Brother DCP-8060 review

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Verdict:

The DCP-8060's print and copy quality is the best of the three multifunction devices here, but with no network port it's a little limited at this price. It's good, but if you can stretch your budget we recommend Dell's Multifunction Laser Printer 1815dn, which has a network port, fax modem and duplexer.

Review Date: 17 May 2007

Price when reviewed: £249

Supplier: http://www.morecomputers.com

Reviewed By: Simon Handby

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

User Rating

Brother's DCP-8060 comes with a detailed setup guide, and is easy to prepare for printing.

Installing the software is straightforward, although the diagnostic application behaved oddly. It warned us that it couldn't find the printer, before proceeding to print a report that appeared without a hitch. Most users will want to disable the loud and persistent status beeps, but it's easy to do this from the control panel.

The DCP-8060 doesn't have a fax modem or a network port and can't be upgraded to duplex printing, but other models in Brother's range come with one or more of these features as standard. There's a 250-sheet paper cassette, along with a fold-out 50-sheet multipurpose feed. This is marked with the correct orientation for paper, but not envelopes, which were creased during printing.

Like the other two MFPs here, the DCP-8060 has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder. This can't be used for faxing, but it comes into its own during multipage copies. It copied a 10-page document in just 32 seconds, which is the fastest result we've timed. Brother's TWAIN interface is basic but easy to use, and supports multiple scans per session. At low resolutions the scanner is fairly quick and produces acceptable results, but our 600dpi tests were spoiled by a regular interference pattern.

The DCP-8060 has a quick printer that kept pace with the fastest single-function printers in this group. It took a few seconds to think about our graphics test before spitting out all 24 pages at a breakneck pace. The results were almost as good as the Dell 1720dn's PCL output. Though it isn't particularly cheap to buy, it's inexpensive to run. Only Kyocera Mita's FS-1030D is significantly cheaper to run.

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