Brother MFC-9700 Toner Cartridges

The Brother MFC-9700 is a multifunction monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office user. It has an impressive number of features and excellent print quality, but its scanning quality is sometimes poor, and it is more expensive than competing products.

The MFC-9700 has virtually every function an office could need. It can print, scan, copy, and fax. As a printer it is excellent, but the other functions are somewhat degraded by poor scanning quality, as they all utilize the machine's scanner for their functions. The unit has an automatic document feeder with a capacity of 50 sheets. It also has a flatbed scanning surface for media types that can't be fed automatically. Unfortunately, scans come out somewhat fuzzy, affecting scans, copies, and faxes.

Faxing is generally well-designed, but it is a little slow. At 14.4 kbps transfer speed, it falls behind many competing units with Super G3 speeds built in. With its scanning problems and slow faxing, the MFC-9700 might find a niche for those who need a solid printer and only occasionally need to use its other functions, but competing units offer better value for less money.

Each Brother MFC-9700 toner cartridge has a capacity of 3,000 pages, but high-yield cartridges are available with a capacity of 6,000 pages. Replacing the Brother MFC-9700 toner cartridge is a simple process, as the cartridge is easily accessed from the front of the unit.

Print speed is quite good, at around 15 pages per minute. Print quality is excellent, especially when it comes to text. Text is sharp and defined, and is better than average for a multifunction device. Graphics quality is average, but quite usable. Printing is the machine's best function, but it is hard to recommend on that alone.

Overall, the Brother MFC-9700 is an excellent printer with a wide array of other features, but its poor scanning unit brings down the value of the other functions. Competing products have more to offer for a lower price.