Alaris S2050 Scanner by Kodak Alaris - Review 2022

The Alaris S2050 Scanner ($895), a new fellow member in Kodak'southward S2000 series of desktop certificate scanners, provides solid speed and a host of workflow and paradigm-processing features. It includes a revamped software suite combining a fourth dimension-honored browse utility with a new scanning and document-management programme that uses indexing to assistance y'all easily locate scanned documents. It offers a good mix of features and operation, although at that place are similarly featured scanners that offering improve value.

Design and Features

Measuring 7.2 past 12.3 past 8 inches (HWD) when airtight, the S2050 is a typical size for a desktop certificate scanner of its caliber. It weighs vii.two pounds, matching the size and weight of the Alaris S2070 Scanner. Its 80-canvass automated document feeder (ADF) is typical of a midrange desktop scanner.

Saying that the S2050 is the low-end model of the serial is similar saying that a certain car is this year'southward lowest-priced BMW. Yous volition pay a fleck of a premium for it over similarly equipped scanners, and although not all Kodak Alaris scanners earn our Editors' Choice, I do anticipate higher up-average quality from them, and on that, the S2050 delivers. That said, its specifications are more modest than the other S2000-series scanners.

The two wired scanners in the group, the S2050 and the S2070, connect via USB, while the S2060w and the S2080w add both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. The S2050 supports a recommended daily volume of 5,000 pages, the S2060w and the S2070, 7,000 pages, and the S2080w, viii,000 pages. Besides, the S2050 has the lowest-rated speed of the grouping. (More on how fast it is can be found below.)

The controls, congenital into the S2050'due south front right edge, include a small (i.5-inch) color LCD that shows the currently selected scanner profile, and lets yous toggle between scanner profiles using upwardly- and down-arrow keys. When paired with the Info Input Express Express Edition software that I talk over below, that program's electric current browse profile is identified on the screen by name and icon. (The default profiles are Color PDF, Blackness and White PDF, Auto Color Searchable PDF, Color JPEG, Black and White Multipage TIFF, and Scan to E-mail, although they can be inverse, and new ones added.) In addition to the arrow keys, buttons include power, scan (which looks like the play button on a TV remote), and stop (identified with an X). Although you can launch a scan from a scan utility, the Windows taskbar, or from programs that have Browse commands, yous can also launch scans straight from the scanner by using these buttons.

The S2050 in the Workplace

The S2000 series is largely aimed at vertical markets such equally healthcare, government, cyberbanking, insurance, education, and transportation. It can scan a wide diverseness of records, as well as ID cards and other hard cards, and—when paired with the Alaris Passport Utility—passports.

Like most midrange desktop document scanners, the S2050 doesn't have a built-in flatbed, merely you tin can add one as an external accessory, with both legal-size ($495) and A3/tabloid-size ($ane,400) versions bachelor. In addition, for scanning passports and other small or fragile documents, for instance, the company offers its Passport Utility ($495), which is attached to the lesser of the scanner in the photo below.

Alaris S2050 Scanner by Kodak Alaris

The scanners utilise embedded image processing, rather than relying on computers to handle the task. The S2050 includes a unmarried-core processor, while the S2070'south is dual-cadre. These models also accept a proficient set of workflow, convenience, security, and quality-comeback features. Perfect Page technology automatically brings to deport more than than 30 functions to acuminate and clean images. The scanner also has features for minimizing jams, catching misfeeds, and protecting documents from folding or ripping.

Setup and Software

Setup is an easy enough process, consisting of extending the feeder and output trays, plugging the scanner in and turning it on, connecting information technology to your estimator'southward USB port using the included cable, and either downloading the software from the Kodak Alaris site via the instructions in the quick-start guide or installing it from the included disk. In back of the scanner are a thumb-bulldoze-way USB ii.0 port equally well as a USB 3.0 port (which also fits USB 2.0 scanner plugs). Even though the scanner supports up to USB 3.ane, the included cable is a standard USB two.0 cable. Nonetheless, based on my testing, you needn't rush out and buy a USB iii.0 scanner cable, as information technology doesn't provide any existent speed reward.

