Brother MFC-9440CN Review
Although it may not always be the first name you think of for printing, Brother has carved out a powerful niche market within the small business arena. Their latest color laser multifunction printer (MFP) is the Brother MFC-9440CN.
Network ready with USB and LAN interfaces, the Brother MFC-9440CN combines a fax, copier and scanner with a color laser printer as a single device weighing 33kg and measuring 43x49x48mm. So it’s not among the largest MFPs available on the market, but it will take up some space.
The panel of the MFC-9440CN offers 16 preset fax numbers, as well as controls for copy, fax and print functions. A dial pad is included, and something we definitely loved were the copier’s two start buttons, one for copying in black and white and the second for color. This can be a useful feature for businesses looking to control their color printing costs. One problem is the dialog display screen on the panel, which has two lines and only text. This makes some of the direct access functions of the MFC-9440CN difficult.
Brother has opted for single pass laser technology. This results in faster printing than traditional laser systems; Brother claims the MFC-9440CN can reach speeds of up to 22 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 17 ppm in colour. The new cartridges for the MFC-9440CN are easy to install and replace. High-yield cartridges can also be found at a higher price, and an eco setting within the printer’s menu allows for greater toner conservation.
We thought the 300-page capacity of the MFC-9440CN’s print tray was on the small side, and for the typical SMB customer who buys the additional bottom tray, it might well be worth considering.
On the printing side, we were really impressed with the quality and speed of the MFC-9440CN’s output, both in monochrome and in colour. There are a number of different quality options to choose from, while both text and images print beautifully. This also means four separate Brother MF9440CN toner cartridges, one each for black, magenta, cyan and yellow.
For the scanning side, the MFC-9440CN offers two options: from the device itself or from the desktop computer. We do most of the scanning from the PC using the included scanning software. While easy to use, we found the scan engine to be fairly low-functionality. You can also scan directly from the MFC-9440CN, however this only takes a scan of the entire scanner bed and then transmits it to a file on your computer, leaving some editing to complete.
The image quality of the scanned photos was excellent. However, we found the final results of the MFC-9440CN’s optical character recognition (OCR) engine disappointing. I identified all the characters, but they were quite confused. Copy speed is a bit slow compared to a dedicated copier, but within the range of an all-in-one printer. The quality was again excellent.
The front of the MFC-9440CN contains a USB port for connecting a memory card or even a digital camera, allowing images to be printed from the memory card. This is a great feature, but again the lack of an LCD screen hurts, since you need to know the actual name of the file in order to print it. To prevent this, a contact sheet with file names and image thumbnails can be printed. A USB port also supports direct printing of PDF files.
At the point of sale price, we think a liquid crystal interface should have been included. However, the Brother MFC-9440CN is a robust and resistant device that, in turn, offers top quality results at fast speeds. Brother toner cartridges are available here.