Brother MFC-L8900CDW Business Color Laser All-in-One Printer, Amazon Dash Replenishment Ready

Truth is, it's been only 4 hours since I unpacked this printer and had the chance to play around with it. However trust me, it's been a very busy amount of time and I think I put the Brother MFC-L8900 through its paces to the point that I can give an honest initial review. In addition to writing this review, I have put together a video that should give you an idea of what to expect if and when you finally decide to buy this printer. Let me start with giving you a few good reasons to trust my opinion and highly consider this all-in-one above all others. There will be at least one negative along the way -- particularly for Mac users. Don't get antsy -- this printer works beautifully with a Mac and that is the device I tested this printer with. Windows users shouldn't have any problems either as printers generally bond with PCs better than Macs. I have been buying heavy-duty printers for my home business for several years now. I know how to install them and I know what to expect. I also spend HOURS researching anything like this before purchasing. Please trust that I looked at all the top all-in-one consumer models from HP, SAMSUNG, CANON, etc. Now, with every printer, you end up researching on Amazon you are going to find negative reviews. I found quite a few negative reviews for this Brother model that kind of scared me. There were problems with print issues, the scanner cover not staying down, the wireless connection being dropped.....and on and on. Yes, the chances are always there you are going to get a dud model. However, I know Brother. I know their quality. In my opinion, they make the best and most cost-efficient printers in the marketplace. The last Brother printer I bought several years ago is still going strong. It's the cruddy Epson all-in-one that has given me nothing but trouble that I needed a replacement for. Make no mistake about it, the L8900CDW is one of Brother's current top consumer models. When originally released a year ago it cost twice as much as it does now. So, you are getting a $1k printer at less than $500 at the time of this review. This Brother pretty much looks, feels and prints like a $1k printer. It is a workhorse designed for a small home business. It has all the top functions you would expect from a printer at this cost including duplex printing, faxing and scanning. It also boasts a really nice 5" touchscreen that makes this an intuitive printer to use. I really did not have to resort to instructions in setting this up other than having to configure my email account on my IP webpage. More on that to come... SETUP Yes, this comes in quite a large box. Yes, it is quite heavy. Yes, it's better to have two people set this up but I was able to move the box up a flight up stairs, lift unpack and set it up all by myself. So those of you who want to know whether you can set this up alone, the answer is, you can! Unpacking took under 20 minutes. There are a few pieces of tape to remove. You need to open the front door, slide out the printer tray, and remove a bunch of plastic holder pieces. Easy peasy! Having a Mac, there is no CD drive. I simply went to Brother's support page on the Internet and downloaded their installation software applicable to this model. The software guides you through connecting the printer wirelessly (or wired) to your network. Additionally, you can do it through the touchscreen. I have to really commend the ease of use that this touchscreen and its accompanying keyboard provides. One thing you might want to do is set up your scan to email through your computer web browser. You will need to do a printout from your printer's network settings to get your IP address. When you plug that address into your browser search bar, it comes up with your printer's utility page. Now here's something Brother doesn't tell you... You need a login password. I had to search the Internet for it. The default password is: initpass I had a GMAIL account and I simply did a search for the incoming and SMTP settings, entered all that information and did a test connection from the browser. It worked perfectly and transmitted that information over to the printer. COPY AND SCAN TO ANYWHERE What is really neat about this printer is that you can send scans and copies to just about anywhere. Of course, there is email -- anyone's email that you wish. And there is a handful of supported Cloud Services like BOX, EVERNOTE, DROPBOX, ONE DRIVE, etc. So, I simply scan my documents and they are automatically deposited in those accounts. Each of those cloud services gives you free storage so I would recommend you take advantage of signing up with as many as you can. What's even cooler is that you can create shortcuts on the touchscreen with which a single press will automatically fax, copy, email or deposit your document into a cloud service. You will certainly have a lot of fun setting these documents up. PRINT QUALITY This is where I read so many negative reviews. Well, not so many, but at least the complaints from the vocal minority do tend to stand out when reading