Barcode Scanner Hardware Options

There is a wide range of barcode scanner hardware options to run the Finale Inventory barcode scanning application for your business. 

The Android OS platform is the preferred choice for hardware solutions but we also have legacy device support for Windows Mobile OS.  Dedicated barcode scanners, phones, tablets, and other devices provide many available options that best fit the need of your operations.

See the video below for instruction:

Barcode Scanner Hardware Compatibility Options

(Videos: See complete list of available videos)

Video Transcription

Oh, it’s Mike Kroeger here, Finale Inventory. In this short video, we’re gonna go over some barcode scanner hardware compatibility-type questions and topics about what types of devices can you use with Finale Inventory’s mobile barcode scanning application. Our mobile barcoding scanner application is available both on the Android OS platform from the Google Play store, it’s also available for Legacy-type barcode scanning devices running Windows Mobile OS. So I’ll give you an example of these two types of devices.

Let’s first go over the preferred types of barcode scanner hardware. That preferred type device is going to be an Android dedicated scanner. So, what I have here is a Symbol Motorola. This is a…let’s see…it’s a TC55. So that’s the model, Tom, Charlie, 55. So I’m gonna turn this on so you can kind of see this. This is just an Android-based dedicated scanner. You can see that it looks like a normal Android device. And it also has, note the Google Play store. So the Google Play Store is kind of key on this type of device. It’s running a normal Android OS, for which you can have access to the Google Play store, download the Finale Inventory app directly to the device. So you can see how the Finale Inventory device is running here.

I can launch it. This is the Finale data collector, or what we call our mobile app. You sync it with your cloud application, and that’s how we communicate with your Finale Inventory account. Now, these types of devices have a built-in scanner, it’s right here on the top, or the face of it. So you can activate the scanner. I’ll turn the scanner on so you can kind of see it illuminate down here. And that’s how you scan barcodes, is the built-in scanner. This is the most preferred type of device. So, these are very rugged, very tough, they’re extremely fast. These are also very affordable, you can get them available just about anywhere. We do have a preferred hardware vendor, you can check our website for those. But this would be a Symbol Motorola TC55. One of the most economical and best bang for the buck unit.

Another type of device, very similar to it, and you can see these are extremely same, very similar in size. This one here is a Symbol MC40. So, this one…kind of what makes this one a little different than the other one, they look very similar, they’re both running Android. This one, however, is running Google Enterprise, so it doesn’t have the Play Store. So, a device like this, very similar to this one, similar features, similar performance. But this one here doesn’t have the Play Store so you can’t download games and stuff directly, you have to install Android apps on here, okay? So that’s one major advantage. This one also has a laser here at the top. So if I need to activate this, you can see how I can scan with it. I don’t need to buy anything else with this type of device. Runs the Finale Inventory application quite nicely, and you can see it there. 

So, another interesting feature about this MC40, it allows you to, maybe, augment the scanner. And what we mean by augmenting, this one, also, is available as a wearable. So you can use this type of device, you can put this on your arm, okay? So where you would wear it so you can be hands-free. And this goes into the cradle here and allows you to operate this unit hands-free. So it would go here on your forearm, and then what you do is, so that you can operate this hands-free, you buy a Bluetooth scanner. Now, this scanner would connect to this device over Bluetooth. And there’s a big yellow button here, and you can see how it will scan just by the press of your button. So this one goes on your hand like this. So you would put this on your fingers, and you can reach here with your thumb, and you can shoot things and you still have your hands free. So if this was on your forearm, this is in your other hand, so you’re still able to grab things, and you can still shoot the barcode. These are extremely robust. These are meant for warehouse and industrial applications. They’re extremely tough. These are a lot quicker and faster than using a cell phone, okay? So, this is another type of device. So those… You can connect this as a Bluetooth device tethered to this, give you hands-free.

Another barcode scanner hardware option for you that we’ve talked about, of course, we said, hey, it is Android. I’ve got just an Android cell phone here. So, let me wake up this phone. Yes, you can download this to your Android phone. So here is just an Android phone that I’ve downloaded the barcode scanning app to. And you can see how it interacts, it works the same way as the scanners. The biggest disadvantage of this, okay? So if I said, you know, if there’s any disadvantage, and that is, there’s no scanner with this. So, in order to scan, you must use the camera built in. Now, if you’ve ever tried to scan barcodes labels, it can be kind of challenging. So you have to, like, hover it over and get it exact. This is very time-consuming. And this is why, maybe, we would tell you, “Yes, you can run the app on a phone, it will work just fine. But you’ll have a challenge with scanning barcodes, it’s just much slower.” Now, there are some solutions for that. So, some other things you may consider.

If you really wanna run with a phone, you can also look for these types of Bluetooth, what we call, finger scanners. Now, this finger scanner can be tethered to this cell phone. So this is a Bluetooth scanner, it’s got a laser that shoots out the top. As I press this button on the side, it’s shooting a laser. So, if I have a barcode here, now I can use my finger and shoot this barcode, and you can see how it fills out the screen. So, if you note, here, if I was to operate this, we’ll go into more details, but you can see that it decodes that barcode right on the screen. So, if I hit “Done,” here, you can see that that’s another option for you. So, you’d have to buy two devices…well, you wouldn’t have to buy your cell phone. But you can run it on an Android phone, it will not run on iOS, it must be an Android phone. And you can get a Bluetooth tethered scanner and put the two together, then you might have a good barcode scanner hardware scanning solution or an acceptable scanning solution.

Similar to running an Android cell phone, you have the Android dedicated scanners, an Android cell phone, can you do it with a tablet? Well, sure, you sure can. It’s the same as a cell phone. So, it’s just a much bigger screen. So, if we get these…you can see that this is just an Android tablet and another barcode scanner hardware option. This is a Fire tablet, I believe, and it works the same way. You’ll have the same challenges here though. Remember, when you’re using devices like these that are just a tablet or a phone, you don’t have a laser scanner, so you are going to be challenged in scanning. Yes, the app supports it, but you’ll just find it much more cumbersome.

For it to be able to scan a barcode, it’s just a lot more clunky and difficult, and much slower than using a scanner. So we’d highly recommend that if you go this route, you’re gonna need to get you some sort of Bluetooth tethered scanner, that you can link the two together and operate it much faster. It’s gonna be much more advisable to go that direction. All right. So that’s yet another option for you.

So, if you don’t go the Android route for barcode scanner hardware, then you may consider…maybe you have Legacy hardware, some existing scanners, like these. These are warehouse, rugged, industry standard inventory management scanners. These are running Windows Mobile OS. Let’s see if I can wake these guys up. And you can see them kind of wake up here. They’ve got touchscreens and they’ve got keyboards on the end. These are very durable. They have a stylus built in. So, if you wanted to see…this is kind of running an older version of Windows here. So, as you can see, I can go back out to the Windows Operating System.

So this is Windows versus Android, all right? So, that’s kind of the difference. This is a Windows OS, and our application is available to be put on these and run. As you can see, I’m invoking it there and it runs the same way. These have a scanner built into the top. So, to scan a barcode, you simply press the yellow button to the side. This is basically a very similar model, just running a different version of the Windows OS. So, this is a Windows 6.5 OS. And you can see that we have our app loaded here, you just touch the screen and you can launch the app. And this too has a laser at the top. So this one shoots out a laser here at the top.

So, that’s your Windows Mobile OS Legacy hardware. Our app is compatible, it is designed to run on these. The preferred is the Android-type operating system. So, that gives you a quick summary of barcode scanner hardware what you might consider.