Jan
08
Brother MFC-8890DW High-Performance All-in-One Laser Printer With Wireless Networking and Duplex
By
- Print and copy at up to 32 ppm
- 802.11 b/g Wireless and Ethernet interfaces
- Automatic duplex print/copy/fax/scan
- Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi print resolution
- 300-sheet paper capacity, expandable
Product DescriptionThe MFC-8890DW is a high-performance laser all-in-one with wireless networking and duplex print, copy, scan and fax features for your business or small workgorup. . . . More >>
Brother MFC-8890DW High-Performance All-in-One Laser Printer With Wireless Networking and Duplex
5 Comments
January 9th, 2010 at 2:13 am
I had an HP LaserJet 3030 all-in-one laser printer for five years. HP discontinued the scanner driver for the Macintosh Snow Leopard operating system so I decided to not buy another HP. I read Consumer Reports and they recommended the Brother MFC-7840W. Then I saw that Brother’s top-of-the-line MFC-8890DW only costs a little more. The toner cartridge is bigger and it prints on both sides of the paper so you save money on supplies. It’s easy to set up on a wi-fi network, enabling every computer in my office to print without cables. Scanned documents look identical to the originals, with fine detail. We had one problem. The printer stopped talking to our computers. I called Brother tech support and they talked me through deleting the printer driver and adding it back in. I’d give 4. 5 stars because those instructions should have been in the manual, but their tech support was good. Other than that everyone works as advertised and has exceeded our expectations.
Rating: 5 / 5
January 9th, 2010 at 2:36 am
I was shopping around for all-in-one printer, to replace an old HP DeskJet 6127 Color Printer inkjet printer and an even older HP LaserJet 6p. I wanted an all-in-one with fax, print, copy, scan and built-in duplex with networking support for scan to PC and fax from PC. For some reason, the HP inkjet AIO printers do not support faxing from the PC (their laser printers do, but not the inkjet printers). They also are pretty horribly reviewed. So, even though I generally love HP printers, they were ruled out.
After a lot of research, I selected the Epson Artisan 810 All-In-One Printer. Set it up, connected it, and started doing some test prints. The quality was pretty awful compared to my ancient HP Deskjet, using the same paper. We decided to send it back, because we just couldn’t put up with that bad text and dim image quality.
After some more thinking, I decided to keep the old inkjet for my color printing needs, and get a black & white laser multifunction printer. The Brother MFC-8890DW fit the bill, at a not unreasonable price. I was able to read all of the manuals at the Brother website and be certain that it could do everything I wanted. We especially liked the ability to copy, scan and fax from double-sided originals via the automatic document feeder – a lot of duplex devices only support duplex for output, not input. Additionally, the ability to work with legal-sized media was a bonus, as I’m going to law school next fall.
When the device arrive, I noticed a very nice, thoughtful thing Brother had done. When you open the boxes of most components, there are little diagrams telling you how to unpack the device. Brother, on the other hand, included instructions on how to re-pack the device. Since we tend to keep packing materials and reuse them when we move, this was a very nice touch.
The setup instructions were very clear, with step-by-step instructions for USB, parallel, wired and wireless networking setup split out, as well as Windows and MacOS software installations split out. There are also detailed instructions on setting up your fax line, depending on what other devices you have on that phone line and other things like distinctive-ring. Setting up the device was absolutely trivial – everything worked exactly as shown in the manual. The most complicated part of the setup was keying in my WPA-PSK code, which uses a mix of upper- and lower-case letters and symbols. Input is via a form of multi-tap input, which is probably trivial for texting young folk, but I prefer alphanumeric keypads. But it worked right the first time.
Software installation on Windows XP SP3 was also straightforward. The CD that comes with the device has support up to Vista, but there are Windows 7 drivers and a complete software package on the Brother website. The Brother Status Monitor application started up and asked if I wanted to monitor for firmware updates, which I did. It immediately found an update and took me to the Brother support site to download it. Installing the update went completely smoothly. The device beeps a lot while the update is in progress, but that’s the only annoyance.
Another nice thing Brother does is to support testing your fax configuration by faxing back your registration form. After you fax it to them, you will receive a fax confirmation back from them. No need to go bother a friend to test your fax. Nice touch.
The printer is blazingly fast, even with duplex printing. The quality is quite good, but not the very best I’ve ever seen. There’s a HQ 1200dpi mode available, which shows marked improvement on printed images. I’ve use dedicated HP laser printers for the last couple of decades, and they have better print quality. But the Brother’s output is excellent.
Every feature I’ve tested works perfectly – print, copy, fax, scan, fax from PC, scan to PC, etc. We’re using this at home, but it has a lot of features that are useful for a small office, including various network, security and remote management features.
This is an all-around excellent device, an absolute bargain. I give it my unqualified recommendation.
Rating: 5 / 5
January 9th, 2010 at 4:22 am
I have never owned a Brother printer. I do photos on Epson’s and always had HP lasers and 2 4 in one Office Lasers. This may be more about how crappy my last HP was and how it never was usable with Vista though I bought it AFTER Vista came out. Then I got a contact HP support for upgrade message which was unfixable. . . I could have called Obama at the White House easier than HP.
Anyway, being so frustrated I went for this puppy on Amazon.
I am so, so impressed. I set up wireless printing from my laptop in no time just following the instructions and software. My Vista’s are working great, seamless as are my XP’s. I just need a wire to it and my hard line network and the entire place will be printing faxing and scanning.
Scanning was great though easier through Photoshop CS4 I felt. But it was going there anyway as it was an immage. A document scanned easily and went to PDF with no hitches anymore. . . .
HP. . . I am done with you folks. . . . this machine kicked yours out the door and into the recyclers. . . .
Rating: 5 / 5
January 9th, 2010 at 5:05 am
We LOVE the fact that this speedy printer prints. . . faxes, and doesn’t have to be fed with paper after paper when faxing. .
It is super efficient and awesome. And we should know after suffering with the lamest HP printers for years. I am never
going back there again. . It is officially BROTHER time now. . .
Rating: 5 / 5
January 9th, 2010 at 7:53 am
I have been using this multi-function printer for about a week and am thoroughly impressed. As previous reviewers have noted, this is a great choice for a Mac environment. I was able to easily set up the wireless function for the computers in our small office and it is very convenient as we have one main iMac and several Macbook users as well. It worked fine with both our older and new computers.
The printer has all the features I could want. We are considering using it for a lot of scanning and I love that it can scan things that are double sided. My test scans were of good quality and worked fine in the ADF. Print quality has been very good–so good in fact that I will likely now do many of our simple b/w brochures in house (they looked better on the Brother than what I get back from the our local copy shop).
The other thing I love is how much more streamlined the machine is than our previous multi-function (Canon). The footprint is fairly small and the sides are streamlined so that I can fit other office equipment right next to it. Almost all the functions go through the front or the top, so it doesn’t take up much space on the sides.
I did have trouble with crumpled envelopes but I just tested out the trick mentioned in a previous review and that took care of it! So my only small complaint is that I didn’t find that info anywhere obvious in the manual.
Rating: 5 / 5