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Customer Reviews Collected from brother-usa.com |
Brother - ADS-1500W Compact Wireless Color Duplex Desktop Scanner with Web Connectivity - White
Average Customer Rating:
4
Rating breakdown 162 reviews
5 Stars
80
4 Stars
45
3 Stars
10
2 Stars
10
1 Star
17
80%of customers recommend this product.
(
122 out of
153)
Customer Reviews for Brother - ADS-1500W Compact Wireless Color Duplex Desktop Scanner with Web Connectivity - White
Customer Rating
4
Good Performance, Poor Documentation
on March 26, 2015
Posted by: tjs114
from California
We purchased this unit primarily because it was one of the lower priced units that worked wirelessly. The ability to connect a usb flash drive was also a prime motivator. We have this unit sitting near our paper shredder which is nowhere near a computer. The ability to store a mail account locally is a perk we didn't expect, and we've taken advantage of it by setting up a dedicated email account for the unit.
The unit produces good archival scans at 300dpi in color directly to PDF which we use to meet Federal document archiving purposes. Speed is adequate if you turn of de-skew and blank page skip, but becomes positively glacial with those two necessary settings active. This makes me think the unit is lacking internal RAM to perform these manipulations adequately.
The document feeder is also poor in that it consistently grabs multiple pages unless you spend a lot of time prepping the documents for scanning- a problem found even in Brother's printers as my 5250-dn laser printer has a near useless manual feed tray as well. The lack of a document catch tray is also irritating.
Brother documentation is always poor. There are no clear instructions on how to use the card scanning tools on this device and I spent several hours fiddling to get the unit to scan to an ftp account. Scanning each card from the desktop software was okay, but the scanner is on the other end of the house from the computer. Brother needs to define "NETWORK" on this device in english. Is it Windows Share, Samba, NT, what? It most assuredly does not work with a Macintosh as a "NETWORK" device. Again, Brother's written documentation is poor, so expect to do a lot of tinkering if you want to take advantage of this devices complete abilities.
The onboard screen is bright and will remain active if a usb flash drive is attached- the unit will NOT sleep if a flash drive is attached. That is annoying because I wanted to leave a 64gb flash drive plugged in for a 'use and forget' solution. But the unit draws an obscene amount of power when sitting idle with a flash drive connected versus taking the drive out and letting it sleep. That is a design flaw.
The shortcut system is nice, but we don't really need to confirm the setup of the shortcut each time we select it. Basically, It's 4 clicks to use some shortcuts- which is the same as just navigating the menus.
The most significant FLAW in this device is if you power it off, it forgets all network connectivity. Power it down and turn it back on? Be prepared to re-enter your wireless network information. Supposedly it takes 'time' to reconnect. Well, this unit can sit for 3 hours and never reconnect to my network. Every person I've spoken to that uses this unit has the same problem. That is a design flaw. Luckily, after taking out the flash drive, I can let it sleep, but I should be able to turn the unit off.
Overall, this unit is very much a Brother product. It has a lot of technical options that the end user has to figure out on their own as Brother documentation rarely describes how to use their tools well. It has software and hardware quirks that are frustrating, but don't interfere with performance too much. If you are an end user of consumer electronics, this probably isn't for you. If you've used Brother products in the past and are used to the quirks, it's a fine device.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
3
Okay
on February 16, 2014
Posted by: Aquarius2atee
from Walla Walla, WA
I returned it and bought the Fujitsu Scansnap ix500. This scans okay, but the software was a pain to install and doesn't work the way I need it to. I wanted it to work great; it is a great price, a great size, and for our office it would have been nice to have one at each desk.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
5
on July 4, 2015
Posted by: BMWmechanic
from Cincinnati, OH
It scans both sides of documents quickly and has been quite reliable so far.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
1
Disappointing
on July 6, 2015
Posted by: GSalvo
from San Diego, CA
The button/lever that allows you to open/close the scanner to clear jams, etc., broke after only the second use. Sadly, I waiting too long after purchase to install, so the machine was no longer under warranty. Could only exchange it with Brother directly and needed a scanner NOW, so bought a different one. Expensive lesson for me. Stay away, this scanner is flimsy, and there's nothing to catch your scanned documents when they exit the scanner!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
2
not very good
on February 26, 2016
Posted by: minnie678
from missouri
this machine does not really do what it can to a full potential i just want want it to not copy blank pages and it cant get that right..
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
4
Very Happy
on July 9, 2014
Posted by: LKNWayne
from Cornelius, North Carolina
This is such a small piece of equipment that it is hard to believe it can do the job. But it does the job fast and well. It is simple to operate and we really like it. Every once in a while pages stick together and the scan has to be re-run. But so did the older much larger much slower Xerox scanner that it replaced. Good purchase; I'm very happy.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
4
Brother
on February 4, 2014
Posted by: whatever1
Pages go through pretty well but not perfectly straight. There's usually a slant to the page. For the money, I think it's a good value.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com
Customer Rating
4
Nice scanner
on March 6, 2014
Posted by: trancos
from Aliso Viejo, CA
I have several scanners at home for personal and business use. This little guy exceeded my expectations in terms of performance and connectivity, particularly at the price range (compared to other more expensive brands). I like that I can send my scan copies directly to SkyDrive (now OneDrive) and that I can scan wirelessly too.
The only caveat that I've found is that the OCR used in combination with the BR-Receipts software it's kind of weak. I use this scanner mainly for digitizing receipts and it takes a long time to run the OCR and then not getting a proper return in the digital receipt (i.e. 90% of the times I have to manually input the values in the receipts).
The only caveat that I've found is that the OCR used in combination with the BR-Receipts software it's kind of weak. I use this scanner mainly for digitizing receipts and it takes a long time to run the OCR and then not getting a proper return in the digital receipt (i.e. 90% of the times I have to manually input the values in the receipts).
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting brother-usa.com