Brother MFC-660CN

I bought a refurbished version of this direct from Brother's eBay store at around half the original cost. This MFC has been superseded by later models, but at just over £70 who's complaining?

Whilst I already have 2 other networked printers for day to day use and photo-printing, it was really the combination of tasks that this printer can perfrom that sold it to me.

Basically, I needed a scanner with an ADF to try and get my office as paper-light as possible - I was getting tight on space, with a fax/answerphone combo taking up the corner of the desk. If I could find a device that offered the fax/answerphone capability along with an ADF scanner and wasn't too large, it'd be a winner.

Enter the Brother MFC-660CN! For the tasks I want, it performs flawlessly. Namely, Fax, Answerphone, Scanning multi-page documents.

Despite Brother advertising this as 'refurbished', it turned out to be brand new (as far as I could tell) - possibly old-stock - but I wasn't bothered, as long as it did the job.

Delivery direct from Brother was prompt, and the packaging is substantial enough to protect the device from courier handling.

Printed quick start guides lead you through the initial setup with no problems encountered (I did have to download Vista drivers from Brother's site, but they are readily available, and the support site is easy to navigate - drivers seem to be updated regularly too!)

More detailed guides on Network setup and the bundled software are on one of the 2 CDs that came with the MFC.

The MFC itself is well laid out, with (most of) the controls being fairly obvious as to their function. There is a telephone handset to the left of the device. Moving along the front, and top, of the device we next come to the answerphone controls, laid out in a logical way and next to them is the telephone number keypad. Just under the keypad is a USB slot that can accept a connection from a 'Pictbridge' compatible digital camera (most are nowadays) which allows direct printing of photos from (and controlled by) your camera.

At the centre/top is a colour backlit LCD display. This displays all sorts of information, depending on the task in hand; it will also display photos from either a connected camera, or the in-built card reader (that accepts most memory cards), allowing you to preview before printing. The card reader is just below and to the right of the LCD display.

To the right of the LCD are controls for selecting various functions - these are Fax, Scan, Copy, Photo Capture. All pretty obvious, some of these will work by themselves (Fax/Copy) and some will require a connection to a PC, either by USB or by the in-built networking capablity.

All functions (apart from Photo Capture) can be done in Colour or Black & White by a simple selection of the appropriate 'Start' button located on the far right of the control panel.

Ink cartridges are located conveniently at the forward right hand side of the MFC allowing very easy access.

Paper handling is straightforward, with a multi-purpose tray being located at the front centre of the MFC. The combined tray will hold just 100 sheets of A4 paper, so Brother are obviously aiming this at home, rather than office use. The tray will also hold 4x6 photo paper at the same time as the A4 stock. To swap from A4 to the 4x6 paper require that the top of the tray is pushed in (it becomes obvious when seeing it, and reading the manual.)

The majority of the (small) footprint of this MFC is taken up by the flat-bed style scanner. This can be used in 2 ways - either as a regular flat-bed, where the lid is lifted and whatever you are scanning is placed on the glass area - or, and for me, more usefully, up to 10 sheets of documents can be put into the Automatic Document Feeder. Scan quality is acceptable in both cases - although, like the printing, if you are after high photo-quality results, then it's not the best in class. I must stress though, that, for me, and what I use it for, it does the job well.

Network setup was easy, you can either manually set the MFC's IP address, or let it use DHCP - I set mine manually, just to keep my IP addresses neatly ordered - and then I know which printer I'm pinging should it become necessary.

Once this device is on the network, and you have installed the drivers/ client software onto your PCs, it can be used from any of them. Equally, if scanning etc. using the machines own control panel, you can direct the results to any of your attached PC's (or MACs - it is MAC compatible apparently, but I haven't been able to check this out.) using the in-built LCD.

If you need an all-in one machine, aren't after absolutely top-notch photo quality prints, then I could highly recommend this. For me, being able to replace a fax machine with something not much bigger - but with many more features was a boon. Being able to scan all my bank-statements etc. with ease has been really useful. I already had a flat-bed scanner, but with no ADF, scanning several letters a day became a chore - with this, it's easy - I can go get a coffee/play with the kids/wash the car etc. and let it get on with it.

The only thing stopping it getting top-marks is the average print-quality - it's good enough for day-to-day, occassional letters, and even occasional photos - but it is certainly not class leading.

If you like the sound of this, but aren't sure about cabled networking etc. Brother now do versions which are wireless (including a wireless DECT phone) - a bit more expensive, but the only wires you need are for the power supply and, if you get a version with fax/phone, a telephone socket. These models have the CW suffix, e.g. the 845CW.

Hope this helps.