Brother ADS-4900W Professional Desktop Scanner with Fast Scan Speeds, Duplex, Wireless, and Large Touchscreen, WhiteEPEAT

I decided to go with a Brother scanner without doing a ton of research into other scanners because I've had such a good experience with their printers. This worked out great, too. All I had to do was plug it in, I downloaded the newest drivers from the Brother website, installed them, and followed the instructions on screen.At our office we each have a Brother B&W printer that has a scanning function in it, and it works for all of our personal scanning needs. But we have a ton of old paper documents that need scanning and sorting which is why we bought this for much larger jobs. I haven't tried scanning only via WiFi because of that, but the USB connection works fantastic. I've done very high resolution scans with about a hundred pages, and it saved to the PC within a few seconds. We all run laptops and laptop docks in the office so we just leave the USB cable out and if you need it, you pull your laptop over, plug it in, scan, and go back to your desk.

I have a small trucking side gig that I run out of my home. Every week I have to scan in scale tickets to go along with the invoice. The tickets are 8-1/2 x 6 and typically I will have over 100 a week. It got to where I absolutely wasn't going to spend an hour or more scanning one at a time on my flatbed scanner. After purchasing the ADS-4900W model and using it I would pay double the $800 I got it for from Amazon. This thing is amazing. The scale tickets are black and white and usually have a colored stamp on them. I just scanned 115 in less than a minute. The scan quality is excellent. I have had this for about 3 months now and love it. It was super easy to set up. Followed the directions and in about 15 minutes I was scanning. If it tears up tomorrow I will purchase again.

I finally got it to work. I is working great and it is fast. However, I am having to scan from my pc. It’s difficult to set up wirelessly but that may be the operator.

Bought the ADS-4900W to replace my ADS-2800W that has scratched sensor covers resulting in scanning streaks. The ADS-4900W is generally a very well-constructed durable scanner that easily outperforms majority of business/enterprise high volume document scanners in terms of speed, thicker paper handling capabilities, daily duty cycle and scan quality. It also has ethernet networking built-in, which potentially makes it a great candidate for business applications if not for one major flaw which will be discussed later. We are using our scanners to archive both documents and photographic prints, and the ADS-4900W does an admirable job at both. We use the AI on ON1 and Tropaz to upscale photo scans, so the 600dpi optical resolution for archiving works perfectly.So why 3 stars?1990s 10/100Base-T ETHERNET:For being the top-of-the-line of Brother ADS line, the ADS-4900W is actually a downgrade from the ADS-2800W, which is no longer in production. For bulk archiving documents, despite its impressive 60ppm scanning speed, its built-in 1990s 10/100Base-T ethernet is maddeningly slow. So slow that we can go thru a stack of photos and documents with the older 50ppm ADS-2800W faster than the newer ADS-4900W. The old 2800W actually supports Gigabit Ethernet, which the decision to go retro with 10/100Base-T makes no sense. Why try saving a buck in manufacturing with an outdated 1990s 10/100Base-T ethernet for a 60ppm scanner? Maybe the geniuses at the marketing and engineering department at Brother can enlighten us in the business community. That's 2-stars off the rating since time=$$$ and this is marketed as a business class machine.If Brother can put Gigabit Ethernet via a firmware update magic, they will get a 5 Star + on the ADS-4900W in a heartbeat.The ADS-4900W is currently (Jan 2023) is not a network worthy scanner, just use it with USB tattered to a workstation and it will be fine.SLOW & LETHARGICThe other issue with the ADS-4900W compared to the ADS-2800W is the responsiveness of the scanner's touchscreen display. The waking-up and processing is observably slower than the discontinued ADS-2800W. This is not a deal breaker, but seeing the animated hourglass icon lag makes one wonder why so lethargic? Is it using a slower processor than its predecessor or is the firmware too bloated?Hopefully Brother can address this thru a firmware update unless they are also using a 1990s processor for this scanner.FINAL NOTES:Please take note that this review is a commentary on using the ADS-4900W in a networked production environment where time=$$$, and having an amazing experience with the discontinued ADS-2800W. Unfortunately we will likely be returning this scanner to Amazon as it is not performing to expectation and business operational cost. The 10/100Base-T ethernet is truly a deal breaker for high volume 600dpi scanning we are doing.For those using this scanner with an USB 3.0 connection only, it is an exceptional scanner for the money. Scan quality/rendering is excellent for CIS. With the 60ppm and 9,000page/day duty cycle, you are looking at a real work horse that will last for years, especially with the 3-yr warranty. This is also the only current Brother ADS model that is listed to handle heavier 110lb paper (similar to the ADS-2800W).

Works great. No problems and is dang fast if you set it proper

Fast. Good copy quality

It would be perfect if the back would stay on

Although it takes a little longer than I would like to begin scanning, it's a very good desktop scanner. The software has lot's of features, but can be cumbersome.