Customer Ratings & Reviews

So, I am a 61 year old woman who may have the very highest technical know-how, but as a practicing CPA who uses all kinds of software and various machines, I am not a blithering idiot either. I have now made 2 calls to Brother's 1-800 telephone number, both that landed offshore, and have spent at least an hour and a half on the first call with Victor and over an hour on the second call with Anisha. Now, maybe this machine is still so new that they have not adequately trained their tech support on the model. So, what has been my chief complaint and problem. Well, this machine would not connect wirelessly with either my home desktop using Windows 7 Professional and then also with my HP Spectre that has Windows 10 Edge software. In both cases, without remediation by Anisha either asking higher technical support people for instructions or her reading up on this specific machine, I would still not have been able to set it up wirelessly, which was what my intention was when I first requested this machine. I currently have almost all of my printers and scanners wirelessly connected and why would I want to go backwards at this point. So, I was finally successful with Anisha to get this machine wirelessly connected with my HP Spectre and will try to go back when I have time to try and install it wirelessly to my home desktop. The key factor is that the computers do not recognize this machine's network. In discussing this with Anisha, this machine essentially has its own built-in network and rather then using your existing network that connects to your computer, printers, other scanners, etc., you have to go into your WIFI and then set it up within this machine's own network and use the PASS number that is printed, among other numbers, on the bottom of the machine. When I went through this special network set up, the blue-flashing Wi-fi symbol finally went solid and had the connection to my HP Spectre laptop. Hooray!!! Bottom line, it should not have taken so much to get this wirelessly working with my computer. Physically, it is compact enough to be able to be carried around by the user for portable use, and considering today's conditions with COVID-19, this would be perfect to use by people who are telecommuting or those who would normally go from place to place- this would be a really good, lightweight, compact machine to scan items into your computer for whatever reason you might need to do so. . Afterall, when we request items to try, we have a good sense if this is a product that we want to be able to use in either our everyday personal or professional life. And while we get the product for our honest, written opinion on how it performs..I want to like all the products that I pick to try and always hope that it is very user friendly.

There are a LOT of times when an app-based scanner just doesn't cut it. Whether it's lighting or shaky hands from too many coffee meetings, it helps to have a dedicated, wireless scanner that you can have with you. Let's get really clear: the scans from this device are high-quality, color-accurate, and FAST (faster than similar Brother scanner models by a few seconds of processing time). The DS-940DW is about 5 pounds, so not light enough to carry with you in a computer bag daily, but easily able to be brought with you in your car. In terms of form factor, the buttons are pretty clear on the top to switch options (color/b+w, 1 or 2 sided, pdf or jpeg output), along with a power button and a start/stop scan button. Since you can do most of these things via the Brother iScan+Print app, you may never use these physical buttons, but the scan-to-SD feature means you're *ultraportable* with no computer required at all - and that's a great thing for places where it's just too risky to take your computer, but you need a scanner. On the side, there's a "scan to" switch that lets you select either SD card, USB connection to computer, or WiFi connection. The slightly-odd thing about setup here: the scanner generates its own WiFi network that you can connect to... it's on by default whenever the "scan to" switch is set to WiFi. The TL;DR version of what I'm about to say: you're gonna need a geek to help you get this set up the way you'll probably want to use it (wirelessly). In order to connect the scanner to your own WiFi network, the included documentation is woefully sub-par (there are a number of hoops to jump through: connecting via USB, installing and updating the Brother software, then turning on the scanner's WiFi connection, then finding the browser admin tool password in the Brother online documentation - because this info isn't on the QuickStart or PDF manuals, then finally connecting the scanner to your wifi... and then shutting off the internal broadcast network). The USB cable included is USB-A, so if your computer is USB-C only, you'll need an adapter for the initial setup, but it does make finding a charger pretty easy. A slight irritation: the scanner is front-load rather than top-load... which is fine if you only have a page or two to scan, but if you have a stack, it's not optimal and requires extra effort to avoid a mess at the top. Because of how the "cover" sticks out, you can't just set it on its back to make it a top-load... this is an odd user experience for something designed to be ultraportable. Overall, the DS-940DW gets 4 out of 5 stars. It's a must-have if you're on the go and need something better than your phone's camera app to scan documents.

I've thought long and hard about this review... it's broken into multiple parts and some advice for owners. the Brother DS940W is a nice looking portable scanner with WiFi. You can (in theory, more on that later) scan direct to your phone with the App, via your PC over USB, via your LAN, or direct to SD card. In the box is the scanner, a USB cable with a USB 3.0 superspeed connector, and an instruction leaflet. It's important to know the DS940W uses the USB 3.0 superspeed on the scanner itself (the wide-style type) no USB C here where is unfortunate. To scan via your computer is straight forward. Connect the scanner via USB and on Windows it was detected automatically and installed. There is free software included with the scann the Brother iPrint, PowerPDF, with a software key printed on the base of the scanner for redemption. Scanning direct to a micro SD card is also easy. There are 3 dedicated buttons on the scanner which let you adjust the scan preferences for SD scanning and it's easy to use. Mobile scanning. I could NOT get this to work and I'm technical. The Brother iPrint & Scan is terrible. I would give it zero stars. You wireless scan by connecting direct to the scanner from your phone, the WiFi password is printed on the bottom of the scanner. Despite connecting to the scanner, seeing the scanner in the app, every attempt to scan got "connection failed". I tried for 2-3 days, and had a chat online to Brother Support and despite deleting the app, restarting my phone, turning off the WiFi at home... nothing would work. Which is not good for a mobile scanner. HUGE TIP I DID manage to hack and work around all of this pain and make it into a LAN scanner. Here's some tips. Use the Brother iPrint & Scan app and connect via DIRECT WiFi, make sure you're connected to the scanner, click on Machine Settings, click All Settings. If you have done everything right, you will get to a webUI. Login up the top of the page. The default password is "initipass" (no quotes). Tap on "Network" then "Wireless" and you can then connect the scanner directly to your WiFi and make it a LAN scanner. the Brother iPrint & Scan and website, documentation, etc. don't help with any of the above. So suggest you copy this and keep it handy. Once again, the default scanner password is "initpass" no quotes. Make sure you don't have any cookies/ads/scripts blocked or it won't work. If Brother fixed the app, the scanner would be better. I'm giving it 2 stars because it's not really a portable scanner when, at least for me, I just couldn't scan from my phone in the way promised. Once that's fixed, it would be great.