Brother MFC-7420

Pros: Low Cost, Good home office 5-In-One

Cons: Minimal - no issues, thus far

Summary: This unit replaces a one-person office's previous Brother unit, a MFC9200 All-In-One Inkjet. The MFC9200 worked great until the black print head went south after a couple of years usage. Turns out the new print head would run $160 parts and $60 labor.

Did Internet search and looked at a number of reviews for various All-In-Ones but found this unit at the local Staples for $299 with a $50 rebate. While there is currently a lack of any reviews on this particular unit any where to be found, I decided to take a chance. The moderate cost of the replacement toner and drum somewhat allieviated my concerns.

This is my first laser unit. I found that there were few times that I had use for printing color so I opted for the better printing of a laser unit.

Setup was very straight forward. Unit is smaller than the MFC9200 it replaces. Connection via the included USB cable after installing the drivers went smooth without any install issues.

System includes my desired 5-In-One capabilities of Laser Printer, Color Flat Bed Scanner, Fax, Sheet-fed or Flat Bed Copier w/collation and PC-Fax Send-Receive. As a Regional Sales Manager for an equipment manufacturer with a home office, I've found that these functions allow me the maximum flexibility to receive, create and send all sorts of standard and custom documents, as needed.

I've had the unit now for 5 days, am quite pleased with the unit and have only identified a few minor issues, thus far.

>>After setup and install, I went to the Brother web site to check for updates. Their web site indicated that there have been a few minor updates and they had two 2/2005 software downloads. Unfortunately, the one 'Full' update includes all available languages and was a ~140MB zipped file that expands into ~300MB files on your PC.

The update requires that you uninstall everything that was installed by the included CDROM with the unit.

Short version of the story is that it apparently is not needed. E-mailed message to the support staff was replied to within 24-hours and was vey detailed and comprehensive in addressing my specific questions. They even acknowledged that having single language files would be better/smaller. We'll see if they follow up and post the individual files and whether they include more detailed info on the web site about how to determine if the 'upgrade' is even needed.

>>Thus far, it appears as though there is no way to change the PC-Fax Send Cover Page options to include a fully Custom Cover Page. Currently, one can only add a single Logo and comments on one of two included default cover page styles. This can be overcome by creating one in another program and combining it with other files to be sent but, for a home office system, it really needs to allow for customizing the system's cover page.

>>The PC software is fairly powerful and comprehensive by allowing one to configure its Control Center's access to the system's functions via the PC Control Center. This allows one to configure each system function including how the unit is configured, how each of the system's functions handles each function when activated (set scan properties, program to use with data, where to save the data on the PC etc).

>>A lacking but needed feature is a capability to minimize/refuse junk faxes. (This was one reason that I opted for this 5-In-One unit with its PC-Fax Send/Receive - to keep the fax from printing out all of the junk faxes.) Rather than deleting the junk after receipt, it'd be nice to be able to filter/reject junk by identifying the sender info. A minor issue that would be greatly improved by having this capability.

>>Unit printer and scanning operations are somewhat noisier than I'm used to but its not loud or obtrusive.

>>Laser printing with Staples 24#/92-Bright Laser/Inkjet paper gives good, clean copies but does impart a slight curling of the paper. Some greyscale images seem to be slightly washed/light, at times.

>>48-Bit Color scanner does a good job capturing details when set at high DPI settings.

While I'm sure that this unit will not meet the quality that can be achieved with high end units, its a powerful 5-In-One unit that gives this user a good value system for $250.

I'd recommend that persons interested in the features look at the manual for this unit to see how comprehensive its features are. There are minor issues with less than complete manual info on how to access its features and on their web support site guidance but, thus far, I'm completely satisfied with the unit's capabilities, technical support and operations after 5-days usage.