If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution for a workgroup or small business, consider the Brother MFC-9842CDW. This color laser printer incorporates Multi-Function Center technology that offers superior quality printing, copying, scanning and faxing with integrated network connectivity. It offers the same copy speed, print speed and output quality as its sibling, the MFC-9440CN.
The printer adds two-sided input/output (automatic duplexing) and has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder, a legal-size document glass, and an integrated 802.11b/g wireless interface. It impressively offers a monochrome and color speed of 21 pages per minute and a copy speed of 17 copies per minute. You’ll get professional looking documents, presentations or brochures.
Connectivity is flexible: you can scan, fax or print wirelessly, or you can connect the printer to a wired network or locally to a single computer with USB. The advanced duplex capability feature reduces costs and saves paper by printing two-sided documents and brochures. With the automatic document feeder, you can also fax, copy, and double-sided scan.
Paper handling is versatile. The paper tray has a 250-page capacity that can be adjusted for legal or letter papers, plus a multi-purpose tray (50 pages) for cardstock, letterhead, labels, and envelopes. Plus, if you add an optional 500-sheet legal/letter-size tray, you can increase the paper capacity to 800 pages.
The legal-size document glass offers plenty of space to place magazines, books, documents, and other larger materials for copying or scanning. You can also use the legal-size document glass to scan a single sheet. If you want to scan multiple pages (up to legal size) at once, use the 50-sheet automatic document feeder. The printer’s high-speed (33.6k bps) fax modem makes it easy to quickly send and receive color or black-and-white faxes.
The USB direct interface is easily accessible for convenient printing of JPEG and PDF files from a flash memory drive or compatible digital camera. When it’s time to replace the toner cartridge, it’s best to use a high-capacity one. This will lower your cost per page and you won’t have to replace the cartridge as often.
One online reviewer who describes himself as an “advanced hobbyist” has a lot to say about the MFC-9842CDW. He was frustrated for some time with other high-end printer brands. His biggest complaint was that they would fail when handling big jobs and he would have to start over.
Eventually, he paid the extra cost for the Brother MFC-9842CDW and has had no failures ever since, plus never had any software problems. Because he uses his printer a lot, he took Brother’s advice to set the printer to black and white by default instead of using color all the time unnecessarily. He also sings Brother’s praises when it comes to after-sales service, saying it’s faster and better than ever. The printer works with the following platforms: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home and Professional, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional x 64 Edition, and Mac OS X10.2.4 or higher.