Kodak ScanMate i1150WN - Review 2022

The Kodak ScanMate i1150WN ($650) from Kodak Alaris is similar in many ways to its previous iteration, the Kodak ScanMate i1150, except that it supports both wired and wireless networking. It's not, even so, as fast as some network-ready scanners we have reviewed, including the Editors' Pick Brother ImageCenter ADS-3600W and Epson'south significantly less expensive WorkForce ES-500W Wireless Duplex Certificate Scanner. Even though the i1150WN is not lickety-split, it's plenty fast enough for many micro function and workgroup environments, and it comes with slick and easy-to-use software, making it a expert choice for low-to-moderate network document scanning, especially for use at the front desk in medical and dental offices.

Well-Designed and Feature-Rich

The i1150WN is two-toned, with a black face and off-white chassis and trays. At nine.seven by 13 by half dozen.three inches (HWD) with its trays closed, and weighing 7 pounds, it's about average in size and weight for a canvas-feed document scanner in its class. And, as with its competitors, when you lot extend its input and output trays, its height more than doubles, and its depth triples. Still, it'southward well-nigh probable still small enough to sit down comfortably beside y'all on your desktop.

The scanner supports both Ethernet and Wi-Fi, equally well equally Wi-Fi Straight, as does the Brother ADS-3600W. On the other manus, the Epson ES-500W and the Canon imageFormula DR-C225W support merely Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct. (In some scenarios, especially offices with older 802.11 wireless networks, Ethernet provides faster throughput.) The Kodak model's automatic document feeder (ADF) holds up to 75 pages, which is on the high side for scanners in this form. Kodak's duty-cycle rating for the i1150WN, however, is on the lower side at 3,000 scans daily. (The ADS-3600W, for instance, is rated at 5,000 daily scans.)

Of the scanners mentioned here so far, only the Kodak and Brother models have displays that allow yous to scroll through and choose from lists of predefined workflow profiles. The i1150WN comes with nine predefined profiles that you can either use as-is, modify, or redefine and rename. Profiles are modified and configured in the arranged Kodak Smart Bear upon software (discussed in the Easy Installation and Slick Software section below). Unfortunately, though, unlike most other document scanners that allow you to configure numerous profiles, Smart Bear upon supports simply ix. The command panel displays the profile names (Color PDF, Black and White PDF, and and so on), making them easy to identify, and so we can't determine a reason for limiting the number to so few. So once more, 9 is most likely enough for most environments.

Aside from the brandish, which also shows other info, such as connection type, and the name of the PC using the scanner, the i1150WN's control panel consists of half dozen buttons: Abolish, Upwards and Downwardly (for scrolling through profiles) Scan (Commencement), Info (for displaying data well-nigh the scanner itself, such as network type, IP address, and and then on), and Power. Supported file types are BMP, JPEG, image and searchable PDF, PNG, RTF, and single and multipage TIFF. Supported destinations are Application, Box, Email, Evernote, Fax, File, Google Drive, Printer, SharePoint Online, and WebDav. Multiple resolutions between 100dpi and 1,200dpi are available.

Easy Installation and Slick Software

For the nigh part, our installation process was straightforward, except that the installation software displayed some disruptive options. To level the field, we scan via USB, fifty-fifty on scanners that support networking. While the installation software found the auto connected to the testbed PC, it displayed letters pertinent to installing the scanner on a network, with no pick pertaining to USB, which left us guessing at which option to selection. In improver, 1 of the bundled programs, Kodak Capture Pro Lite, forced us to register it earlier allowing it to be downloaded.

In improver to Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, and Wi-Fi directly, the i1150WN supports what Kodak calls "driverless scanning" via a Web API (application programming interface), as well as pre-configuration from Kodak'south site or the scanner itself. Operating a scanner like this from a web browser is somewhat rare, only not unheard of. The Editors' Choice Catechism imageFormula ScanFront 400, for example, provides a similar feature, and it's not unusual for organizations with customized document management back ends to create Web apps for the frontend.

Kodak's method for reconfiguring a scanner prior to deployment, on the other hand, is unique. IT professionals can create a PDF, via either the scanner's Web interface or on Kodak'due south site, that in turn, when scanned by the terminate user, automatically configures the machine for immediate deployment. Both options are ideal for deploying scanners in remote or multiple locations.

