Receipts? Documents? Scan From Anywhere! The Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W

Hi Friends,

   A quick question; is anyone tired of shoveling snow yet? Well, here in the Northeast, I have thrown the towel in, and I am done with all the snow! 

   The only thing tougher than snow is traveling during the middle of a rough, cold, snowy, and icy winter, and as many of you know out there, I do quite a lot of that, just so I can be there for my clients, while of course, observing social distancing. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that a large percentage of you reading this are also on the road a lot, and it is not for pleasure trips! The popularity of Zoom meetings can only bridge the gap during the pandemic, but there is nothing like being face-to-face with your clients. 

   The benefits of that personal touch come along with some issues, because as we all know, business travel means 24/7 work, and in many industries, that means a lot of paperwork to keep track of and to organize when you are on the road. 

   Why the long lead-in? Well, I have had the extreme honor of testing out one of the newest scanners from Epson, the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W Wireless Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner. Along with testing it out, I have written up a review about this handy new portable scanner, and I have a feeling that many of you fellow "road warriors" will be quite interested in the RR-70W! 

   Now, when I say "portable", I truly mean portable! This is the definition of "compact", and exceptionally light (I didn't weigh it, but it cannot weigh more than a pound, maybe less!). In terms of size, it is just about a foot long, and has a low-profile of about 1-2 inches tall and wide. However, do not left the size fool you, because this is a full-functional, sleek, sharp, and powerful scanner that will shock you, and will make a substantial impact on how you do business and get organized, at home, in the office, or on the road!

   Before we dig deep, I want to give you the 30,000-foot overview of this manual sheet-fed portable document scanner. First, on the topic of documents, this is truly a versatile scanner, with a wide realm of potential items that you can scan. The reason that I call them "items" is that they really are items; not only receipts, invoices and documents (financial, etc.), but the scanner also will scan checks, business cards, identification cards, as well as some pretty large pages (based on the specifications, the max size would be up to 8.5 x 72")! 

SET-UP:

   The entire process of un-boxing and unpacking the RR-70W is quite easy, and of course, you must make sure you remove all of the wrap and the protective plastic before you can get rolling. I buy a lot of electronics, and a lot of products that always work better when you give them a charge for the first time, so I followed that same rule here. Taking a step back to let you know, the RR-70W has an extremely efficient built-in rechargeable battery, which allows it to operate without requiring it to be permanently connected to a USB power source. However, if you are a fan of cables, the RR-70W will run with power over the provided USB cable when connected/tethered to your laptop or desktop. On that note, I did not have the USB charger that I use for my smartphone nearby, so I connected the USB cable from the RR-70W to my laptop. However, I fully believe that the scanner would charge substantially quicker plugged into a smartphone wall charger (Please note that the USB cable comes in the box, not the charger or wall charger). 

   Since I happen to be one of those folks who likes to charge electronics before using them, then in order to make good use of my time while letting the RR-70W charge up, I figured it would be the perfect time to download the software and drivers from the Epson site to get things going. This download includes any drivers needed for Windows. After downloading the installer, I made some coffee and answered a few E-mails, which took all of 30 minutes, and I figured that by now, the RR-70W was at a good enough charge level to start rolling! 

   I ran the set up for the installer that I had downloaded and followed the prompts as I went forward. At a point during the installation, it will ask you to connect the Scanner to your laptop or computer, but if you are charging the Scanner via USB connection to your laptop or computer, you are already on your way! 

   At another point during the installation, it asks if you want to configure the device as a wired device (USB) or as a Wi-Fi device. Why would I choose Wi-Fi? The answer: Because I want to Wirelessly scan my receipts and documents. After the scanner is detected and the updates are downloaded, it will also tell you to flip on the Wi-Fi toggle switch on the RR-70W. When the whole process completes (and you feel that you have enough of a battery charge), you will no longer need the USB cable to configure the scanner. 

   I mentioned the Wi-Fi toggle switch in the last section, but there are some other parts of the control panel area on the RR-70W that are worth mentioning. The control panel is the section where all of the action is in terms of the buttons and switches on the right front and right side of the RR-70W. For example, your Power button and Scan button are located there, as well as small LED status lights on the side that will display the status of your connection, of your battery, your mode, and any errors. That is where you will also see your "Ready" status light. Everything is located intuitively, without needing to search all over the device. Also, on the right side of the RR-70W is where I plugged in the other end of the USB cable earlier when charging the device and configuring it.

