Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-8840D Laser Multifunction

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This the third Brother laser printer I've purchased in the past seven years. This machine was a logical first choice based on my good experience with this brand. I've had this one for about four months and have put it to heavy use. Simply put, this machine does exactly what it promises and without any glitch. I used it with both my Mac and Windows XP PC at home; the software integrates well. Four other positives are worth mentioning: (1) the toner refills are inexpensive ($60 for the 7,000 page version), (2) they can be reliably refilled once each with the toner refill kits off of ebay ($12-16 each; not a messy process), (3) mine's not as loud as another reviewer's unit seemed to be (or maybe I'm used to the level of noise from Brother printers;), (4) The duplexing works very reliably (not a single jam since I bought this unit). Highly recommended.

Pros: For $450, getting a fax + copier + scanner + duplex laser printer is a pretty good deal. I considered buying higher quality printer, scanner and fax-modem components separately and then using my computer to integrate them, but there is something to be said for "press-a-button" copying and faxing that just works. I've found a lot of unexpected uses for the copy machine - no longer need to tote the whole textbook; just copy the chapter I plan to read, etc. The N-in-1 feature is useful - you can fit many textbook pages onto a single sheet. The printer is completely quiet when idle, though it takes a few minutes to fan down after printing something.

Cons: My biggest requirement in a printer was built-in duplex (double-sided printing). I couldn't find another laser duplex multifunction device for under $1000. (For those deciding, if black & white text print quality matters to you, do NOT buy an ink jet - or at least do a careful side-by-side print comparison. Laser is much better.) Anyway, I was pretty mad to find out that this printer only supports printing at 600 DPI duplex. There was absolutely no mention of this in the specs. There is a noticeable quality difference between 600 and the HQ1200 mode. Lots of jaggies in 600 dpi - almost looks like my old deskjet, though slightly better. It's still suitable for documents you'll just read over once. The other con is that this printer is darned ugly. When photocopying a textbook it is almost impossible not to accidentally press at least 10 of the over 50 buttons littering the front panel. It would have been nice if the cover was removable - I have had trouble scanning some textbooks that really aren't that large. My experience with Brother customer service was pretty bad - I had to literally wait 45 minutes on hold to speak to someone about the duplex issue.

After much research and some looking and testing, decided to go for this Brother machine based on reviews and my other good experiences with Brother equipment. Bought this at Costco for somewhere around $375. Set up was a breeze -- less than 30 minutes, and no problems with XP Pro. Networked it to my colleagues without problems. Works like a champ. Faxing is a breeze and sheet feeder is fast and well-designed. Copying is also slick. Printing has been fast with sharp text. Have not needed to scan anything yet. Toner save is a real plus for us b/c of the volume of faxes, copies, etc. that come through every day. Making command changes is a snap and pretty much intuitive. I thought the manual was very clearly written, and it's easy to find command changes you want. The size of the thing is a little intimidating -- I think it frightened away our other little inkjet, but I'm perfectly happy with it -- in fact, I think we got a steal on this thing. If you're looking for a sturdy, reliable, quick, 4-in-1 laser, take a look at this one. I think Brother has pretty much won me over -- I still have HP's, Epsons, and Canon printers around, but Brother is making some darn good quality stuff these days. I know there are a ton of 4-in-1 machines out there and prices are dropping quickly, but give this one a shot as you're looking around. I'm sure glad I got me a Brother.

I can't say enough good things about this machine. I own a lot of devices (a LOT - I'm a gadget freak) and most of them work fine, but few of them do as much and work as well as this one. It does everything I need - copy, fax, scan, print - almost perfectly. It's super-fast at everything, and great quality. Ease-of-use is great, too.

The PC-based configuration tools are great for setting up the fax speed-dial list and the scanner macros.

Speaking of which - the scanner macros rock! It's great to be able to just drop a 5-page document in the feeder, choose "Scan to file" on the display, and a minute later have 5 files on your desktop with that whole document. Or "Scan to image" will scan it color and hi-res, and open it right in Photoshop in 1 step! Even handier are "Scan to email" and "Scan to OCR". Fantastic!

With the document feeder and duplexer, (standard on this specific model,) it seems like it can do anything the super-copiers at Kinko's can do. And more... with the manual feeder tray and the straight-thru tray in the back, it does envelopes and thick stock like a champ!

Two small weak spots:

1. The scanner. It's fast and produces razor-sharp images, but its default brightness/contrast settings tend to produce very washed-out images that lose highlights (detail in the lighter shades). Luckily you can use the PC-based config tools to tweak the defaults to compensate for that. After you do that in the right places, you should get great-quality copies and scans every time.

