Michael
- التعليق
I got both the MFCL5800DW and the MFCL5900DW. They look pretty much exactly the same. Theres only one major difference--the 5900 scans/copies/faxes both sides of a sheet of paper, but the 5800 only does single-sided scan/copy/fax. Both are color scanners, but black-and-white printers. Both do two-sided printing, but the document feeder in the 5900 also does two-sided scanning. A lot of offices dont use duplex printing often, so duplex scanning is even more a waste. If this is you, save $60 and get the 5800. If duplex scanning is something you need, get the 5900. Also, the 5900 does gigabit wired networking where the 5800 only does 10/100. Both have the same speed B/G/N wireless and both support USB (even though its silly for this size printer). With both the 5800 and the 5900, Brother seems to be making a bigger push into the medium business market. With features like Active Directory support, setting lock, and pin printing, its trying to make itself a viable choice in a it managed business environment. I still dont think of Brother as having enterprise reliability, so I still think of these as small business printers. You use them for as long as they last (hopefully 3+ years) and you toss them when they start to have issues that arent fixed with consumables. But the reason to use Brother printers is because theyre so cheap to run. An 8000 page cartridge is $110 and a 30,000 page drum is $135. Anything HP in this price range has a 2,000-4,000 page cartridge and drum in one for $100-$150. You can use third party toner in Brother printers very easily, but I wouldnt risk it. Ive seen the fuser in a lot of Brother printers go bad early because of third party toner. The quality of third party toner isnt always to par. Unpacking and setting up the printer was easy for someone whos unpacked a printer before. The step by step instructions seem good for those who havent. If you follow the disk, it will walk you through installing the network part of the printer, but I just setup the wireless on the printer itself. Wired networking is faster than wireless, so set it up wired if you can. The disk is an easy install. You can also download the latest installer from the website. If youre just installing it as a printer/copier, and dont care about scanning, I was able to install this printer without the disk just searching for the printer in windows. I read someone else had trouble registering the printer, but I didnt register so I cant tell you if theres a problem. The build quality of the 5800 and 5900 seems fine. The 42 page per minute printing is quick. The 300 page paper capacity is too small. It really should hold 550 pages so you can add a ream of paper every-time it gets low. The copy scan document feeder can handle 70 pages which is plenty. There are plenty of ways to setup scanning from direct to computer scanning or scanning to a server share. The touch screen is easy to navigate and number pad is nice for typing fax numbers. So far its working perfectly. And Im pretty sure its going to work perfectly for some time. Its a good small business/home office printer. If you dont need color, either the 5800 or the 5900 are great bangs for the buck.