SPEED, QUALITY, & SOFTWARE/INTEGRATION: 

   So now, with everything installed, configured, and ready to go, I prepared a pile of multiple types of documents and business cards and receipts that I planned on using to test the RR-70W, and I will give my review based on the intersection of multiple factors, consisting of the speed, accuracy, and the software/integration features. I will provide the review of these factors together, and I apologize in advance for not separating these out to sections with headers, as there is a lot of correlation between these factors.

   SPEED: This is a sheet fed scanner - and I manually fed 15 pages of a contract that I removed a staple from. In total, with my stopwatch feature on my phone, it took 1 minute and 9 seconds, which is not bad, because the specifications state the speed at 15 pages per minute. I was also able to feed through a bunch of older receipts that were a little bit "mangled" to say the least, for example, folded/creased and some were faded. Not only did these zip through pretty fast, but I thought that they might rotate left or right a little bit when the scanner hit the creases or tears, but the RR-70W was able to feed all of these through neatly and, getting the jump on my review of the quality and accuracy, the scans were not skewed and the images and text looked enhanced, almost making it look as if the receipts did not have any fading, and excessive area around the receipt was cropped out. Great job, and it saved me a lot of touch up work and enhancements I would normally have to do after scanning (or sometimes, having to repeat scans multiple times until I got it right and feeding without skewing...before even starting to crop and enhance images once I complete the scanning part). This scanner saved me a lot of work! Incidentally, I had the same success scanning business cards, and some of them were thick, and some of them were in less-than-perfect shape from my wallet, and this process was just as seamless!

   QUALITY/ACCURACY: When reading the specifications, I noted that the RR-70W features a 600-dpi optical resolution for detailed image capture, so I was naturally very curious to see how accurate the scan results would be. I figured that one of the best tests I could do was a page that I had with multiple images and logos on it, and I proceeded to initiate the scan from the application. At the completion of the scan, I was extremely impressed with how sharp the images were, and how clear they came out. Some of these were quite detailed images, and it did not miss a single section of the images!  

   SOFTWARE/INTEGRATION: The key factor...the key "pitch" with the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W, from what I can see from testing it and reviewing it, is being able to scan receipts and documents on the go, and after that, being able to make use of the scanned content and images. For that reason, Epson include a receipt management software (ScanSmart), which helps you accomplish the goal of making use of what you have scanned, and it is quite efficient and clever, all at the same time! 

   The software that comes with the Epson RR-70W, as I mentioned, is a receipt manager, allowing you to extract data from your scanned documents...basically, it intelligently reads the scanned data and pulls it into fields within the ScanSmart database. This is the feature that allows you to do something with that data (instead of letting your receipts and documents sit in folders!). What I found most helpful is that it lets you edit the fields, so you are able to categorize the data and save it in a way that works best for your purposes, for example, I split my data across fields/categories for each of the clients for which my receipts and documents apply. 

   Just to go off on a "geek" tangent for a moment, the technology that allows the ScanSmart software to be able to read and extract data from scanned images is known as "OCR", or "Optical Character Recognition". The OCR functionality that comes with the RR-70W is incredibly accurate and on the very high-end of this technology. I am comfortable saying this because I cross-checked most all of what I scanned and what the software extracted, and I was hard-pressed to find even one letter or number that was different from what was on the hard copy/copies that I scanned. Think about that for a moment, and you will realize just how important that is when it comes to dealing with critical financial documents! 

   You might ask, "What can you do with this categorized data?". Well, when you downloaded the software, it also included TWAIN drivers that can help you quickly and efficiently take that data and export it to/integrate it with many other 3rd party programs, such as, per Epson; Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax, Excel, CSV, and more. For my purposes, I like to export to the universal data format, CSV, or "comma separated values", for use across both Microsoft Office (Excel), as well as some proprietary systems that I use for my company. Doing it this way, I just had to change a few of the fields to make the export/integration as easy as apples-to-apples, which it was, but from what I understand, exporting to/integrating with popular apps such as QuickBooks and Quicken are even easier, and close to seamless (but we do not use these specific apps).

SUMMARY:

   Testing and reviewing the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W was a great experience for me, and it was quite easy, mostly because of accurate documentation, and an intuitive button layout.

   The compact size of the RR-70W, and the fact that it is super lightweight make it easy to slip this scanner in your laptop bag and go on your way!  

   Are you the type with folders and boxes of receipts and documents that are stressing you out? The RR-70W allowed me to cut down on at least 3 folders and a box with receipts and documents, and now they are safely stored to my cloud drive, after being extracted to the categories that make my life easier, especially when it comes to tax time!

   Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and if I could make one wish for the RR-70W, I would love to have an Automatic Document Feeder (an ADF) that comes along with the scanner or that would be available as an add-on. This way, I would not have to manually feed each page to scan them. However, after a little while, it becomes second nature, and it helps you stay present and keep better track, granularly, as to what you plan to scan and what you have already scanned.

   Overall, this is a great, portable, compact, fast, accurate, cutting-edge receipt and document scanner that is likely to make your life easier, and to help you escape the paper jungle that most of us still live in on a daily basis!

   I highly recommend the RR-70W to anyone looking for a comprehensive scanning solution for use at home, in a small office, on the road...or actually...for all of the above! Once again, Epson is a class act with this high-performance and sophisticated scanner, and they really hit it out of the park with the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W!

Thank you!

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #RapidReceipt #RR-70W #Wireless #Scanner #Color #Document #Receipts #RealEstate


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Specifications: 

Type Mobile, sheet-fed simplex color scanner

Sensor Type Color Contact Image Sensor (CIS)

Light Source 3-color RGB LED

Optical Resolution 600 dpi

Max. Interpolated Resolution 1200 dpi

Color/Grayscale Scan Mode (Bit Depth) 16-bit input/8-bit output

Buttons Scan Start/Stop, Power, Wireless Connect, Wireless On/Off

Capacity Single sheet feed

Document Size 8.5" x 72" max. (up to 300 dpi), 2" x 2" min.

Paper Weight 35 – 270 g/m

Scan Speed (Letter-size)4 15 ppm (300 dpi Black-and-White, Color, Gray 1-sheet scan speed)

Connectivity USB 2.0, Wireless 802.11 b/g/n

Peak Daily Duty Cycle 300 sheets

System Requirements:

Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8/8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) SP1

Mac OS X® 10.11.x to macOS® 10.15.x

Software requires Internet connection for download and installation.

General:

Environmental Conditions

Temperature (Operating): 41 ° to 95 °F (5 ° to 35 °C)

Storage: -13 ° to 140 °F (-25 ° to 60 °C)

Humidity (Operating): 10 – 85% (no condensation)

Power Requirements 5 V DC (USB Bus)

Power Consumption

Connecting: USB

Operation: 2.7 W

Ready: 1.6 W

Sleep Mode: 1 W

Power Off: 0.2 W or less

Connecting Wi-Fi

Operation: 3.1 W

Ready: 2.4 W

Sleep Mode: 1.9 W

Power Off: 0.2 W or less

Warranty 1-year limited warranty in the U.S. and Canada

Country of Origin China

Weight and Dimensions (W x D x H)

Product Only: 10.7" x 1.8" x 1.3"; 0.66 lb

Product in Package: 13.3" x 5.6" x 2.6"; 1.3 lb

Software Included:

Epson Scan 2, Epson ScanSmart® Accounting Edition, Kofax Power PDF

Software requires Internet connection for download and installation.

Driver Support TWAIN

What’s in the Box:

RapidReceipt RR-70W receipt scanner, Start Here poster, USB cable

Eco Features:

ENERGY STAR® qualified

RoHS compliant

Recyclable product

Take Color Document Scanning To Another Level With The Epson ES-580W

 Hi Friends,

   I hope everyone is doing well, and I pray you and your families have been keeping safe. 

   With tax time fast approaching, this is the time of year that many of us start scrambling to locate all of the receipts, invoices, etc. that we need in order to file our taxes. This chaotic and frenzied burst of energy is stressful, and the reality is that with technology, it does not have to be that way anymore! 

   Instead of those bulky folders with receipts of all sizes and papers that are stapled together and fading out or have smeared over the past year, wouldn't it be much easier to have all of those receipts and documents digitized? Wouldn't it be great if you could take these digital versions of your important receipts and papers and organize them into folders, based on, for example, the type of expenses that they are? Wouldn’t it be great to save these files directly to a cloud drive, like Dropbox or Google Drive, for example? 

   If you have not guessed, I am describing the benefits of a scanner to help you get organized, whether it be in your business or your personal life. One step further, how about a document scanner that is wireless, color, and can duplex (scan both sides of a document), all with the greatest of ease?

   Enter the Epson Workforce ES-580W Wireless Color Duplex Desktop Document Scanner, the solution to all of your worries and stresses that surround getting organized! I have had the pleasure of reviewing this great Document Scanner, and I have the even greater pleasure of presenting you with everything that I found in testing out the ES-580W!


FIRST GLANCE & SET-UP:

   At first glance, you may be a little confused about the relatively small size of the box, however, that is part of the allure of the ES-580W. When you remove it from the box and take off all of the packing materials surrounding it, you will be extremely impressed at this cool scanner! I was impressed by how sharp it looks, and also, one of the first things that struck me was the large 4.3" Touchscreen! 

