Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center
by Brother Printer
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List Price: Our Price: $199.00 You Save: $50.99 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center
Customer Review: Very positive initial experience
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had the Brother 7820N for about a month now and have been impressed. A couple of features seem underappreciated, but are big plusses in my book:
- built-in networking: most other printers at this price point attach to a single computer only, and you either need to set up printer sharing on the host computer or buy a print server. Even then, you likely would not be able to scan from the multifunction device to any printer you want. With the Brother, ethernet is built in, and you can send scans from it to any computer running the desktop software. Under OS X you even select which user on a computer you want to send a scan to (not sure if this is also true under Windows).
- the desktop software is simple but has plenty of options for customization -- for scanning, for instance, you can select TIFF, jpg, PDF, png, or bmp; resolution, bit depth, etc for each of four presets, plus do it on the fly.
- A pleasant surprise was that it supports distinctive ring on inbound faxes. We had this already for our old fax machine but I was unsure the 7820N would support it -- it does (with DR you have two phone #s but only one line; the fax number rings with a different pattern that the voice line, and the fax machine senses that and only picks up calls to the fax number).
Other things I like about it: it's compact enough to fit on a bookshelf. It's fairly fast to first-page-out (I would say it's not HP's claimed five seconds, but I've never found myself thinking "this is taking too long" either).
Unlike at least one other reviewer, I have had no problems installing the software or using the printer from Mac OS X. It's working fine with a G4 Powerbook and an iMac G5. The installation process actually does a very slick job discovering the printer and self-configuring using Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous).
Nothing is ever perfect, of course. The printer is a tad loud (but quickly throttles back to idle and then sleep with no discernible noise from a few feet away). As others have described, there is a little bit of paper curling -- I was expecting this to be at the edges, and instead it's the entire sheet that is a little bowed. I haven't found this to be a real problem. Build quality seems fine but I don't think I'd want to print 10k pages / month with this printer either.
At the time I bought it from Amazon the $50 rebate was not showing on the Amazon site -- I discovered it by accident. The $50 makes this an even sweeter deal (it ends 4/1/2006). I just received an email today that the rebate is being processed, so -- again unlike some others -- this looks like it won't be a problem.
All in all, a great laser multifunction at the price -- or even $100+ more.
Customer Review: Stopped working 17 days after purchase - Poor Brother support
Summary: 1 Stars
We purchased this unit from Office Depot on 9/10/2005 for our start-up home-based business. Initially we were pleased, although navigating the menus to configure the unit was difficult and it was almost impossible to get paper into the manual feed unit straight. After 17 days, the unit stopped functioning. It has been very lightly used only 90 pages were printed. It suddenly began power cycling, and wouldn't print. The display showed a paper jam, but when we opened the unit to clear the jam, there was no paper stuck. The display wouldn't clear the paper jam message. Unfortunately, Brother service was closed by this time, and Office Depot only accepts returns on electronics for 14 days. We turned the printer off and left it off.
It was several days until we could call Brother because of our work schedule. Right before contacting Brother, we turned the printer back on and it was working fine. A couple of days went by and the printer started to malfunction again. This time we could call Brother immediately and went through troubleshooting with them. When Brother couldn't resolve the problem, we were told that a refurbished unit would be sent out and that we would receive it in four business days.
I called on the expected arrival date to get a tracking number for the shipment and was told that no replacement unit was being sent. The customer service rep stated that Brother had tried to contact us for additional troubleshooting earlier in the week. However, we had not received either a phone call or an e-mail from Brother. The customer service rep did not beleive me, simply stating over and over again that they record showed they had tried to contact us. I asked to speak to a supervisor. He asked for the details of the trouble shooting, and stated that he would upgrade shipping to overnight and that we would receive the replacement in three business days. The replacement didn't arrive. I again called Brother. This customer service rep stated that the printer would not have shipped yet since there was a 48 hour waiting period. She assured me that the replacement would arrive tomorrow, probably. Yes, she waffled.
Each call required that I was on hold for about 20 minutes. My business has been without a fax machine/printer/copier/scanner for this time. Given that we are starting up while still working at our regular jobs part-time the lack of a fax has been awkward since we are trying to establish ourselves as a legitimate concern. When I've explained my issue to the customer service reps, they've been sorry, but have not been able to do anything to get us a working machine quickly. I wouldn't buy another Brother product after this experience.
Customer Review: So close.
Summary: 4 Stars
I have both a Mac and a PC laptop on my home network, so really Brother is the only way to go. From what I can tell, none of the other laser multifunction brands really support OS X fully.
Brother's OS support is really good. They included 3 separate CDs -- XP et al., Mac OS X, and Vista. They also have a quick setup guide divided into tutorials depending on (a) Operating system; and (b) Type of connection (USB, parallel, Ethernet).
Everything set up quite smoothly, but one has to follow the actual instructions. They are clearly written, so it's easy. But I think if I had just tried to plug and go, I would have failed.
Anyway, it's cake to get the thing talking to your computers by having it get an IP number from your router via DHCP -- so unless you're a power user with pretty specific needs, don't bother with static IP configurations.
Print quality is good, and the printer is quiet. It wakes up quickly. I would say the first page is printed within 30 secs. of sleep.