Aside from the usual TWAIN and ISIS drivers, the bundled software consists of Kodak Capture Pro Low-cal, Kodak Nugget Management, a xxx-24-hour interval trial version of Kodak Capture Pro, Kodak Smart Touch, and EMC Captiva Toolkit. Capture Pro is a full-featured scanning interface, and between it and Asset Direction, you get decent certificate-management tools. EMC Captiva Toolkit is a developer'south utility for creating connectors that allow you to ship scans to cloud-based applications.

Smart Touch is the primary scanning utility that not only lets you select and execute profile-based scans, merely also lets you modify and rename them. It'southward as well the program that the scanner interacts with to download profile names and numbers. Much like Xerox'south OneTouch interface, Smart Bear on has a pocket-size, easy-to-use forepart end that resides in the system tray, likewise equally a powerful backend for modifying profiles. As mentioned, though, unlike OneTouch, which allows you to create additional profiles, Smart Impact restricts you to the original nine, though you can change and rename them advertizement infinitum. For Mac users, Kodak bundles Newsoft Presto! PageManager and Presto! BizCard Xpress.

Steady as She Goes

Kodak told us that its principal focus for the i1150WN is in front desk settings where the person who operates the scanner works directly with customers or clients, often scanning information while they wait. To that end, in scenarios where it's causeless that about scan runs consist of 10 pages or less, the visitor designed the i1150WN with what information technology calls a Transaction Mode that scans the first 10 pages at twoscore pages per minute (ppm) and the remaining pages at 30ppm for one-sided (simplex) pages, and 80 images per infinitesimal (ipm, where each page side is an paradigm) for the showtime 10 pages and 60ipm thereafter for ii-sided pages.

Essentially, then, the scanner's rating is 30ppm simplex and 60ipm duplex. In testing, without the lag time (the fourth dimension between when the last folio lands on the output tray and the browse job is subsequently saved to a useable file format), the i1150WN scanned our exam documents at 31.6ppm and 63.2ipm, or just above its ratings.

When scanning and saving the same test documents to epitome PDF, it churned at 27.3ppm and 54.5ipm, or not too far from its ratings. Brother's ADS-3600W, on the other hand, scanned and saved the same pages to image PDF at 46.2ppm and 96.8ipm; the Epson ES-500W managed 35.3ppm and 68.2ipm; and the Canon DR-C225W got 25ppm and 47ipm.

Where the i1150WN took its biggest performance hit, though, was when saving scans to searchable PDF. Many scanners slow down significantly here, but usually non this much. Kodak told u.s. that this was most likely due to its Perfect Page Scanning feature, which essentially applies several folio accuracy-increasing adjustment routines and prototype enhancement filters, such as cropping, rotation, image sharpening, streak filtering, color dropout, and many others, to the scan. We therefore tried scanning both ways—with and without Page Perfect—but got substantially the same scores either way.

That said, the i1150WN scanned and saved our two-sided 25-page (l images) certificate to searchable PDF in ane minute, 35 seconds. This was more than than xx seconds slower than the other scanners discussed here, with the DR-C225W coming in second to last at 1:12. The Epson ES-500W was fastest at 44 seconds.

When Accuracy is Paramount

Perhaps the i1150WN didn't scan as fast every bit its competitors, but when converting scanned text to editable text, it outperformed all of its competition. The Smart Touch software was accurate (without errors) on both our Arial and Times New Roman font test pages down to 6 points, compared with the Brother ADS-3600W's and the Catechism DR-C225W's 6 points Arial and 8 points Times New Roman, and the Epson ES-500's viii points for both fonts. In many applications, accuracy is far more important than speed.

Speed isn't Everything

Aside from its somewhat ho-hum (but not necessarily dismal) operation in saving to searchable PDFs, in that location'south a lot to like about the Kodak ScanMate i1150WN, including its several connectivity options. Its Spider web interface makes it easier to deploy in existing document-management backends, and the Smart Bear on software allows you to present ane-click (or touch on) interfaces to your terminate users. The i1150WN is a bit more expensive than we'd like, but its accuracy and ease of apply provide additional value. Its somewhat steep toll precludes it from gaining our Editors' Choice nod, but otherwise this is an splendid certificate scanner for low-to-moderate document scanning in a small function or workgroup, or for front-desk settings in medical offices or banks.