   When you power up the ES-580W, the sharp colors of the Touchscreen are truly striking! Through this intuitive and helpful panel, you can perform all of the fun, exciting, and important functions of the Scanner. For example, this is where you set up your wireless connection, as well as perform your scanning either for physical output to paper or as a file saved up to your cloud drive or cloud storage. I will definitely be giving you more details on this as we go! 

   Taking a step back, after situating it on a very crowded work area (which is a major benefit of the relatively small size of the ES-580W...it fits literally anywhere!) and powering it on, my first step was connectivity. Connecting to my Wireless Network was as quick and as simple as authenticating (just like you would add any other device onto your network, like a phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, etc.). 

   The first thing I did was download the software for the ES-580W, which included the Epson ScanSmart on my laptop, and additionally, I also downloaded the Epson Smart Panel App on my Android phone. More to come on why I did this shortly! As far as I see it, at this point, I am ready to start testing out this little beast and see how fast it scans, the quality of the scans that it performs, and I am also ready to check out all of the great features of the ES-580W!

   First, before starting our tests, I prepared a scanning pile of both all black-type and also other documents and items with color and still others with images, so, basically, a few contract documents, some receipts, some flyers, and a bunch of business cards!


SPEED, QUALITY, AND FUNCTION:

   When I have tested a scanner previously, I checked the specs first, and then tested it out to see if I came close to that same speed, but I did it in reverse this time. One of the vendor contracts that I have laying around (because I am a work "geek") was extremely lengthy, running roughly 32 pages of mostly all black type. There were definitely some images mixed in, however, it is about 85-90% text. I sent this through as my first test, and it scanned through the batch after a total of 58 seconds. To me, this was really quite fast, but, I did a little math to quantify that statement. 

   The stated scan speeds are 35 ppm, or 35 pages per minute (of all text) and 70 ipm, or 70 images per minute. Normally, based on this, if this contract was all text and no images, 32 pages should have taken about 54 seconds. However, as I mentioned, 10-15% of the contract had some images and infographics, so 58 seconds was very impressive. 

   Within the papers and documents that I prepared to scan, I have about 20 that have text on both sides of the page. Using these pages, I was able to test the speed of the duplex scanning feature and as the ES-580W was blazing through this part of my test and handling all of the work of scanning both sides of each page, it made me realize how much of a time saver this feature is. I have spent literally countless hours scanning pages and then having to flip them over to scan the other side, but the ES-580W does all of the work for you! 

   Taking this one step further, I scanned in some cash receipts I had which were a little bent and somewhat mangled from being crammed in a folder, and I was afraid that they would jam during the scanning process, however, I noticed that not only does the ES-580W sense the contours of the paper, it also makes sure that what you are scanning does not get jammed and skew (basically, rotate), and give you those skewed/bunched up scan results of which we are probably all familiar with and can all agree that we totally detest! 

   The reason for this truly "smart"/"intelligent" function is the protection and reliability that is built into the ES-580W. The Epson "Image Processing Technology" is the reason behind this "magic", and some of the other benefits from this technology are protection against missing pages ("Ultrasonic Double Feed Detection") and preventing against damage caused by staples ("Paper Protection"). All of these features work in tandem to provide you the best possible scan results.

   On the topic of scan results, whether I scanned to my Computer or scanned to E-mail, and whether I scanned all black text or a mix of black and color and with or without images, the results were all sharp, with crisp letters and images, and truly vibrant colors that were flawless, at least to the naked eye.


FEATURES:

   There were several features that I was extremely excited to try, such as previewing scans via the Epson ScanSmart software, scanning to my cloud drive (Dropbox), scanning from my Android phone, and scanning to a USB stick without needing to use any other device!

   Earlier, I mentioned that I had downloaded the Epson ScanSmart software to my laptop, and the reason I did his was to not only scan from my laptop, but also, to be able to test out what I found to be some of the awesome features of this software. The best part of this software was being able to preview my scans, meaning that if I did not like how it would scan, I would have the option of using a different copy to scan before committing to the scan. Again, everything I have found was geared towards saving time and producing quick, quality scan results. 

  Another couple of things to mention regarding the Epson software, which I did not get a chance to test were the ability to connect to document libraries/document management software using the included universal "TWAIN" drivers, which would prove quite helpful in an office setting. Also, there is an immensely helpful feature that converts scanned documents into searchable PDF files using OCR, or Optical Character Recognition. This is a huge feature and can really help you save time when you need to scan in a huge number of documents, and you do not want to read through every scanned document in order to find exactly what you need to find if you are limited with time.

