Brother unpacks selection of 17 colour printers

Printer maker Brother unveiled a veritable shopful of products today in London, including a selection of colour laser and inkjets, and both single-function and all-in-ones devices.

Brother HL-4040CN laser printer

The standalone laser printer line-up is an all-colour range, all networkable, two via Ethernet - the HL-4040CN and the HL-4050CDN - and the third, the top-of-the-line HL-4070CDW over Wi-Fi. For the non-networked, they all have USB 2.0 ports, and if there isn't even a PC handy, they can print documents kept on a USB Flash drive.

Brother also announced a quartet of all-in-ones which add scanning and copying to the print facility and, in the case of the two MFC models, faxing too. Again, all four are networkable, three - the DCP-9040CN, the DCP-9045CDN and the MFC-9440CN - using Ethernet and the fourth, the MFC-9840CDW, using Wi-Fi.

The printers range in price from £299 to £449. The DCP-9040CN and MFC-9440CN will be priced at £429 and £499, respectively, but Brother said it hadn't decided yet how much the other two will retail for.

Brother DCP-770CW wireless inkjet all-in-one

But the roll-out doesn't end there: ten inkjets comprise Brother's revised low-end line up, five that print, scan and copy, and five more that add faxing to the features list. Moving up each line, you get first basic, mono LCD screens, followed by larger colour panels. They all have USB 2.0 ports, and all but the bottom-of-the-line models in each category have multi-format card readers for PC-less printing.

Brother MFC-260C inkjet all-in-one with fax

The top-of-the-line models in each category have wireless connectivity, while the next ones down have Ethernet networking

Brother MFC-885CW wireless inkjet all-in-one with fax

Prices range from a mere 50 quid up to a hardly bank-breaking £200, with all but the fax-fitted MFC-885CW arriving in August; that model is due to appear in shops in November. Most of the lasers will go on sale in August and September, though the two unpriced models are set to ship in October and November, respectively.