MFC-L5800DW
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Brother products have been changing the way people work, and play, for years. Our reliable, high-quality, feature-rich printers, scanners, labelers, and more are hard at work in homes everywhere. Whatever your need, Brother products are always "At your side."
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J. Leeman on Amazon
7 years ago
05/11/2016, 09:39 AM
Workhorse for students or small businesses
This is the perfect printer for a small home office environment. If it's simply a personal printer it could be overkill, but it's ideal if you work with a lot of documents. I can see folks with students in the family especially benefiting from this printer.
Pros:
* Fast printing and scanning
* Wireless connectivity that seems solid
* Touchscreen interface makes setup really quick and easy
* Lighted capacitive touch buttons on the front make it obvious what functions are available
Cons:
* Only scans/copies one side of documents. No provision to scan one side, flip, then scan the other and have correct page ordering.
* Software for scanning is pretty awful on the mac.
* Has a FAX machine - needless functionality nowadays
One point that is neither a pro or con. This thing pulls a lot of power when it's printing. I live in a 70's vintage apartment currently and if it's on the same circuit as my computer it actually turns off my computer when printing due to the high current draw. I had to try outlets to find a circuit with a low load that didn't shutdown critical equipment.
Overall this is a really great printer that I'm happy to have as a person that works with a lot of paper still. The wireless also seems to be much improved over previous versions of Brother printers that continually dropped off my network.
J. Hansen on Amazon
7 years ago
05/02/2016, 17:21 PM
Does the job nicely!
This has been a good printer for our office. We're (mostly) a Mac house, and it's worked just fine with our office Apple Airport network minus one issue. Sometimes when the printer goes to sleep, and hasn't been used for a bit, it doesn't wake up after the Macs are trying to print. After some searching online, we found that if you change the printer settings to retain a static IP versus a dynamic (DHCP), that solved the problem.
Printing is very quick, and we suspect the toner will last us a long time. We don't print a ton, but we do need a good quality laser printer when we do. This certainly fits the bill, and does so with ease. We love the document feeder for scanning as well. It's really handy for those signed contracts we often find ourselves having to scan in.
The ControlCenter software and everything with OS X is decent. Nothing amazing, but Brother has been in this game for a long time. The software works without issue for us on OS X 10.11.5 beta even.
In the end, we're happy, and wouldn't have any issues recommending this to anyone in need of a nice, high qualify laser/all-in one for an office.
Richard Salva on Amazon
7 years ago
04/30/2016, 09:37 AM
Copier review only, a really good unit
We acquired this unit for our small publishing business, solely for copying purposes, as I've heard tell that toner copiers are less expensive per copy than using printers with ink cartridges. We are very pleased with this unit and the copies it produces. All typefaces and other images are crisp and clearly legible with no smearing or other problems. Only one-side copies, black and white only, but quite quick production. We also like the deep paper tray which cuts down on how often you have to refill. Setup was fairly quick and easy, took us about twenty minutes all told to remove from box and clear out the protective tape and plastic. (Can't tell you about hooking it up to our computers, as we didn't do that.) Its height requires that you support it with a sturdy office stand. A bit on the heavy side, but no more than one would expect for a unit of this size. I give this unit a good recommendation as a workhorse copier.
Michael on Amazon
7 years ago
04/16/2016, 04:19 AM
Works great, easy to setup, inexpensive supplies
I got both the MFCL5800DW and the MFCL5900DW. They look pretty much exactly the same. There's only one major difference--the 5900 scans/copies/faxes both sides of a sheet of paper, but the 5800 only does single-sided scan/copy/fax. Both are color scanners, but black-and-white printers. Both do two-sided printing, but the document feeder in the 5900 also does two-sided scanning. A lot of offices don't use duplex printing often, so duplex scanning is even more a waste. If this is you, save $60 and get the 5800. If duplex scanning is something you need, get the 5900. Also, the 5900 does gigabit wired networking where the 5800 only does 10/100. Both have the same speed B/G/N wireless and both support USB (even though it's silly for this size printer).
With both the 5800 and the 5900, Brother seems to be making a bigger push into the medium business market. With features like Active Directory support, setting lock, and pin printing, it's trying to make itself a viable choice in a it managed business environment. I still don't think of Brother as having enterprise reliability, so I still think of these as small business printers. You use them for as long as they last (hopefully 3+ years) and you toss them when they start to have issues that aren't fixed with consumables.
But the reason to use Brother printers is because they're so cheap to run. An 8000 page cartridge is $110 and a 30,000 page drum is $135. Anything HP in this price range has a 2,000-4,000 page cartridge and drum in one for $100-$150. You can use third party toner in Brother printers very easily, but I wouldn't risk it. I've seen the fuser in a lot of Brother printers go bad early because of third party toner. The quality of third party toner isn't always to par.