   Like so many of us, I depend heavily on my cloud drive (Dropbox) for storage of my most critical work and personal documents. Epson realizes the importance of these cloud drives and provides a simple way to scan directly to folders on your cloud drive. First, you need to register your cloud drive via Epson Connect, whether it is Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Evernote, etc. Once you do this, it is super easy; just place your document on the scanner, select "Cloud", and follow the prompts. This feature is absolutely priceless!

   Earlier, I had also mentioned that I downloaded the Epson Smart Panel App on my Android phone. So many of us are constantly on the move that the ease of being able to send a scan directly from our phones makes life so much easier. All that I needed to do in order to make this happen was to put the document on the scanner, launch the Epson Smart Panel App on my phone, and just follow the instructions. It was a pleasure and very liberating being able to scan "on the go" and not being tethered to my laptop!

   One great feature I like to call, "No computer? No worries". If you do not have any devices available to scan to (i.e., Laptop, Desktop, Phone, etc.), but you have an external USB device (such as a USB Memory Stick/Flash drive/thumb drive), you can scan directly to that USB device! This is even easier than it sounds; I plugged a brand-new USB Memory stick into the back of the Scanner (in the USB port), I placed one of my documents on the Scanner, selected "Memory Device" from the menu, and followed the prompts. It scanned and saved to my USB Memory stick. No computer or any other intermediary device was needed! Of course, I removed the USB stick when it completed to verify that the scan was on it, and after plugging it into the USB port on my laptop, I saw the scan file that was created. I opened it up and verified that not only did it scan and save it to the USB drive, but it did so flawlessly!


SUMMARY:

   What I look for in technology is flexibility; "Will it make my life easier, and, can it do so without compromising quality?". Testing and reviewing the Epson WorkForce ES-580W was the best way to allow me to answer those questions. 

   Making life easier very closely correlates with saving time. With the features such as scanning two sides at once (duplex scanning), blazing fast scanning speeds, and the 100-Sheet Auto Document Feeder (ADF), I firmly believe that my life would be easier by using these features and qualities. 

   Versatility is another key factor in making life easier, and the wide variety of items that can be scanned (documents, receipts, plastic cards, business cards, etc.), coupled with the fact that you can scan documents that can range up to 240", all go along with making things easy! 

   The second part of what I look for, which was not compromising quality as a trade-off for making life easier), the proof is in the high-quality scanned output, and the sharp, vibrant, and vivid colors/images produced by scanning with the ES-580W. There is not one thing that I can pick out that has compromised the quality to spite the flexibility and versatility of this scanner. 

   If I were pressed for one thing to say that the ES-580W is missing, the only thing I could say is that I wish it had a flatbed scanner. However, here is where one of those "trade-offs" would come into play; a flatbed would make this a much larger unit, and would require substantially more space, and thus, part of what makes life easy is not having to make more space for the ES-580W...it just "fits" perfectly into life...and keeping with that theme... makes life easier!

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #ES-580W #Wireless #Scanner #Color #Document #Office #RealEstate


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Specifications: 

Epson Workforce ES-580W Wireless Color Duplex Desktop Document Scanner
Type Sheet-fed, 1-pass duplex color scanner.
Sensor Type Color Contact Image Sensor (CIS)
Light Source 3-color RGB LED
Optical Resolution 600 dpi
Maximum Interpolated Resolution 1200 dpi
Color/Grayscale Scan Mode (bit depth)
30-bit input/24-bit output
Buttons Double-feed Detect, Skip, Slow Scan Mode, Scan,
Stop, Wireless Connect, Wireless On/Off
Auto Document Feeder
Capacity: 100 sheets paper
Document Size: Minimum: 2" x 2", Maximum: 8.5" x 240" at
200 dpi, Maximum: 8.5" x 215" at 300 dpi,
Maximum: 8.5" x 53" at 600 dpi
Paper Weight: 27 – 413 g/m
Scan Speed (letter-size)
35 ppm/70 ipm: 300 dpi Black-and-White, Color, Gray
Connectivity Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, SuperSpeed USB 3.0
Daily Duty Cycle 4,000 sheets
Consumables Roller Assembly Kit: 200,000 cycles
USB Flash Memory 1x

System Requirements:
Windows® 10 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8/8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit),
Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit)
Mac® OS X® 10.11.x to macOS® 10.15.x
Software requires Internet connection for download
and installation.