The Alaris S2050'south software bundle consists of drivers (Twain, WIA, and ISIS) for launching scans from within programs, and ii scanning applications. Kodak Alaris's Info Input Express is a web-based scanning interface, document-indexing, and archiving programme. Alaris Capture Pro is an updated version of Kodak Capture Pro, which we take seen on many previous scanners. According to Kodak Alaris, Alaris Capture Pro is best for batch-scanning of long documents, while Info Input Express is best for frequent scans of relatively curt documents.

Like other scanning software, Info Input Limited allows you to set the parameters of your profiles, such as resolution, color/grayscale/black-and-white, destination, and file type (say, for example, paradigm or searchable PDF). Information technology goes beyond most scan utilities in its document-management abilities. For one affair, it lets y'all alphabetize the documents you scan by assigning keywords, setting upwards database-indexing fields prior to scanning, and cataloging the scanned documents so you can hands locate them later.

Alaris S2050 Scanner by Kodak Alaris

Solid Searchable PDF Scan Speed

In testing the S2050's raw scanning speed—the time spent actually scanning the pages, and excluding any warmup time before the paper starts feeding and processing time earlier the file is saved—I clocked it at 55.5 pages per infinitesimal (ppm) for one-sided scanning, and 111 images per minute (ipm) for two-sided scanning, wherein each side of a page counts as one prototype. This is a tad higher than Kodak Alaris'southward rated speeds of 50ppm and 100ipm.

When scanning to image PDF format (200dpi, black-and-white), it turned in speeds of 33.3ppm and 58.8ppm, slower than its rated speeds but at least losing little fourth dimension in scanning and saving ii-sided documents over one-sided pages. These speeds are predictably slower than the faster-rated Alaris S2070, which we timed at 63.5ppm and 117ipm. Ii scanners with the same rated speeds as the S2050 turned in slightly faster scores, the HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow 5000 s4 Sheet-Feed Scanner at 43ppm for simplex and 79ipm for duplex scanning, and the Epson WorkForce DS-760 Color Certificate Scanner, at 42ppm and 83ipm. The Editors' Choice Xerox DocuMate 6440, rated at a college 60ppm for simplex and 120ppm for duplex scanning, managed 40ppm and 77.9ipm.

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When I scanned the same 25-folio, 50-epitome document to searchable PDF format, which for many businesses is the preferred format for certificate archiving, information technology turned in a time of 1 infinitesimal, seven seconds, a respectable time and merely 16 seconds longer than information technology took to scan the same two-sided certificate to image PDF. That's a tad slower than the Xerox 6440'south 1:03, and much slower than the Alaris S2070 (37 seconds) and the HP 5000 s4 (45 seconds), but faster than the Epson DS-760 (1:fifteen). Note that all my timings here for the S2050 were fabricated over the included USB two.0 cablevision. I also tested the S2050 with USB three.0, using a cable I acquired and a USB iii.0 connexion to our testbed, but the speeds were not appreciably different than with USB 2.0. If y'all get the S2050, I don't see a compelling reason to invest in a USB iii.0 scanner cable.

In our optical grapheme recognition (OCR) testing, the S2050 fared reasonably well, reading both our Times New Roman and Arial test pages at sizes as small as 8 points without a mistake. It did well with some of our nonstandard test fonts, only occasionally getting stumped.

A Dainty Mix of Features and Functioning

The Alaris S2050 Scanner lacks some of the speed, processing power, and durability of the Alaris S2070, though it has most of its big brother'southward features and is a solid performer while coming in at $300 less; choosing betwixt the 2 is a affair of how much you're willing to spend for the added perks of the more than expensive model. It includes Info Input Express scanning and certificate-management software, as well as a new version of the Capture Pro browse utility that we've seen in other Alaris and Kodak scanners. The S2050 is expandable, with two sizes of flatbed every bit well as a passport scanning utility available. Choosing between it and the S2070 is going to depend how much you lot're willing to spend for the added perks of the more expensive model.

Looking exterior of this series, the Xerox DocuMate 6440, our Editors' Choice document scanner for upward to heavy-duty scanning in a small-scale function or workgroup, showed comparable speeds in our testing, has similar features merely better OCR results, and costs just a footling more half if what the S2050 runs. You only have to be willing to sacrifice expandability and embedded image processing.