The Medit i600 is here. Medit’s most affordable scanner.
On the 20th of April 2022, Medit announced the newest member of their intraoral scanner portfolio – the i700 wireless. This new scanner release was anticipated as there were whispers of a new wireless scanner coming before the launch.
What was a better-kept secret and surprised the entire industry was the concurrent release of the Medit i600.
In an effort to not price themselves out of the market, the strikingly blue Medit i600 is the most aggressively priced Medit IOS yet.
We have written many articles comparing the entire Medit lineup of intraoral scanners (read them here). Still, in this review, I wanted to summarize my experience using the i600 over the past three months and how it compares to the more expensive i700.
The following review goes over everything you need to know about the i600, and in summary, this is one of the best scanners at a low cost.
Background – the Medit i700
For those who don’t know, Medit is a Korean digital imaging company founded in 2000 as a 3D scanner company for the industrial sector. They have since released several dental products, such as the Medit T-series lab scanners. Their intraoral scanner lineup consists of the i500, i600, i700, and i700 wireless.
All the Medit intraoral scanners available today.
Left to right: i500, i600, i700 and i700 wireless.
The Medit i600 is one of the newest intraoral scanners released on the market and the fourth Medit scanner following the incredible success of the i500 and i700.
The i600 is the successor to the i500. It is better in every way. The only reason to buy the i500 now is if the i600 is not yet available in your country.
The company previously branded itself as the ‘easy entry into digital dentistry.’ Although this terminology has changed to ‘scanning reimagined,’ Medit is well aware of the falling scanner prices. The price wars have started for sure.
At the time, the i500 was one of the most affordable scanners on the market. As the market has heated up over time, the i700 and i700 wireless are now mid-tier in terms of price.
The Medit i600 is the company’s push to keep competitive in terms of cost. For those who don’t know, the i600 shares many similarities to the i700. In fact, there are more similarities than differences. The Medit i600 shares the same scanner body, optical engine, scanning tips, and cable as the i700.
We have already extensively reviewed the Medit i700 here. So, for the most part, that review also applies to the i600.
What I will cover in this review is what are the differences between the i600 and how this impacted me in a real clinical setting, working on patients. Enjoy the review.
Disclaimer – no conflict of interest.
This is an objective review of the Medit i600. The team at iDD remains unwaveringly committed to providing you with impartial and trustworthy information. Medit had no part in writing this review or restricting any conclusions iDD makes in our thorough analysis and clinical use of these products.
Scanning Speed
The i600 is an impressive intraoral scanner, especially for its price. It is fast and easy to use. This scanner easily competes with the more expensive scanners on the market, such as TRIOS, CEREC, and iTero. Using the Medit i600, I can achieve full arch scans routinely in around 35-40 seconds.
The scanning protocol used with the i600 is similar across all scanners on the market, so for me, using it was simple. At first, the scanning image can look grainy, as is standard with Medit scanners, but after post-processing, the final scan images look great. The i600 produces high-definition color scans that look detailed.
The AI built into the Medit software is impressive. The scanner is quick to find its place again when the scan is paused and restarted. The software efficiently and accurately removes artifacts such as the tongue, cheeks, or gloves that might be picked up. Bite scan alignment is fast but is sometimes inaccurate. It pays to check this and rescan bites if they look off.
What makes Medit stand out in this market is the software. Many control options are built into it, such as AI sensitivity controls and even what colors the scanner should ignore. This software even has a tooth shade detection tool. These tools built into Medit software help improve scanning speed and functionality, and we wonder why these are not present in other scanners that cost twice or three times the price.
As mentioned above, the i600 performs very similarly to the i700. Please read our full review of the i700 to learn more or check out the video above to see a scan comparison.
All the Benefits of Medit i700 at a Low Cost
The i600 is basically a low-cost i700. It comes in the same box and with all the same contents. It uses the same software and thus has the same software benefits. As mentioned above, there are more similarities than differences between these two models.
