Honeywell Voyager 1200g Video Review

We’ve got a video up from Jessie, our grand new video reviewer. This time we’re taking the Honeywell Voyager 1200g for a spin, and trying our best to recreate the video they made of the scanner reading nasty and scratched out barcodes.

Honeywell Voyager 1200g

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to head out to Las Vegas for a Honeywell Scanning & Mobility Partner Conference. Hosted at the beautiful Aria Casino & Resort, we covered a lot of territory, including various social marketing techniques and ways to build your brand online. I also got to meet Terry Bradshaw’s brother. That was pretty special. He’s quite tall.

Along with some breakout sessions – I think they’re added so supervisors feel less hesitant to send employees to Vegas for three workdays – we got to get a sneak peek at the Voyager 1200g, heir apparent to the Voyager line of barcode scanners and most likely 1D laser scanning champion. Available sometime in early 2011, the scanner will be taking the place of the fantastic selling original Voyager. I’m pretty sure the Voyager was firmly established even before I got into the industry in 2006. That’s phenomenal longevity for most products, let alone one tied to the quick turnarounds of consumer/business technology.

The Voyager 1200g maintains the same design style as the original (some say it totally looks like an alien), but with some additions to make it a bit more durable. The trigger button is covered with a rubber gasket that extends to the hood, not only protecting it from drops and bumps but helping maintain an IP42 seal. The internal components are situated on a single board, eliminating performance issues from worn or damaged internal connectors.

I got to test it out during the conference, and it definitely feels like the Voyager we’re all familiar with, but upgraded in some good ways. The rubber over the scan button feels good, and the tactile response is firm and reminiscent of a television remote. It’s light and has a good balance so you could hang onto it for a while without your arm feeling the burn.

What really sets the scanner apart from the competition is its ability to scan the most damaged barcodes you could find. Low contrast, scratched up, mangled barcodes and more are easily scanned with this unit. But my words don’t do it justice. Behold this fancy video showing off the Voyager 1200g’s prowess:

Once we get one in house, I’ll write up something a little more quantitative, but for now it feels like 2011 is going to be a good year for barcode scanning technology.