|
|
You found this Tech Review at: Back to the Review Archives |
|||||
"Powerful creativity with 2400-dpi optical resolution. Quickly post images to photo-sharing sites with share-to-Web feature. Make multiple color copies with front-panel copy controls when paired with your color printer ". That's what Hewlett Packard says...What does Idea Cafe think? Our Out-of-Box-Experience It's become a real deal to buy a scanner in the last few years as the price on machines has been dropping so drastically. In the dark, pre-millennium days, if you opted to save your pennies and pick up a low-end, $100 scanner, you only got a machine that went about its business really slowly. If you wanted great performance, you had to drop as much as $500. That has changed post-2K, as technology has matured. Now you can pick up a relatively zippy scanner for very affordable prices. Case in point is the Hewlett Packard Scanjet 5400c priced at $199. The scanner boasts about its one-touch scanning and 35-second per photo scans. Coupled with its quality output and ease of installation (attach cord from computer to scanner, install software and Bingo, you're scanning), the Scanjet 5400 earns good marks from us. Idea Cafe's Use and Abuse Test First of all, we found the Scanjet 5400 to be intuitive and easy to use. The button we thought would start the scanner, started the scanner. The button we thought would blow up our photos, blew up our photos. Imagine that! The Scanjet 5400c has a five-button control panel that gives you one-touch scanning. Instead of having to start up software on your computer, and running your scanner from there, you can run your computer from your scanner (you still have to have the computer turned on first). You can scan straight to the Web, to your printer or to your e-mail. A small LCD screen on the scanner (picture the screen on your microwave oven) allows you select the number of copies you want to make -- up to 99 per button push. When you push the scan button, it launches HP PrecisionScan Pro, the software you've installed on your computer, and pre-scans the image from the 8.5-inch by 11-inch scan area. You can buy an optional 25-sheet paper feeder that will let you scan longer 8.5 x 14-inch documents. We found HP's promise of a 35-second photo scan to be bang on. We put a 4 x 6-inch color photo on the scanner, pushed the button to scan directly into Microsoft Word, and in 35 seconds the photo appeared on screen in a Word document. In fact, during one trial, we got it to scan a photo in 32 seconds when the scanner was hooked up to a Dell Optiplex 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 computer. Of course, HP's high-end printers priced at several hundred dollars more will get you the same scan in less than 15 seconds. It works on both a Mac and Windows PC and can connect to a USB port or parallel port. The scanner produces images at resolutions up to 2400 x 2400 dots per inch, which is plenty for most small business needs. If you often scan from oversized materials, such as books or magazines, you'll be happy to read that the Scanjet 5400c has a detachable cover. We also wanted to note that the 5400c has a built in slide and negative scanner. It has a special strip of glass at one end that lets you scan your photo negatives or slides right into your computer. Were We Impressed? The HP Scanjet 5400c is a competent scanner that is ideally suited to a small office that needs an affordable scanner and scans documents on an occasional, but regular basis. We don't recommend it for offices that need a high-speed scanner to process many documents several times a day. Any Bad Tastes? We noticed two things. One setback to the 5400c is its size -- at 22.52 x 12.99 x 4.06 inches, it will take up nearly half your desk space, and that doesn't include the optional paper feeder. Second, this scanner doesn't include and drivers for native OS X support, even though OS X has been out almost a year. Specifications PC:
Mac: Warranty and Tech Support The HP Scanjet 5400c has a one-year warranty. You'll get one-year of free telephone support backed by hp Customer care. There is 24-hour technical support available for the scanner on the HP Web site, including frequently asked questions, software updates and drivers, user manuals and e-mail support. Suggested Retail Price for Scanjet 5400c: $ 199
For Further Information and Ordering Contact Hewlett Packard Copyright Cyberwalker Media Inc. 2002 DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. DevStart Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from DevStart, Inc. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages. TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™. |
Scanjet 5400c
