HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1

Sheetfed document scanners have become office staples, but corporate-class, high-volume scanners that combine sheetfed and flatbed designs have been scarce over the past few years. In fact, the sheetfed/flatbed combo seen here, the $1,499 HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1, replaces a model we reviewed way back in January 2014 (the ScanJet Enterprise Flow 7500). The N6600 is, as its name suggests, an enterprise-level machine for busy offices with reams of scanning to do. It's fast, accurate, and robust, and it ships with highly proficient scanning and document-management software. Only its price keeps it from becoming our newest favorite enterprise-grade scanner.

Scanners Change Slowly: Eight Years Gone By

Not only have scanner product names and nomenclature changed over the years, so have the products themselves—drastically so, as you can see in the image below. For the most part, modern scanners half the size of their long-living predecessors do the same or more work. At 5.2 by 21.1 by 12.8 inches (HWD) with its input tray closed and weighing a mere 13.4 pounds, the ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 is a few inches smaller and about 10 pounds lighter than the ScanJet 7500 mentioned above.

And unlike conventional sheetfed scanners whose paper trays often stretch to two or three times their unused length, with the HP's combination sheetfed/flatbed design, the input tray extends upward but the scanner's actual footprint—the space the machine occupies on your desktop or counter—doesn't change. (I should add that this ScanJet is one of four flatbed models that HP debuted in May; the others, under the ScanJet Pro brand rather than ScanJet Enterprise Flow, are scheduled for review soon.)

The 2015 Fujitsu fi-7260 (replaced by the soon-to-be-reviewed fi-8270) is similar in speed and specs to today's ScanJet, though somewhat larger and several pounds heavier (as is another recently reviewed scanner, the Raven Pro Max). Two more recent but less robust and less costly competitors, the Epson DS-1630 Flatbed Color Scanner and the Xerox Duplex Combo Scanner, are closer to the N6600's size and girth.

The point is, of course, that this ScanJet flatbed's compact design takes up little desk space, and unlike most sheetfed machines, its footprint doesn't change whether in service or at rest.

As this is an enterprise-grade scanner, most applications for the N6600 will entail accessing it over a network via document-management software, which we'll get to in a minute. Alternatively, you and your team can work from the device's control panel, which combines Back, Home, Help, and Power buttons with a 2.8-inch touch screen.

From here, you have a wide array of options, including setting up a scan job and configuring its file type and other destination options, as well as executing the scan itself. You can also select workflow profiles that contain all the properties of a scan job: the resolution; whether to scan to image or searchable text; and whether to send to a local drive, email, a cloud site, and/or multiple destinations. Scanning resolutions (both optical and hardware) are up to 600dpi for scans conducted from the automatic document feeder (ADF), and up to 1,200dpi from the flatbed.

The secret of a sheetfed/flatbed combo scanner, of course, is to combine an ADF with a classic flatbed design. In this case, we're talking about a 100-page ADF, which is about as good as it gets in the category. The flatbed holds pages up to legal size, and the ADF can handle sheets 8.5 inches wide by 17.6 feet long.

As for how much you can scan day in and day out, the N6600's daily duty cycle is rated by HP at 8,000 pages. That's 2,000 more than the Raven Pro Max, whose ADF also holds 100 sheets. The Fujitsu fi-7260 holds only 80 pages (but the forthcoming fi-8270 holds 100, with a 10,000-scan daily duty cycle). The Epson DS-1630's ADF, on the other hand, holds only 50 sheets and its daily maximum, like the Xerox's, is 1,500 scans. (The Xerox's ADF is even smaller, at 35 sheets.) Loading and reloading the ScanJet's ADF will be close to a full-time job if you want to challenge the daily duty cycle.

Connectivity and Software

Most computing devices can connect to this ScanJet via at least one of its four standard interfaces: 10/100/1000BaseT wired Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, connecting to a single computer over USB 3.0, or Wi-Fi Direct. The last is a peer-to-peer wireless networking protocol that lets you connect your and your team's mobile devices straight to the scanner without being part of the same local network.