The size and ergonomics of the i600 are exactly the same as the i700. Scanner dimensions are 248 x 44 x 47.4 mm, and the total weight is 245 g. This scanner feels ergonomic when holding it, and it’s easy to reach all the buttons.
Everything that comes with the Medit i600.
Almost exactly the same contents as the i700.
The i600 uses the exact same scanner heads as the i700. The scanner heads are fully reversible, which means they can be rotated 180 degrees and attached to the scanner. The scanner tips that come with the i600 are the older generation i700 scanning heads that can only be autoclaved up to 100 times (compared to 150 times with the new ones). Medit has also released a small scanner head option that came out earlier this year for smaller mouths.
The i600 is a wired scanner like the i700. The Medit i600 is plug-and-play, so you connect it to a suitable laptop/computer by USB and use it. If you use the USB-C connection directly to the laptop, you do not need a power box or connection to a power socket. It is one single cable to the laptop.
The i600 is a wired scanner with two options – a power socket connection or with USB-C connection alone.
Medit i600 has an inbuilt fan in the scanner. Like almost every scanner on the market now, this makes scanning for long periods in the mouth easy as the fan prevents fogging of the scanner tip. The scanner does take a considerable amount of time to warm up when first turned on. We found it takes about 1.5-2 minutes and the software advises you to let the scanner warm up before use. The good news is you can bypass this and continue to scan if you are in a rush.
The i600 is an impressive scanner that handles full arch scans very well, especially for the cost. This scanner can take anything you throw at it – quadrant scans, full arch scans, edentulous scans, implant scans, etc. I could easily carry out full arch scans in under 40 seconds. Medit i600 also performs very well when scanning edentulous sites as well.
Medit i600 with scanning tip attached in reverse.
So Medit i600 performs basically the same as the i700. What are the differences then? Why does it cost $4500 USD less?
Well, there are four main differences. I will outline below how they impacted me in my office day-to-day.
No UV-C LED
The first difference in Medit i600 is that it does not have the UV-C LED technology seen in the i700. For those that don’t know, Medit added a UV-C LED to the internals of the i700. This UV-C LED was supposed to aid in the disinfection of the inside of the scanner. The idea is that fans in intraoral scanners can push contaminated air through the internal part of the scanner, which remains unsterilized (unlike scanner heads which can be autoclaved).
Apart from the announcement of this new tech at release, almost no one talks about this feature, and it is hard to conclude whether this UV-C LED is even required or is effective at disinfection. The other thing to note is that the UV-C LED only works when the i700 is connected to a power socket using the power hub. So not just a direct USB-C connection which most users prefer.
So, in summary, the fact that the Medit i600 does not have a UV-C LED had no impact on me in my day-to-day use of the scanner and because I only use the USB-C connection, for me, it is not even functional in the i700.
No Remote Control Button
The second difference between the i600 and i700 is that the i600 does not have a remote control button. This is a button found just beneath the scanner button on the i700.
A remote control button is becoming a more common feature seen in scanners. This extra button enables navigating the software and checking scan data without touching the keyboard. This includes switching between scan stages and rotating digital models. A remote control button is an excellent way to improve cross-infection control, arguably even more critical with laptop-based scanners.
i600 next to the i700.
Note the lack of a remote control button and UV indicator on the i600.
Although it sounds good on paper, it is a function that takes time to get used to, doesn’t quite work perfectly, and frankly, I found it slowed me down. I prefer simply training my dental assistant to progress the workflow on the laptop without compromising cross-infection. It is also a feature I would wager the majority of Medit users don’t use regularly.
When I first got my i700 I found myself accidentally pressing the remote control button by mistake when trying to start a scan due to the close proximity of these two buttons. I seldom use the remote control button, so not having this feature in the i600 made little difference to me, if anything I preferred it not being there.
If this is a vital feature for you, be aware that it is not present in Medit i600.
