Event Coverage

Brother Updates Laser Printer and Document Scanner Lineups with 11 New Products

By Ng Chong Seng - 2 Aug 2012

Brother Updates Laser Printer and Document Scanner Lineups with 11 New Products

Brother Means Business

At a press event held earlier today, Brother International Singapore unveiled 11 new products for its laser printer, laser fax device, and document scanner lineups. The new printers and multifunction devices target business and heavy fax users, while two of the new scanners target mobile warriors who need to scan documents while on the move. Here are some highlights of the new products.

 

Desktop & Mobile Document Scanners

Of the three scanners launched today, the DS-600 and DS-700D are mobile document scanners. The DS-700D is the bigger and heavier of the two (603g vs. 315g), but it has the added advantage of being able to scan both sides of a page at once. It also scans faster, 10ppm (pages per minute) compared to DS-600's 5ppm for mono. For color scanning, both are neck-to-neck at 3ppm. Optical scan resolution for both is also tied at 600 x 600 dpi. In addition to paper documents, both scanners are able to scan business cards, as well as thicker laminated material such as ID cards. And since power is drawn over a USB cable, there’s no extra power brick to deal with. The OCR software of choice for both scanners is the NewSoft Presto! PageManager.

The two portable scanners are really compact and light.

The third scanner is the ADS-2100. At first glance, this all-black desktop scanner reminded us of an inkjet printer or a fax machine with its top sheet-loading tray and bottom output tray (both rated at 50 sheets). It’s also capable of duplex scanning in a single pass at a rate of 24ppm. Another key feature is its ability to scan directly to a USB drive. Bundled software include Nuance PDF Converter Professional 7, Nuance Paper PortTM 12 SE, BizCard, and PageManager 9 SE.

The DS-600 and DS-700D mobile scanners are priced at S$218 and S$328 respectively; the ADS–2100 desktop scanner at S$588. All three come with 1-year carry-in warranty.

 

Mono Laser Fax MFCs

If you’re a heavy fax user, take a look at either the Brother FAX-2840 or the MFC-7290. Both are equipped with a 33.6kbps modem, built-in handset, and up to 500-page fax memory (MFC-7290; 400 pages for FAX-2840) for fast and efficient fax communication. Both machines also tout 22 one-touch speed dials and 200 speed dial locations.

The laser fax MFC models are easy to differentiate from the rest thanks to the built-in handset.

The FAX-2840 is also a 20ppm monochrome laser printer (up to 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution) and monochrome copier (up to 300 x 600 dpi). The MFC-7290 on the other hand prints faster at 24ppm. It’s also slightly more versatile, as it can also double up as a standalone black-and-white scanner (up to 600 x 600 dpi optical resolution). Another tick in the check box for the MFC-7290 is its ability to send a file on your PC as a standard fax (i.e., PC-Fax).

Both the FAX-2840 and MFC-7290 are USB-only devices. They’re priced at S$268 and S$378 respectively, and both come with 3-year on-site warranty.

 

Mono Laser Printers & MFCs

Brother has also introduced six new models in its laser range that include four monochrome laser printers (HL-6180DW, HL-5470DW, HL-5450DN, and HL-5440D) and two monochrome laser multifunction centers (MFC-8910DW and MFC-8510DN). Their print speeds range from 36 to 40ppm.

Double-sided printing comes as standard for all six printers, and to keep up with the times, with the exception of HL-5440D, the new devices allows you to print from your mobile devices, either through Brother’s iPrint&Scan app (Apple App Store link, Google Play store link), or via Google Cloud Print and Apple AirPrint. For the HL-6180DW, HL-5470DW, and MFC-8910DW that come with wireless connectivity, you can also print via Wi-Fi Direct.

See that '100 years' logo on the printers? Brother has devised it to set the record straight: Brother is a Japanese company (not American, not European) with over 100 years of experience making quality products.

The flagship of the single-function laser printers is the HL-6180DW. It boosts a top speed of 40ppm and built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi support. It’s also the only printer to come with a gigabit Ethernet connection, and a standard 500-sheet input tray. Used in conjunction with the 50-sheet multi-purpose tray and the optional 500-sheet add-on tray, it can load up to 1,050 sheets of paper.

If for some reason you need parallel port connectivity, then check out the 38ppm HL-5440D.

Here's a quick summary of how the four laser printers stack up against one another:

Brother HL-5440D vs. HL-5450DN vs. HL-5470DW vs. HL-6180DW
  HL-5440D HL-5450DN HL-5470DW HL-6180DW
Key Functions Duplex print Duplex print, Network Duplex print, Wireless Duplex print, Wireless
Print Speed 38ppm 38ppm 38ppm 38ppm
Print Resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi 1,200 x 1,200 dpi 1,200 x 1,200 dpi 1,200 x 1,200 dpi
Input Tray 250 sheets 250 sheets 250 sheets 500 sheets
Multi-purpose Tray 50 sheets 50 sheets 50 sheets 50 sheets
Optional Tray Yes, 500 sheets Yes, 500 sheets Yes, 500 sheets Yes, 500 sheets
 Memory (Std/Max)  64MB  64MB / 320MB  128MB / 384MB  128MB / 384MB
 Connectivity/Networking  USB 2.0, Parallel  USB 2.0, Fast Ethernet  USB 2.0, Fast Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct  USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct
Warranty 3-year on-site 3-year on-site 3-year on-site 3-year on-site
Price S$288 S$588 S$688 S$788

Between the MFC-8510DN and MFC-8910DW, the latter is the higher-end of the two multifunction printers. On top of Ethernet connectivity, it comes with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi support, and is thus able to take advantage of Wi-Fi Direct. It also prints faster (40 vs. 36ppm) and has a bigger automatic document feeder (50-sheet vs. 35-sheet). We were also pleasantly surprised to find that it has a duplexing ADF. In other words, it can do single-pass two-sided scanning, copying, and faxing.

For S$1,088, the MFC-8910DW (left) gives you 40ppm print speed, up to 800 sheets paper input capacity, a 50-sheet duplexing ADF, and wireless connectivity.

Here's a quick summary of how the two MFCs stack up against each other:

Brother MFC-8510DN vs. MFC-8910DW
  MFC-8510DN MFC-8910DW
Key Functions Duplex print, Simplex scan/copy/fax, Network Duplex print/scan/copy/fax, Wireless
Print Speed 36ppm 40ppm
Print Resolution 1,200 x 1,200 dpi 1,200 x 1,200 dpi
Input Tray 250 sheets 250 sheets
Multi-purpose Tray 50 sheets 50 sheets
Optional Tray Yes, 500 sheets Yes, 500 sheets
ADF 35 sheets 50 sheets
 Memory (Std/Max)  64MB / 320MB  128MB / 384MB
 Connectivity/Networking  USB 2.0, Fast Ethernet, USB Direct Print  USB 2.0, Fast Ethernet, USB Direct Print, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct
Warranty 3-year on-site 3-year on-site
Price S$888 S$1,088

Apart from the usual 3,000-page standard-yield toner (S$97) and 8,000-page high-yield toner (S$158) options, the three 'DW' models also allow the use of a super high-yield 12,000-page toner (S$188).

All the new devices can now be purchased through Brother International Singapore's authorized resellers and superstores, and are supported by the Brother Customer Service Center, located at the ground level of Gateway East at Beach Road.

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