi and interpolated 1200 dpi. Adding shortcuts to your mostly frequently used scanning destinations and configurations. LCD control panel is easy to use and setup logically. Have found that I must use firm pressure to engage a selection. Overall the Brother ADS-2700W is easy to use and compact for everyday use. Works well wired to a one computer, to small homegroup networks to use in server groups. ONE Great option for Group use is that Documents can be scanned directly to a Network Location/Folder or into Email. Highly flexible unit. If space is at premium and you need a highly flexible scanner check out the Brother ADS-2700W. Forgot to mention, this scanner is fast!

The unit is supposed to be used as either wired or wireless. I have most of my devices set up on wireless, and this should be no exception. Out of the box, the unit seemed fairly intuitive. Power on, click the Wireless icon on the screen, set up the network connection. Then I went to Brother’s site to download the software. So far, everything is simple. I try to launch the software, called “Web Based Management”. It opens my browser window and tells me the site it is trying to find cannot be found. The instructions enclosed with the unit are quite sparse. So, I went to Brother’s site to troubleshoot. I found instructions on how to access via IP address. Tried that, could not find unit. Then I went through WLAN set up again. I double checked IP address. Still not found. I started an online chat with a very helpful representative from Brother that suggested I turn off my virus protection and firewall. I did so, and the IP address access appeared (the software still did not work). However, I was still unable to scan. If you click “to PC”, you need a wired connection. If you click “to Network”, it would tell me to open Web Based Management, which is the software I could not get to work. I decided to try again a different day. The next day, I tried the IP address I had bookmarked – didn’t work. Turned off my virus and firewall software, still doesn’t work. I went through the WLAN set up again, not working. Checked IP address and tried a different browser. Still cannot connect. Brother also offers an app to use the scanner with your mobile phone. I tried that instead of using the computer. The scanner is FAST. The fastest scanner I’ve ever seen. Granted, it was a simple letter, but it was much faster than either of my flatbed scanners. I had no issue with the document uploading to my phone and then saving it to my cloud drive. Image was clear and crisp. I then tried a full color postcard. Fast scan, image was great. No issues. I am giving it 4 total stars because of my frustration with the network connection. It would have been three, except for the great customer service and the FAST scanning power.

Full disclosure: I received the ADS-2700W as part of a program in exchange for a timely and honest review. I have used many scanners throughout my lifetime so far. My primary scanner most recently has been a NeatConnect scanner. I wanted a second scanner, so I thought I’d try this one out. I use a scanner primarily to scan non-critical documents so I can file them electronically and then shred them. It saves a lot of space and physically handling. Physically, the ADS-2700W is compact and nice looking. The input and output trays can be folded up when not in use, making it even smaller. I did the setup with a MacBook Pro and an iPad. You start by downloading the app for your mobile device and the installation software for your PC or Mac. I played around with the scanner a bit before I started following the directions, so I had to play around with the setup more than I would have had to, if I had followed the instructions straight out of the box. I set mine up for WiFi connection and scanning, but you can connect it via RJ45 to a LAN or via USB to a computer. The scanner can scan to a USB device, FTP destination, email or mobile device. I used the mobile app on my iPad for my review. There is a significant array of functionality and options, but you don’t have to get bogged down learning them all. You can start scanning very quickly. Once you have the app on your mobile device and your scanner connected to your network, you can just insert your document upside down with the printed side toward the back of the scanner and touch the scan button on the screen of your mobile device. Then you can specify document size, scan type, 2-Sided, and a couple of advanced settings…and SCAN the document. It scans very quickly and with nice quality. The mobile app allows you to enter your credentials for Dropbox, Evernote, Google and OneDrive. iCloud Files support is native on the iOS app. After scanning, you can send the file to any of these destinations, to an email recipient, to the Photos app (on iOS), Facebook, or many other places. It is very flexible. Oddly, the mobile app seems to handle documents to iCloud with less grace than to Dropbox (for example), depending on how you do it. If I send use the “Save to Files” functionality directly, I get one file per page and a text file that says “From Brother iPrint&Scan”. Very odd. But if I use the “Save as PDF” function, I can then save a two page document to iCloud Files as a single document and I don’t get that odd text file. A little quirk, but once you know that, it is easy to remember. There is a nice web management interface for the scanner that allows password protected management of the scanner settings. For my needs this little scanner is great. I works well and offers a great deal of flexibility for scanning destinations through the mobile app. I have not tried FTP or scanning directly to a PC. The latter could be handy, but since I have mobile devices, it isn’t really necessary. I can scan a document and put in just about anywhere I want to and I can grab it from there on my Mac (or PC). I think I will be very happy with this little scanner and I will recommend it to others.

