Brother MFC-3240C All-In-One InkJet Printer
- Black Print Speed: 20 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 15 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Inkjet
- Printer Type: All-In-One Printer
- All-in-One Functions: Copier Fax Machine Scanner
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Another Cheap Printer (Correction--A Great Cheap Printer)
Pros
Separate color cartridges. Clear cartridges to see ink levels. Creates PDFs.
Cons
No automatic on-off for printing. Cannot name PDFs. Default photo detail marginal. No USB cable.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The cheap price obviously attracted me, but the economical use of ink is a big plus. Creating PDFs is another big plus.
This is another device that is sold by a manufacturer to sell other products, in this case, ink-jet supplies. I paid only $39.00 for this after MIR, which is less than the cost of the supplies.
Regarding supplies, two things attracted me to this unit. First, it uses a separate reasonably priced ($12.00)cartridge for each of the three colors. This means if you use up one color faster than other colors, you will not waste ink. The second thing is these cartridges are clear, which should make refilling them more feasible (something I haven't tried yet as the machine is new). Also, that will allow you to see if the cartridge really is running low. After the cartridges are installed, a four minute cleaning cycle automatically starts. As to using ink, contrary to another review, the manual indicates that it will run the cleaning cycle even if the printer is off.
The setup instructions were not that well laid out, but they were easy to follow. Please note the first step refers to removing a protective paper, but does not show where that paper is located, so it's easy to miss. It's inside the cover. If you plug it in without removing that paper, it cannot feed it out for some reason. The power cord is a straight cord without a power brick. There is no USB cable supplied, but that's well noted on the outside of the box, and most people probably have plenty of such cables by now. The default setting on the LCD display is light, which is too light to read except at a very limited viewing angle.
The software was also easy to install, and comes with the Paperport scanning software that other Brother units come with. But this can be configured to create files from scanning directly to specified file types, including PDFs! That feature alone makes the unit well worth the price. (Note: I have not tried this on a machine with the full version of Acrobat installed--I'm not sure the TWAIN driver would bring up the full version to create PDFs). You can also specify the directory for the file type, but not the file name. There are two separate settings, one for scanning from the computer controls and one from the printer buttons, so one could be set different file types or color settings for each method(but hitting color or black & white on the printer buttons does not affect what it does). Scanning in B&W is reasonably fast.
Copying has three settings, but I've not tried the lowest one. The copying on the best settings is a bit slower, but it creates a great copy (photos come out better than the default print setting).
Printing seems adequate, but as noted above, the default setting doesn't have great detail on printing photos. The software driver does have other settings, which may improve things (I have yet to do extensive testing). Print quality for text is really good for an ink-jet printer. It prints fairly quickly and quietly compared to other cheap ink-jets I've tried. There is no annoying popup when printing.
The setup of the device can be entirely done through your computer, which is a nice plus.
There is an option to have a machine turned off automatically turn on for an incoming fax, but no such option for a print job.
Since it's new I cannot predict reliability, but paper handling has been good so far. I scanned one page with a bent corner, and it took it fine, at just a slightly tilted angle.
I think the main reasons to get this unit are for the separate (and clear) inkjet cartridges, the ability to create PDFs, and the great text quality.
UPDATE: We've used this printer a lot in the first three months--a lot more than we anticipated. I don't know exactly how much paper because we use multiple types, and often print on both sides to save paper. Despite this paper abuse, it's only had one paper jam.
It's also turned out to be very economical. We're still on our second black cartridge, and the color ones indicate that they are still 1/2 full. Rather than refilling as I indicated, I discovered that Pacific Ink sells generic cartridges, so rather than hassle with refilling, I'm going that route.
Oh, and I have started using this as a network printer from my computer, for when I need color. Works well at that task.
So, after three months I think even more of this printer than the week we bought it. So I no longer think this is "Another Cheap Printer." It's the best cheap printer I've ever owned.
Regarding supplies, two things attracted me to this unit. First, it uses a separate reasonably priced ($12.00)cartridge for each of the three colors. This means if you use up one color faster than other colors, you will not waste ink. The second thing is these cartridges are clear, which should make refilling them more feasible (something I haven't tried yet as the machine is new). Also, that will allow you to see if the cartridge really is running low. After the cartridges are installed, a four minute cleaning cycle automatically starts. As to using ink, contrary to another review, the manual indicates that it will run the cleaning cycle even if the printer is off.
The setup instructions were not that well laid out, but they were easy to follow. Please note the first step refers to removing a protective paper, but does not show where that paper is located, so it's easy to miss. It's inside the cover. If you plug it in without removing that paper, it cannot feed it out for some reason. The power cord is a straight cord without a power brick. There is no USB cable supplied, but that's well noted on the outside of the box, and most people probably have plenty of such cables by now. The default setting on the LCD display is light, which is too light to read except at a very limited viewing angle.
The software was also easy to install, and comes with the Paperport scanning software that other Brother units come with. But this can be configured to create files from scanning directly to specified file types, including PDFs! That feature alone makes the unit well worth the price. (Note: I have not tried this on a machine with the full version of Acrobat installed--I'm not sure the TWAIN driver would bring up the full version to create PDFs). You can also specify the directory for the file type, but not the file name. There are two separate settings, one for scanning from the computer controls and one from the printer buttons, so one could be set different file types or color settings for each method(but hitting color or black & white on the printer buttons does not affect what it does). Scanning in B&W is reasonably fast.
Copying has three settings, but I've not tried the lowest one. The copying on the best settings is a bit slower, but it creates a great copy (photos come out better than the default print setting).
Printing seems adequate, but as noted above, the default setting doesn't have great detail on printing photos. The software driver does have other settings, which may improve things (I have yet to do extensive testing). Print quality for text is really good for an ink-jet printer. It prints fairly quickly and quietly compared to other cheap ink-jets I've tried. There is no annoying popup when printing.
The setup of the device can be entirely done through your computer, which is a nice plus.
There is an option to have a machine turned off automatically turn on for an incoming fax, but no such option for a print job.
Since it's new I cannot predict reliability, but paper handling has been good so far. I scanned one page with a bent corner, and it took it fine, at just a slightly tilted angle.
I think the main reasons to get this unit are for the separate (and clear) inkjet cartridges, the ability to create PDFs, and the great text quality.
UPDATE: We've used this printer a lot in the first three months--a lot more than we anticipated. I don't know exactly how much paper because we use multiple types, and often print on both sides to save paper. Despite this paper abuse, it's only had one paper jam.
It's also turned out to be very economical. We're still on our second black cartridge, and the color ones indicate that they are still 1/2 full. Rather than refilling as I indicated, I discovered that Pacific Ink sells generic cartridges, so rather than hassle with refilling, I'm going that route.
Oh, and I have started using this as a network printer from my computer, for when I need color. Works well at that task.
So, after three months I think even more of this printer than the week we bought it. So I no longer think this is "Another Cheap Printer." It's the best cheap printer I've ever owned.
