New Brother Printers And Scanners For 2012

Hi Folks,

I was invited by The Hoffman Agency to the Brother’s Big Bang Launch at Stellar@1-Altitude last week where they unveiled 6 enhanced mono-laser/Multi-Function Centres (MFC) printer, 2 new laser MFC and business laser fax devices, 3 new mobile and desktop scanners.

Looking through all the new products that were launched, almost all were created to cater for the needs of small and medium business (SMB) professionals but I think SOHO users will find them attractive too.

So what about mainstream consumers like you and me?

Well … I’ve identified 3 of the new products that some of us mainstream consumers might like and I’ll share my thoughts as we run through the product line up.

Mono-laser/Multi-Function Centres (MFC) printer

The new Brother Laser Printers and MFC’s are fast, green and light on your pocket when it comes to running cost (measured in terms of cost per page – cpp).

All the printers can print at speeds of at least 36 page per minute (ppm).

All of them do double sided prints which saves paper and with the Brother High-Yield Toner TN-3350, your cost per page printed is only S$0.026 (8000 pages per Toner @ S$158).

Some models which can take the Brother Super High-Yield Toner will save even more but those are aimed squarely at SMB (meaning we consumer will like the benefits but not the price and typically we don’t print that much).

The new models are listed below (with their list price) … all of them comes with 3 year onsite warranty.

• HL-5440D (List Price S$288)
• HL-5450DN (List Price S$588)
• HL-5470DW (List Price S$688)
• HL-6180DW (List Price S$788)
• MFC-8510DN (List Price S$888)
• MFC-8910DW (List Price S$1088)

Now for consumers, if you happened to print heavily very frequently (such as printing assessment papers), purchasing a Brother HL-5440D might be a be a sound investment.

Offhand, I can’t recall any models that is able to match the capability of the HL-5440D at it’s price point.

 

Mobile and Desktop Scanners

With the launch of the Desktop Scanner ADS-2100 and Mobile Scanner DS-600 and DS-700, it marks the first foray of Brother into Scanner land … but they are not new to scanning as they are very well established in Fax Machines and Multi-Function Centres business.

The new models are listed below (with their list price) … all of them comes with 1 year carry-in warranty.

• DS-600 (List Price S$218)
• DS-700D (List Price S$328)
• ADS-2100 (List Price S$588)

Their Desktop Scanner is decent (pretty competitive to rival offerings but nothing really outstanding) but what I’m really interested in is their Mobile Scanners – DS-600 and DS-700D – both small, light and usb-powered.

Yes, that’s right … no power brick, no batteries but you do need your notebook/laptop to power it … in any case, you need to scan the images somewhere, right?

The difference between the DS-600 and DS-700D is that the DS-600 scans single sided and DS-700D scans double sided and it scans and manage your business cards too (Via bundled software).

Again not every consumer may need it but it does sound yummy for those of you who might be a real estate agent, financial adviser, etc who may need a scanner on the go, right?

 

Laser MFC and Monochrome Laser Fax devices

Fax is where I first knew Brother as a brand and they continue to innovate and come up with robust and reliable Fax machines but seriously, I’m not sure why the business world is still hanging on to Fax … I thought they should have moved on to email attachments?

Maybe that’s where everyone is secretly heading but no one is saying.

In any case, the new models are listed below (with their list price) … all of them comes with 3 year onsite warranty.

• MFC-7290 (List Price S$378)
• FAX-2840 (List Price S$268)

 

All models/devices featured here are currently available and can be purchased from authorized Brother resellers.

Cheers,
James