Brother ADS-3300W Wireless High-Speed Desktop Color Scanner

I purchased this bad boy the second I got the email from brother announcing it’s release.
It’s pricey, but undoubtedly worth it. Do it right, so you won’t have to do it twice.

With a raw JPEG file dimensions for a simple 8.5 x 11 sheet of printer paper coming out to a whopping 5030 x 6550, this is the best thing you could’ve ever dreamed of for preserving childhood memories or filing documents. Those photos of your kids on the playground or that vacation to Paris back in 1970 are more clear that you ever thought they could be – it’s seriously mind blowing.

I have a secure NAS Server at my house, and this machine was able to be programmed to connect directly to it live over WiFi, so there’s nothing other than the power cable hooked up to it in my office.

Everything from the physical build quality to the output scans are absolutely stunning. I’m always doubtful of plastic parts when it comes to electronics, but the paper trays are smooth as butter. The width of the guide rails on the input paper tray up top is adjustable from 2″ up to 8.75″, and the output tray down below extends far beyond anything I’ll ever feed through it.

– FOR REFERENCE USE ONLY –
NAS CONNECTION SETTINGS:

– Network Folder Path: (Example):
\\192.168.1.2\FamilyServer\Documents\Scans

– USERNAME (Example):
Lucas

– PASSWORD (Example):
1234

Brother makes quality sheetfeed scanners. They all have 600×600 max resolution (higher with software interpolation, but if you need higher resolution than 600×600 you’ll want either higher hardware resolution or something like OnOne’s software to increase your image resolution in Lightroom or Photoshop). Most desktop sheetfeed scanners top out at 600×600, including even Epson’s FastFoto scanners which are specifically made for scanning photographs in high quality.

There is some differentiation between scanners in ability to handle paper, but despite owning Fujitsu, Canon and Epson desktop scanners similar to this one, I have noticed no differences between the four big brands. Nor does one brand have overwhelmingly better scanning software than another. If you are seeking a photo sheetfeed scanner, Epson’s FastFoto scanner has significantly better photo scanning software than my other sheetfeeed scanners.

This is a fine entry-level desktop scanner. It handles and scans documents well and produces good scans. This 3300 version is an upgrade of the former Brother 2700 scanner with a few changes, including doubled daily duty cycle of 6,000 pages versus 3,000 with the 2700.

The 3300 actually has a lower duplex scan speed than the 2200–40 ppm versus 70. The software for the 3300 automates a number of scan correction features such as hole punch removal and reverse-page bleed through removal. Kofax Windows PaperPort OCR software is included with both scanners along with Presto Page Manager OCR for Macs. Finally, there is a USB port for scanning to a thumb drive on both new models, a feature lacking on the 2200 and 2700 models.

OK. Previously, Brother’s entry level sheetfeed scanners were the 2200 and the 2700 which now appear to be in the process of being replaced by the very similar 3100 and 3300 models.

As with the 2200 and 2700 models, this 3300 scanner is basically the same as the 3100 with the exception of the 3300 having a touch LCD screen with preset buttons that can be defined for one-step sending of scans AND the 3300 having ethernet and wifi connectivity which the 3100 lacks.

If you want more than just a USB connection between the scanner and your computer, get this scanner. If you want remote operation, or you want to scan to a phone or tablet, get the 3300 which not only has wifi, but with its preset buttons on the LCD screen permits easier operation away from your computer.

At just a $60 increase in price for wifi/ethernet and LCD screen options, I strongly recommend the 3300 over the 3100

Finally, you may want to consider other software than that provided with the scanner if you are seriously into either photos or OCR. I have OmniPage for OCR and LIghtroom/Photoshop for photos.

I just spent over 3 hours with their tech support on the phone. I have been a brother customer for years and to this day have multiple brothers scanners and multifunction devices in my office. I purchased this device so that you would not have to be tied to a computer to scan I wanted a device where I could create a workflow that would scan to the cloud from a one-touch button on the scanner just like advertised. Unfortunately there is a software bug it does not work. It works with USB but does not work with Wi-Fi. All the other scam functions seem to work but I don’t want to have to initiate scans from the computer and I do not want to have to initiate scans without a programmable workflow. Spent the extra money to get this it was not worth it. Returning it and going with another vendor.
*** 12/7/2022 Update
Their tech support sent me an update message telling me that the wifi workflows work on their end and that I should disable my virus protection security program to see if that is what is causing it not to work. Nope, not disabling my virus protection program. I can press scan to pc button on scanner and that works but it does not go to cloud. I can press scan on computer and it scans. That is not why I bought this scanner. I already have that function on multiple scanners at my office. I wanted a scanner where I could sit down at a table without my computer and bulk scan business docs, old docs, receipts, and general mail straight to the cloud as advertised. Even if I could do the Wifi workflows to this scanner, which I could not, it still has to be connected to a computer for the workflow to work. I returned this yesterday via UPS store. Waiting for my refund. Went with another vendor.

I had to slow down the scanner by keeping it on double sided scan to prevent jamming. Then the occasional bent or sticky (from being in a sticky photo album mounting) would cause a minor difficulty. Scanned tons of family photos and sent them to the Google drive for family and friends access. This is just one of three boxes!

