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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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center
Customer Review: My first non-HP printer purchase!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a loyal HP hardware fan until about a year ago when I purchased my latest Photosmart - one of the inkjets with the 5 different color cartridges. The quality on that printer is amazing, but after going the rounds with HP about why it seems to burn through color cartridges even when I've got it set to print black and white only... I finally decided I could have bought another printer with the ink that was literally wasted. I decided to get a black and white laser for my primary printer - and not an HP!
The setup program looked a little quirky when it was running through all of the driver installs, and I half expected it to finish and only have partial functionality. I've never been a fan of all-in-one devices, because it always seemed like one of the devices failed to work properly... but after setting this up last night, everything works perfectly - I don't have a phone line, so I didn't try the fax.
There were some complaints about the scanner not being very versatile and not allowing you to adjust your scanning area. I've got Google Picasa installed on my machine and after installing the Brother software and drivers I opened up Picasa to find the scanner ready to go - you can do a quick preview scan, adjust your scanning area, resolution, and color depth - everything you'd expect to be able to do with a stand-alone scanner.
Network setup was automated as well. I connected it to my router before I ran the setup, and it automatically detected it on the network and installed my drivers - didn't have to mess with a thing.
So far I'm extremely happy with this printer, and from the other reviews I've read it sounds like it should hold up very well... Time will tell ;)
Customer Review: Decent MF Laser for price, but tragic flaws
Summary: 2 Stars
Does a decent job at laser printing standard sheets of paper, but some horrible flaws:
* First, if you print envelopes, just forget this printer. Impossible to print #10 envelopes without crinkling them. Can't send wrinkled envelopes in business. I had an Apple Personal Laser Printer 20 years ago that printed envelopes much better.
* The manual feed is very finicky, and allows for little error. Printing labels off an 8x11 sheet commonly misaligns, ruining the whole sheet. It cost me a lot of wasted labels, so not really a workaround to the envelope problem.
* Making the networking feature work with XP is almost impossible to get working without calls to tech support, and even then, don't count on it. Had it working once with my laptop off of WiFi, but never got it working again after an OS reinstall. The idea that a non-power user without a firm grasp of networking could possibly get this feature working with multiple computers is laughable. Certainly not mom, let alone grandma.
* Extremely unintuitive controls on the machine itself. Requires constant reference to the manual. My favorite is how, by default, it decides to re-send faxes that didn't go through on its own timetable. So, if you re-send the fax manually, it re-sends the first aborted one automatically and you end up sending two faxes if you don't turn this annoying feature off. Good luck figuring out how to do that. And I build my own computers.
* Brother's software package is horrible. The scanning options look like something from 1990. Can't even decide where to save scans, it hides them in a folder in the My Pictures folder called "ControlCenter2." Oh sure, how obvious, LOL.
Customer Review: Economical to operate and easy to use
Summary: 5 Stars
This multifunction center has been a wonderful tool for us so far. It replaced a fax machine, a scanner, and cheap printer that we used to have. We have less machinery crowding the desk.
I print a lot of things from the internet. With my old cheap printer, I bought a lot of ink cartriges. When you consider the cost of the ink, that cheap printer wasn't so cheap. True, this is only a monochrome machine, but I can live with that. I didn't need color ink for what I do. This is so much more economical to run. I don't have to worry about the cost of my copies as much.
My old printer was also SLOW. I was constantly frustrated by the time it took to print simple pages. Well, let me tell you, this baby can really crank out the copies. It is fantastic.
As for the old scanner, it was a really temperamental. This machine, so far, has been a breeze to use. Ease of use is important to me, since I am just a novice home user.
I really appreciate the faxing abilities of this machine. How I wish I had owned this machine when I used to fax my husband's paperwork every night. It doesn't need the supervision the old fax needed. I haven't had paper jamming problems that I used to have.
When we set up the machine, we also were adding a new modem for DSL and a telephone with answering machine to our new system. Since we are not computer whizzes, we had a little difficulty with figuring out the wires. My spouse called Brother for help. They worked with us until we found out what we had done wrong and had the machine up and working.
I am really pleased with this machine. It has really filled our needs beautifully. I hope the machine will work as well for you!
Customer Review: Works great in a mixed PC/Mac network!
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on the reviews here, I recently purchased a Brother MFC-7820N all-in-one multifunction machine. It was a breeze to set up on my PC. Setting it up on the Mac was ALMOST as easy, but not quite. I also have a previously installed Epson Scanner, and the Brother Control Center kept trying to use (unsuccessfully, of course) the Epson scan software.
Curses! But it had an easy fix. I uninstalled all of the Epson software, restarted my Mac, and the Brother worked flawlessly. I then reinstalled the Epson software, restarted again, and both the Epson scanner and the Brother work well.
One of the features I like about this product is the flexible "scan to" capability (scan to email, scan to file, scan to OCR, scan to image), which can be initiated either at the Brother or at a computer. Works perfectly with both the Mac and PC. (This feature would be great in an office setting where the Brother wouldn't necessarily be right next to the computer.)
Unlike the experience of a previous user, I had no trouble with the OCR software for the Mac (Presto Page Manager). It worked fine with a good quality original.
I do agree with those who say this is a "power hog". I have it on the same circuit as my other computer equipment, and occasionally when the fuser "lights up" the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) will kick in for a second because of the undervoltage situation created by the high power draw. I'm intending to put a new circuit into the room so the printer is isolated from the rest of the equipment. Of course, NEVER plug a laser printer directly into a UPS!
Other than the high power requirement, the machine is just perfect!
Customer Review: Great Multifunction Laser Printer
Summary: 5 Stars
My previous multifunction laser (a Brother MFC-4800) finally gave me a hardware error code after nearly four years of good service. After reviewing the market for multifunction flatbed scanning laser printers, I found my choices were the Brother 7820N, the Canon MF5750, and the HP Laserjet 3030 (I also considered the Samsung SCX4720F but could not find it locally). I was never keen on Brother's approach of using separate toner and drum cartridges because of the slightly greater expense, so I decided to try a different manufacturer. I bought the Canon since it got better reviews than the HP. Got it home, set it up, and found out the paper tray feed mechanism did not work correctly; likely because of the flimsy way in which it was designed and constructed. Rather than exchange it, I returned it and came home with the Brother 7820N instead. After one week, I am extremely pleased I decided to go with the Brother instead of the Canon. The Brother seems better built and sturdier. It works like a charm (I don't use the network interface, bought this model to get the bigger memory). The driver and "tools" included are very nice and allow me to do everything I could ever want. Faxing capabilities are superb and way overkill for what I need, but still very easy to operate. I don't want to knock the Canon too much, since the brief time I used it, it seemed to have nice features. It just seemed like it would be easier to damage (especially the paper tray). The Brother is a slicker machine; smaller, better built, and less expensive. I think I'll just order my supplies online, where they can be had for much less than my local office supply store.