Setup was a snap, I set mine up on my wireless network, if you follow the wizard and the quick start instructions, You will be up and running in no time. Boot time for the scanner is about 10 seconds The on-scanner screen is very bright and easy to read. The on-board screen is very user friendly. If you have repeated uses you can set up shortcuts to make your job faster. After setting up the scanner I tried to scanned in 25 4 by 6 photos. I set my default for simplex and 600 dpi and hit start, and the photos immediately started scanning. It took less than 20 seconds to scan in all 25 and drop them in my documents. (all wireless). You can also set up to scan to your phone by downloading an app (iOS/android) great for scanning in Documents and saving them to your phone for quick retrieval. I then had about 50 duplex pages of information I needed scanned. So, after adjusting the feeder tray to my paper size I placed them in and started the scan. I took about 30 seconds. I was amazed and the speed and overall quality of the documents and pictures. You can scan to email, pdf (single or multiple page files), jpeg , a folder on your network, To FTP/SFTP site, to usb. Your resolution choices are 300 or 600 DPI. You can scan in gray, color, or BW. The optional install programs Presto Bizcard and MAX to pdf converter, and PDF maker/viewer plus. Are great programs should you need a place to store your scanned files or business cards and keep them all organized. I recommend this especially for professionals that scan cards or lots of documents. The foot print of the scanner is about the size of a small shoe box and weighs about 5 lbs. It is put together very nicely, /it does exactly what it is designed for, FAST SCANNING. The only cons that I have is that I wish we had more control of the DPI instead of just 300 or 600. So if you’re in to scanning pictures for archival purposes would look a few more models higher than this. If it is strictly docs then this is your go to guy. I’m going to set this one up at my mom’s as she has 40 years of Genealogy docs that need scanned and her Multifunction printer/scanner, copier would take weeks upon weeks to get this done. But with this unit I could be done in a matter of hours!! The other con is during the setup. When installing you do not have the option of choosing which drive to install it on. I have 4 drives on my system and all have different purposes. My C drive is an SSD drive that I only wish to have the Operating system on and that only in case I have to restore. But this unit defaults to your home drive and installs everything there. I would like the ability to install where I choose. Other than these small cons (which shouldn’t stop you from buying) this is a top notch scanner. I would recommend this to family and friends.

Unlike previous scanners I’ve owned, this device is a dedicated scanner, not a multifunction, printer, copier, fax and scanner. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to test out this scanner. My current scanner (an all in one scanner) tends to pull in more then 1page at a time and chews up the pages if it’s doing a double sided scan. Pages come out like a folded up fan! Setup: The scanner has a nice small footprint, it doesn’t take up much space at all. To begin setup, simply snap the paper feed tray on and plug in the power cable. It can connect to your LAN via wired or wireless connection. Connections: There are many ways to connect this scanner to your device, all the options are listed below. Of course, I chose the most difficult setup, scanning directly to my NAS. You can scan directly to your tablet or smartphone with the “brother imprint & scan” and go app Scan directly to your PC or Mac via USB cable (not included). You can connect a USB drive to the scanner directly and scan to USB drive. If you setup an email account, you can scan to email. Scan to your network Scan to ftp/sftp I tried using the “scan to network” to scan to my network attached storage device. After spending some time setting it up, it worked, but only for approximately 10 minutes, then I would receive an error message, it seems like the scanner would lose the credentials. I noticed in the manual, it mentions “Because the machine does not support SMB 2.0, Kerberos authentication, or DFS, Network scanning cannot be used”. I believe this was the issue. So I went with “scan to ftp”, since my NAS supports it. Once I figured out how to setup ftp scanning on both my NAS and the scanner, it worked flawlessly. Performance: What I love about this scanner is the ability to scan both sides of a document with 1 pass. No more scanning one side, pulling page back in scanning other side, very inefficient and prone to jamming. The speed at which it scans at is the best part, I can scan a 30 page double sided document in seconds!! This is great, I can now scan all my files and shred the documents in my filing cabinet that I’ve been storing and too lazy to scan. The scanner does both letter and legal size paper, even if they’re mixed. According to the manual, it can scan longer paper as well. I don’t have any long paper to test it with. If you have smaller items to scan, such as a driver license, you can purchase a “carrier sheet” separately, it looks like a clear plastic pouch to place item into and scan. Scans are saved as either pdf or jpg files. Conclusion: Overall, I really like this device because of the scanning speed and the duplex scanning. It has a lot of settings and options to setup the scanner. Cleaning the roller seems simple as well, as detailed in the instructions. This is a great device to have if you need to archive a bunch of documents.