Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-8420 Laser Multifunction

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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!!!

For our small office of 6 people, we have been looking for an office machine that is easy to operate, reliable, and cost-effective. The four contenders are HP 3330 MFP, Canon D680 imageClass, Brother MFC 9700, Brother MFC 8820D. They are all 4-in-1/5-in-1 machines(Fax, Laser printer, Scanner, Copier, Data/Fax modem) priced below US$800. Brother MFC 9700 is cheaper but comes with a 14.4k modem and only 8MB memory and a smaller flatbed; as the result it faxes and prints slower than MFC 8820D. The remaining three candidates all have excellent "pedigrees" and are well designed and built. However Brother MFC 8820D won at the end for the following outstanding reasons:

1. The 'D' in 8820D stands for Automatic duplex copying and printing: It prints on both sides of papers seamlessly and effortlessly. It is not necessary to remove the paper tray manually (a really tedious process in other machines). Duplex "fax receive" saves 30% to 50% in papers by printing faxes on both sides automatically. Now one can have some break from the cost of receiving junk faxes. This feature can be disabled if one-sided printing is desired

2. 32MB memory: This is more than enough for holding a lot of copies and faxes. Very good for large unattended jobs. The best part about this is again about cost. No immediate need to spend more money for upgrading the memory as is required for Canon D680 (measly 2 MB).

3. PC fax software for computer data/fax needs.

4. Expandability for network interface.

5. Digital paper count to indicate the no. of copies made and faxes received: good for cost management and safe guard against potential abuse of the machine by employees for personal uses.

6. Excellent ADF (automatic document feeder): we have not had any paper jam so far.

7. Very easy to program and operate: simple to use for beginners and sophisticated features for users who demand more advanced functions.

8. Last but not the least is the cheaper cost for its toner on a per page basis.

There are only two minor drawbacks for us:

1. MFC 8820D's ADF/scanner does not scan a page from edge to edge. However this is true of all machines in this price range. Canon D680 omits the least at both margins. HP 3330 is the worst.

2. Large footprint. We had to relocate it to a different room in the office where there is enough space instead of putting it at a more convenient place where there is easier access. Nevertheless it's not too bad considering that it replaces 4 separate machines all at once. Besides it forces us to walk down the hallway and get some exercies!! ;--]

I have owned three different HP printers and have always thought
that they were the best until I bought the Brother MFC8420. The first printer that has been a breeze to set up and it's ease of use is a pleasant surprise. I could talk about all the good features of this MFC all day long but yet cannot think of a single thing I don't like about it. Quality throughout, nothing flimsy. Buy this MFC Laser for all your black & white needs and a Ink Jet printer for your color photo's and your won't be sorry.

I played with the similar models from HP (3330), Canon, and Samsung at my local store. Brother seems most solid. Plus definitely has the best engineering pedigree. I think each model/year brother has gotten more robust. Don't trust the first efforts of the other companies.

In the office it's great. No jams, efficient ADF, fast and flawless laser printing, fast ADF copies too! Hope to get good toner performance based on others experience. Certainly they seem to be more fairly priced than the competetors drum/toner cartridges that all and unstated or mediocre capacities.

Very satisfied so far.