Amazon reviews for this product. I found the print quality to be excellent. Even more so, I found color accuracy to be just about spot on. Text quality was as perfect as you would expect. Now, one of the downsides that I read about this computer is that it uses the color inks to do black and white printing, potentially shortening the lifespan of those cartridges. There is a way to go into settings and tell it to use the black cartridge only. The problem is, you have to keep switching it back-and-forth every time you want to print color or black and white. I am just going to take my chances and leave everything where it is. I printed a few web pages and scanned a few magazine covers. The colors looked very similar. I didn't see anything that was way off. This printer really doesn't do photos very well -- most all color laser printers don't. Most anyone will tell you that you need a separate printer designed for photos if you want to use it for that purpose. It doesn't bother me that the paper capacity is only limited to 250 sheets. Have you seen 250 sheets? That is a lot of paper. Most homes won't use that much paper in a month. For the high-capacity business use you can buy add-on paper trays for about $150. The print speed is excellent. The most wait time you will have is from wake-up to first print. That can take about 20 seconds. Otherwise, this is a very speedy printer. I used the top feeder to scan my phone bill which was several pages long. The top scanner did a great job of feeding each page through its feeder and properly scanned both sides of each sheet. There is an option for single or double page scanning. Fax worked fine. I was able to send a fax to a friend and it arrived without any issues. I am always sending faxes to my Doctor, so it was really neat that I was able to set up a shortcut on the touchscreen. With a single press it dials my physician's fax machine and sends my document. No more having to remember his phone number or go through the manual dialing process. THE ONE NEGATIVE There is another Amazon review that touches upon this subject to which I was able to relate to... The Brother Control Center Software that you install on the Mac (and Window PCs as well) looks like something from the 1990s. It's quite obvious this is the one product that Brother has turned its back on. It's not only archaic, but it kept freezing and then crashing on Mac Mojave. I will bet that since one Mac user has already reported this issue, all Mac users are going to have this issue. Hopefully, Brother is aware of this problem and will fix it. Their portable app for IOS and ANDROID is also pretty bad. It has a lot of 1-star ratings. It works -- I was able to print from my phone --- but the software is just really nasty to look at and work with. Brother needs to update their software to new millennium standards. Did it hinder my enjoyment of using the Brother L8900CDW? No. There are ways to get around using the desktop app. The mobile app works, though I would probably opt to download some other AirPrint capable app to use with this printer. CONCLUSION Personally, I don't think any other of the major brands can top this all-in-one at this price point. Though the software side of this printer for the desktop and mobile devices is severely lacking, the hardware itself is top-notch. For the few hours I have been putting this printer through its paces, I haven't seen any negatives to complain about outside of what I have already pointed out. Wireless connectivity is fine. Print quality is excellent. Double-sided scanning and faxing worked as expected. The speed of printing is on par with office workhorse machines. In all, this is an excellent choice for your home or small business.

I’ll keep this short.. I’ve owned this printer for about two years now, and it’s been an absolute workhorse. Setup was quick, and it connected to Wi-Fi without a hitch (I have Apple products and PC's and Androids in my home all have no issues printing to this printer). I’ve printed everything from regular documents to card stock and envelopes through the special tray with zero jams or feed issues. The speed still impresses me every time, pages fly out crisp and clean. Honestly, this is the gold standard for business level printers. The price is amazing for what you get; I’d have paid triple knowing how reliable it would be. If I had to point out one small drawback, it’s the tiny on-screen keyboard when typing a password (thats just a software thing though), but that’s a one-time setup thing and hardly worth mentioning. Overall, five stars all day. I’d buy this again in a heartbeat.

I have owned an HP (okay) a Canon (crap) and now this Brother Color Laser. Wow. This absolutely produces the best brochures. Great color, quick printing and it doesn’t keep me awake at night like the Canon. It connected to apple play way better than either of the others. The same is true for windows. The software was a bit confusing but it worked so great. (Kept saying it couldn’t install but it did anyhow - go figure.) It connected to my wireless quickly with little rig-a-ma-roll. This one is absolutely the best!