FPS Capped to 35
Although the i600 and i700 use the same optical engine, the i700 can scan up to 70-75 FPS while the i600 is capped to 35 FPS.
For those who don’t know, FPS or frames per second is the frequency of images the scanner captures. In computing, for example, at 30 FPS, 30 distinct images would appear in succession within one second. If the FPS is too low, movement will appear jagged and jerky.
In my opinion, this FPS cap is the most significant difference between the i700 and i600. This means that even with a powerful PC/laptop, the i600 has half the FPS of the i700.
Scanning FPS is shown on the top right-hand corner in the Medit software.
This image shows a scan taken with the i700 wirless at 69 FPS. i600 is capped to 35.
Now, the question is, does this matter, and if so, how much?
Well, in my experience, not much. I did not find Medit i600 to be significantly slower than the i700 in scan speeds or the accuracy to be worse. Check this video for a side-by-side comparison of scanning with the i600 and i700. The reality is the FPS cap is more of a quality of life inconvenience than anything. There is no doubt that scanning using the i700 appears slightly smoother, but this was never to the point where the i600 hindered me in a clinical setting, or I never felt it was unenjoyable to use.
If you want the best possible FPS from your Medit scanner, then get an i700. But if this single factor is not worth the extra $4500 USD to you, then I do not think you will notice a significant difference.
No HD Mode
The second most important difference between the i700 and i600 is that the i600 does not have an HD mode.
What is HD mode? It is a software toggle in the Medit software. This on-and-off switch makes the i700 scanner take a higher scan mesh density (see below).
Now I want to make something very clear. The i600 and i700 have the same optical engine. This is purely software. The topic of HD mode is very contentious. Some Medit users swear by it. The majority don’t seem to use it or know it exists.
HD Mode is a toggle seen in the image above.
|This is only available for Medit i700 and i700 wireless.
The fact is, the HD mode can make scans look a little sharper. It can be helpful in veneer preps or areas of scans where you may get some overlap in tooth structures. But does it impact accuracy or speed? No. Is the i700 more accurate than i600 because it has an HD mode? No.
I personally hardly use the HD mode. Do I think it’s hugely clinically relevant? No. Do I believe Medit would sell a scanner in large numbers without this mode if it is critical for use? Also, no.
It doesn’t seem that the HD mode is vital for clinical applications, and for those on a budget, I would not worry about it not being an option for the i600. The company has advised me that they are developing the HD mode to be better in the future, but only time will tell what that actually means.
So that’s the four main differences between the i700 and i600. That’s it. Oh, and the i600 doesn’t have vibration haptic feedback like the i700, which is triggered if you get lost during scanning. Another minor quality of life thing.
If the omission of these four differences (that you will likely not use much) doesn’t bother you, save the $4500 USD. If you want the best possible Medit scanner with all the bells and whistles, I would go for i700 or i700 wireless.
Frankly, I was blown away by how good the i600 is as I expected a much inferior product compared to the i700, especially given by how much the company slashed prices.
A comparison of i700 scan meshes with HD mode off and HD mode on.
Ease of Use
As with every Medit scanner, Medit i600 does well in making the scanning workflow straightforward for beginners and experienced users. Ease of use comes from the software that supports the hardware.
The Medit software, called Medit Link, is one of the most user-friendly and intuitive scanner software available. There are many on-screen tips, prompts, tutorials, and more. It is one of the most enjoyable software to use.
The same software is available for every Medit scanner. So you get all the same software benefits with the i600 as you would with the i700. Minus the HD mode.
The Medit workflow follows a simple step-by-step progression, almost identical across every IOS on the market. The typical workflow is as follows:
1. Filling out the lab form and patient details
2. Scanning the preparation
3. Scanning the opposing teeth
4. Scanning the bite
The part that makes the Medit scanners shine is the software’s comprehensive features. It provides you with an impressive range of various tools during scanning and after – more on that in the section below.
The Medit Link scanning software.
Lots of tools and scanning tips + a practice mode.
For more of the review, click here.