2. The PC software isn't 100% intuitive, but it's all simple and easy enough with just a little exploring.

...but both of those are non-issues for me now, so I'm extremely happy with this machine!

this thing is great. its my first laser printer. its my first fax machine. its my first sheet-fed scanner. previously i had been using my built-in fax modem, inkjet printer, and portable flatbed scanner (cannon 1650 which i actually really like). i use all sorts of laser printers, fax machines, and scanners at the office so i know what i was looking for. the brother mfc-8840d is great. i considered how much space i would need if i got a standalone sheet-fed scanner and laser printer and just reallly felt the combo in one unit was a good idea.

and i feel like i was proven (mostly) right with this machine. i've used it to laser-print (30%), to make copies(30%), to fax (10%), and to scan documents (30%).

copying works great. i find it a little confusing to figure out how to set it to copy from two one sided pages onto one (2->1) which i like to do to save paper and bulk. but making a straight-up photocopy of something is a piece of cake, fast and easy. i haven't spent the time to figure out all the copying related features though; the control panel is a bit daunting with all those buttons.

faxing was no problem. i found this easier than copying. still a little too many buttons and options but to just send a regular fax is very straightforward. i'm not sure if i've ever tried to receive a fax, i think i tested it once just for kicks, but it seems like that would work just fine too. it has all sorts of options for use with an answering machine or a distinctive ring tone where it will answer the phone and wait to see if it is a fax before ringing through. these features are too complicated and not really useful unless your set-up matches their ideal set up perfectly. and they don't work if your phone line has voicemail instead of an answering machine. but if you've got a dedicated fax line you'll be fine.

printing: absolutely amazing. never had any sort of problem. i configured the low-toner mode, duplex mode, all sorts of stuff very easiy. this is where this machine REALLY shines. the updated print driver i got from the brother web site is an improvement over the one i got in the box, but they both worked fine. its fast (the first page is a bit slow as the printer needs to warm up for a bit - i print only about twice or three times a week so i turned the power-saving mode to maximum and it is always snoozing when i wanna print) but every single page after the first flies out. i printed out 15 copies of a 2 pg document, collated, and it was lightning fast. granted it was only 30 pages total but once it got started i felt like it was already done. (i didn't use the duplexer for this one, but i usually do and it works great.)

so in summary, printing is a 10, faxing and copying are 8's, and scanning.... well lets talk about that for a minute.

scan quality is an 8. scan speed is a 7. scan software a 6 (i somehow got paperport 8 instead of 9, bummer.) but (here's the big BUT) the scanner driver is a 2!

i use the fujitsu scansnap 5110EOx2 at the office. it is a marvel. put your document in, push the scan button, get back to your desk and the document is sitting in your scan directory in pdf format ready to go. i love it. i didn't expect the brother mfc 8840d to be quite as good.

but i didn't expect it to be so labor intensive either. the scan quality is fine. scanning speed is fine. adf is fine. paperport 8 is fine. i've used a few other software packages and they work fine as well. but for some dopey reason every time you scan something the scanner driver pops up a window asking for all kinds of information about the document to be scanned and how to handle it. and it defaults to all kinds of crazy settings! I always want to scan the same way, black and white, 200dpi, letter sized paper. the scanner driver defaults to full color, 300 dpi, a4 sized paper. every new scan job i do i have to click down to customize settings, change the paper size, change the resolution, and change the color settings. this makes the scanner almost useless for my purpose, which was to scan in all sorts of household and business paperwork and toss the originals in the basement. brother's website blames this horrible driver on microsoft by claiming that MS requires this for the MS hardware compatibility logo! its in their faq! (...) i don't know if thats true or not, but i've used plenty of scanners before and they ALL have let me choose some default settings and stick with them for one button or one click scanning. (...)

this is the one and only thing keeping me from giving this otherwise wonderful MFC a full 5 star review. and its so silly and easily fixed. hope they fix it!

I am a former user of a Xerox copier/printer (XD125F) that I purchased a few years ago for $550. I loved that machine, but when its fuser assembly finally went, the technician told me it just wasn't worth fixing.

So I went comparison shopping for a replacement. It made sense to start with Xerox, but I wasn't crazy about their comparable model (PE-16). So I looked at their M15i model, which was a bit more expensive than I'd planned to go ($1,100). Reviews on the model were scarce, but I went ahead and purchased it. When it came, I was horribly disappointed. It interfered with my home wireless network--the network would no longer work once the driver was loaded. Finally, the programming on this unit was all screwed up--even though I'd chosen "English," the printer dialogue box was mostly in German. In addition, a menu item that was supposed to reduce background copy marks was not even present, so all my copies had a gray-dotted background. I called tech support, who tried to talk me through the settings to turn on the needed feature to reduce the background "noise," but the programming menu was missing a vital selection. The technician finally told me that there must be a "glitch."

So, not surprisingly, the machine went back. Which left me back at square one.

Then I started reading reviews on the Brother 8840-D. I briefly considered buying a Canon ImageClass, but it was lacking too many features that the Brother offered. So, I took the plunge and purchased the Brother 8840-D at Office Depot for $500, plus an added $90 for a two-year warranty on top of the one-year warranty that comes with the machine. I have been thrilled with it. It produces clear copies, faxes, and scans. Its double-sided features take a bit of practice to figure out (there are a ton of configurations), but once you do, you'll love how easily you can print 2-sided copies from either 1- or 2-sided copies. (I had a brief moment of panic, when I noticed that the machine only printed 2-sided from 2-sided copies with the back side upside down. My panic quickly turned to relief, however, when I realized that I merely had to turn the 2-sided copy 180 degrees when I sent the original through again to copy the even-numbered pages! I was a bit slow...)

