Brother MFC-L2750DW
Running costs are a little high, but this mono MFP is packed with features – and very well connected
“The Scan to Mobile app uploads your document to Brother’s own server, then shows a QR code, which can be scanned to download it”
SCORE PRICE £189 exc VAT from printerland.co.uk
Brother recently launched a large-scale assault on the SoHo and small-business printing markets, with a new range of ten affordable mono laser and multifunction printers. The MFC-L2750DW sits at the top of the MFP family, with 4-in-1 print, scan, copy and fax functions, double-sided printing, 34ppm print speeds and connection options galore – yet it costs just £189.
Those connection options include USB 2 and both Ethernet and 802.111n wireless (as usual you can’t use both at once). For direct printing from mobile devices there’s also AirPrint and WiFi Direct, plus NFC for tap-to-print connections. There’s even support for scanning to and printing from cloud services including Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.
Getting set up was a breeze: the installer automatically discovered the printer on our network, then set about installing the generous software bundle. This includes a little status monitor that lives in your system tray, a TWAIN driver for the scanner, Brother’s own ControlCenter4 (CC4) scan and print utility, Nuance’s PaperPort SE 14 OCR and documentmanagement software.
Brother’s Web Connect portal meanwhile makes light work of setting up cloud services. We supplied our Dropbox account details and were provided with a unique 11-digit code; after entering this at the printer’s 6.8cm colour touchscreen, we were able to browse our Dropbox account, print selected items and save scans directly to the cloud. PIN-protected access prevents colleagues from snooping through your files.
Scanning to email is impressively easy too. The printer’s built-in Easy Scan to Email app lets you register (and PIN-protect) multiple email addresses as scan destinations, with no need to configure an SMTP server.
Other apps let you send scans directly to Word, Excel or PowerPoint, while the Scan to Mobile app uploads your scanned document to Brother’s own server; this then shows a QR code on the printer’s display, which can be scanned with your mobile device to download it. You can also use the dedicated iPrint&Scan app; this is now available for Windows as well as iOS, but the iOS app currently has better support for cloud services.
Access security features are particularly strong. You can specify precisely which print, scan, copy, fax and Web Connect services each user can access. LDAP and Active Directory authentication are supported, and you can PIN-protect individual jobs so they’re only released once you enter the code at the printer.
Performance is impressive too. Our 34-page Word document was swiftly despatched in 60 seconds at both 600dpi and 1,200dpi resolutions (after a wait of around 12 seconds for the first page to emerge). Duplex printing precisely halves the speed, so the same document came out double-sided in 120 seconds.
Our challenging 24-page DTP document was also delivered at 34ppm at 600dpi, although occasional pauses at 1,200dpi lowered the overall average to 19ppm.
Scanning is similarly quick: the 50-page ADF scanned a 10-page single-sided document in 34 seconds, and you can scan double-sided originals too: a duplex-to-duplex copy took 93 seconds.
We’ve no complaints about text quality. Text was super-sharp at sizes right down to 6pt, even on 80gsm paper. Graphs and charts looked beautifully clean too; photos were somewhat marred by banding, but for the sort of role this printer is aimed at that probably won’t be a big problem.
While the printer itself is affordable, running costs are a tad on the high side; after you’ve exhausted the 700-page starter cartridge, high-yield replacements work out at 2.8p per page. Still, the only other consumable is the 12,000-page drum unit, costing a modest £69 to replace.
In all, the MFC-L2750DW offers a wealth of features at a tempting price. It’s fast, print quality is perfectly good for general office use – and you won’t find better cloud and mobile features anywhere else.
SPECIFICATIONS 1,200dpi A4 mono laser MFP 1,200dpi colour flatbed scanner 34ppm print speeds 600MHz processor 256MB RAM 6.8cm colour touchscreen 10/100 Ethernet 802.11n Wi-Fi USB 2 NFC 33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem 2 x RJ-11 duplex print/scan 250-page paper tray 50-page ADF rec monthly duty cycle, 2,000 pages 410 x 399 x 319mm (WDH) 12kg 1yr limited warranty. Options: 2yr warranty extension, £30 exc VAT