Brother Fax Machine
Review: Brother MFC-7840W
  Multi-function
fax machines have been around for a long time, but for the most part, their copying and
printing capabilities have gone to waste. Most of these machines have great faxing capabilities
but are not so strong as printers and copiers. As a result, many businesses still invest in
separate copiers and printers and allow their fax machines’ secondary capabilities to go to
waste.
Brother’s
big idea
But thanks to the Brother laser fax series, we might be on the verge of a new era in office
machine technology. Brothers fax machines have always been at least marginally better than the
competition, but they’ve still largely suffered from the same problem that plagues all these
machines—great faxing capabilities combined with lackluster printing and copying.
Now, the latest Brother fax machine proves that someone
somewhere in that company has finally figured things out. Maybe the pressure is on because fax
machines in general have taken a hit due to email and online faxing, or it could just be that the
technology is finally up to speed. In any case, Brother is clearly trying harder than they have in
a long time, and their revolutionary Brother MFC-7800 series makes a bold statement that there is
still an important place in the office for fax machines.
This, presumably, is the rationale behind the interesting name of Brother fax machines latest
model—the
Brother MFC-7840W Laser Multifunction Center.
Notice the word “fax” does not appear in the name. It presents itself as a dream machine ready
to make your work and office environment a whole lot simpler. Sure, it can fax, but its makers
want you to know that it does all those other things—printing, copying, and scanning—just as
well as any single-function machine.
How well does it work?
So, does it work? My answer is yes, but with a caveat. For my test run of this machine, I
unplugged and put away my printer and scanner and tried working exclusively with this machine. I’ve
tried this with many of the above-mentioned lackluster multifunction fax machines with little
success, so my expectations were pretty low.
But here’s the thing about the Brother machine: For the first time in as long as I can remember,
here’s a fax machine (or a “laser multifunction center”—which takes some getting used to) that’s
up-to-speed with current technologies. Office machines have typically been at least a couple of
years behind the computing industry, but Brother has clearly made an effort to reverse this
trend.
And it really shows. This brothers fax machine plugs easily into the computer (not to mention
that it can be hooked up to a wireless network), prints as fast as any single-function printer, and
scans documents quickly and clearly. The copy function is easy to use, and the fax functionality is
superb, with a document feeder that lets you do other things while sending multi-page
documents.
I mentioned a caveat above. The one downside to this printer is that it is, after all, only one
machine. Part of the reason that many businesses keep their copying, printing, and faxing separate
is so that things don’t bottleneck at busy times of the day. Although this Brother fax machine is
fast, it still won’t completely solve that problem. In short, it may not be the best choice for
large offices, but I would highly recommended it for small businesses and home offices.
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