Read first part of the story below before reading ahead. PEOPLE: I FIXED THE MACHINE MYSELF!!!!! Ok, as promised. I got an email from brother which starts saying: "1 year warranty", and that I need to take it to repair. They sent me useless steps to try to fix it, which I went through already in my peregrination to fix it without success, because all those steps assume your screen is working, mine is black. Surprisingly, I was able to fix this myself, and without their help, by intuition. They do not even know (or do not tell) they have the tool to fix this. I read a review on which the customer service representative (or technician, not sure) wrote to someone with my same issue that once the firmware is corrupted the printer is pretty much junk. He actually recommended for him to get a new one!!!! Black screen means your printer was trying to update the firmware and the internet was interrupted or somehow the update did not go through. Consequently, the printer have no means to start up. It is like a pc without windows or Catalina. However, after this happens, the machine still shows the green led on. THE FIX: plug the printer via usb to your machine and download from Brother.com the Firmware Update tool (called BrMain4810). Execute it. After a little the pc recognizes the printer attached via USA and starts the upload of the firmware. A few minutes later, voila! the printer's screen is back and you can re-configure. I was so close to dump this thing, as a matter of fact I purchased an HP laser jet similar to this one in functions, and I was able to cancel it right on time. Brother: Pitiful customer support online and through the phone and very confusing/repetitive information in their website to troubleshoot their equipment. Very disappointing. Good thing, my printer is back. Hope this helps. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good printer overall. Did the job, but come on, less than 2 years? at home? I mean, I have just replace cartridges less than one month ago. BRAND NEW! No support from Brother at all through the phone or website. Sent them an email. Hopefully will get a response just to explore what can we do about this. I have read from other cases like this that it is cheaper to buy a new one compare to repair it, which I find disappointing for a $600 piece of equipment. I promise to come back here and inform you all if they get back to me with a fix. 22 months old people! jeez!!

This is a replacement printer for the original one of this product. The printer was bought in 2009 and has lasted until 2025 when it finally reached its 100,000 pages printed. So, we bought another one for our business. It recognizes the 2nd paper tray that we added for legal sized paper automatically. Very easy to set up on the network and the print speed is not 33 pgs per min. But it works and the scanner is very good. Gave it 4 stars due to the print speed and the toner I have found the 3 colors needed last a while. The black I go through a lot due to my printing needs. I would recommend this printer.

This is the third Brother MFC product we own. We have two MFC-6490CW multifunction printers and they have done yeoman's service for close to a decade and still working perfectly. I recently decided to get a laser printer that can duplex print, due to the higher speeds and did quite a bit of online research. All the reviews and reports pointed to the MFC-L8900CDW as the choice. Already happy with two existing Brother printers, I decided to go for this one as my new color laser. Continuing in the Brother tradition, this new printer delivers in every category. I was also delighted to find that the scanner got a huge speed boost over past models. A full page scan takes just two seconds. Making a copy is a quick process, not a long wait, thanks to laser printing. About the print quality, very impressive. Even on the cheapest bulk purchased bond paper, the print is clean, with well defined letters and almost lithographic quality halftone screens when printing color photos in a document from QuarkXpress using the BRscript driver (an optional install when you install the Brother drivers). Type looks good, even under a magnifier. I looked at the halftone screens under a 30X magnifier and was quite impressed for the quality on bond paper. This printer can make some very fine dot sizes, enabling very smooth halftones. Print toner is embedded deep into the paper. There is no raised lettering feel like with past printers I've owned. Paper handling is equally impressive. I managed to print on 8pt Warrenflow card stock to print out