General:
Environmental Conditions
Temperature (Operating): 41 ° to 95 °F (5 ° to 35 °C)
Storage: -13 ° to 140 °F (-25 ° to 60 °C)
Humidity (Operating): 10 – 80% (no condensation)
Power Requirements 100-240 VAC (50/60 Hz)

Power Consumption:
Operation: 13 W
Wireless: 18 W
Sleep: 1.4 W
Ready: 6.9 W
Off: 0.1 W

Warranty 1-year limited warranty in the U.S. and Canada
Country of Origin Indonesia

Weight and Dimensions (W x D x H)
Product Only: 11.6" x 6.7" x 6.6" 8.2 lb
Product in Package: 14.5" x 12.5" x 10.4" 10.4 lb

Software Included:
Epson ScanSmart software, Presto! BizCard® OCR
Software requires Internet connection for download and
installation.
Driver Support TWAIN

What’s in the Box:
ES-580W document scanner, Start Here poster, SuperSpeed
USB cable, AC adapter and power cable

Eco Features:
ENERGY STAR® qualified
RoHS compliant
Recyclable product

Affordable, Complete Productivity For All With The Epson Workforce WF-2830

Hi Folks,

   Welcome back, and I am happy to say that I have another fantastic product that I have reviewed for you, and as with many of these we have discussed before, I hope this can also find a tremendous use within your business or your personal life, to help make things easier to manage overall!

   Keeping with the concept of making things easier for you, probably one of the best products for such a goal is one that bundles a whole bunch of different features that you use on a consistent, if not, a daily basis. For example, printing, copying, scanning, and faxing. With the cat out of the bag, indeed, I am talking about an All-in-One Printer, the Epson WorkForce WF-2830, which I have had the enormous pleasure of testing, pounding, hammering, and making sure that I had the true results, without aberrations, to review and report back to you here!

   Let's take a look at everything, from first popping open the box, setting it up, testing out the speed, quality, and then we'll look at some of the great features, and wrap up with the full technical specifications ("Specs"), for folks of the more geeky sort, like me!

FIRST APPEARANCES:

   When you pop open the box, you will immediately notice a very attractive matte black printer unit, that is securely packaged, along with the power cord and the ink cartridges. They say that good things come in small packages, and this is a compact unit that holds the promise of being able to fit in any location...desktop, shelf, counter...and this promise is true. Aside from its "fit anywhere" compact nature, it is also a strikingly good-looking unit that folds up and folds out neatly and with very little effort!

SET-UP:

   What sets a lot of printers, all-in-ones, or scanners apart from all others in its class sometimes comes down to the set-up procedures. Is it easy? If so, is it easy just to technical folks? How about folks who are not so technical? Fortunately, I am a tekkie, but I have a very good friend (a neighbor of mine) who stopped by to return a snow shovel that it appears he will not be needing this boring New York winter season, and I asked him to take a few minutes and see if he can set this thing up. I wasn't going to make the poor fella do everything, but I just wanted to see if he was in the right direction, and he was. I really wanted to check this as a test of the instructions, and if I let him complete it, he would have had no issues!

   I took over and actually went through the steps myself, and it's all quite intuitive, which shows that Epson put a lot of time and research into testing with non-technical folks, in order to make the process as simple and stream-lined as it actually is! Nothing creates a bad connection between a customer and a manufacturer as when that customer has issues right from the start from setting up a device.

   The interface was very smooth, the LCD screen is super easy to view and use, and it took just a short while to have the software installed from the Epson website, the ink cartridges installed, calibrated, and the device ready to go! On the topic of the ink cartridges, it makes it so easy that they are individual, so you can replace only the colors that you need, vs having to replace all of them at once.

   The only minor issue was getting used to the character input when entering my wireless network (and the beep for each input), but after a few moments, you get used to the process and breeze right through it! Right after you finish this, you will see the printer on your wireless network, and then it is accessible from all your devices!

SPEED:

   In order to test the speed of the WF-2830, I pounded it with multiple types of documents, with and without images, and black and white as well as color documents. It handled all of these jobs seamlessly and effortlessly, and I ran these same tests a few times each to verify my print times were consistent, and not a first time run aberration (with a drop in performance, thereafter), and I found consistency straight through!

   Sometimes, when using a fast-performing unit like this, you will notice some noise coming from the printer, which I have seen on many other printers, however, this is whisper quiet and a workhorse!

QUALITY:

   The output of the WF-2830 was akin to literally taking what I was printing or scanning or copying, and duplicating it, flawlessly. I tested printing, copying, scanning, and faxing of documents, E-mails, and photos, and a few color flyers that I had, and the result was perfection. I have a second line with a fax unit and tested back and forth faxing without any flaws, delays, or degradation in speed or output. Well-done, Epson!

