Brother MFC-7840W Laser Multifunction Center
by Brother Printer
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List Price: Our Price: $309.99 You Save: $140.00 (31%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $150.00 (click here) Category: Office Product See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother MFC-7840W Laser Multifunction Center
Customer Review: A great laser multi-function device
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had my Brother MFC-7840W about 2 months now. When comparison shopping, I found that it was the only laser printer in the price range. The others I compared were all inkjets and I wanted to go with laser technology. Another selling point was the multiple interfaces: wired Ethernet, wireless and USB.
I was impressed with the set up instructions: `fill out the registration form and fax it to us'. I thought that was great. You can test the fax and register the hardware at the same time. I sent in the registration and a few minutes later Brother sent me a confirmation fax. Very slick.
I chose to set it up on my wired network. I haven't experimented with using the wireless interface yet. The MFC is shared by my PC (wired network), my laptop (USB interface) and my son's laptop (wireless). Printer driver/software installation on all three went well.
I've mostly used it for printing and everything's been fine so far. I've scanned in some documents and that worked well. I've sent about 20 fax pages with no problems and copying is good too. All output is crisp and clear.
I like the web based interface which shows status, usage and system information. It comes with a couple of interesting software applications for managing and converting documents, but I've only played around with them a little bit.
Overall, I am very happy with my Brother MFC-7840W.
Customer Review: Great Multifunction albeit scanning software is archaic
Summary: 4 Stars
Environment: Apple Mac OSX 10.6
Will not list what other reviewers said about the features of this unit. It is a great average-priced MF printer that (which is very important) does scans over LAN or WiFi.
The design is a little outdated, the plastic parts look a bit flimsy and do not give you the impression of a well-built machine, but what can one expect from a $200 unit? What's important is that it works as advertised, and does so well.
I wish the setup was a bit easier. On Mac I had to spend an hour to get it to scan via network. Apparently the version of the software they supply with it, the Control Center, lags behind for Mac as opposed to the Win platform. I do not know what Windows are supplied with, but the Mac version SUCKS. It is unreliable, it crashes all the time for no reason, it does not allow for a preview window, etc. People at Brother, PLEASE, have someone write a decent scanning software for you, this one looks straight from 1993.
Other than that, it's tip-top. Prints fast and clean. Scans great, the res is amazing. Do yourself a favor and switch settings for scanning from color to B&W if you do not need color, and it'll zoom-zoom much faster.
Scanning directly from the unit into computer (initiating scan from the unit, that is) still does not work, but it is not that important. The unit is surprisingly compact and quiet.
Customer Review: Review after months of use
Summary: 5 Stars
I decided to wait for a while to write a review.
I really like this MFC printer. The wireless capabilities of the 7840W is really handy. No need to use a wire in case you choose to put the MFC in a central location like a living room where there might not be a wire set up. I also got one of these MFCs for my mom in law and she like this MFC even though she is tech adverse.
One really nice thing about this is the scan capabilities even over wireless and ethernet. I remember previous MFCs that had ethernet capabilties but that was for printing only. If you had to scan, you had to go to the PC that was close enough to connect with a USB cable. With the 7840W, you have no such concerns.
Also, toner life seemed to be decent. We are on our second toner cartridge and it doesn't seen outrageous in yield or costs with printing.
The fax function is good. I need to look at the manual to learn how to make it print a fax confirmation sheet.
I like the PC fax option from the printer drivers. Its a nice feature to have in case you are needing to fax over documents from the PC.
All in all, the brother 7840W is a gem of a small office/ home office tool. Network scanning is absolutely an awesome feature to have. As long as Brother keeps on making quality products like this, we will be supporters for a long time.
Customer Review: Brother MFC-7840W Wireless Multifunction Center
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great product for home and small office. I have a Dell laptop with Vista and a Gateway desktop with Windows 7. Both computers and the Brother are networked through my NetGear wireless router. The enclosed drivers and setup CD worked in both computers without incident. The Brother ControlCenter3 software, enclosed in the box, is intuitive and straightforward to use. I was up printing and scanning wirelessly on my first attempt without using anything more than the quick start guide.
I don't use the fax as I don't have a land line, but I keep all my records electronically and do a lot of scanning. There are several setup options for the scanner; mine is set to scan multipage docs into PDF files. I can place a stack of pages into the document handler and it scans them all in to one file.
Since there are no wires except the power cord, I have the Brother placed across the room in a bookshelf instead of jammed in around the desk.
I haven't had to replace the toner yet, but in price checking it is about $40.00 at the usual office supply stores for about 2500 avg pages vs the inkjet cartridges for my other printer, that cost $60.00 and you would be lucky to actually get 200 printed pages. The only negative, I had to change the router's security to 64 bit as the Brother won't take 128 bit key; it's too lengthy.
Customer Review: Faxing and scanning features not so great
Summary: 3 Stars
I have used brother printers for several years at home. As of now I have older HL-1440(still working), newer HL-5370DW and most recent this one MFC-7840w. HL-5370DW works fine except sometime quits wireless connectivity with router and printing will not work from wireless laptop or wired desktop computers.
For MFC-7840w, main issues for me are FAX and scanning. After working with brother tech, my fax problem could not get resolved. At the end, I was told that brother do not support/gaurantee faxing over VOIP(voice over IP)phone lines. I told them, sending fax works but receiving quits after few seconds. We tried several configurations but same problem. So if you buy this printer and fax is one of the feature important to you, please test it within the window of product return. I request others to post their experience if their fax receiving works OK with VOIP lines or what they have to do to make it work. Scanning document experience is similar to others. Brother needs to improve scan feature as this feature is also very important to people buying this MFC(multi function center) printer for the said purpose.
Wireless printing is fine except once in a while loosing wireless connectivity with router. copying is fine. Wish brother allowed printing from or scanning documents to USB drive as USB interface is available on printer.