IT Pro Verdict

Fujitsu’s fi-7160 may only be a USB 3 model but it delivers great scan speed and quality at a tempting price. Fujitsu’s PaperStream IP package adds even more value making the fi-7160 a great choice for SMBs that want to manage and streamline their entire business scan processes.

Pros

+
Powerful OCR features; Intelligent bundled software; Great speeds

Cons

-
No backlight on display

Fujitsu's fi-7160 workgroup scanner and its slick PaperStream IP technology allows SMBs to do more with their scanned documents. Designed to manage the entire scanning workflow and streamline batch processes, PaperStream IP comprises custom TWAIN and ISIS middleware drivers plus the PaperStream Capture image processing app.

With a 4,000-page daily duty cycle, the fi-7160 can handle a moderately heavy demand and looks great value as it boasts a top speed of 60ppm for 300dpi colour scans. It also incorporates Fujitsu's intelligent Sonic Paper Protection (iSOP) hardware which is designed to make paper damaging jams a thing of the past.

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The fi-7160 is well built with an 80-page ADF that clips firmly on the back and a solid fold out paper tray at the front. Its small LCD panel and control pad can be used to scroll through a menu of scan functions, although the lack of backlight makes them difficult to see.

Installation on a Windows 10 desktop took 20 minutes as the utility loaded all PaperStream components plus the ABBY FineReader for ScanSnap OCR app and asked us to connect the scanner via its USB 3 port. The install utility also offers the ScanSnap Manager app which provides basic scan management features using profiles and a local agent allowing the scanner to be remotely managed via Fujitsu's free Scanner Central Admin server.

PaperStream Capture uses profiles that combine scan settings, destinations, page indexing requirements and automatic page separation using indicators such as barcodes. When you run a Capture profile, you merely view the scanned document, modify it if needed and release it to its final destination.

Profiles are simple to create using the wizard and combine scan settings such as colour, greyscale or mono output, resolutions, paper sizes and duplex or simplex. Destinations can be a local folder, a network location, FTP or SharePoint server but cloud locations aren't supported as Fujitsu's clunky Capture Connect app is no longer available.

PaperStream Capture profiles link up with the PaperStream IP driver profiles which add features such as hole filling, blank page removal and page rotation. Document separation for large batch scans can be implemented using blank pages, page counts, predefined OCR zones, barcodes and Fujitsu's patch codes.

You can even extract data from documents as they are being scanned with a profile's Meta Data option. We previewed a sample scan, drew a box round the area we wanted zonal OCR to be applied and could request the information within it to be exported as a TXT, CSV or XML file when the scan finished.

PaperStream profiles are assigned to the scanner's function buttons using the integral Administrator Tool Usability tab. The LCD panel supports 48-character profile names making it easy to show precisely what each one does and you can assign up to 9 profiles.

During testing, we were impressed with PaperStream Capture and didn't have to wait long for our batch scans either. Duplex scans of 50 bank statements returned 62ppm for colour and greyscale at 200dpi and 300dpi with speed dropping to 12ppm at 600dpi.

The scanner is remarkably quiet during operation and scan output quality at 200pdi is easily good enough for document archival systems. The iSOP feature worked perfectly with our till receipts and waybills and stopped the scanner when a page overlap was detected without damaging them.

Fujitsu's fi-7160 may only be a USB 3 model but it delivers great scan speed and quality at a tempting price. Fujitsu's PaperStream IP package adds even more value making the fi-7160 a great choice for SMBs that want to manage and streamline their entire business scan processes.

Verdict

600dpi A4 colour ADF scanner

60ppm at 300dpi colour

Simplex/duplex

80-page ADF

USB 3

External PSU

Daily duty cycle – 4,000 pages

ScanSnap Manager, PaperStream IP TWAIN/ISIS drivers

PaperStream Capture, ABBYY Fine Reader for ScanSnap software

300 x 170 x 163mm WDH (closed)

4.2kg

1yr advanced exchange warranty

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.