Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-9440CN Color Laser All-in-One Printer with Built-in Ethernet Network Interface

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am very pleased with my Brother MFC-9440CN. Here are some positive and negative points:

-- Positive --

It is very easy to set up. I have it configured for access through Ethernet, and it was far easer to get set up than other network printers I've installed. Other setup options are easy to understand and set. It also supports USB and parallel connections. No printer cables are provided. Software installed quickly and without problems under Windows XP.

Black and white print quality is outstanding -- as good as any printer I've ever used.

The print speed is very good.

Is a very solid machine (it takes two people to lift it). It feels like it is built to last. (see negative comment below)

Copying is easy, and there is an option to collate copies of multipage documents (they call this "stacking").

Toner cartridges are reasonably priced on a cost/page basis.

It has a front auxiliary paper feeder that can be used for envelopes or other media. I find this extremely valuable.

I haven't had any paper jams.

I have successfully printed color CD labels using Neato label material. It handled the thick material fine, and the image was good.

Faxes are easy to send.

-- Negative --

It takes 30 seconds for the first copy to be completed when you do the first print while it's cold. I have an HP 2420d that gets the first copy out in 7 seconds flat.

The machine is heavy and large. Don't try to move it by yourself. (see positive note above).

The color saturation is not as deep as I would like. Don't misunderstand, the color is good, but when printing something like a bar chart with deep, solid colors, the colors aren't as deep as I would like. There may be some setting to adjust this, but I haven't found it.

The machine makes more noise than my HP 2420d, but the noise is not objectionable.

The machine draws a lot of power. My room lights dim when it is warming up.

Overall summary: Very fine color laser printer that is easy to set up, easy to use, fast, and solidly built. I have no regrets with the purchase.

I was looking for a device to replace my aging HP OfficeJet D145, which started to have problems printing color. I was looking for a multi-function device that can print, fax and occasionally scan. I also wanted duplex capability, so I can save paper by printing double-sided.

I read great reviews of this unit, and I saw it in action in a local store. The only thing which I wasn't clear about was the duplex capability. Amazon lists it as having this capability, but Brother's own web site does not. Since I bought this device I can positively confirm it does NOT have duplex capabilities.

Nevertheless I was not willing to step up to its bigger brother, the 9840cdw, since it's just bigger, heavier and in my opinion not as nice looking as this unit.

I was looking for a silent machine, both when it's printing but also during its sleep time. For a home office printer I don't want more noise in it. This unit is rated at 30db noise. It's whisper quiet while sleeping, and not too loud when printing. It's certainly louder than the D145. There is a big fan on the right hand side of the printer that makes a lot of noise. When the printer boots up or prints the first page after it's been waken up from sleep, it tends to make a lot of noises for about 40 seconds. When not in sleep mode, the first page comes out in some 21 seconds, which is really fast and exactly as stated on Brother's web site.

The print quality is excellent! If you're using an inkjet for your day to day prints, you should look at outputs from laser printers. I'll still be using my Epson printer for photo prints, but for quick pictures for my kids to take at school, I'll be using this machine.

This device comes with 64MB of RAM inside it. You may want to buy some more memory if you're printing graphics intensive pages. This should help speed up the printing process quite a bit. Since I couldn't find specs on what memory works within the printer, here is it. You need PC-100 or PC-133, 144 pins, SDRAM memory chips of 128MB, 256MB or 512MB. If you have a computer older than 3 years that you're thinking of recycling, it's very likely the memory from it will work in your printer.

I setup the printer with a static IP address in my home network. I have mostly Macs, but also few WinXP and Linux systems. On Macs you need to install the PPD package only, to get the minimum printing functionality. On WinXP adding the printer manually and pointing it to the driver on CD will do its job. On Ubuntu Linux you can simply add the printer, and the system will recognize its type and indicate to you the manufacturer and its type. What an easy setup, it couldn't have been easier!

By comparison, I struggled few days to get my old HP working on MacOS X when I got the new Intel systems. Their drivers were PowerPC only and were working really badly on Intel. Even their PowerPC versions were years old and no longer maintained, making switching to a new major OS X release a major pain. A networked printer such as this Brother makes it so much easier to integrate in your network.

You can manage the printer in multiple ways. By far the most convenient way is via your Web browser. This way you can access the printer from any computer in your network, without having to install anything.

One bonus feature I found is the ability to scan a set of pages and have them uploaded via ftp to a machine in your network or on the Internet (I would advice against doing that). This way you can scan your documents and have them uploaded on your main machine without having to start an application on your computer. If you want to do this though, there is a bundled application that you can run on your computer, that connects over Ethernet to the machine and scans your documents. I tested it on MacOS X and it works great.

One weird thing is not with the printer but with Amazon. I decided to buy this printer when I saw it drop to $550. With Amazon Prime I got free 2-day shipping, so I decided to buy the unit. After I got the machine, I noticed the price went up to $680! So if you're not in a hurry, you may want to wait until the price drops some more.

