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

The media could not be loaded. 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...SETUPYes, 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: initpassI 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 ANYWHEREWhat 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 QUALITYThis 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 NEGATIVEThere 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.CONCLUSIONPersonally, 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.

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.