As soon as you touch this scanner it immediately feels like quality. The build quality feels good and sturdy. The paper trays work smoothly. The controls all operate as you’d expect and the screen is easy to see and use. A laptop-style power adapter and USB 3.0 cable are also included in the package.

The scanner has the usual suite of software and utilities that function but feel disjointed and like a kludge of stuff slapped together. It also puts stuff in your Windows Startup that I’d rather not see. Overall the usual meh stuff.

Where using this scanner shines for me is the network connectivity and ability to use it without a PC. I had no problems connecting this scanner to Wi-Fi or Ethernet. I was able to easily set this up to scan directly from the scanner to a folder on my Diskstation NAS. I can set this scanner up, get rid of the PC software, and then use the scanner screen to scan away and do what I want with the output directly from the NAS with whatever software I want to use. I’ll only need to check for firmware updates periodically.

The output is good and I am very happy with the speed and quality.

So far other than the software the only other improvements that I would have liked to see would be an internal power supply to get rid of the power brick. Also, the USB A port moved to the front or top would have been a much better place than the rear for using thumb drives.

Overall a nice scanner that I’d recommend.

I’M A MOBILE NOTARY AND THIS SCANNER IS A LIFE SAVER. YES YOU CAN USE IT AS A DESKTOP SCANNER BUT, I USE IT ON THE GOWITH A MINI POWER INVERTER THAT PLUGS INTO THE CAR’S CIGARETTE LIGHTER. FOR WHEN I HAVE TO SCAN BACK DOCUMENTS WHILE I’M OUT ON ASSIGNMENT.

I am like a lot of individuals out there these days. I purchased an All-In-One solution in the form of a inkjet printer that prints, scans and faxes. I never use the fax option. I don’t even have it hooked up to a telephone line. My Epson, Canon, HPs print well for a few months, and then there are cleaning nozzles forever and maybe, maybe get a clean result. Most the time, no. It takes repeated approaches to get one clean color print. So, I moved to laser for the printer, black and white, because most the time when I print something, it’s text. I don’t even print often enough to go through one ream of paper a year anymore, and it works… all the time now. The toner system, though expensive, got me out of the print nozzles from you know where, and back to just printing… but I lost my ability lost the ability to feed double side documents into it for easy scan. Intro, this brother.

Here is what I like about it, the machine, the ability to set-up quick scan options, the fact is always works and so far has only jammed on the most scrunched up receipts imaginable. Here is what I hate about it, pretty much all the software, starting right from the get go with installing.

If anyone remembers back when machines were sold to us with a bunch of trialware, and some pre-builts still do this, and then you’d have to take time to uninstall it and get rid of it? On a computer, we even call this bloatware. While bloatware still exists, most products are sold with software you install that you can actually use, imagine that. Not so with this brother. Right from the get go, it sends you to a website to get all this nice software to install only to nag you about buying it. This isn’t supposed to work this way though. it advertises 250 dollars with of softare, but the Kofax stuff just kept demanding I buy it, even though I registered with brother, even though I did everything I needed to do so I… uninstalled what I just installed.

BR-Receipts is available and requires you to go get it too. It took a bit to get this set-up and it would not show up as a regular application for me in Windows, so I created the shortcut myself. I am not sure why, but from the get go, everything about installing this software bundle felt like it was ripped out of the 90s instead of 2020s. I just hate the set-up. It’s like the fast few decades of user friendly and easy UI doesn’t exist with the way Brother approaches this. No doubt, they have their fans, lots of businesses who are used to this and scoff at the idea of change but… it was not a pleasant experience getting this software to do what I want it to do, and as I said before, anything that nagged me to buy it was just uninstalled.

The receipt scanning is a large selling part for this machine, and once you get through the startup pains, it does work. You do have to guide it to read receipts properly though, give it a template for small businesses like, checks notes, Costco. This isn’t actually too bad though as it’s just a series of colored highlights and tell it what categories these are. It’s just a weird combination of readily available templates like Best Buy, IKEA, Fry’s and Walmart, amongst others. I was surprised there is no Costco, and I do wonder if they have library for these things out there so other customers can upload them for everyone else. The receipt scanning mostly works with some work on your part, and moving forward the other Costco receipts loaded just fine. Yes, this has Quickbook functionality, but I am not using that so I cannot comment on that particular integration.

All right, on to the basic scanning with Brother iPrint&Scan. This has big blocky and colorful Icons so it must be user friendly right… no, no it is not. The issue stems from the concept of workflows. I’ve created just a couple so far, one that scans with color to multiple pdf files and one that scans them to a single pdf. If you like options, boy are you going to love this by the way, color settings, resolution settings, how you want them to flip, short edge or long edge and image quality just to name a few of them. Bundling up all these options you want into a frequently select options is mostly what Workflows are all about, but my needs, most the time, are simple. So I create two Workflows on my most prominent computer, and it works flawlessly from that computer. So what’s the problem then… well I am supposed to be able to select them not just from the computer of my seat but at the scanner itself too… which doesn’t work because it keeps telling me to create workflows on my computer since it can’t find any. Okay.

