Brother MFC-7460DN

The middle sibling between the closely related Brother MFC-7360N ($200 street, 3.5 stars) below and the Brother MFC-7860DW ($300 street, 3.5 stars) above, both of which I've recently reviewed, the Brother MFC-7460DN ($250 street) offers some of the extras that the MFC-7360n lacks, including a duplexer and a slightly faster engine speed. It also lacks some features, notably WiFi, that the MFC-7860DW offers. The result is an MFP that can fit well as either a shared printer in a micro office or as a personal printer in any size office.

Although the MFC-7460DN is midway between its two siblings in price, it's at least arguably closer in spirit to the more expensive MFC-7860DW. Compared with the MFC-7360N, it adds (among other things) a duplexer; a little faster engine speed, at 27 pages per minute (ppm) rather than 24 ppm; and a secure print feature (which lets you tell the printer not to print a given print job until you enter a PIN code at the front panel). All of these help make the MFC-7460DN a better fit as a shared printer in a small office.

The most significant features it leaves out that the MFC-7860DW includes are WiFi and support for PCL as well as Brother's own PostScript clone. The WiFi support is really just a convenience feature, but the built-in printer languages can be important in some situations. Some programs, for example, require PostScript. For most small offices, however, the PCL and PostScript don't give any advantage over the MFC-7460DN's host-based printing.

The Basics
Like its siblings, the MFC-7460DN offers the key MFP features most offices need. It can print, scan, and fax from a PC over a network, and work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Its 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) serves as a welcome complement to the flatbed, letting it handle multipage documents and legal-size pages.

In addition to the duplexer, the paper handling features include a 250-sheet tray and a one-sheet manual feed, so you can print on a different kind of paper without having to swap out the paper in the tray. This should be more than enough for most small offices or for personal use. If you need a higher capacity, however, you'll have to look elsewhere, since Brother doesn't sell any upgrade options.

Part of what makes the printer appropriate for personal use is its small size, at 12.4 by 15.9 by 15.7 inches (HWD), which gives it a smaller footprint than many inkjets. On the other hand, it's large enough so you may not want to share your desk with it. If that's the case, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a spot for it nearby.

Setup and Speed
Wherever you decide to put the printer, setting it up is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it to a network and printed from a system running Windows Vista. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), I clocked it at 9.9 effective pages per minute (ppm).

This is essentially the same speed I got for the MFC-7360N and MFC-7860DW. The speed isn't unreasonably slow, and is appropriate for the rated engine speed, but it's far from impressive. The similarly priced Canon imageClass MF4450, for example, came in at 12.9 ppm on our tests, even though it has a slower engine rating. And the Editors' Choice Canon imageClass MF4570dn ($299 direct, 4 stars) came in at 12.3 ppm.

Output Quality and Other Issues
Not too surprisingly, given the similar print engines, the MFC-7460DN closely matches its two siblings for output quality in our tests, which is to say it's easily good enough for most business needs, but not particularly eye catching. Its text quality was just a touch better than for the other two printers on our tests, making it dead on par for a mono laser MFP. As with the other two printers, unless you need high-quality text for desktop publishing applications or you have an unusual need for small fonts, you should find the text more than acceptable.

Graphics quality is at the high end of the tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not feel that it's good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like. However, it's easily suitable for any internal business need. Photo output is a touch below par, but still easily good enough to print recognizable photos from Web pages. Some people will also consider it good enough for printing photos for a client newsletter or the like.

Ultimately, the Brother MFC-7460DN?much like its siblings?doesn't stand out for any impressive capabilities. However, it offers an attractive balance of speed, output quality, size, paper handling, and functions. If you need better speed, you'll want to look at the Canon MF4450 and MF4570dn, and if you don't need duplexing, you may find the Brother MFC-7360N a better value. However, the MFC-7460DN is unquestionably a more than reasonable choice as either a personal or micro office MFP.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Brother MFC-7460DN with several other MFPs side by side.

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