New Symbol Scanner/Mobile Computer

For a long time, the Symbol P360/P370 has been one of my favorite scanners. As well as having one of the best barcode scan engines that Symbol ever produced, it also bridged the gap between scanners and mobile computers.

It has been getting somewhat dated looking for a while though, what with the poor display, clunky MCL programing and old style wireless connectivity. While the scanner was great, it was limited to linear barcodes only.

So it is great to see that Symborola has come out with a new device – the MT2000 Series – that seems to offer all the good things of the P370 along with Windows CE operating system and a decent display. As well as now being a Windows CE device, the MT2000 also comes with a built in MCL client.

The MT2000 is available with both linear and 2D scanners – I’ll be interested to try one to see if the linear scanner is as good as the old one, but the 2D addition is great; especially for all the DoD labeling we do.

Another great advance is the range of connectivity options. The MT2000 can be used tethered with serial or USB, connected to a base station via BlueTooth or can have 802.11 a/b/g interfacing for realtime use on wireless networks.

I always thought the P360/370 to be a somewhat unique product and I was always a fan. The new MT2000 builds on the strengths of the older device and really adds some great new features – this should be a great success for Symbol/Motorola. I just hope the scan engine is as good as the old one.

What do you think? Do you see a place for this hybrid scanner/mobile computer form factor? What would you use this device for?