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Brother’s MFC-255CW ($99.99; www.brother-usa.com) offers high-caliber office features in an affordable package.
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It’s par for the course to find a personal office printer in the hundred-dollar range. As welcome as a birdie is a $99.99 inkjet that also faxes, copies, and scans. Throw in advanced features and secure Wi-Fi connectivity, and you’re most definitely soaring with the eagles.
 Print
At its heart, the Brother MFC-255CW is an inkjet printer with reasonably competitive specs. Because all of its inks are separated into individual cartridges, you’ll never have to throw away the remainders of two colors when one color runs out. That’s not unique to Brother’s printers, of course, but it’s still good news for your bottom line.
As for its performance, this Brother can churn out a printed sheet every couple of seconds. Legal-sized prints are no problem, either. Interestingly, thanks to the MFC-255CW’s flash memory card slots and walk-up capabilities, it’s also a standalone photo printer (you can fax, copy, and scan without a PC, too). With the ability to produce borderless photos, this multifunction inkjet would be suitable as a home-office unit, too.
Fax
Even in the digital age, you still need to sign and return forms once in a while. This Brother makes it possible with its color and monochrome fax capabilities. It comes with all of the features you would expect, from intelligent call handling to fax reception even when it’s out of paper.
Copy
Five minutes until your meeting, and your PC isn’t turned on. No matter, because your Brother all-in-one printer works as a standalone copy machine, too. With a copy speed of up to a page every three seconds, the MFC-255CW can handle your hard-copy handouts with time to spare. It can also reduce and enlarge content by a factor of four.
Scan
As a scanner, the MFC-255CW has better resolution and color depth than a high-definition TV. It can export scans as PDF, JPEG, and other file formats. It can also turn a printed page into text you can edit with its included Scansoft PaperPort SE 11 (Windows) and Presto! PageManager (Mac) optical character recognition software.
Details
The Brother MFC-255CW comes ready for 802.11b/g wireless networks. For security, it supports WPA2 and other encryption standards, along with WiFi Protected Setup and other safe wireless configuration modes.
Its replacement cartridges cost $24.49 (450 pages) in black and $10.49 (325 pages) each for cyan, yellow, and magenta. Brother backs the MFC-255CW with a one-year Exchange Express Limited warranty.
by Marty Sems
View the chart that accompanies this article.
(NOTE: These pages are PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view these pages. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader )
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