To conduct these evaluations, I set up the products at my desk and used each one for approximately one week to do my daily office work. This way, I learned firsthand the characteristics of each product. Each video magnifier that I examined was evaluated in four main areas: print and on-screen documentation, minimum requirements and product design, software installation and setup, and features.
Samsung Smarthru Office 2 Software
Priced at $499, the Brother is the largest of the three units that we evaluated, weighing 36.6 pounds and measuring 21 by 18 by 18 inches, with a display screen that measures 1.1 by 2.9 inches. The Canon costs $399, weighs 33 pounds, measures 19 by 18 by 17 inches, and has a display screen that measures 0.6 by 2.8 inches. The Samsung costs $499 and is the smallest unit, weighing 33 pounds and measuring 17 by 17 by 15 inches; its display screen measures 0.5 by 2.5 inches. All these units are color laser printers and can be networked to your office computer system. They also come with software that can be installed on your PC, so you can control the units with your PC as well as via their own control panels.
We have good news regarding the printing functions of these machines. Just as we discovered with the large stand-alone units, when these machines are connected to your office's PC workstation, all the printing functions are accessible as long as your PC is equipped with a screen reader or screen magnifier. The copy machine simply acts like any other printer that you have connected to your PC. If you are printing a document, you simply use the print dialog box that you normally use with your word processor or other PC software, and you should have no problem accomplishing the task.
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