So yes, you are going to be able to scan, you are going to have lots of options, heck you might even get what you want the first time you try it. If not though, it’s just not the kind of experience you expect today from a brand like Brother. My Canon and Epson devices are pretty darn simple compared to these options, but they also don’t have whatever that problem is.

Finally, get to the utilities, complicated things like software update notifications which keep telling me to update my software and then fail with an error no one knows how to fix… for weeks, even months based on the looking at other people looking for a solution. They seemed to have updated something mid July so I think it actually successfully installed this time. It’s quite possible this was a recent issue and that me, as a recent customer just happened to encounter it and decided this is not a fun experience at all. I don’t know. This is what I walked into.

With time and effort, I am sure this is going to do what almost everyone bought it to do. I am using it wirelessly, and no issues there. Registration was okay. The color screen is easy to read even at under 3 inches. It’s so, so much faster than my all in ones ever did for scanning, and it’s pretty small in comparison. The document feeder is at an an angle so there is a bit more room needed for that. A few years from now, and I do expect to easily last that long, I’ll probably look back and wonder why I found it so frustrating. It’s flexible and not intuitive, and if I gave this to a family member it would be a slog to get them through it. I will never buy this for someone else without expecting hours of calls about it, not unless that person is tech support for their social spheres in some way, so I’ll give them pointers but tell them hey it works great wirelessly, mobile app is a breeze, load her in there and hit scan and you’re set all. All those other tweakable options, well good luck because advanced yes, easy… only if you ignored a couple of decades of what easy actually means today.

There are three ways to connect and use this scanner. One is with a USB cable between the scanner and a computer. Another is to connect this scanner to your local area network via WiFi. I chose to use an Ethernet cable to make the scanner connection to my network, which is faster and more secure than wireless.

Setup on several Windows computers on my network was easy by using my fast Internet connection to download and install the software and drivers. All applications on my computers that have scan capabilities can easily find and access this scanner via my network.

Being able to produce clear scans of both sides of forty sheets per minute through the automatic document feeder makes short work of most any scanning job. I can put up to sixty sheets in the feeder at once for fast jam-free scans. There are several “intelligent” features about this scanner that i especially like. When scanning two-sided documents this scanner is smart enough NOT to reproduce blank page backsides when they are mixed into the documents being scanned. That saves my having to delete those blank pages after a scan. This scanner is also “smart” enough to distinguish and de-screen printed documents that may be mixed with photographs without having to manually choose different settings. Another “smart” feature is this scanner’s power management system. A power switch on the front panel turns this scanner on and off, but if it sits idle for awhile, it goes into a power-saving sleep mode rather than turning itself off. Inserting any item to be scanned into its input tray immediately wakes up this scanner.

Managing a wide-range of media through an automatic document feeder can be a challenge, but this scanner handled them quickly without jamming. Aside from standard paper documents, I could easily scan photos, both sides of credit cards and insurance ID cards. This scanner can even scan the thin skinny receipts that come out of fuel pumps without mutilation or jamming. Brother offers free software to managing those receipts after they’re scanned.

Versatility adds to the value of this scanner because it also works beautifully from my smartphone and my Amazon Fire tablet. Brother offers free apps, which I tested successfully for both my phone and tablet. They give me the ability to scan and print from those devices just as easily as from one of my computers. Since I’ve had this scanner for only a short while, I cannot comment on its durability, but it appears to be solid and well made. I’ve been using Brother printers successfully for many years and am impressed with this scanner and its capabilities.

I’ve used this scanner quite a few times now and so far it has worked well. I’ve scanned at least a couple hundred documents with it, and it has performed without issue. It has been reliable build-wise, and it has been stable firmware/Wi-Fi/software-wise. This scanner is also fairly easy to use, and doesn’t take too long to get familiar with it.

Setup was straightforward and only took me about thirty minutes to get it up and running and adjust the settings and preferences. So I was pleased that everything went as smoothly as could be expected.

Once setup, the first thing you’ll likely notice is that this thing is fast. You can scan a pile of documents in no time. This thing can scan 100 full-size pages in a matter of minutes. If you need to scan a lot of documents, speed-wise this scanner will put any flatbed scanner to shame.

This scanner also allows you to export receipts and such to cloud storage accounts, however, I haven’t tested that functionality yet. But, it’s nice to know that I can utilize that function in the future if I want or need to.

All in all this is a pretty decent scanner. It competently does what it is supposed to do, and it hasn’t given us any trouble in the time that we’ve had it. So, yes, we’ve been satisfied with the performance of this scanner. If you need a new scanner, this one, in my opinion, is a solid choice.

If you have any questions about this Brother document scanner, please feel free to ask, and I’ll try my best to answer. I hope you found this review helpful.

I did like this product at 1st because it is fast! That is why I purchased it because I have a lot of scanning I do.
But it keeps jamming and taking longer to get through the task of scanning so it defeats the purpose!! I cant return it now because it it passed the return date so pretty bummed! I will try calling support on the issue…