Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I went through a slew of hp printers. I experienced lousy, "outsourced" technical support, and had two printers fail in the same year. This on the heels of my friends brand new color laser fiasco, which was three failures in one year (also HP). They used to be the best, with printers like the 4050n and other tireless workhorses, but I think other vendors are now making significant inroads, especially in this middle ground space. You'll find HP laser printers to be profoundly expensive for what they buy, with high print costs, and low ram. The 1300 is a fine example of where HP has gone wrong.
So, we took the plunge on this 8420 (we got the "one up" D model, which includes duplexing -- works like a charm, and at about 1c a page (as the cost of paper) it will pay for itself quickly).
The upsides:
1) Very cheap toner. Especially the high yield. 6k pages for 90 bucks, which is more than any other cartridge we could find (and you get get those cheaper than 90 some places)
2) Very convenient. You've no idea how awesome a 50 page sheetfed scanner with OCR actually is until you need it. ;-)
3) Comes with a full toner cartridge. My hp's came with 1/2 full "intro" ones.
4) Best-of-breed. For it's downsides (below), it really is the best you can buy for the money.
5) It doesn't jam.
The downsides are:
1) It's a little slow to copy
2) High end color scans are not that hot. A little flat. If you want high end color scans, drop 60 bucks and buy a Scanjet 5300c. The scanner is really designed for document processing, at which it excels.
3) It's a little pricey to buy in. The high end models are overpriced for what they buy (duplexing for ~100 bucks, network for another 100-150). Yikes.
4) The software is a little "clunky", but it works
5) The warranty pretty much stinks (1 year). If you can get an extended warranty, it's a [really] good idea. With so many components, all-in-ones have that much more of a chance to fail, and they do. ;-)
Remember, inkjet printers are sold practically at a loss by their manufacturers (especially cheaper ones). They are designed to make up their money in ink cartridges. This is important when you are comparing all-in-ones.
Despite it's minor downsides, I'd highly reccomend this ot a friend. If you need something to get your business off the ground like we did, and don't want to spend a fortune or worry about being in constant IT mode keeping everything configured and working smoothly, this is the way to go. Faxing is a breeze, scanning is easy (50 docs at a time is a LOT btw), and printing is very high quality.
We combined this with a cheap bubblejet, and now we have the best of all possible worlds. We reccomend this route!!!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Brother MFC-8420 Laser Multifunction
Winner of the prestigious Editor's Choice Award from PC Magazine and combining all the necessary office machines into a single box, the Brother MFC-8420 is an excellent addition for home businesses or small networks. Including a laser printer and copier, color and monochrome scanner, and a 33.6 Kpbs modem fax, this convenient desktop assistant offers all the functions you need to keep printing and mailing costs to a minimum.
The monochrome laser printer and copier produces letter or legal sized pages at up to 17 ppm, with an outstanding 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution. Up to 99 copies can be sorted or reduced or enlarged at a range of 25 to 400 percent; manual two-sided printing helps you save on consumables. The scanner operates in either 48-bit color or 256-level grayscale, enabling you to scan full-color photos or monochrome documents. Either way, with an interpolated resolution up to 9,600 x 9,600 dpi, your scans will be impeccably smooth.
The fax provides a variety of sending and retrieval options designed to improve efficiency. Broadcast faxes up to 390 stations, or speed dial to any of up to 300 coded numbers. The 50-sheet automatic document feeder frees you from having to baby sit the box, while the 600-page memory guards against paper shortages. The MFC-8420 includes a one-year warranty with instant exchange service.
Click here for more information about Brother MFC-8420 Laser Multifunction
