Really slick design
Written: Nov 14 '03
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Pros: Stunning design. Fast preview time. Mobile scanner unit makes it more versatile.
Cons: Only one frame of film at a time. Unknown scratch-resistance of polycarbonate "glass" platen.
The Bottom Line: A competent scanner with an elegant design, for people who care about how good their computers look (Mac users, anyone?). There are technically better alternatives for the price.
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| majid's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Scanjet 4670 Flatbed Scanner |
I don't actually own this scanner, but here are some first impressions after playing with one at my local CompUSA.
The scanner has a striking and elegant design, suggestive of titanium and glass (when it is actually metal-colored plastic and polycarbonate). In effect, they have taken a conventional flatbed scanner, made it much thinner (roughly an inch) and made both sides transparent, so you can see the document as it is being scanned. The scanner is supplied with an easel that saves space by keeping the whole in a vertical position, but the scanner assembly can be removed and used anywhere (it only rests on the easel, and is not attached to it). There is also a small 35mm slide/negative scanner attachment to scan film, but only one frame at a time, not an entire strip, unlike competing scanners.
HP claims a preview scan time of only 6 seconds. I didn't time it, but it was certainly much faster than the Canon LiDE 30 or Epson Perfection Photo 3170 I own. I can't give an assessment of image quality until I return there with some sample documents and slides to scan.
The software (on Windows XP) is functional, but not particularly sophisticated. This scanner is clearly designed for home use, not professional graphics artists.
Another question is how durable the polycarbonate plastic used for the scanning window will be. Polycarbonate is the stuff used for CDs and car bumpers. I can understand HP using this material, as the mobile design of the scanner unit means it is more at risk of shattering, but I suspect it is not as scratch-resistant as real glass, no matter what they can claim.
All in all, it is a nice product for home scanning use, with a great design that would not look out of place in fancy office settings. It's good to see HP can still come up with quality design like this, in spite of its recent management turmoil.
That said, at the current price of $200, I think the equally priced Epson 3170 is a better deal, with better resolution, more professional scanning software, and the ability to scan medium-format film. It doesn't look anywhere as nice, though.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
majid
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Member: Fazal Majid
Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I'm the CTO of an Internet startup
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