Posted: Mon, January 14, 2002
Umax
Astra 3450
 Life
has just got so easy when it comes to scanning. Take the Umax Astra 3450 colour
scanner. Across its sculptured front you find four neat, round buttons. Press
the Scan
button and it does just that, immediately, and in whichever package you choose.
Press the Copy button and it sends a copy of your copy straight to the
printer (though missing a bit of the image in our trial). Press another button,
and the Astra scans directly to E-mail, avoiding the hassle of attaching
a document. And as for the fourth button -- you configure that yourself,
so it will do whatever you want it to. Things don't get simpler than this.
If you're a fan of one-button solutions, you'll like the thinking behind
the Astra. And that’s not all that commends the Astra. Other benefits include a
very good software package including Adobe's PhotoDeluxe 3.0, easy
installation, slimline looks and a reasonable price tag (£79.99).
Unfortunately,
that's where the good news ends. Scanning at high resolutions on
the Astra is predictably slow. Maximum resolution is 600x1200dpi, but image
quality is only reasonable. Lift the bonnet and you'll find a transparency
adapter. This is handy if you scan a lot of transparencies, but because
it doesn’t form a solid white background (it takes the form of a photo frame
with a gap in the middle for the transparency -- and it's not white) you
don't always get a uniform white background on your scans. This is particularly
irritating if you're scanning in images printed on thin paper.
The
itwales.com verdict is that the Umax Astra 3450 is a flawed product, but a
product that still offers good value. We recommend it to people who don't use
a scanner for professional documents, and to those who tend to scan transparencies.
Business users, however, might like to think about forking out bit extra for
better results.
itwales.com rating: 6.5/10
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