Ten... mono laser all-in-one printers
Multi-function masters
Product Roundup The mono laser all-in-one has taken the place of the friendly photocopier in many an offices, at home or at work. In some cases, it has incorporated the fax machine, too. Although in essence it’s a laser printer with a scanner stuck on top, it’s more than the sum of its parts.
Most folk use laser all-in-ones as much, if not more, for making copies than for printing, with scanning coming a useful third and fax bringing up the rear. Laser print continues to offer better black text quality than inkjet. Although page print costs are rarely lower than those of equivalently priced inkjets, the much higher capacities of toner cartridges make them seem cheaper to run.
Brother DCP-7070DW
Brother’s print engines are notable for their print quality and reasonable speed. The 600 dots per inch (dpi) one in this machine is coupled to a 600 x 2400 pixels per inch (ppi) scanner, so gives well matched copies, though only one sheet at a time. The control panel is simple, but sufficient. Although there are no fax facilities, the machine offers duplex print and wireless networking. I saw speeds up to 22 pages per minute (ppm), and a duplex speed of over ten sides per minute (spm). The page cost, using the high-yield, 2600-page cartridge, comes out at 2.6p, which is a bit high. But the only real snag with the DCP-7070DW is the purchase price, which, for a machine with no automatic document feeder (ADF) or fax, looks expensive.
Brother MFC-7460DN
A brief comparison of the specs of this machine with those of the DCP-7070DW appears at odds. This one has both fax and an ADF, yet the asking price is lower. Here, though, there’s no duplex print and no wireless connection. The control panel is much the same, though with added buttons for fax speed dials. The paper handling is identical and, again, I saw a speed of 22ppm. It uses the same consumables, too, so offers identical page costs and it really comes down to which features in the two devices’ sets meet your needs better. I think many will opt for this one.
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COMMENTS
One wonders about...
What protocols they support? What interfaces they have?
Re: One wonders about...
That's actually the most important question. Non postscript printers are a pain in the a*** to get running.
Kyocera
It needs to be mentioned that Kyocera often seem like a good printer for the price but you will be massively ripped off by their chipped toner cartridges.
They are chipped so your printer will only accept genuine Kyocera products and although they say that your cartridge will do X pages, it doesn't matter if you print a single letter on that page or even nothing at all, it will still count it as a page on the page counter.
I once opened a Kyocera cartridge that our Kyocera Mita FS-1020MFP had decided was empty and refused to print from.
I'm not joking....seriously....it was nearly full, but the chip made it a piece of junk.
And the cartridges are not cheap let me tell you.....
Bit of a rip off, I've decided to steer clear of Kyocera from now on.
Brother MFC-7460DN - £239 ? Ouch!
I purchased a MFC-7860DW about two months ago - for $250CDN.
It's the MFC-7860DN plus Wifi interface - you can D/L a free app to print and scan from iOS devices. Very happy.
Actually, I've had a few Brother printers over the years, they're great value. And work as advertised.
There’s a button for a direct screen print from an attached PC, which can be handy.
I have visions of someone walking past, pressing this button, and taking my screen print without my knowing now.
