Brother MFC-5460cn Color Photo Inkjet All-in-One Flatbed with Networking

• Prints up to 30ppm black and 25ppm color
• Print resolutions up to 6000 x 1200 dpi
• Built-in Network Interface for Shared Printing, Scanning and Sending Faxes
• 35-Page Automatic Document Feeder
• 33.6Kbps high-speed fax modem

I was looking to buy a printer and fax machine for some time. Our old fax m/c and the printer had reached the end of their lives. Recently Brother is having some great promotions with 2 year extended warranties. With the advertised low prices for these machines, I couldn''t resist. After some research I decided to order the 5460 multi function all in one. Boy, am I delighted!

What I like:

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Setup was very easy. Hooking up the machine took me about 10 minutes. Installing the software, another 8-10.

The print quality was great.

The printer is network ready. It works with both wired and wireless networks. This feature alone is worth the price. No need for any wires from your computer or any computer on the network to the printer. If you don''t have a network at home, don''t worry. You can hook using a USB cable. The manufacturers don''t include a USB printer cable usually as with this product. So don''t discard the cable if you are throwing away your old printer they cost around 35 bucks.

You can receive the faxes onto your computer. You need to change the mode on the machine panel. The setup software opened up all the ports necessary. Now all the junk faxes goes to your PC and you don''t have to waste paper! Even if your PC is off, the faxes are stored in the machine''s memory so that you can later ''download'' to your PC.

You can send faxes right out of your PC using the provided software. Another cool thing. As I work from home remotely, this helps me a lot. Otherwise, I would have had to print out the documents before faxing. The software comes with an address book which can sync with your Outlook address book.

The setup also enables your PC for internet faxing. i.e., even if you don''t have your Brother fax machine connected, as long as you have an internet connection, you can fax documents using the internet. This is pretty cool though not a new feature. While I am at the airport, I can fax those last minute expense reports right from my laptop.

I haven''t tried the scan feature yet, that will be the least used feature for me.

Given the print quality is good, I would believe the copier would be just great as well.

The paper feeder sits within the footprint of the machine. This is another neat and space saving feature no awkward paper supports hanging out.

You also have digital media reader right in the front so that you can print directly from your media.

The all-in-one is a space saver. It cleared much space off my work table. With all-in-ones, say, if the cartridge goes bust, all parts are affected though.

What could be better?

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The USB cable and the network cable slots are not on the outside of the machine. You have to lift up the top bed and wire these inside. This takes up about 10-20% of the cable length depending on where you position your PC/laptop relative to the machine.

The Brother cartridges are always relatively expensive compared to, say, Canon. I have found that Brother''s tend to be more durable than Canon. But for the higher end Canon''s you do pay more. So it is a trade-off between up-front price/running cost (ink refills,cartridge) and reliability.

At this point I love the machine. For $99 after MIR and extended 2 yr warranty, it is a great holiday deal!

Buy Brother MFC-5460cn Color Photo Inkjet All-in-One Flatbed with Networking Now

I originally purchased this AIO for my mother. She needed a printer. However, for the price I figured that the 5460 was a better deal.

As has been mentioned previously, the setup was extremely easy. The only thing that I do not care for is the location of the USB port. You are forced to open the scanner lid and meander the cord through a set of curves in order to plug it in. I suppose this is to keep the cord from getting knocked loose in an office environment. This is a bit ambitious in my opinion. While the 5460 is great for a home office or for personal use, I think it would be out of its depth in a medium or larger office.

After seeing how well the ADF (auto document feeder) performed, I was forced to buy one of these for myself. I previously owned a Microtek 5950 with ADF. The ADF went dead after a year and the full unit costs around 175. For roughly $100 (I bought the 5460 with a rebate), I can get an ADF, Fax, Copier, and Printer. This wasn''t a hard choice to make.

I almost forgot, the per page cost for ink are cheap. At least the per page cost for ink appears to be cheaper than the HP models that I researched. This is according to the info that I''ve read. I haven''t printed enough pages to determine if this is true.

The color quality of the scans appears to be a tiny off with photos. But in all honesty, I haven''t scanned many pictures. This might be my doing. Or they may be some sort of adjustment that I can make with the settings. I have scanned roughly 200 pages of documents, and they look perfect. For my needs, this machines is a great fit.

The print quality is typical for any inkjet printer in this price range.

Print speed is acceptable as well. I must saw however, that I haven''t been able to achieve the same print speeds listed in the Specs.

I wasn''t going to mention this, but this machine is also easy to use. Easy in that there are Scan, Copy, Fax, and Photo Capture buttons on the front of this unit. I didn''t think much of them at first, but I have found that I''ve been using these buttons instead of the software utility that came with the 5460.

The bottom line is that the 5460 can be beaten in output quality (scan and print). There are better scanners, better printers, and better copiers. However, for the price I haven''t seen a better deal.

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This is my first all-in-one, so I don''t have a reference point with which to compare. However, I printed a photo on glossy paper and the machine produced what appears to me is an almost exact copy of the original digital image, something very close to what I''d expect from a photo lab. Text printing is not as fine as the laser printer I own, but it displays very well nonetheless. The copier and fax functions also work very well, and the controls are very easy to use. I can''t imagine any other all-in-ones operating even slightly better than this extremely reasonably priced machine. I''m extremely satisfied with this product.

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Bought at Staples 3 weeks ago. Went into Staples looking for a FAX machine and came out with this machine for just $50 more. Wasn''t looking to replace my printer, but coincidentally I was running out of ink for it. I set the machine up and faxed my paper within 25 minutes. Finally last week I installed the software for the printer & scanner. Works great for the price. If you want very high quality prints, this may not be for you. But if you want good prints, a FAX machine and a scanner, you''ll have a hard time beating this machine.

I just bought this printer because my old hp office jet 6110 was flaking out on me and being a college student i can''t have any down time. i wan not originally looking for another all in one because my HP was so big but considering that this was small and $50 more than the printer i was looking at AND it had networking ability i decided to try it out... the print quality is not bad for a $150 printer and it''s small size is great. i only have one problem with it... it seems that you have to install the brother software to be able to print... most of the "network ready" printers run a print server so you can just enter the ip address and go... but for the price and features overall it is a good piece of equipment