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Brother MFC-8950DW
High-Performance Laser All-in-One with Advanced Duplex and Wireless Networking
Average Customer Rating:
Rating Snapshot (13 reviews)
5 stars
9
4 stars
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3 stars
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1 star
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11 of 13(85%)people would recommend this product.
Customer Reviews for MFC-8950DW
Review 1 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
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out of
5
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Great machine
Date:April 22, 2013
By Gojuman
from Highland Mills, NY
I have my MFC-8950DW for just short of a month at this point. I wanted to print, copy and scan a large amount of documents in a variety of configurations before I wrote this review. Aside from the fact that it is a bit loud at start up the machine is just incredible. Set up is a breeze.
I cannot speak as to whether it can handle a mix of both letter and legal sized documents at the same time as I do not have a second paper tray and don’t need one. I do not use it as a fax either.
Everything I have tossed at it so far is handled with speed, clarity and top notch reliability. I don’t understand why some reviewers complain the function that reduces the size of multiple page documents and fits them into one page does not work. It works perfectly in both single and two sided mode and will save lots of paper. Perhaps those people do not understand the options on the printer properties page. The two sided printing, copying and scanning functions work as they should. However, when scanning to PDF the default size produces very large files and with a few simple adjustments they can be reduced down to where you want them.
In my opinion, after looking at many other brands and models this is the best black and white laser multifunction machine on the market at this time.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home (Personal Use)
Brother products owned: 4
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Review 2 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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ONLY 17 pages per minute! NOT 42!
Date:February 18, 2013
By Anya
from Boston MA
1. PPM
I've just timed MFC-8950DW while it was printing - it prints only 17 pages per minute despite the promised 42 ppm.
I've just timed MFC-8950DW while it was printing - it prints only 17 pages per minute despite the promised 42 ppm.
2. Touch screen
A lot of options are no longer available as buttons (sorting, contrast, brightness) and you are forced to use the touchscreen that has a 1995 interface.
A lot of options are no longer available as buttons (sorting, contrast, brightness) and you are forced to use the touchscreen that has a 1995 interface.
3. Duplex printing and scanning
So far works really well
So far works really well
4. Autofeeder
It's much louder than previous models and tends to take several pages at once.
It's much louder than previous models and tends to take several pages at once.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: More than 5
1 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Giant Step Backwards
Date:February 18, 2013
By Dave104
from Boston, MA
Our law office has owned an MFC-8460N for years, and this year we purchased the MFC-8950DW as the old machine is starting to age out. A couple of comparisons to the old machine will suffice to show that this multi-function is a giant step backwards:
1. Old machine could handle a copy job of mixed-size pages (letter and legal) and would simply pull the correct paper from one of its two trays after it was configured. The MFC-8950DW cannot do this. It generates an error message and you have to hit "start" again every time the paper size changes.
2. Old machine would automatically read the size of pages it was scanning and would create a scanned pdf that matched that size (so, with no changing of settings, you could scan in two legal-size pages and create a legal-size pdf, then scan two letter-size pages and create a letter-size pdf). The MFC-8950DW can't do that. You have to set the scan software to anticipate the size of the incoming pages (for each job), and if it is set wrong, the scan will simply cut off anything that doesn't match the expected size.
3. Our old machine can handle mixed-size scan jobs. This one cannot. You can (quickly) scan a whole pile of letter-sized pages, or a whole pile of legal, but if you mix them up the MFC-8950DW will throw an error message and just cut off any part of the page it does not want to read.
The trays cannot actually handle a full ream, though Brother claims they can. Almost a full ream, but not quite, so you will always have small piles of paper that don't fit in when you load the paper.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 3
4 of 4 found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Duplex Printing with Brother Printer
Date:January 25, 2013
By Bhaibhai
from Retired Home Office
I Had this Printer for nearly three weeks First and foremost its software installation was a cinch. Secondly I immediately looked into its duplex printing aspect that really made me happy as we get both sides printed in one single saan of the document. That precisely was not the case with my earlier Brother Printer Mod: DCP 8065DN that needed each side scan separately and after some usage it started missing some portion of document on the other side. This one seems ok to resolve that issue. IN total I have three Brother Printers.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 3
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Review 5 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
)
Great machine, Great customer support from Brother
Date:January 2, 2013
By cimmo
from Shelby Township Michigan
This is our second all-in-one. We needed a machine that would send a received Fax to a PC so we could easily re-fax or email the document. The competition could not accomplish this at that time, the brother all-in-one did the job and was very dependable. The online support has been fantastic.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 2
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Review 6 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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Impressive and greatly improved
Date:December 21, 2012
By mgross
Faster, better, smaller than before. This thing is blazing fast. The single-pass duplex scanner/copier is the only one in its class. The new touch screen control panel is simple and so much easier to use. The smaller footprint is more efficient. The higher capacity paper tray takes an entire ream of paper. By far, the best all-in-one out there.
