Brother Mfc-8500 ? 5 In 1 From The Bargain Basement

The Brother MFC-8500 is an older model and is no longer in production. That being said, there are still plenty of new and used units available for purchase on sites like Amazon, and technical support is still available, as well as toner cartridges. If you’re interested in cutting costs by purchasing something that isn’t necessarily the latest and greatest, but still has all the basic features you’d want in a multi function center, give the MFC-8500 a chance.

The print speed isn’t fantastic, but it’s not terrible, clocking in at 15 pages per minute which, if your uses are light, should be plenty. Copies do not lag with the unit and also can be punched out at 15 pages per minute thanks to the implemented automatic document feeder that will keep the source material flowing in as fast as the duplications are coming out. 600 x 600 dots per inch is not uncommon for a home or small office grade laser printer, but any lower should be considered a red flag. Luckily, the MFC-8500 meets the minimum.

The scanner is fairly decent, interpreting images at quality of up to 9600 X 9600 dots per inch interpolated, though the optical scan is significantly lower, topping out at only 300 X 600 dots per inch. If you have to time to wait for interpolation, again, the quality should suffice for moderately detailed graphs and charts, and larger images, which further tilts the scale of this model’s functionality towards home use versus office application. The “scan to” buttons are also helpful, letting you scan from the unit to an e mail, document, or OCR file right from the machine.

The resolutions of the fax machine, unlike the scanner, are actually still fairly typical even by current standards, offering low quality, fine, and super fine qualities of 203 x 98 dpi, 203 x 196 dpi, and 203 x 392 dpi respectively. The modem is also not too shabby with a max transmission speed of 14.4 K ps, which can transmit roughly six pages per second, or ten documents in a minute. The 500 page digital storage capacity is actually quite good, especially with a standard memory of a flimsy 8 MB. The unit does include a corded headset and key pad, boosting versatility a bit by making it usable as a telephone.

Compatibility with both PCs and Macs is made possible by both parallel and USB ports which can communicate with the latest Mac OS and Windows operating systems. Unfortunately, neither Ethernet nor wireless networking is an option directly from the unit. The unit is a little big and heavy compared to newer models with similar capabilities, having a footprint of 12.7” X 17.4” X 17.1” and weighing a hefty 26.5 pounds. Still, if price is the key factor in your purchasing decision and you have the space, this could be a drawback easily overlooked.

Though the Brother MFC-8500 shows its age in the current market, the low initial cost keeps it a fairly appealing unit depending on your needs, while it can still perform fairly well against the big boys.

Source: http://printdocs.org/2009/12/05/brother-mfc-8500-5-in-1-from-the-bargain-basement/