The scanner is slow. Very slow. This is in part because for most purposes, the default of 24-bit color 1200 dpi is absurd overkill. I mostly scan documents, so I dialed back the defaults to 300 dpi black and white. Much faster, but still not blazing.
The resulting scans are massive, and I have not yet figured out a streamlined way to reduce the file size. I may dial back the resolution still further, to 150 dpi.
For some reason, when I try to use the scanner's "Send to PC" button, I get a "check cable," but when I use the "Scan to File" button on the PC, it scans just fine. This might be the downside of using DHCP instead of static. I dunno. It doesn't matter, though -- I have to go to the PC to look at the scanned file anyway, so who cares where I initiate the scan?
The manual paper guide system was not well considered. You have to be careful setting the guide width to match the paper, and if you accidentally knock a guide to one side with the edge of the paper (it's really easy to do), you get cockeyed printouts. This sucks when you're printing on your expensive stationery.
I don't fax much, but I get the impression that the fax functionality is pretty robust. If you can't put this baby on its own dedicated line, though, there are inevitable tradeoffs.
If you have to have (a) network access; (b) cross-platform OS support; (c) laser, this is the entry-level machine. It serves that niche, and it's the only one. It's capable, but not awe-inspiring. A couple of tweaks here and there, and Brother could have a world-beater.
Customer Review: Solution to "Back Cover Open" Error
Summary: 2 Stars
My bought one of these printers from a co-worker about a year ago. I worked well for until he had some issues with a paper jam. I won't go through the paper-jam issue in this post. Others have beaten that drum enough. Once he cleared both the physical jam on the printer and cleared the printer queue, the printer displayed the "Back door open..." error. He was wanting to take the machine to a repair center to have someone look at it. I asked him if I could, "Just for fun." He agreed and after twenty minutes of research (these reviews were more helpful than the Brother website), I focused my examination on something, anything that physically resembles a switch. Turns out that the design team opted for an optical sensor instead of a contact switch. The optical switch is "closed" when something breaks the beam. A beam of light (can't see it with the naked eye) shoot from one of the small, square brown block to the other.
If you want to find it yourself:
1. open the back door cover,
2. pull the tab to open the rear chute cover,
3. follow the edge of the rear chute cover until you see it end in between the slot it travel in (it should be a rectangular tab that visibly stands out from the silver/white background in the slot),
4. take about 1/2 inches of the sticky part of a post it and wrap is over the black arm in way that make it stick out in front of the tab about 1/4 inch,
5. let your eyes follow the slot (its a curve) until you see the two brown block I mentioned earlier,
6. close ONLY the rear chute cover until your paper trim is in between the two blocks (make sure the power is on, you should see a light come on to warm the roller),
7. if that does the trick, carefully open the rear chute cover and add a little tape to make sure your modification stays put,
8. close up everything and continue printing.
This fix costs next to nothing. A post-it and some scotch tape. The main issue I had was with the design. I know that a contact switch would work as well as the optical one, but I think Brother was shooting for the printer to work a long time. I used to design assemble tools for some the the electronic components in it. My experience tells me that the problem with this design could have been mitigated in pcb design or the a small modification of the rear chute cover. Oh well. A pretty decent printer got a bad rap because of what I'd consider a simple oversight or an easy to fix home solution.
Customer Review: Mac Users -- This is YOUR Printer!
Summary: 5 Stars
'Old Reliable' -- aka my Samsung ML 1210 -- was wheezing more than a climber at the top of Everest. My Panasonic fax was as feisty as ever, grabbing 4 pages at a time while sending/receiving faxes Jackson Pollack-style. It was time for an upgrade. Wow; what a step up.
Of all the companies to offer 'true' OS X, Mac-compatibility, surprising to see it from a traditionally fax machine/label maker one. Brother's MFC 7820N software functionality is flawless for my wife and I's iBook's, running 10.3 and 10.4, respectively. True 'touch controls' power this unit, the Control Center software allows seamless and intelligent faxing, copying and scanning to customizable folders, email locations, etc. I did a double-take when spotting PC Fax capability LIMITED TO MAC's(!). Control Center is so Mac-friendly, it even comes with software for folks running OS 9.
Moreover, setting up this unit to print wirelessly from a network was a snap. It quickly linked up with my Belkin Wireless Access Point, finally allowing affordable printing AND faxing (from local files) without being tethered to a desk. The Remote Setup function is likewise very clean; a nice break from endless scrolling across the sharp LCD. I still, however, face the occasional (once every month, on average) software glitch in print jobs not communicating wirelessly with the printer. Turning the system off/on again solves the problem pronto.
Hardware-wise, the MFC 7820N is standard quality for multifunction units...hardened plastic with decent give...although with a much smaller footprint than competitors (including several from Brother). To put size into perspective, the MFC 7820N is approximately 1/3rd wider than standalone, monochrome laser printers, same height. Dig the large slide out paper try + print output at the center of the unit. No paper mess spewing from this one. Related, the paper feed (at early review) is outstanding. Take that, Panasonic fax.
Cost-wise, the MFC 7820N is a steal, a couple hundred bucks less than similarly featured units. Toner can be had at 1/2 the price of most conventional laser units -- $40 or lower.
Nearly 8 months in, I am left wondering why I stomached the high pitched squeal of my ML 1210 for this long. This Mac user finds the MFC 7820N a winner.