
Brother MFC-5840CN All-In-One Printer (20 PPM, 6000x1200 DPI, Color, 16MB, PC/Mac)
- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Display
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Hardware
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | No |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 14.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 350 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 50 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 350 |
| Duplex printing | No |
Platform Support
| Operating System Support |
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General Features
| Printer Emulation Type | GDI |
| Media slots |
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| PictBridge compatible | No |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Good value overall
Cons
Slow speeds
Bottom Line
This unit offers networking, but text printing and scan speeds are slow. Copy speed is below average.
Brother MFC-5840CN
MFC-5840CN All-In-One Printer (20 PPM, 6000x1200 DPI, Color, 16MB, PC/Mac) Review, by Paul Jasper May 3, 2005
Priced at a modest $200, the Brother MFC-5840CN offers a host of features perfect for office tasks. Besides offering built-in networking, the unit lets you drop 35 sheets into its automatic document feeder or lift the cover to scan larger documents, such as books. Dual paper trays permit you to load different types of print media in each--say, 250 sheets of plain paper in the lower drawer and photo paper in the flimsy upper cassette. The fax machine can send color documents. There are even memory card slots for digital photographers, though no PictBridge port for printing directly from a digital camera.
The clearly laid-out control panel is built around a backlit two-line LCD. The software package includes ScanSoft's useful PaperPort document management suite.
The MFC-5840CN's four inks come in individual cartridges. Though the inks are all dye-based, text printing is dark. Nevertheless, considering that this is an office-oriented MFP, we were disappointed with text quality: Lettering looked spidery, small fonts disappeared into fuzz, and white horizontal lines appeared in the solid parts of large characters. Blocks of closely spaced lines blurred together in our line art test, and we saw lots of cloudy horizontal banding.
Photos printed on plain paper looked dull and washed out, producing gray skin tones, and they showed some of the most intense banding we've seen. Photos printed on glossy paper looked bright, with a slight (but not unpleasant) yellow-green cast. Fine details were evident even in shadows, and color transitions blended smoothly. Scan quality was adequate, but didn't stand out from that of competing MFPs.
The Brother ran slow across the board. Text printed at a sluggish 3.4 pages per minute--far below the 6.2 ppm average for the nine MFPs we tested for the June 2005 chart. Color graphics emerged at a snail's pace of 1.1 ppm, slower than any other model on the chart. And the MFC-5840CN also took 30 seconds to scan a 4-by-5-inch photo at 100 dpi--longer than any other MFP. Copying a page of text took 25 seconds, only a couple of seconds slower than the average.
Upshot: The Brother MFC-5840CN is a good value for a networked MFP, but slow speeds and middling print quality limit its usefulness in an office setting.
Paul Jasper
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- Rating Breakdown
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61
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77
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81
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
61
74
82
82
Performance
| 5 x 7 Photo (secs) | 133.8 |
| Color Output Quality | Poor |
| Color Photo (secs) | 49.22 |
| Color Photo Quality | Very Good |
| Color Photo, Best Quality Settings | 133.8 |
| Color Photo, Normal Settings | 49.22 |
| Copy Output Quality | Good |
| Copy Quality | Good |
| Final Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 18.08 |
| Final Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 12.88 |
| Final Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 26.22 |
| Line Art Output Quality | Fair |
| One-Page Copy | 24.97 |
| One-Page Copy (secs) | 24.97 |
| One-Page Grayscale Graphic | 48.4 |
| One-Page Grayscale Graphic (secs) | 48.4 |
| Output Score, Color Graphics, Default Settings (formerly pf-Output-Print-Color-Default) | Poor |
| Output Score, Color Photo, Best Quality Settings (formerly pf-Output-Print-Color-Best) | Very Good |
| Output Score, Line Art, Default Settings (formerly pf-Output-Print-LineArt-Default) | Fair |
| Output Score, Text, Default Settings (formerly pf-Output-Print-Text-Default) | Fair |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 17.46 |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, Maximum Resolution (formerly pf-MFPs-pv2x2maxmax-Average) | 17.38 |
| Preview Scan, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 17.35 |
| Preview Scan, Line Art, Maximum Resolution (formerly pf-MFPs-pvLAmax1-Average) | 16.29 |
| Preview Scan, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 16.27 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 174.7 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 174.7 |
| Tested Color Graphics Speed (formerly pf-PCWColorSpeed) | 1.1 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 1.1 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 0.4 |
| Tested Photo Speed (formerly pf-PCWPhotoSpeed) | 0.4 |
