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This is quite large, fairly heavy and certainly not an impulse move. It is a maximum of 46x41x48cm. The weight of the unit alone is stated as 34.5kilos. I do not tend to look at the specifications until I have completed a range of tests and as such I am puzzled here as the claim of 31PPM in mono was so far from what I got I must assume the unit I was sent has a fault. In fact there was no difference printing in colour or black I got 8PPM and that was the claim for colour.

Printing images produced rather nice results at several pages a minute, I suspect that printing 'x' pages of the same image would be even faster but most of what I produced were 4 of 9x13cm images using Windows printing wizard. I did however print several A4 images and these were rather good when printed on card stock. There are warnings about using coated papers as the heat of the fuser could cause problems.

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There is a flatbed scanner that also has a document feeder, both worked well, however do not leave items close to the document feeder if you wish to scan or copy from the flatbed as the default is document feed.

The provided OCR software was perfectly adequate and good quality originals produced excellent results. However with all OCR software if the original is not good the OCR result will need work.

Copying worked fine with the output produced in around 30seconds for a single copy.

I only used the fax for testing purposes. As a machine for faxing it is designed to be left on, there is however an on/off switch on the back of the left side. I was not surprised when I turned the unit off that time and date were not retained until I spoke to someone from Brother who said they should be retained, certainly in my tests they were not.

I found it noisy in use (maybe down to the fact my unit was not perfect) for the majority of my tests it worked without problem, I had only two paper jams one was easy to cure as the on LCD screen tells you where the jam is and you just open the unit at the appropriate point and remove the jam. However right at the end of my tests I got a jam at the fuser unit and this was difficult to clear and also rather messy.

The control panel on the front edge has a total of 37 buttons, the two line LCD screen and three larger buttons for fax (default), scan or copy. All these actions are available from the unit. The scan will require the PC to be turned on. You can print at any time and this action of course only works from the PC. The CD's have some extra software and the unit is stated to work from Mac's as well. While I tested it using USB it is also network connectiveable.

I have decided not to rate this unit as I feel the printing speed was so far off the claimed figures together with the noise my test unit created that there must be a fault or more. I am not sure if I should be pleased it worked or surprised as modern units have so much technology surely it should signal the problem, this did not.

http://www.brother.co.uk/cms.cfm/s_page/55570/s_level/16990/s_product/MFC9420CNU1