A Black Mark for HP
Written: Jan 06 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Acceptable Quality Scans, Simple Installation
Cons: Poor Drivers, Poor Button Placement
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| LDorman's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Scanjet 3300c Flatbed Scanner |
There was a time when HP was one of the best, although most costly, scanners available on the market. It seems that as HP has lowered their price to be competitive, they've also lowered their quality.
To be more exact, I have no doubt that the hardware used in the HP scanners is still top notch. Unfortunately, HP now has so many products and releases them so quickly that they do not make good drivers for them.
This scanner is a case in point. While the scanning quality is quite acceptable, the scanning (TWAIN) driver has numerous shortcomings. In particular the driver suffers as follows:
1) The driver does not wait for the scanner to warm up when a new scan is started and the scanner is in sleep mode. As such, the first scan always fails with a cryptic error message.
2) The drivers controlling what occurs when one of the two front panel buttons is pressed does not always function. Sometimes the buttons do as configured, sometimes the buttons call a different application, and sometimes nothing happens at all.
3) There are absolutely no provisions for having the driver remember your last settings or to store sets of configurations. In fact, the amount of configuration allowed is quite limited. This is a real drag when you are trying to scan a bunch of documents for faxing since it defaults to color photo settings.
4) Many programs, especially document management software, has an option to specify default settings that are then automatically passed to the scanner driver. This allows one to simply place a document on the scanner and tell the program to scan it without ever even seeing the scan options come up. Since the HP scanner driver is proprietary, this is not an option.
The only issue with the physical scanner is the placement of the two buttons on the front. Because of the shape of the scanner and the placement of the buttons on the very front, it is extremely easy to accidentally press a button and interrupt your current work as a scan process begins.
I grew so intensely dissatisfied with my HP 3300c that I replaced it with an Acer 640u and have never regretted the decision.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
LDorman
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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