| Tested Text Speed (formerly pf-PCWBWSpeed) | 3.4 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 3.4 |
| Text Output Quality | Fair |
| Three-Page PowerPoint Document | 190.7 |
| Three-Page PowerPoint Document (secs) | 190.7 |
| Three-Page Word Document | 67.35 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 67.35 |
| Total Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 18.08 |
| Total Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, Maximum Resolution (formerly pf-MFPs-2x2maxmax-Average) | 48.64 |
| Total Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 12.88 |
| Total Scan Time, Line Art, Maximum Resolution (formerly pf-MFPs-LAmax1-Average) | 52.3 |
| Total Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 26.22 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 79.46 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 79.46 |
Scanning
| Preview scan, 2-by-2-inch document, 600 dpi | 17.46 |
| Preview scan, 4-by-5-inch document, 100 dpi | 17.35 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 16.27 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 16.27 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Fair |
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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Reviewed by: NELSON30213
Strengths: NONE
Weaknesses: BREAKS DOWN EVERY MONTH
Overall: THIS PRODUCT IS PURE JUNK. I AM NOW ON MY 7TH REPLACEMENTALL BROTHERS WANT TO DO IS REPLACE IS WITH MORE JUNK. OFFERED TO PAY FOR UP GRADE THEIR RESPONSE WAS CAN'T DO UNDER THEIR WARRANTY...CALLED CORP. NO RESPONSE." BEWARE OF BROTHER AND THEIR WARRANTY "NELSON JOHNSON
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: The machine is very good all of the funtions are very good for the price
Weaknesses: Support fom Brother needs alot of improvement
Overall: I bought 3 of these units about 3 months ago and one started printing lines in the photos and text. Cleaning the print head works for one or two pages then back to the lines. I called support and after about 45 min. on the phone they decided to send a replacement. The next day I recieved a call from another person at Brother who wanted a fax copy of the print. I faxed it to her with the print quality page clearly showing the missing boxes in the black print. No one ever contacted me again. I finally sent and email and the responce back from that was they could not see the lines so they stopped the replacement. So I am stuck with a printer that will not print correctly after only two months of service. I guess it wasn't cheap after all. I am going to replace it with an HP.
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Reviewed by: JohnMcGeechan
Strengths: All round good quality
Weaknesses: Maybe a little noisy, maybe a little slow at printing
Overall: Bought the Brother MFC 5840CN recently, and I am very pleased. I have started writing reviews when i like something (as I sure as hell write 'em when i don't).First things first. Price. I think you will struggle to get something with this much functionality , for this price. It copies,scan,faxes,prints and even has 3 slots for taking multimedia cards such as flash cards.The only way I think you may fail to be impressed, is if you are looking for high end quality output. This is not a laserjet printer, so don't expect the quality to be top notch, and don't expect it to be fast. It's not a high end copier, so don't expect pristine copies, ditto fax, ditto scan.But these are not criticisms of this product. Far from it. It's merely that I think people need to keep proprotionate expectations. This little bundle gives you enormous bang for your buck, and I believe it is unrealistic to expect photo quality output.I use it for my home office and the standard is more than adequate. If you require high-end, razor sharp graphics and images , printed out at a fair lick, then this is not the hardware for you (and incidentally , I am not sure why you would buy this if those were your requirments).If I have any gripes (and I don't really). It is a little on the noisy side and in some ways the card slots are a nice but superfluos extra (as the printing is not photo quality I would not use this for printing out my photos anyhow)...brother I salute you.
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Reviewed by: jugchock
Strengths: Cheap
Weaknesses: Flimsy, Slow, Jams Often
Overall: I am very disappointed by this printer. I found it at a bargain price and came here to check the reviews. It seemed to be mostly positive, so I bit. I sure wish I hadn't now. The construction is very cheap. Ink Jets in general are no good for fax machines and copiers. The thing has started jamming all the time now. It looks like it's jamming because the flimsy components have a hard time staying where they're supposed to be. I have heard very good things about Brother printers from PC Magazine, but between this one and another Brother Laser printer we have here, I'm not impressed. Unless you have absolutely no space in your office, stay away from multifunction printers.
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: PRINTER IS EXCELLENT. NICE COLORS.
Weaknesses: NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT AT ALL. NEED SOME REPLACEMENT PARTS AND NO BROTHER OFFICE CAN SELL THEM. NOZZLES WORE OUT QUICK.
Overall: IT WOULD BE GOOD THAT BROTHER GIVES CUSTOMER SUPPORT. WHERE TO BUY SPARE PARTS. INK CAN BE BOUGHT ALMOST ANYWHERE. MANY COMPANIES SELL THE INK, HOWEVER THE PARTS SHOULD BE SOLD BY BROTHER.
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