You read the title right. Tech support assures me it uses up color toner even during black printing. I have tons of black toner and rarely use color but I can't even print black right now until I pay brother $XXX (edit: price removed after a while as toner prices have been dropping) for new COLOR cartridges!

The advertised costs are completely false, your will spend $XXX per toner replacement because you need to replace the color as well as black toner. I talked to two different tech support people because I really couldn't believe it. Please see the discussion on this topic, and note that the manufacturer does not disagree with me.

MUCH MORE DETAIL in the discussion.

UPDATE 11/12/09 - Recent firmware update from brother supposedly allows for B/W printing even if you run out of color toner. If that works I will temper my opinion of this printer. Thanks to Brother for hearing our comments. Note that you have to manually apply this firmware update.

Brother is the only printer manufacturer who actually meets their speed claims. This is a workhorse of a printer/fax/scanner.

Also, the software is minimalistic but does everything you need (I have it on OS X).

Lets see, fast printing, fast scanning, fast copying. Great looking output. This printer does it all.

Sorry this is long review. This machine has some great features. It has a low price point for a color laser printer. It has your basic all-in-one features that us small business owners like: fax, print, copy, scan. The software allows you to configure the machine from your computer, much easier than punching all the numbers on the face of the machine to make everything appropriate. The cartridges are easy to replace as well. It has a network card built-in (not wireless). One of my favorite features, the document feeder, is significantly faster than any other all-in-one I've owned or used. I also have an HP 7310 and a Canon 780. This one is at least three times faster (maybe even more) at feeding pages through the scanner. I scan a large number of documents, so this is a very valuable and important feature for me. I had another Brother machine and it was very fast as well.

Here are my problems:

The printer does not scan a true 8.5 by 11 - it shorts you about a quarter inch from top to bottom and on the sides. I scan documents and need the entire page, but this machine does not scan the entire page. I can set the option to custom size to get the entire 11 inches in length, but the width can not go over 8.27 inches, a quarter inch short of real size. I called Brother to find out why it doesn't scan an entire page and they told me it was not a border-to-border printer and was within their "specs". Would have been nice to know, but this isn't a complete deal killer.

The color is mediocre at best. You can't print professional quality flyers as advertisements. The colors are dull, even on photo paper and on the vivid setting. The color is good for nice color handouts, but nothing professional. This was expected since I knew this going in. This is not an expensive machine, so I was not going to use it to produce professional advertisements and such.

The automatic document feeder does not feed the paper in straight. I have stood over the machine to make sure the paper went into the feeder straight, but the copy or scan turn out rotated. I have things off by a quarter inch, but most things are only slightly off kilter by about 1/8 of an inch. Unfortunately some things are off by even more - and this is with me staring at the feeder as the paper is going straight in. The other issue is that they're always off in the same direction, a little twisted to the right. I called Brother and they said it was "within specs", which is 3mm in any direction. I have a feeling this is only my machine; either a feeder problem, a internal interpolation problem or a combination of both. I believe this because I never get a crooked copy to the left, always to the right. Regardless, I have never had a perfectly straight copy, which is a deal breaker for me if it can't be fixed, so continue. I have read that others were able to fix this problem by having the ADF replaced through the warranty. The inability to scan straight is a deal breaker.

My fax doesn't work right. Two of the last 30 faxes has gone through (both only one page each). It's always had a problem faxing (sending and receiving), but he fail rate has increased significantly over the past couple weeks. I must take things home and fax from my personal Canon all-in-one. I tried this machine on a regular phone line and two VOIP lines (different VOIP and internet connections - the slowest being a T1) . A co-worker of mine has the MFC-9840 (the upgrade to this model) on the same VOIP system at work and hers works without any problems. I believe the modem is bad on my machine, but continue. A non-functioning fax is a deal breaker.

If these were the only problems (with the modem and document feeder replaced) , I would rate this machine at a 4. It's a nice machine with nice bang for your buck. It has a low price point, several basic all-in-one machine features, but it has the fastest document feeder in the West, which I love. My biggest problem has been the customer service. I've called six times in the past two weeks to address the three main problems I'm having: inability to scan the full width of a letter or legal sized piece of paper, crooked copies, and the fax not working properly. Every time I hear "within specs", but I get transferred to the next level of support. After demanding the contact information for the CEO with speaking with my second tier 3 tech (they're the only ones capable of authorizing on-site repairs - that's how they fix their machine - not RMA like everyone else), he finally said he would send a tech to replace the main board, the NCU board (which has the modem) and the document feeder. All their techs told me that all the problems my machine was having were either "within specs" (the 8.27 inch scan width and the crooker document feeder) or the VOIP problem (faxes failing because I was on VOIP).

