Brother MFC-7420 Flatbed Laser Multi-Function Center

• Multi-function unit prints, copies, color scans, and faxes
• Flatbed design for quick and easy copying and scanning
• Print and copy speeds up to 20 ppm; up to 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution
• 35-page auto document feeder for copying, scanning, or faxing multiple-page documents
• Dimensions: 17 x 15.6 x 11.6 in. (WxHxD); weighs 20.8 pounds; 1-year limited warranty

I wanted a sturdy machine that uses ink affordably, feeds paper accurately and reliably, and not too slow. I didn''t need color. This machine fit the bill.

I haven''t owned it long, so I don''t know about reliability. Paper handling is excellent. Printing is fast and looks very good -dark and precise. Ink costs will be much lower than an inkjet. It seems carefully designed and more solidly made than most inkjets. It''s Macintosh-friendly (I guess Brother makes a point of being friendly to Macintosh and Linux.) Scanning, faxing, printing all work seamlessly with OS X.

It''s got a flatbed scanner for irregular originals, and a sheet feeder for scanning, faxing or copying multiple pages. The sheet feeder seems to work very well. This is really an incredible deal, considering the low price. This is a perfect machine for the user who has office work in mind, more than printing photos and other "home user" needs.

Follow-up, six months later: This machine has worked better than I could have hoped. Paper feed is very reliable, print quality is excellent, the fax function is quite reliable, and the cost of ink per page is remarkably cheap. I haven''t experience a single problem with it.

Another follow-up. Now, it''s October of 2011. I''ve replaced the drum twice -affordable, and the toner cartridge many times -cheap compared to ink for ink-jets. It still works reliably, and just as well as ever.

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Here is my review for the sister model of MFC7420 (7820N), the only difference in 7820N is better scan resolution & Networking capabilities, the rest is the same, so my review should apply to MFC 7420 as well.

WoW ! This must be the best MFC out there. I have owned several canon, hp, lexmark MFC, photo printers, fax machines etc. This machine is it. All you need is this MFC & a separate photo printer. you are all set.

1. This is a laser MFC scan(color), copy, fax, print

2. very fast for home/small office use

3. very compact very space saving

4. Network ready other computers on network can use all functions of this.

5. unlimited tech support. not just 1-year like HP/canon.

6. Machine feels sold & feels it will last long

7. All fax,copy, scan can be operated either from machine buttons or pc software interface.

8. installation was breeze

9. software is top notch. very intuitive

10. tested print, copy, scan & fax AWESOME AWESOME.

11. they don''t outsource cust support to india

12. only regrets: no duplex, no separate output tray, but from a compact machine like this, you can''t expect output tray.

13. This MFC is clearly the winner. nothing else.

14. $50 cartride takes you upto 2,500 pages. not bad

15. Auto feeder works flawlessly

16. buy from local office depot store when they give $40 gift card with it.

17. you can connect any answering machine, so all you need is one line for phone callss & fax. this machine shows whether it is a phone call or fax. can use distinctive ring too.

18. backlit LCD menu

19. if you network with this printer, you don''t need to buy USB cable

20. 32mb memory for printing, huge memory for fax.

21. super fast fax speed

22. Excellent looks.

23. DEDICATED MAC SUPPORT, although i only used it for Windows.

why didn''t i know about Brother earlier ?

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My wife and I love this machine. I have had it for over six months and have had no problem with it. I had to replace the original toner cartridge after only six months of use, but they always give you less toner in the "starter" cartridge than in the replacements. It prints faster than the old dedicated laser printer I had and the copier, scanner, fax functions work flawlessly. I also found it relatively easy to set-up with an external answering machine so that I can always have the fax function standing by on the same line as my home phone. Unlike others, I had no trouble with the included software.

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For the first 2000 or so pages I was very pleased with the printer. It is a little loud and tends to throw paper all over the place on larger print jobs. But overall it performed well considering the cheap price tag.

