Good Multifunction unit for the price

Time for a new printer
I had been using a HP Deskjet photo printer (Deskjet 790c) for the last 5 years, and it recently started making an ugly grinding sound, so I figured it was time to second hand it to the kids and buy myself a new printer. I knew I wanted a multifunction unit so I could scrap my huge old HP Scanjet 7450 scanner, along with the old printer, and reclaim some much-needed office space. Normally I'd spend a couple of days researching everything available, but I found myself at Best Buy before I had a chance to look up anything. In this case it turned out to be fortuitous for me, based on all the reviews I've seen after the fact.

What I wanted was a all-in-one unit that would copy, scan, and print, all in color, and in a unit with a small footprint. FAX functionality would be a nice bonus as well, but I don't really do much FAXing these days.

My Best Buy experience
So I'm standing there in Best Buy looking at all of the multifunction units available from Canon, Lexmark, HP, and Brother, which ranged in price from $50 to $400. There were about a dozen models to choose from, and I proceeded to eliminate models which a) were too expensive (my wife was with me lol), b) didn't do everything I wanted, and c) didn't appeal to me visually. Eventually I settled on the Brother MFC 440CN. The reasons I picked this model were that it did everything I needed it to, the price was right ($150), the cartridges were cheap ($13 for the color cartridges, $23 for black), it had a very small footprint, and the unit looked and felt well constructed. It should be noted that I have never owned any Brother hardware before. Luckily, there were no salespeople around to harass me, one of the reasons I like Best Buy (lol), so I just picked up the box, carried it up front, checked out, and drove home.

MFC 440CN Features
The MFC 440CN (MFC stands for Multi Function Center) is Brother's midrange all-in-one unit. It's about 18 inches square, 10 inches high, and weighs around 15 pounds (yes I am guessing). It prints, faxes, copies, and scans. You can use it as a standalone unit, connect it to a PC via USB, or to a router via an ethernet cable. It has a scanning glass on top (8.5 x 11.5), covered by the 10 sheet max sheet feeder, a front-loading internal 100 sheet paper tray (8 x 11 or legal/A4) with 4x6 photo paper feeder, flash card slots, and a USB port for connecting your camera. It also features a 2 inch LCD screen that pops up, if desired.

The good
The copy and scan features work as you would expect them to. Copies are indistinguishable from the originals, and scans are sharp and accurate. The scan/copy hardware resolution is 600x1200, with higher resolutions possible through interpolation.

The printer functions well for run of the mill print jobs such as documents, web pages, presentations, etc. I did notice some slight banding on some solid color prints, but then I was not using the best print quality, and I would expect these to go away with the higher settings. Picture printing quality leaves something to be desired, the prints come out with a slightly blue or green tint, and the colors are not very vibrant. Pictures are of sufficient quality for giving to friends, etc, but I'd use a dedicated picture printer for your photo album prints. I didn't really buy this printer for photo printing (I have a HP Photosmart 7950 for that), so I wasn't too disappointed.

The memory card reader worked as expected, and I was able to print pictures effortlessly from a 2gb Memory Stick Duo card.

A huge plus for this printer is the cost of ink cartridges. The printer takes 4 cartridges: red (magenta), blue (cyan), yellow, and black. The black cartridge is the largest and most expensive at about $25. The color cartridges are about $13 each. Contrast this with HP's cartridges at $50-70 each and it's easy to see how this unit could save you money in the long run. Replacing all the cartridges in my HP photo printer would set me back well over $200, while all the cartridges for this unit would cost less than $70. Basically you are saving the cost of the printer with each cartridge set change. That's HUGE.

The LCD flips up and displays the time. This is kind of handy because I can see the screen sitting down, and it doubles as a clock.

The front panel looks very professional and will make you feel important lol. Pretty lights.

The bad
I guess my biggest gripe would be that the printer prints slower than advertised. The box says 20ppm (pages per minute), but I'd estimate actual print speed at normal settings is somewhere in the 10-13ppm range.

The 2-inch LCD screen is too small and resolution is poor. This was no surprise on a $150 printer. All-said, it's sufficient for my needs.

The 100 sheet capacity of the paper tray seems too small. Same with the 10 sheet paper feeder capacity.

The initially bad, then good
I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, and I didn't think to look at the box for the system requirements. When I got it home I saw that Windows Vista was not on the list of supported OS's. A quick trip to Brother's website (www.brother.com) revealed a downloadable Vista software and driver suite, which installed without incident. Note that the CD included in the printer box does NOT include Windows Vista drivers or software.

The unknown
I haven't used the FAX yet, but I can tell you that it's supposed to be able to function as a standalone FAX, or you can FAX from your PC. The rated transmission speed is 14,400 baud. All standard specs for a FAX machine.

I have not used the PictBridge USB port as of yet, although my camera does support PictBridge, as most newer model digital cameras do. I will report more about this functionality as I use it.

I have not tried the ethernet connection. I use the USB connection, as would most users, mainly because of USB2's superior data transfer rate, which equals faster printing.

Overall impression
I think this is a great unit for the money. It is small, inexpensive, feature-rich, and works well. If you're looking for an inexpensive all-in-one solution for your home office or small office environment, this might just be a good fit. On the other hand, if you want to print high-quality pictures, you might want to step up to the next price tier or consider a proper photo printer, this unit prints mediocre pictures at best.

Overall I would recommend this unit.