Brother MFC-4350 3-in-1 Laser Multifunction Center

Brother Fax Printer Copier, 600 x 600 DPI Printer Resolution, 6 PPM Laser Printing, 14.4K BPS High Speed Fax Modem, Reduction & Enlargement 50-2000%, Dual Access Call Waiting/Caller ID, Stores up to 130 pages for Out of Paper Reception, straight paper path, multi-copying up to 99 copiues with sorting, fax forwarding/paging and remote fax retrieval, 200 sheet paper tray capacity & 20 page automatic document feeder, 124 station auto dial and broadcasting

Manage desktop sprawl in your work or home office with a multifunction unit from Brother, which includes a laser printer, fax machine, and copier in one sturdy system. If you want great laser printing, an easy-to-use fax machine, and can live with less than perfect copies, the MFC-4350 will make a fine addition to your small office.

With the Brother Startcard and its 11 straightforward steps, we had the Brother MFC-4350 up and running in about 15 minutes. We connected the accessory parts, attached the cable to our PC, and put the paper in the paper tray. Installing the drum unit/starter toner cartridge required no special preparation; we just removed the vacuum-sealed foil cover from the cartridge, opened the MFC-4350 cover, and placed the cartridge in the obvious slot. Windows '98 recognized the printer at startup (Windows 2000 recognized it the moment we connected the cable), and from there we followed the new hardware wizard to install the printer driver software.

In our tests, we used the MFC-4350 for a variety of printing, copying, and faxing tasks. For standard black-and-white printing, with great output, you can't beat a 600 dpi laser printer like the MFC-4350. However, like most multifunction units, the MFC-4350 does not produce great quality copies. Normal copy/fax mode provided slightly faded text and lines compared to our original. Fine copy/fax mode provided clearer text and sharper lines in graphics. Superfine copy/fax mode provided the best print quality, which was good but not excellent. Photo copy/fax mode provided good grayscale contrast, but text was quite faded. The MFC-4350 is rated at 6 ppm. In our tests, 6 copies in Superfine mode took 1 minute and 13 seconds.

Pros:

• Loaded with features
• Easy to set up
• Includes printer cable

Cons:

• Photocopies are of average quality