The machine integrated into my existing wireless network (between my laptop and desktop) seamlessly (unlike the Xerox M15i), and I was able to hit the ground running immediately. There's an option to purchase an additional 250-page paper tray on top of the 250-page tray that comes standard. I may actually do this--I make a ton of copies so the current tray does empty quickly. It's hard to find a copier with a 500-page tray that comes standard OR optional, so I'm very glad Brother has this as an additional option.

Perhaps the only con to this machine is the complexity of its features. A few times I was about to get angry at the machine because I couldn't make it do what I wanted--BUT calming down and referring to the manual enabled me to set it up the way I wanted every time. I've had one problem with trying to make it print several copies from a 50-page, single-sided original--it says it runs out of memory. But it DOES print several copies from a double-sided original. So far, I've just done it that way instead.

Unlike many machines I have purchased, this machine has NOT REQUIRED A SINGLE CALL TO TECH SUPPORT. That's huge. If I do call, it will probably be to sort out that memory problem mentioned above.

I would recommend the Brother 8840-D for any small home-based business. It does it all: single- and double-sided copies, scan-once-print-many, faxing, scanning. It also has a 50-page document feeder--most other comparable copiers, such as from Canon, only go up to 30-page. My initial toner cartridge that came with the unit lasted 4,733 copies and printouts--the drum cartridge still has 74% left on it. The toner cartridge and drum cartridge cost about $60-$70 each.

This machine would probably also have the stamina for a larger operation, although I haven't put mine through the workload of more than a single-user environment. I have been using this machine for three months now, and I love it.

We highly recommend the Brother MFC-8840D. We bought it to run off Karaoke song books (2 sided) and training documents, send and receive Faxes, make copies of single and multi-page documents, print correspondance and other computer files, and scan on occasion. It replaced an old HP IV Laserjet printer, an HP scanner and a Panasonic laser Fax machine. This beats them all by a mile. (Note: All color scans and color files are sent to a 2-sided inkjet printer.) We have not once been disappointed with the 8840D's performance in the past 6 months and expect it to provide us with many years of quality copies and reliabile performance.

Tom Alizio, President
Swan Point Associates, Inc.
A Management Development, Training,
Group Facilitation and Entertainment
Consulting services company

04 DEC 2009 - Machine continues to work exceptionally well - never had a problem. We are not in the market for one, but hopefully, the latest Brother multi-function printers are equally as good. We'll buy one when the time comes. Our motto is, "If it ain't broke, don't replace it."

MFC-8840D is a worthwhile upgrade for our aging Brother MFC-8500.

Compared to the previous model, it now has flatbed scanner, integrated print server and best of all automatic duplexer. The duplexer is very handy for printing out reems of technical documents without using up too much paper.

If you really want to avoid killing trees, the printer driver also allows 2-up printing. With that plus the auto duplex, you can fit 4 letter sized pages on a sheet of paper front and back.

Beware, the HQ1200 option can NOT be used used with the auto duplexer.

The manual feed tray also has been improved over MFC-8500. It's not just a slot to feed paper one at a time, now you can actually use the manual feed tray to hold about 10 sheets -- great for printing mailing labels.

Overall, the MFC works very well and the print speed is noticeably faster than before too.

The only issue we had was the initial network setup.
Brother's printer setup wizard was pretty clumsy and it didn't actually add the printer to Windows XP. I had to manually add the printer myself.

I purchased the MFC-8840D because it had a lot of capabilities with the ADF, scanner, laser printer, PC-Fax, etc etc etc. This machine is two months away from its 1 year anniversary (Dec 28th) of being in service and a page counter of 89,984. Yes that is right we will probably top the 100,000 mark before the end of the year! This wasn't purchased as a work horse for us but after seeing the usefullness and quality that it produces it was use it, use it, use it. Recommended purchase for anyone with the cost and features this machine has to offer.

I purchased the MFC-8840D because my job requires me to print forms for customers then scan them back into the computer as PDF files for electronic submission. I also do a small amount of copying. The MFC-8840D seemed like a good solution. I've had good luck with Brother products in the past and their software has always been reliable and kept up to date. I saw a similar model from Brother at a local office and was very impressed.

I had no trouble getting the unit up and running under Windows XP using the supplied setup instructions. I also had no problem getting printing and scanning running on Linux (Fedora Core 2) using the instructions from http://solutions.brother.com

This unit is very easy to use. The front panel controls as well as the software are very straight forward.

I was also able to share the printer portion of the MFC over my network without any problems. The N model or optional network adapter is not required for this.

The bottom line, good quality, extremely easy to use and setup, works great, good software, Windows & Linux support.