FEATURES:

   One of the coolest features of the WF-2830 is printing from your mobile device, which is super easy to set up and use, and even if you are in another room in your home and "far" from your printer, you can send the print job from your smartphone or other mobile device, and when you go back to where the printer is, your printed output will be there waiting for you.

   As far as scanning, which we briefly touched on before, there is a wide variety of settings that allow you to scan in various output qualities (i.e. resolution), which gives you great flexibility vs the old "one scan fits all" mentality. As for faxing, there are also features to tweak, and even though faxing is not used as much as it was, it's always a great feature to have when it's needed (there will always be a reason, especially with Medical records/HIPAA act).

   Paper Management is also handled perfectly by the WF-2830, starting with the 100-Sheet Paper Capacity, helping you to avoid having to keep reloading the unit with paper after every print job.

   Staying on the topic of paper, the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), with its 30-page capacity, is a huge time-saver when you are scanning in a stack of papers/documents. It will feed them one-by-one, vs having to stand there and feed each document in yourself one-by-one.

   Still another great paper-related feature is the Duplex feature, which allows you to print on both sides of a sheet of paper instead of just one side, and not only is it a money-saving feature, but it is also a "Green" feature, allowing you to cut down on paper usage!

   The last feature that I am very fond of is the voice-activated printing, which is a huge feature with the way the "Smart Home" products like Alexa and Google Assistant have been exploding in the market! Once you have this set up, which is a breeze, you can easily send any document, etc. to your printer, and I was able to test this specifically using my Google Assistant. This is a very exciting and a very helpful feature!

SUMMARY:

   After stress-testing this unit over and over for several days, I found that it is a trooper, and can truly give you what it promises in the description of the printer. In other words, the speed, performance, reliability, quality, and features are not just smoke being blown at you, but rather, truly verifiable in using this incredible all-in-one printer.

   Who would this unit best fit? Well, it will be able to make lives easier for anyone, whether it is for a small office that needs to have the major productivity features bundled (printing, scanning, copying, faxing), due to space constraints, to a home office, with similar concerns, or for general home use, with those folks in all of the different scenarios identified above wanting to have robust and powerful productivity without compromising on quality, and also, not having to re-mortgage their lives to pay for such a critical tool.

  The Epson WF-2830 will fulfill the needs of the home user, home office user, or the small business user, and is truly on top of its game! Another well-thought out product from Epson, and another great tool for your productivity arsenal!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ("SPECS"):

What's In The Box:

Epson WorkForce WF-2830 printer

Instruction booklets

CD-ROM with drivers

Power cord

4 Claria Ink cartridges: 1x Black, 1x Cyan, 1x Magenta, 1x Yellow

Print:

Printing Technology:

4-color (CMYK) drop-on-demand MicroPiezo inkjet technology

Minimum Ink Droplet Size:

3 picoliters

Maximum Print Resolution:

5760 x 1440 optimized dpi

ISO Print Speed:

Black: 10.0 ISO ppm

Color: 5.0 ISO ppm

Ink:

Ink Type:

Claria Ink 212 (sharp text, brilliant photos, fast-drying)

Ink Palette:

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black

Ink Configuration:

4 individual ink cartridges

Replacement Ink:

212 Standard-Capacity Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

212XL High-capacity Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

Printer is designed for use with Epson cartridges only, not third-party cartridges or ink.

Ink Yield Information:

212 Standard-Capacity yield, ISO pages: Black 150, Color 130

212XL High-capacity yield, ISO pages: Black 500, Color 350

General:

Operating Systems:

Windows 7/Windows 8/8.1/Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit)

Mac OS X 10.6.8 - macOS 10.14.x55

Internet access is required to install OS X drivers and software.

Temperature:

Operating

50 to 95 F (10 to 35 C)

Storage

-4 to 104 F (-20 to 40 C)

Humidity:

Operating

20 – 80%

Storage

5 – 85% (no condensation)

Sound Level:

36 dB(A)

Dimensions:

Printing: 14.8" x 22.8" x 9.5" (W x D x H)

Storage: 14.8" x 11.8" x 8.6" (W x D x H)

Weight:

11.5 lb

Safety Approvals:

Safety standards UL60950, CSA C22.2 No. 60950

EMI FCC Part 15 subpart B class B

CAN/CSA-CEI/IEC CISPR 22 class B

Country of Origin:

Indonesia

Warranty:

1-year limited warranty in the U.S. and Canada

Copy:

Copy Quality:

Color/Black-and-white: Draft/Normal

Copy Quantity:

1 – 99 (PC-free)

Maximum Copy Size:

8.5" x 11", 8.5" x 14"

Copy Features:

Automatic 1-sided to 2-sided

Fit to page

Automatic reduction and enlargement (25 – 400%)

Copy input resolution flatbed 300 x 300, 600 x 600

Copy input resolution ADF 300 x 400, 600 x 600

Copy print resolution 600 x 600, 600 x 1200

ID copy

Adjustable copy density

collate 100 sheets

1-sided to 1-sided

1-sided to 2-sided

Adjustments: density, contrast, color, sharpness, text enhancement

Specifications Scanner:

Scanner Type:

Color flatbed

Photoelectric Device:

Color CIS line sensor

Optical Resolution:

1200 dpi

Hardware Resolution:

2400 dpi

Maximum Resolution:

9600 dpi interpolated

Color Bit Depth:

48-bit color / 24-bit output

Scan Bed Size:

8.5" x 11.7" max.

Scanner Features:

Scan to PDF

Scan to Computer (USB and network)

Scan to Email (via Epson Connect)

Automatic Document Feeder:

Capacity:

30 Sheets

Type:

1-side to 1-side

Document Sizes:

8.5" x 14" max. size

Fax:

Fax Settings:

Black-and-white and color

Fax Speed:

33.6 Kbps — as fast as 3 sec per page

Memory:

Up to 100 pages

Speed Dials:

60 (max.)

PC Fax:

Supported

Connectivity:

Standard Connectivity:

Hi-Speed USB

Wireless (802.11 b/g/n)

Wi-Fi Direct

Mobile Printing Solutions:

Epson Connect:

Epson Email Print

Epson Remote Print

Epson iPrint App (iOS, Android)

Epson Print and Scan App (Windows)

Creative Print App (iOS,Android)

Other:

Apple AirPrint

Google Cloud Print

Android printing

Fire OS printing

Mopria Print Service

Easy Photo Scan

Paper Handling:

PC-Free Paper Support:

Plain (letter, A4)

Photo (4" x 6", 5" x 7", Letter, A4)

Paper Sizes:

3.5" x 5"

4" x 6"

5" x 7"

8" x 10"

Letter

Legal

A4

B5

A5

A6

Half letter

Executive

User definable (3.5" – 44" in length)

Maximum Paper Size:

8.5" x 44"

Paper Types:

Plain paper

Epson Bright White Paper

Brochure & Flyer Paper Matte Double-sided

Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte

Premium Presentation Paper Matte

Premium Presentation Paper Matte Double-sided

Presentation Paper Matte

Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster

Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy

Premium Photo Paper Semi-gloss

Premium Photo Paper Glossy

Photo Paper Glossy

Photo Quality Adhesive Sheets

Iron-on Cool Peel Transfer paper

Automatic Document Feeder:

30 sheets

1-side to 1-side

8.5" x 14" max. size

Borderless Sizes:

3.5" x 5"

4" x 6"

5" x 7"

8" x 10"

Letter

A4

16:9 wide

Envelope Types:

No. 10

Input Paper Capacity:

100 sheets plain paper

20 sheets Premium Photo Paper Glossy

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #WorkForce #All-In-One #Printer #Scanner #Copier #Fax #WF-2830 #Productivity #Office #SmallBusiness #Wireless #Wi-Fi

Winter, Profiles, and Technology

Hi All,
   Hope you had a really nice weekend. Winter has turned quite rapidly here in New York, and the snow can't be too far off !

   Recently, we have had some people ask about the behind-the-scenes folks here at HomeRun Homes, and we promise that we will get them to profile themselves in the coming weeks. A memo has been circulated advising against unnecessary shyness and forbidding them from remaining in the shadows! OK, no memo like that was circulated, however, on a serious note, we will try to have one of our very interesting and instrumental staff members profiled for this Blog to meet your requests.

   Quiet week in terms of housing numbers, as there are no housing-related releases scheduled for this week, but there are some economic numbers coming out (and they always affect the housing market, either directly or indirectly).

   On a side note, we have had the opportunity to stress-test a very cool and very powerful new printer (the Epson Workforce 635 All-in-one Printer, Copier, Scanner, Fax, and Wi-Fi). We love this thing ! Easy to Set up, remarkably simple to understand, and blazing fast ! The installation was a little long, and there was no network/Ethernet cable provided, but overall, we have been printing at break-neck speed. In addition, our office manager is happy, as we were able to decommission a printer, scanner, and fax machine that were replaced with this one unit!

   Ahh..."Technology Rules" !

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com