Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-9200C Flatbed Color Multifunction

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I got an MFC-9200C on April 16 and began using it immediately. As a copier (mono or color), it is worth the $ I paid. I can drop a stack of papers into the sheet feeder and it runs them through without any problems, making excellent copies. Although not great, the color matching while copying is good. Another sheet feeder advantage is the ability to scan several pages; priceless for entering multipage documents into an application. If you want to FAX, there is no need to use the computer, the 9200C can operate independently as a FAX machine. It also has ports for CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards but I have not used them at all. I was leery of buying an all-in-one device because of reliability concerns but I am glad got the MFC-9200C. I saved many hours scanning a 200-page document into Adobe without any problems or having to individually handle all those pages. Since it has a flat glass surface, you can scan (or copying) several small items (like receipts) at once or pages from a bound book. As a printer, it is a little noisier than I would prefer but the output is high quality and fairly fast. Discount ink cartridges are not yet available but their cost is not too high. I would certainly buy this device again and highly recommend it to anyone who frequently needs to scan or wants the convenience of a home copier.

Where should I begin? I purchased this multi-function machine knowing I would need to live with less than best of breed quality for each of the components (fax, flatbed scanner, copier, inkjet printer) to save space on my desk. However, I was not prepared for just how bad this experience was going to be.

Let's start with the positive - The fax worked fine.

Let's move on to the merely irritating - Scanner resolution is exceptionally poor for photographs and on an XP machine there are no drivers to adjust it. However, the quality is acceptable for text based scanning.

This leads into the area where this product really is inadequate - Print Quality. Black and White text is acceptable. However, this is a color inkjet printer. Ostensibly you are going to want to do something with it besides print black and white text.

Since the copier function depends on both the print quality and the scanner resolution, you can imagine how I feel about this feature.

The final irritant is that the print cartridges become unusable if you do not print almost daily. This can become quite expensive.

My opinion is that Brother cut too many corners in the design and manufacture of this beast.

This is the first time I have purchased anything other than an HP Printer and I am exceptionally disappointed.

This machine was replacing a 5-year old fax that was of the roll type.

I've had the machine in the office for three weeks, so I'm bound to discover new glitches or features, but here's the initial reaction. It's attached by a USB port to a Dell using Windows 98.

Positive comments:

It set up out of the box fairly easy.

As a fax machine it works fine. This is a big upgrade from what my office had, and the sheet feeding option works very well. It even handles our need to punch in codes for billing within the long-distance service we use.

As a copy machine it works very well. Previously we had to walk out of our office to use the copier and now for 80% of our work, the MFC does great. In fact, our current copier does not have a sheet feed function and so for those cases the MFC is a real time saver.

As a color copy machine it works well for draft work, and if you have the time to wait, it will do a fair, detailed color copy, similar but not as good as one you could get at Kinkos.

As a compact flash card reader for digital camera images, good for draft level work only, but it is fairly straightforward to use.

I don't quite have a sense of what a per page cost of the machine is. We've gone through one black cartridge so far, which seems a little fast.

I liked the idea that I was able to get rid of my desktop scanner. It has a twain interface which seems compatible with most programs so far.

Negative comments:

A few parts of the machine seem wildly flimsy. I speaking of a plastic flap on the paper tray which seems to have only a little less thickness than a milk carton.

The instruction book needs a rewrite. I haven't documented it, but the feeling is that occasionally it's describing things that don't quite relate to what the machine wants to do. This seems to occur especially in the section that covers the software to PC issues.

The software comes with PaperPort, which is overall a very useful bit of software, but the interface could use some tweaking to have it follow a Microsoft Office model. I still haven't figured out the fax-from-PC software that is part of the bundled software.

The fax setting has a default setting that slightly reduces the incoming faxes. Our work requires that everything be sent and received at 100%, so after I changed the settings it now spits out a few blank pages along with every fax. I guess it's trying to get the whole sheet area.

The keypad and buttons are confusing. This may just be a case of trying to do too much. It could use one of those large LCD screens that changes to take you through complicated operations. Fairly non-intutive.