However, at a little over 2000 pages the printer just stopped half way through my current print job. A message indicating the toner was low appeared. I tried to get it to finish the print job but the stupid thing refused. It was an important print job that I needed to turn in in a couple hours and I had no spare toner cartridge.

Finally after much frustration and after almost destroying the cartridge trying to shake the toner to the front to try to finish the current job I discovered a way to circumvent the low toner "feature". I placed some tape over the little laser "eye" on either side of the toner cartridge. After that I was able to not only finish the current job but print hundreds more pages without any fading. I''ve gone through another 500 page package and still have not replaced the cartridge.

If brother included this "feature" to sell more toner cartridges then I consider their tactics dispicable. In any case I will pay a little more next time and avoid the brother brand on principle.

I suggest you avoid this one....but if you buy, be sure to have replacement toner cartridges handy....or some electrical tape.

Finding multi-function units that are compatible with Apple is not easy. I first bought a Canon MF-4150 (about $250). Gorgeous unit, everything worked great until I tried to scan...no luck, no matter what I tried. Finally contacted Canon customer service, and they responded that Canon machines don''t support scanning on Mac. I took it back (thank goodness for Staples'' return policy...no questions asked, they just exchanged it for my next choice, a Samsung SCX-4725FN). Again, all the right features, but again, no luck getting it to scan. So last week, I exchanged the Samsung for a Brother MFC-7420. Seems Brother takes great pride in their support of Apple, according to another reviewer. (Again, awesome customer service from Staples on the return.) Got it home and spent 2 hours trying to get everything hooked up but NO SCANNER. After 40 minutes on the phone with Brother tech support, I learned that it does indeed support Leopard 10.5, but needs a bit of tweaking, accessed by the tiny little icon that loads at the very top of the monitor to the left of the clock. Once I clicked on that, a whole new world of scanning opened up. Very sad that this bit of information isn''t anywhere in the manual, setup brochure, or disk. But once tech support told us what to do, the machine runs like a champ. Admittedly, I haven''t used it much yet, but I am absolutely thrilled with this unit. You can scan directly into an e-mail, or into a folder, or onto your desktop. Scan is very flexible. Great Automatic Document Feeder, and flatbed scanner (ANY printer you buy must have a flatbed scanner if you plan to scan books, checks, photos, receipts or anything else, other than standard-sized paper, because without a flatbed scanner your original must be fed through the document feeder.)

Anyway, the Brother manual is written extremely clearly, with great diagrams and flow charts, and not full of typos like the Samsung manual was. There are higher levels of instruction that you must access from the CD-ROM, but you can get all the basics just by reading the manual, and lots of what you''ll be doing is intuitive. Features, quality, dimensions and footprint are great. Brother has been making faxes for seems like centuries, and they''re wonderful units. I''m only sorry that I didn''t just go with this unit originally. A note on fax machines in this category: it seems (to me anyway) hard to find a multi-purpose unit with fax that will co-exist with an external answering machine. With most of these units, you have to plug the answering machine directly into the unit, or they ''fight'' over which one answers the phone. I found an almost perfect solution with this one: you set its fax machine to ''manual'' (it won''t answer when the phone rings) and then if you answer your phone and hear it''s a fax, you just type *51 on your phone''s keypad and it activates the fax machine. It works like a charm...only down side is that you can''t get a fax if you''re not home to manually answer the phone first, so this option isn''t for those who get many faxes. This machine has a ''brother'' unit which I think is identical other than it is dark gray in color and that it can be networked; It''s about $40 more.

If I have any problems down the road with this one, I''ll update this review, but I have a feeling I''m going to be thrilled with it. If you''ve tried to find a Mac-compatible printer (laser or inkjet) you know what I''ve gone through...but for me, at least, it appears my search is over. Thank you Brother, and thank you Staples! (no offense to Amazon, but I spend enough money there already to not feel guilty).