some flash cards on both sides. Other printers I've owned could not even pull a sheet off the tray, letalone make it through the entire print path. The L8900CDW just did it like it was normal paper. Noise and odors: Noise level very subdued. No odor of ozone when printing. I remember my three HP Laserjet printers back in the 80s and 90s used to make quite a lot of ozone. Sleep mode and energy consumption: the printer doesn't sit there consuming 800 watts on and off all day and night like my prior three laser printers. When a print job is sent to the printer, the fuser heater starts up and in seconds it is ready to print. There are numerous connectivity features which enable such actions as printing from a smartphone (with the use of a free Brother iPrint&Scan app. You can even scan a document and send it to your phone via a QR code that gets you into a temporary Brother web server that stores your scanned document until you download it. I like the scanning features a lot, too. Scan to File converts your document to a PDF and downloads it to your PC and opens that folder on your PC. Scan quality: for the speed, it's pretty good and super adequate for office document scans. Photos come out okay, but there's no lattitude to push up shadow areas of the photo without seeing vertical streaks. But hey, this isn't a $2000 dedicated scanner! FAX capabilities: The usual stuff here, pretty much the same as my earlier Brother MFC devices. It works as it should. Of course with the faster scanning, that saves time before dialing begins. This device also employs Secure Printing and NFC capabilities, which are useful in a multiuser or enterprise environment. I have not tested those as I don't have the need. User Interface: a large color LCD provides an overview of all functions, plus the ability to customize the menu for frequently used special setups. Firmware updates are easily done through the internet via the wired or wireless options. I presently use Wi-Fi with mine and have not bothered with the wired connection for internet. If I recall correctly, the printer comes with a starter pack of toner cartridges. I've been using this printer daily for a few months now and have barely scratched the surface on toner supply. I can imagine the full size toner cartridges will last a very long time. Print Color Quality: I've limited experience printing color images on this particular printer, but I can say that compared to the inkjet, the magenta color primaries are more brilliant. However printing my company logo, which is a burgundy red color, appears darker on the laser than on the inkjet. Yellows seem quite vivid. Blacks are deep, even without the deeper black option enabled in the print driver. I've had a tech support question about where the destination files go when an image is scanned, and got responsive, comprehensive support from Brother. The company not only makes a quality product, but they stand behind it. The L8900CDW is ideal for small scale document publishing, such as manuals and brochures and newsletters, and with the duplex feature, it alleviates the number one hassle that always made newsletter publishing a nerve-wracking process: no need to re load the paper and worry about a double or missed page causing the whole project to go out of sync. Years ago, when I got my first Brother printer, I was skeptical. It wasn't a big name in printers and it was very low in cost. But many years of service and quality output have demonstrated that the products are as good as any of the leading manufacturers' products, and maybe even a tad better in some respects. It still amazes me that in 1988, I paid $5000 for a HP LaserJet plus a QMS JetScript add on to give it Postscript capabilities. At 300 dpi. Now, for 1/10th the price, I can print in color, plus a scanner and FAX are included in one convenient machine. Without reservation, I can fully recommend the MFC-L8900CDW for any small office or heavy home user. It's overkill for a lot of jobs, but if you have the space for the printer, and at this price, why not buy it? About the ADF and Scanning Speeds: STUNNING! I was not aware that the scanner on this device can scan BOTH sides of a sheet simultaneously. When I tried it, I almost could not believe it! I scanned an 80-page manual (forty sheets of paper), removed from its binder and fed into the ADF in under a minute. Every 1.5 seconds, another sheet was scanned and moved through the ADF. When it was all done, a folder automatically opened on my connected PC with the PDF file already created. I'm still stunned by the speed of this machine!

