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Christophe
 
 
 
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    February 3, 2017
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Christophe's Reviews
 
Reduce clutter in your desk with this Epson WorkForce wireless document scanner. The portable design saves space in your office, and the wireless connectivity lets you scan documents to your smartphone, tablet or computer. Featuring a complete software suite and compatibility with most office software, this Epson WorkForce wireless document scanner is easy to use.
 
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4 out of 5
4
Batt. powered and portable scanner; so-so software
on February 3, 2017
Posted by: Christophe
This is a review for the ES-300W Wireless Portable Duplex Document Scanner that I received free of charge to do a beta test and review.
To provide some background, I own a lot of computer equipment, flash my routers' firmware, build my own servers, have owned many scanners, both Epson and Canon; in few words, I'm fluent in tech.
The scanner is pretty obvious to unpack and open up. I quickly downloaded the software from the Epson site facing the same, usual dread I always encounter with scanners: it installed many pieces of software on your computer and I was left to ponder whether I did really need those to operate the scanner. For a Mac, it was Document Capture, Epson Scan 2, EpsonNet Config, EPSON Software Updater,
Epson Scan 2 Utility, User Guide and Uninstaller, and - optional - also ABBYY FineReader Sprint and Presto! BizCard 7.
I hardly used the quick install guide, just when in doubt making sure it was on USB mode rather than Wi-Fi, and opted to experiment quickly with over the wire config. Scanning pages in AFD (autofeed document) mode was really fast using Document Capture. There was no jam and scan quality was more than sufficient even at low res. You can trigger the start of the scan on either scanner or comp side, or by inserting pages. It was also very easy to create scanning configs that automatically uploaded the doc to the Cloud (Good Drive in my case but there are other possibilities). It is worth mentioning though that Cloud uploads require your comp to be up as a temporary scan is first created on your comp, then uploaded, and then removed (I believe this is configurable if you want to retain a local copy).
Going wireless was a bit of a pain. I started in wired mode with the intent to set the wireless config, and then go wireless. Well it does not work that way and embarrassingly I had to read the manual. You first place the scanner in AP mode, set your comp to connect to the scanner's Wi-Fi, use then EpsonNet Config to configure the wireless, switch the scanner to Wi-Fi mode, reconnect your comp to your Wi-Fi, and then are able to discover your scanner. One comment about the manual: instructions were laid out over multiple pages. Somehow, I open the manual from one of the apps which directed to a web page. No need to tell you I was unable to read the next page when connected to the scanner's Wi-Fi :-(. Another thing you need to be aware of is you need to use a different software, Epson Scan 2, when scanning in wireless mode; Document Capture just does not work. Another thing you need to be aware of is that such a small scanner does not have any display. It means you do not have the ability to select a destination computer for scan over Wi-Fi like you could on much larger scanners. This means that not only your comp is up and running, but Epson Scan 2 is also ready. Unlike on USB mode, you need to trigger the scan from within Epson Scan 2.
I intend on creating a small virtual machine with the Epson software and driver loaded, have Epson Scan 2 up and running there, and have the house guest connect to it for them to scan docs as needed to a common Cloud account. It will prevent them to have to install the all software package and config everything, meanwhile they’ll benefit of the scanner portability.
It I was to summarize my impressions of the Epson ES-300W scanner, I'd say the following. The scanner is solid, simple, battery operated, and can go wireless, thus portable. It is a bit bigger than I'd wished for to bring on a trip and scan my expense receipts while traveling. It scans quickly and the output documents exhibit the same solid quality Epson has got us used to. I just dislike the software and this for few reasons: 1) I don’t understand why config and utilization is not available under one roof, 2) I don’t understand why I have to deal with 2 similar yet different scanning software packages depending on usage mode (USB or Wi-Fi), 3) the overall design and UX is way, way dated and it shows. In fairness, I think it is the plight of many scanner manufacturers; maybe they all OEM the software from the same shop.
My Best Buy number: 0583635620
I would recommend this to a friend!
+3points
3of 3voted this as helpful.
 
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