Home Office Blues » Brother printer http://homeofficeblues.com Information, resources and humor to help you beat the home office blues. Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:47:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Review: Brother MFC-420CN http://homeofficeblues.com/3/review-brother-mfc-420cn/ http://homeofficeblues.com/3/review-brother-mfc-420cn/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:27:26 +0000 Home Office Blues http://homeofficeblues.smartfaremedia.com/?p=3

What is it?

The Brother MFC-420CN is a compact inkjet printer, scanner, copier, fax machine, memory card reader. It has USB2 and RJ-45 network connectivity and it has a document feeder.

Update:

The Brother MFC-420cn has been replaced by the Brother MFC-440cn. The MFC-440cn increases print speed to 25ppm b&w and 20ppm color from 20ppm b&w and 15ppm color for the MFC-420cn. It increases memory to 32 MB from 16 MB. In addition, the new model uses different ink cartridges, has a 4×6 photo paper input tray, and sports a flip-up LCD status screen. Finally there are some aesthetic and physical changes, but the size and footprint are very similar. All other observations of the MFC-420 below still apply to the new MFC-44cn.

Pros:

Compact, built in networking and USB2 connectivity, separate color ink cartridges, built in memory card readers, built in document feeder, easy to use.

Cons:

Light duty feel, small capacity, it says the ink cartridges are empty when it seems it could suck several more pages out of them.

Review:

When I first set up my home office I needed a small, quiet, multi-function printer, scanner, fax machine. The system recommended by the IT department was a huge monstrosity of system, but I wanted something that wouldn’t crowd my already tight space. I took matters into my own hands and found this versatile and compact little system.

My minimum requirements were a printer that was compact, had separate color cartridges and could print scan and fax. My “nice-to-have” features were a document feeder and network connectivity so I could share the printer with my other computers. This printer met those needs plus provided a flash memory card reader that works with a variety of formats.

My experience with the system has been quite good. I must admit that I am not a heavy user. Generally, I print a couple 10-12 page documents a day, but on occasion I have printed out 100-200 page documents and it hasn’t had any problems. The software is useful and easy to use, but I have found that on rare occasions it freaks out and I need to goose the computer to get it working properly again. This isn’t shocking because I generally leave my system on for weeks and only reboot occasionally.

The only problem I have with this device is that it “feels” cheap. I feel like I have to be careful handling it or I might break it. This “feeling” also makes me wonder if it would start to flounder if I tried to work it harder and more often. I don’t know how valid these thoughts are, because so far it has handled everything I have thrown at it with pure utility.

The Verdict:

I like the Brother MFC-420CN. It is compact, feature rich, and has performed ably for a year.

Buy the Brother MFC-420CN from Amazon.com now!

Other Related Brother Multifunction Printers:

Brother MFC-820cw: Features Wireless Network w/2.5" Color LCD

Don’t Forget the Ink!

Brother LC41M Magenta Ink Cartridge
Brother LC41Y Yellow Ink Cartridge
Brother LC41C Cyan Ink Cartridge
Brother LC41BK Black Ink Cartridge

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