We've had this printer now for 5 years. That's a long time for a printer. Initially, we had to have the first unit replaced due to a problem that I don't now remember. Brother replaced the unit quickly. We have used OEM toner cartridges because we have found them to be more reliable and better quality, though admittedly much more expensive. We have replaced the drum unit and other parts as indicated. On average we print more than a thousand pages per month and sometimes 5,000 or more. The printer has been a reliable workhorse. We took it in for servicing once to an authorized service center only to discover the problem we were having was not due to the printer, but due to the distance from the wifi router. We installed a router signal extender, which resolved the problem and ended up hooking up the printer via cable to the extender. No more problems. We honestly have had very few problems with printing for five years. There are many positives about this printer. It is very expandable in terms of paper feed trays. We have two, but I think it can handle about four. We use standard 20 lb bond paper in a 500-sheet tray and premium 24 lb paper in the second tray, which has a 250-sheet capacity. The printer also has a bypass tray from which we print heavy papers (card stock, etc.), checks, envelopes, and more. The color is reasonably good though sometimes the match between the computer screen and the printer output can be off. Print coverage is typically quite good. We print wirelessly from computers, tablets, and phones. If you need to, you can print from a USB port. The automatic document feeder works very well and can scan both sides in one pass, which makes it very speedy. Brother has good software for monitoring and serving their printers across a network. You do need to accustom yourself to a few limitations. The heaviest paper that will reliably feed from a regular paper tray drawer is 24 lb. I wanted to be able to have premium 28 lb paper in our 250-sheet tray, but it won't feed reliably. To print more than 24 lb paper requires using the bypass feeder tray. Brother says you can load and print up to 50 sheets of paper from this tray. I haven't tested the preciseness of this claim, but I know you can put a small stack of 28 lb or 32 lb paper in the tray and it feeds fine. For 80 lb or 100 lb cover stock it will reliably feed about 4 sheets. For 10 pt coated paper, you will probably have to feed it 1 sheet at a time due to the high gloss. One area of frustration for me has been the wireless scanning. When it works, it works great. But for some reason the wireless connection between computer and printer breaks every so often and then it's a bear to get it connected again. I'm going to see if somebody in tech support at brother can help me solve this problem. I have another scanner on my desk that I use most of the time, but I'd like to have the ADF feature for scanning from time to time. All in all, based on my personal experience, I would highly recommend this printer to anyone looking for a reliable quality printer that will print thousands of copies per month rather quickly.

This is an initial review. I bought this to upgrade from a Xerox Phaser 3260. I have a micro business (consulting and healthcare practice) with a home office, a lot of work on the road, and I also maintain a second location. I do not have very high printing needs - I print maybe 100-200 sheets per month or less, with occasional spikes into the 200-500 range. To explain why I bought this, one of my lines of work involves substantial document review, and some of my customers provide documents in print. I also generate paper documents, and my goal is to use a "scan and can" approach, scanning everything and then having it shredded. The cost of this was competitive to buying a high quality scanner that could do duplex ADF of >50 pages per run, and so I bought this as an upgrade to the Xerox to get color laser printing at home, but basically for the scanner. First impression is very positive. This is heavy, it is definitely a two person job to move or install it. Removing the packaging takes 10-15 minutes. From there, connecting to Wifi is very easy from the touchscreen. Connecting to OneDrive for Business uses a computer (one grants the connection from a web browser and then enters a numeric code onto the printer), and from there, it can scan directly to a folder on the OneDrive (or other consumer or business cloud services, SharePoint, etc) with ease. Others have noted that there is a substantial wait between scanning the document to the device's memory (which is fast) and uploading it - 70 page documents take about 10 minutes to upload for me. The device cannot do other scanning jobs during this, but will respond to print requests. An unexpected bonus is that it does OCR straight from the device, so an additional step of running it through OCR on the PC side is not needed. This is the thing I wanted most and it does this very nicely. Overall, this itself is well worth the purchase cost, because on a Saturday afternoon while getting some work done, I am working through hundreds of pages of documents that are clogging up my home office. The other initial impression is that it is zero-configuration on Windows 10 (1803) - it just showed right up in my list of printers and I could print to it without having to install or do anything. Update #1: In addition to the "easy" stacks of 8.5x11 records I wanted to scan in, I have some workbook kinds of documents that I also want to scan. This is a mix of paper stock, with some booklets that I cut in half with a paper cutter, about 30-50 sheets double sided. After separating all of this into individual sheets, of all the varying content, the ADF handles it with aplomb except one item that is made of a very thin front sheet separated from a cardstock thickness back - this single document is not handled by the ADF so I have to take it out and use the flatbed scanner on this (or another scanner). The device really shines here. When scanned to searchable document, it auto rotates individual pages inside the PDF. The one downside is that a home page shortcut can be made, but this suppresses some feature choices (so skip blank pages is not an option). One other note that I hadn't encountered with the "easier" ADF scans is that if a scan jams midway, the device behavior is confusing - it continues to sheet feed through the rest of the pages, but then it does not upload anything. I'm very happy with this, overall - I'm still focusing on the scanning capabilities, but I didn't see as much review content about that so I wanted to share my experience.