Overall I'm pleased and would recommend the purchase of this. I think Brother is on the leading edge of these machines along with HP.

This unit has two advantages over the HP G85XI model. First it can read your digital camera flash cards and second it costs less. It does a good job at color printing and copying and it's fairly fast. However, it's annoying that it doesn't come with an on/off switch. You have to unplug it to cut off the power.

What I don't like about this Brother unit is that the ink cartridges dry up quickly. They only lasted 4 months before needing replacement. I suspect that might be because I didn't use color much. The black cartridge still works after 6 months. Still, I've had other color printers where the ink cartridge lasted for years without drying up. My other problem is that I get an out of paper message when there is 25 pages of paper left. Brother's technical support isn't so good. One woman wanted me to clean the rollers even after I told her it was doing this brand new out of the box.

The Brother 9200C is an exceptional value and works well but you may not be able to use all the advertised functionality until Brother publishes an update to its bundled software. I use Windows XP, which contains built-in drivers for the 9200C. It scans and prints well but you can't install the software from the CD so the PhotoCapture Center, ScanSoft™, PaperPort®and and TextBridge®OCR that is advertised won't do you any good. HP has the same problems so the Brother 9200C is a better choice than the HP for most home/small office users

I just bought this thing, and I used the fax right away, and now I have a fax on my home phone, haven't used it yet, but that's nice, also the smartmedia/compactflash is added right in, I already had a reader, but now I can leave it always attached to my laptop. The sheet feeder is great. I scanned in about 200 pages this weekend in a scant amount of time. Be aware that B&W scanning is very fast, maybe 10 secs a page, but copy scanning is probably 10x that, but the scans look great. also the photocopier is fast and accurate. I used it to copy the . . . reciept. also it's usb, so it connected very easily. it apparently has some problems with win me, but now with my ME.

the only thing bad is that color printing from photos is not the best. it's ok, but I wouldn't plan on buying this to print your pictures out, but as a home office workhouse, this is the thing for you.

Potential buyers with WIN 2000 systems should be aware that the CD ROM software that comes with this unit is not compatible. You can download updated software from their web site, but no WIN 2000 compatible software is yet available for the PhotoCpture Center, one of the unit's main new features. Buyers are supposed to keep checking the Microsoft web site for it. All of this in spite of the fact that the unit container and even this site declares it fully WIN2000 compatible. This is a misrepresentation of this unit's capabilities. In addition, buyers who need technical support from Brother will have to wait two weeks or more for help. They are swamped, because many people have difficulty with downloaded software installation as compared with the normal automated CD-ROM process.

I can't rate all of the functions since the only thing I could do with this machine was stand-alone copy. It performed very well and very quickly, and also collates. I tried to install the drivers and software on my brand new Dell Dimension 4100 computer which came with Windows ME and after trying to restart the computer, Windows would hang up. I have spent over 5 hours on the phone with the Brother support people trying to resolve the problem, and they finally referred it back to their software unit. After waiting for 2 weeks and getting no response after several more phone calls, I returned the unit and gave up. I bought this unit because I wanted all the features, but it just won't work with Windows ME at this time.

I recently replaced an HP scanner and Epson laser printer with the Brother MFC-9200C. Used in a simple home network, we primarily need it for everyday PC document printing and photocopying.

My wife really appreciates the "stand-alone" copier and fax functions, and we are all impressed with its overall speed and quality. This device makes photocopies in about half the time it previously took to scan (on a fairly speedy scanner) and print on a laser printer ... and the quality is as good or better.

My daughter has fun trying to see if she can spool a school report from her PC to the Brother MFC-9200C and get downstairs before the printed page is in the tray! She's pretty fast, but most of the time the MFC-9200C is faster!

The software that comes with the Brother MFC is easy to install and use. So far, this is one of the best purchases I've made.

The manufacturer knows this is a horrible product and should recall and replace them. Ours needs a new print head after VERY little use over the past few years. As the other people stated, it is extremely expensive to have the printhead replaced. Consumables are outrageously expensive too. HP is the way to go. Stay far away from Brother products.