BROTHER MFC-8860N TONER CARTRIDGE

Brother MFC-8860N Review

Overview:

Every office, no matter how big or small, will have the need for a multifunctional machine. A multifunctional machine is a machine that can give you more than one main function. For example, they might include printing, copying, scanning or faxing. Some machines offer just some of them, whilst others offer all these and more. The Brother MFC-8860N is an all in one device designed for day to day use in the office. Featuring all of the above, plus more smaller but useful features, it really is a powerful machine.

Pros:

It is capable of very fast speeds, which is important in the office environment. It can reach up to 30 pages per minute when printing and copying. This is a very fast amount, and would suit a small to medium office perfectly. Having a machine that is fast is vital. It will help with workflow, as many people will be trying to connect and use the same machine at the same time. With a slower printing speed, this would affect how people work, as they would be waiting on documents to be copied or printed before they could continue with their job. At 30 pages per minute, it is more than enough to allow a workgroup of people to share the machine without the worry of having long waiting times.

As well as having very high printing and copying speeds, it also has very good quality. Quality is very important when printing off documents, as they need to look as professional as possible; especially in the business environment. It can reach a print resolution of around 1200 by 1200 dpi. The standard that you would expect to find on an office machine would be 600 dpi, and this quality is way above that.

To help store all of its paper, it comes with a 250 sheet capacity paper drawer, as well as a 50 sheet multipurpose tray. It is important to have a high capacity paper drawer, as it allows for less refilling, which leads to faster working. The multi purpose tray is especially important as it allows for different types of paper handling. This includes the ability to print on normal A4 and A5, to envelopes and even custom sizes.

The scanning facility on this machine is also impressive. It cannot only scan in black and white, but also in color. This makes it very useful if the business needs colored documents scanned. This can be achieved at a very high quality 19,200 by 19,200 dpi resolution when scanning interpolated, and 600 by 2400 dpi when scanning in optical resolution.

The addition of network capability is really the main selling point of the MFC-8860N. This allows more than one computer to easily connect to the device and use it multiple functions. This is extremely important, especially in a larger office that computers can connect over their network.

Cons:

The main disadvantage is the fact that the machine cannot do duplex printing. This means that if the user wants to print on both sides of the paper they will have to do it manually. A lot of higher end multifunctional machines come with duplex printing already installed. If it were already installed, it would allow for automatic printing on both sides, and therefore making it easier and faster to work. It would also save money, as well as save paper.

The capacity of the paper tray is not very high when you compare it to the print speed the machine has got. At 30 prints per minute, the tray will constantly need to be refilled if it is reaching its full speed potential. Constantly refilling the paper tray will slow down printing and copying.


For a machine that has all of the main functions an office needs, you should look towards this. The Brother MFC-8860N can print, copy, scan and even fax. It has a load of features, as well as the ability to connect to a network. The only downfall is the lack of duplex printing, and the small paper capacity tray. If you can get past these small disadvantages, then this is defiantly a good and very reliable purchase.