3 Things to Consider When Purchasing Smartphones for Barcode Scanning in the Enterprise

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Choosing the right enterprise scanning device is critical to your day-to-day operations. With a variety of manufacturers, operating systems and device configurations in the market to choose from, finding a smartphone with the right capabilities to support your business needs can be challenging. The wrong device can spell disaster for a company of any size by decreasing workforce productivity, increasing total cost of ownership (TCO) and lowering the bottom line. Here are three things to keep in mind when considering a major purchase for your mobile scanning solution:

Barcode Scanning Requirements
When choosing the best smartphone for any use case, it’s important to consider the existing scanning requirements for your business needs. It helps to assess how often a device will be used to scan barcodes, and what types of codes you will be scanning. Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself:

  • What types of barcodes will you be scanning?
  • Will you be scanning high volumes of barcodes (hundreds vs dozens)?
  • Are the barcodes small, poorly printed or damaged?
  • What type of lighting is present in the scanning environment?

Scandit has tested smartphone scanning performance across a wide variety of devices and use cases. To learn more, read our latest eBook, Best Smartphones for Barcode Scanning.

Power Requirements
When considering any device, you must take its power consumption into account. A major benefit of a camera-based scanner—over a peripheral device or dedicated scanner—is the lower power requirements necessary to operate a smartphone camera. Depending on your scanning requirements, you may need a device to last for a single shift, or all day without the opportunity to charge a device. You may want to check out additional batteries or a larger, extended-use Li-Ion battery pack, and the availability for your target device.

Environmental and Application Demands
Environmental and application demands should play a big role in determining the right device. If you expect scanning to occur in harsh environments such as warehouses, construction sites or distribution centers, a fully-rugged device or case may be required to help increase the device lifecycle. Other features such as form factor and glove touch capabilities might also be important to consider. See exhibit below:

rugged-vs-consumer-smartphones

No matter what smartphone you ultimately choose, it’s imperative to have a good understanding of your use case, hardware requirements and deployment environment. Taking these things into consideration can help guide you through the purchasing process. To learn more about effectively navigating the mobile device maze and making better purchasing decisions, be sure to check out our latest eBook, Best Smartphones for Barcode Scanning.