For my needs, it's perfect.

Back before we had DSL as our internet provider, we had a second phone line put in, solely for the internet. There was no need to add Caller ID or long distance on that line. When a second line became somewhat obsolete, we decided that rather than canceling the service, we'd do something with it. The perfect something was a fax machine, as we do a fair bit of faxing ourselves, both sending and receiving, and I sometimes do faxes (mostly receive) for family members without their own machines.

I can also make local calls and receive incoming calls on it (we have it set to where the fax doesn't kick in until the fourth ring) which, while a crap shoot of not knowing who's calling, I can have a conversation uninterrupted by Call Waiting. This works well when on the phone with people like my doctor, my child's teachers, etc.

So having a machine that serves two purposes - two different ways of communicating, both paper and verbal - it seemed like a good thing. We weren't going to spend a ton of money on a machine, and Sharp had several models to choose from. At the time, Staples was running a special, and this was the second cheapest Sharp they had to offer.

Let me preface the admission I'm about to make with my reasons for being a certain way: I'm a technophobe, first of all. Up until 2 years ago, I wouldn't let go of the Windows98 platform, and it took me a long time to get *that* down. Secondly, I feared that the more bells and whistles on any machine, be it a fax or a dishwasher, the more likely something's going to break.

That said, there's nothing fancy about this fax. The quality of what's sent or received isn't going to win any awards, and if you're faxing something bigger than a maximum of 10 sheets, you'll have to stand by to keep feeding the machine. It is easy to operate, though..if I could figure it out with extremely little frustration along the way, anybody could use it.

It's been pretty decent on ink, too. I was expecting to end up spending more on refills for that over time than the cost of the actual machine...but the ink is also fairly cheap, and easy to find at your local office supply.

If your faxing needs are for superior quality, or if you're using this for hours on end, it probably wouldn't be for you. But if you're using it for your home non-business office, to send things out on the average of twice a week and receiving them at about the same rate, it will serve its purpose.

As an aside, my Epson printer is one of those all-in-ones and it alleges it can fax. I already told you I'm a technophobe; the fact that this is a free-standing fax machine, that I know how to use without having to try to learn different ways of how to get the same end result, I'll take it. It will also be cheaper to replace this fax machine when it eventually dies, as all machines do at some point, than it would be for the all-in-one printer.

I'm happy with it. It's basic, it's utalitarian, it's nothing you'd stop and Ooh and Ahh over, but it still makes me happy and I have no Buyer's Remorse when it comes to this.

The only thing I would change about it would be the length of the phone cord. Many times I've been on that phone and almost knocked the machine off of the desk, because I forget just how short it is. You don't realize how much freedom cordless phones give you until you return to using one with a cord, lol. I could go to any Dollar Store and buy a longer one, but I never seem to remember to, so if it bothered me all -that- much, I'd have done something about it.