Luckily I bought the machine at Costco. If the service call doesn't fix this machine, it's headed back and I'll have to start looking at a new machine, I may just by the upgrade 9840 as the price has fallen and my friend loves her machine. I had problems with the last Brother, the print head had a well known shorting out problem that wasn't covered by the warranty after 90 days, and returned it away shortly after the problem (and bought the Canon 5 years ago). There's no way I will buy another Brother machine, until I forget how awful the service has been this time around.

I hope P.H. Sherrod, above, will forgive me it I "ditto" that excellent review, with the following slight differences/additions:

The unit is pretty large and heavy, but if you are a healthy male you can probably set it up yourself. (If you slide it over the edge of a desk, though, prepare for some desk-damage!)

I use it with XP Pro, Vista, and OS X 10.4, all via Ethernet, and it works great with all. Printer set-up was super-easy. Edit: It works fine with Leopard, too - my new Mac Pro added it without a hitch.

It is considerably quieter than the HP AIO it replaced.

While it is not a photo printer, printed photos are better than I expected. (For "real" prints, I use Adorama or, locally, Wolf.)

[...]

The Brother multi-function works well in all areas, once you get through the set up.

PRINTING. I have given it heavy print loads (50-100 page documents) and it cranks the pages out quickly. Good reasonable capacity paper tray. Excellent quality on high capacity.

FAX: Fax works well, but caution. If you intend to share with a phone line and your phone equipment has an answering machine, the only way to get automatic answering is to have the unit answer all calls and emit a unique ring from the unit (not from your phone extensions) to tell you when it is a voice call. As I have a large house and we couldn't hear the unit's ring throughout the house, I had to get a second phone line dedicated to the fax machine. Oh, and if you answering is from the phone company and you want to share that line with the fax machine, FUGETTABOUTIT!

Scanning, NOW, works well both on Mac and on windows machines and on windows running on virtual computer on Mac. Installation was hell. CD's had outdated drivers, and it didn't work well until I called customer support, which, happily, was outstanding. Happily, because owner's manual is in Greek and is incomprehensible to this doctorate-educated user. Nothing about the set up is intuitive. Example, if you look in the manual for how to scan a document, it says, go to the CD documentation, and when you do, it starts talking about opening TWAIN software (what is THAT?). Only way I have figured out to scan is to open included paper Port software and use that software to start scan. This is fine for me, and the unit produces high quality scans in PDF (and others, I'm sure) format, which is exactly what I need. I really like that multiple page scans turn into a single multi-page pdf file, a trick my office's scanner hasn't mastered!

Note: unit is NOT wireless, but works well in a wireless network with an Ethernet connection to the wireless router.

BOTTOM LINE: If I did not need high capacity printing, I would not buy this unit again, because the set-up is such hell. If you buy this unit, don't even bother with the manual. Download the drivers from the Internet (call tech support first, because there are so many choices involved in installing and choosing the right software it is brain numbing). Good product. Poor human factors design. VERY complicated, to the point of frustration, to set up. Easy to work with once set up is done, and print, fax and scan quality is comparable with the machines at my office. Nice small footprint, but the unit is tall, if you intend to keep it inside a cabinet bear this in mind!

Dear folks at Brother: fire your technical writers, and hire some high school kids to explain to a fourth grader how to make the machine print, fax, and scan. Transcribe the talk and THEN you'll have a useful manual. Oh yes, and get rid of complexity. I don't want or need seven choices for every bell and whistle!

This printer was purchased for home office. I was concerned about shelling out this much cash (although the best deal by far was though Amazon!) for a printer as I already had a multifunction. My issue was that I have 4 computers with 3 different operating systems and nothing has worked right (or at all) since we were forced to upgrade to Vista on 2 machines. After reading the reviews and contacting Brother directly, I purchased the printer and so far, I am very happy with it.

Pluses
-Super easy to install on the network
-Cost effective laser printing
-Works with all my operating systems
-Can manipulate scan type needed directly at the PC requesting it (ex. PDF, jpeg, tiff, etc.)
-Inexpensive color printing

Minuses
-Its heavy and big. This is not something to sit on your desk and you probably will need 2 people to move it.
-Its not photo quality printing...but it never claimed to be. Its still pretty darn good.

Great multifunction unit. Excellent color printing except photos which are good. Prints quickly except for the first page which has a 20 second delay. Solid and dependable. Document feeder never jams and is fast. Has autosensing of the secondary paper tray. Price is excellent for what you get. The unit uses 4 ink cartridges and black toner with each costing about $125 ($100 on special on Amazon)and they are good for about 4000 pages. That comes out to $400-500 total for 4000 color pages and $100 for 4000 black and white pages. The only problem is the size and weight. It is large, about twice the size of a HP 2200 laser printer and 3 times as heavy, so it won't hide away easily on or under a desk. I have mine in the office so size is not that much of a problem but even here, it gets noticed.

Great printer, but when its out of toner, its out and won't print. Even the ol' shake the toner and reinstall doesn't work too well. So keep an extra set. And when 1 color goes, they'll all go. But quality is wonderful. You won't be dissappointed.