Unpacking and setting up the printer was easy for someone who's unpacked a printer before. The step by step instructions seem good for those who haven't. If you follow the disk, it will walk you through installing the network part of the printer, but I just setup the wireless on the printer itself. Wired networking is faster than wireless, so set it up wired if you can. The disk is an easy install. You can also download the latest installer from the website. If you're just installing it as a printer/copier, and don't care about scanning, I was able to install this printer without the disk just searching for the printer in windows. I read someone else had trouble registering the printer, but I didn't register so I can't tell you if there's a problem.
The build quality of the 5800 and 5900 seems fine. The 42 page per minute printing is quick. The 300 page paper capacity is too small. It really should hold 550 pages so you can add a ream of paper every-time it gets low. The copy scan document feeder can handle 70 pages which is plenty. There are plenty of ways to setup scanning from direct to computer scanning or scanning to a server share. The touch screen is easy to navigate and number pad is nice for typing fax numbers.
So far it's working perfectly. And I'm pretty sure it's going to work perfectly for some time. It's a good small business/home office printer. If you don't need color, either the 5800 or the 5900 are great bangs for the buck.
Joanna D. on Amazon
7 years ago
04/09/2016, 13:28 PM
Great choice for small professional offices
If you PRINT, SCAN, COPY, DISTRIBUTE, NEED SECURITY, TWO-SIDED SCAN/PRINT, NEED NETWORK SHARING, WIRELESS, and do NOT need COLOR or FAX, this is a superb choice. This is a monochrome laser printer designed for businesses or home business use. Unlike the basic laser printer (which is what I use daily at home), this printer has connectivity to wireless networks, takes thumb drives and a whole lot more, making it a both a duty printer and a scanner and copier. Its only downside is that it's the size you'd expect a tabletop business printer 16.8 inches by 19.5 by 19.1 inches. So at nearly two feet tall and almost 40 lbs, this is a printer you'd have to place on a sturdy table or credenza or stand and plan on not moving it around.
It does two-sided printing, which is something your basic printers also don't do. This means, if you print a lot of documents (authors, accountants, real estate agents) you can cut down on mailing weight and use of reams of paper. You can find high-yield toner cartridges to save on replacement toner cartridges using the high capacity 8,000-page toner cartridge TN-850. It comes with the 3,000 page capacity toner cartridge TN-820 installed.
The printer is operated by a touch screen, something I've come to appreciate in any electronic device.
The basic printers typically only print on one side and don't scan so aren't as good when you have a big job to do. I use aBrother HL-2240 Laser Printer. It's under $200 and compact. But in order to scan in something to my computer, I have to have a separate scanner. Nor can I fire off a quick photocopy. But if all you do is print out the occasional receipt or instructions or letter, the basic printer may be the economical choice.
If you need duplex scanning/printing, wireless and COLORBrother Printer MFC-L8850CDW Wireless Color Laser Printer with Scanner, Copier and Faxis approximately 30% more expensive and may well be worth it.
Because this printer, the MFCL5800DW scans to multiple devices (including phones and email) can can in documents, even legal-sized, and can straighten skewed scans, and has security features, it would be a great printer for a law office, doctor's office or financial office where security is important and the office is doing scanning and printing and distributing documents. This printer can secure documents with a PIN for authorized users and even be physically locked into place.
Summary: This printer handles document scanning and duplex printing in monochrome, has wireless features and security features and can scan in legal-sized paper. This makes it a great choice for offices that handle a lot of paper documents and need to distribute them securely. It does not do color or faxing.
Christine K. Cornett-McVay on Amazon
7 years ago
04/07/2016, 18:18 PM
Great for a small office!
This looked heavy online, but I was able to carry it around fairly easily and I'm only 4 foot eleven. The copy speed is fantastic and you can load a lot of sheets. The menu is labeled very well and easy to figure out. It also has a quick set up, even if you just scan the directions. It prints black and color and links up to cloud services like Drop box and google. We took it to my husband's small office and his staff loves the USB host right on the copier. They can write up documents and print right from the USB flashdrive (Check on virus protections if you are going to use this feature at a multi person office). This unit also adjusts for regular, or legal size papers, as well as a tray and setting to print envelopes. There is a great automatic duplex for two sided document printing and it will handle the bigger size quickly. It fits easily into an office corner and really isn't that bulky, not like many other huge office printers, and it handles just as much as most of the industrial size printers. Easy to load paper and ink, There may be a place online to order ink in bulk and save even more money. If it is used a lot, keep up with cleaning regime. Like any office printer, it may have black smudges after multi use if cleaning practices are not kept up with. Anyone can get ink leaks and they can really make a big mess. So far, no problems with that or paper jams. Follow the maximum paper loading suggestions.