Brother USA has introduced a new line of printers aimed at the small business market. They are designed to offer a high quality, inexpensive printing option. According to a study by Brother last year, businesses can save up to 60% on costs otherwise spent making trips to the local copy center, by printing in-house.
The new MFC-9000 series of desktop printers has a compact size at around 2-feet square. Depending on the model, it can print from 19 to 23 color pages per minute, at a high resolution of 600 x 2400 dpi.
The printers are also all-in-ones offering fax, scan and copying, in addition to printing. They can hold up to 250 sheets of paper at a time.
One of the most interesting things is how much smarter printers are getting these days. These new smart printers include a 3.7” color touchscreen display. From it you can access social media and file-sharing accounts to print directly from Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Evernote, Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive and Box — saving time because you don’t have to convert or move files first. The printers also have wireless printing capabilities, including the ability to print directly from a smartphone.
Brother touts the toner in this line as “high capacity” for less money. The company says it will reduce the cost per color copy by 7.5 percent compared with the cost of using standard toner. Inasmuch as the major cost of printing is the materials, especially toner, a machine that uses lower cost toner could over the long run cut costs considerably.
The printer line starts at $399 and tops out at under $450 MSRP.
The pricing and features may make the machines attractive to small businesses that do a lot of printing of catalogs, booklets and other marketing materials where capacity, speed, cost and appearance matter.
The printers use less than two watts of power when not in use and automatically power off. Such energy-saving features have become important for green-minded businesses besides saving on operating costs.
Brother International Corporation is a provider of productivity products for offices. The company has had a presence as Brother USA in the United States since 1954.
Image: Brother video still