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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So far an excellent machine
Date:November 30, 2012
By 1974Irish
from Stevenson Ranch, CA
Works as advertised. Okay is this long enough now. I have better things to do with my day.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 4
0 of 2 found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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easy setup
Date:November 26, 2012
By reynaldo
from Kennewick, WA
Everything works as advertised. Toner cartidges are a little expensive but I like the high number of copies on the high capacity toner cartridge and the 500+ input paper tray. Easy to setup and get started. I feel that it is an excellent multifunction machine at a reasonable price.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 5
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Review 9 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
)
Impressive "wake up" time
Date:November 26, 2012
By Customer
from Detroit
I am amazed at how fast the machine wakes from power saving mode and is ready to work. It is literally a second or two!
The touch screen is a bit awkward but functional.
Importing contact information from a csv file was complicated. The machine itself cannot accept a csv file. However the pc-fax application can import a csv file and then save it in a format that the machine accepts. One extra step and done right? Nope. Gotta import the new file you created with the pc-fax software and then go back and manually enter your 32 one-touch quick dials.
This said, the frustration of this was worth the benefits of what this machine does. I only hope that by the time this one wears out Brother will have software that can import a multitude of file types of contact information.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: 3
0 of 1 found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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great purchase
Date:November 26, 2012
By sandee
from california
very quick and efficient...product....needed a faster machine and dual tray
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 3
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Review 11 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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It's fast but not perfect
Date:November 25, 2012
By TimLawyer
from Oklahoma City
I have been a longtime user of Brother all-in-ones, so I have some perspective on the performance of this model. Brother really went over the top and included about every possible feature you could ask for in the MFC-8950DW.
Pros: Fast, easy - visually appealing visual interface, feature-packed, the black color is attractive, increased paper capacity.
Cons: Cheap construction (especially in the ADF), sub-par photo copies (e.g., drivers licenses, and the like). My previous Brother all-in-ones, in the photo mode, make a more detailed copy of photos, as compared to this new flagship model. That is a disappointment. It appears they have sacrificed greyscale step- quality in favor of speed.
Some messages on the display are in obvious ESL format.
When the toner gets low, a message appears on the display. Thereafter, the display never goes into sleep mode, unless you dismiss the low-toner message (or replace the toner). This is just poor programming. Brother either wants to goad you into prematurely replacing your toner cartridge, or they just just didn't think out the programming on this error message.
Other thoughts:
I was going to purchase the more-or-less matching Brother laser printer to complement this new all-in-one, but after observing the build quality of the MFC-8950DW, I decided to go with a competing model with more robust construction.
I hope Brother listens to their customers and steps up their game, with more robust build quality in their next generation, to match their great specs and capabilities.
Expertise: Professional or Expert
Use: Small Business (Up to 25 Employees)
Brother products owned: More than 5
1 of 1 found this review helpful.
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Review 12 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
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This 8950dw is DynOmite
Date:November 22, 2012
By Stburch
from Great falls,mt
This is my second printer. I bought it because it prints and scans to iPads and iPhones. It was easy to set up, is fast and as a musician scanning music over to iPads can't be simpler . The duplexes is extremely fast. I printed a 360 page music fake book in 24 minutes. Pretty fast if I must say so.
It holds 500 sheets and I have a lower tray(lt5400) ordered.
It holds 500 sheets and I have a lower tray(lt5400) ordered.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
Brother products owned: 2
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Review 13 for MFC-8950DW
Overall Rating:
(
out of
5
)
Great! As Promised!
Date:November 18, 2012
By MissPam
from Texas
Great, fast, easy to use printer. Does it all. Wireless set up was a snap & I am not a computer person. Love printing from iPhone & iPad.
Expertise: Advanced Amateur
Use: Home Office (Business Use)
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