In addition to the standard HP Scanner Device Driver, HP provides TWAIN and WIA drivers that connect the scanner to the host of applications (such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word) that support scanning into them directly. You also get HP Scanner Tools Utility and HP Scan Premium Software.

The Scanner Tools Utility is what it sounds like, a program designed to help you monitor and take care of your scanner. HP Scan Premium is a scanning utility that lets you set up and maintain what HP calls "tasks," a.k.a. workflow profiles or shortcuts. These profiles define your scan jobs, from beginning to end. They contain info about resolution, file type and format, and destinations for your scans.

Testing the ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600: Brisk, Exact Captures

HP rates the ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1 at 50 one-sided (simplex) pages per minute (ppm) and 100 two-sided (duplex) images per minute (ipm), which is actually a bit poky for an enterprise-level scanner. The Raven Max Pro, for example, is rated at 60ppm and 120ipm, as is the Fujitsu fi-7260; the fi-8270 is rated at 70ppm and 140ipm. The lower-end Xerox Combo, Epson DS-1630, and HP ScanJet Pro 3500 are all rated at well under 50ppm/100ipm.

I ran my tests over a USB 3.0 connection from our standard testbed PC, an Intel Core i5 desktop running Windows 10 Pro and HP Scan Premium. For the first test, I clocked the N6600 as it scanned our 25-page one-sided and 25-page two-sided (50 sides) text documents and then converted and saved them as image PDFs. It captured and saved the single-sided pages at the rate of 51.2ppm and the two-sided pages at 106.2ipm.

Unfortunately, the other scanners mentioned above, except the Raven Pro Max, the Epson DS-1630, and the Xerox Combo, were tested with an earlier set of benchmark tests using different documents and protocols, so comparing this 2022 HP model to any of them would be misleading. For the record, the Raven scored 62.5ppm and 124.2ipm, and the two lower-end models were significantly slower.

Next, I timed the N6600 as it scanned and converted our 25-page two-sided text document to the more versatile searchable PDF format. It captured and saved all 50 sides in 28 seconds, just 4 seconds behind the Pro Max. Again, the other high-volume scanners were tested using different methodology and are thus not comparable; reviews of their replacements are in the pipeline.

Scanning Accuracy: Sharp Stuff

Just as critical as a document scanner's speed is its optical character recognition (OCR) accuracy, which is typically performed by the software. While laudable, the N6600's error-free conversion of both our serif (Times New Roman) and sans-serif (Arial) font test documents down to 6-point type is only about average among today's crowd. 

Again, I can't compare this ScanJet's results to some of the earlier machines discussed here; OCR accuracy wasn't quite as precise seven or eight years ago. In any case, the Raven Pro Max was only slightly better, matching the HP's accuracy down to 6 points with Times New Roman and 5 points with Arial. As I've noted in other scanner reviews, OCR technology has matured to the extent that most of today's scanners—even under-$100 portables—ably handle common fonts this small.

I also scanned several photos and other colorful documents on the flatbed, not to test its speed but its accuracy in terms of color reproduction and detail. The flatbed's resolution support up to 1,200dpi is plenty high enough for capturing most types of photos and other graphics. Between the hardware and the software, the N6600 churns out brilliant, highly usable scans for uses up to and including high-resolution hard-copy output.

The Verdict: A Lean, Clean, Slightly Mean Machine

HP's slim, compact ScanJet Enterprise Flow N6600 fnw1 doesn't look like an enterprise scanner. Likewise, its rated speeds of 50ppm and 100ipm are at the low end of what we consider high-volume scanning. But unless your scanning station (or, if your ScanJet belongs to a fleet, scanning stations) are very active, it should be fine for all but the busiest environments. This is a dependable device with a great software bundle for archiving your documents, business cards, receipts, invoices, and other financial papers, making it a great alternative to our current favorite sheetfed/flatbed combo, the Raven Pro Max.