Plustek SmartOffice PL4080
There’s no output tray, but this budget-friendly scanner offers fast scan speeds and good image quality
SSCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £296 exc VAT from cvpdigital.com
mall businesses seeking a low-cost scanner will find Plustek’s SmartOffice PL4080 fits the bill nicely. It combines a fast 40ppm duplex ADF with a standard A4 colour flatbed scanner, and throws in Plustek’s intuitive DocAction software, all for a low price.
The PL4080 has a small footprint, so it won’t take up much desk space – but be aware that it only has a USB connection, so you’ll need a Windows computer to host it. The scanner feels solidly built, but the hinges for the flatbed lid aren’t telescopic, so it’s a poor choice if you want to scan pages from thick books.
Another notable aspect of the design is the absence of an output tray: the ADF just spits pages out a slot at the side. It’s not exactly an elegant design, but there’s an upside – it means the PL4080 can scan multifolded documents, and long sheets of up to 1.27m in length.
The PL4080 is easy to install. We connected its USB 2 port to a Windows 10 desktop and had the software loaded in ten minutes. Plustek’s standard software bundle comprises its DocTWAIN driver – allowing you to scan from third-party applications – plus the DocAction scan configuration tool and ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint OCR and image-editing software.
The DocAction app is very versatile: you can use it to perform scans directly or configure the scanner’s three front-panel buttons. An intuitive sidebar provides links for each button: selecting a button profile reveals all its configuration options in the main software pane. From here you can easily select colour, mono or greyscale, choose an output file format for each button and opt for simplex or duplex scans. Other options allow you to select a resolution (up to 600dpi), adjust brightness or contrast and activate features such as punch-hole removal, RGB colour channel dropout, auto-crop and deskew. The scanner doesn’t automatically sense where a document is loaded, so profiles must also specify whether to use the ADF or the flatbed.
Finally, you can choose from seven types of scan destination, including local or network folders, an app of your choice, FTP servers, local MAPI-compliant email clients and direct to a printer.
The only major limitation of DocAction is the lack of integrated cloud provider support; the best we
“The absence of an output tray means the PL4080 can scan multi-folded documents, and long sheets of up to 1.27m in length”
could do was send scans to our local Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive sync folders. Plustek did attempt to improve matters last year with its free ScanToCloud app, but this has now been withdrawn.
The PL4080 is advertised as a 40ppm scanner, and we achieved that speed at 200dpi. Our 25 double-sided bank statements were happily scanned in 38 seconds, in both colour and greyscale modes. The quality was easily good enough for archival systems; if you want to step up to 300dpi, speeds drop to 26ppm. The ADF’s flat scan path also provides excellent paper handling, with our collection of receipts, courier flimsies and customer feedback forms causing no problems for it. It can handle ID and embossed credit cards as well.
As usual, the flatbed is slower. Our A4 colour photograph was scanned in five seconds at 300dpi (equivalent to 12ppm), while a 600dpi scan took 21 seconds to complete. We were very happy with quality: our photos were nice and sharp, with excellent colour balance The lack of networking means the PL4080 won’t suit every business, and since it doesn’t have an output tray it might not be ideal if you need to digitise huge stacks of documents. However, the combined ADF and flatbed make it a very versatile scan package. Overall performance and output quality are good, and small businesses on a tight budget will love the price.
SPECIFICATIONS 600dpi A4 colour ADF/flatbed scanner 40ppm @ 200dpi colour/mono simplex/ duplex 50-page ADF USB 2 max daily duty cycle, 3,000 pages external PSU ABBYY FineReader 12 Sprint, Plustek DocAction and DocTWAIN software 418 x 326 x 101mm (WDH) 3.98kg 1yr RTB warranty