Brother MFC-7440N Toner Cartridges

Brother MFC-7440N Printer Review

The Brother MFC-7440N is a multifunction monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office. It has a lot of features in a compact and affordable package, but not all of its multifunction features are impressive.

The Brother MFC-7440N fills an interesting niche. Most home or small office users looking for a multifunction device will choose an inkjet multifunction, which are generally less expensive and are geared toward this type of user. Lately, many users who are used to laser printing quality, especially when it comes to text, are not willing to make this sacrifice. The tradeoff with a printer like the MFC-7440N is that users get laser quality text and the multifunction features that they need, while sacrificing color printing and paying a little more.

The MFC-7440N is about the size of a typical inkjet multifunction device, but is a little bit heavier. The unit measures 12 inches by 16.9 inches by 15.6 inches (HWD) and weighs around 24 pounds. Input paper capacity is 250 sheets, and it includes an automatic document feeder for scanning up to 35 pages at once automatically. Brother MFC-7440N toner cartridge capacity is generally good, with the standard cartridge good for 1,500 pages, and the high-yield cartridge good for 2,600. Unfortunately, because the printer ships with a starter Brother MFC-7440N toner cartridge that has a capacity of only 1,000, expect to buy a cartridge soon after purchase.

Unfortunately, not all of the multifunction features are well-implemented. Scanning is very slow, and scanning quality is not as good as even most multifunction units. The 32 MB of memory in the unit is probably enough to get the job done for most users, but competing units offer 64 MB for around the same price. The Brother MFC-9420 toner multi-function printer is a better choice if the mentioned issues are important.

Print quality is excellent for text. Characters are sharp and defined, and readable at small font sizes. Graphics quality is a bit disappointing, however, even for a laser printer. Users with a focus on text quality will be happy, but don't expect to do high-quality graphics printing. Print speed is 17 pages per minute.

Overall, the Brother MFC-7440N is a good choice for users who want laser quality text and need to do occasional faxing, scanning, or copying. The price is good, but competing units offer better features for a little more money.