Brother International Corp. has announced a new line of 5-in-1 monochrome flatbed laser Multi-Function Center (MFC) models: the MFC-6800, MFC-9700 and MFC-9800. All are Mac compatible, sport USB connectivity, and offer plain paper faxing, laser printing, digital copying, color scanning and faxing from your computer.
With a flatbed design for copying, scanning or faxing of bound documents, the MFC models are due in the third quarter. The estimated street price of the MFC-6800 is US$499. The MFC-9700 and MFC-9800 have estimated street prices of $599 and $799, respectively.
The entry model MFC-6800, has a small, compact footprint that makes it ideal for any home office or small office environment, according to Don Cummins, Brother’s vice president of marketing for fax, MFCs, and printers. If offers 10 page per minute (ppm) laser printing or digital copying, 200-sheet capacity paper cassette, and up to 30-page document feeder.
The MFC-9700 provides 15 ppm laser printing and digital copying, 250-sheet capacity paper cassette (an optional second cassette is also available), up to 50-page document feeder and optional network connectivity. It’s targeted to the small business or small corporate workgroup.
The MFC-9800 is focused on small to medium size corporate workgroups, and touts a Super G3 33.6k bps fax modem, and additional dedicated one touch dials for faxing and network scanning applications. Like the MFC-9700 it also has optional network connectivity, providing network printing, network faxing, Internet faxing and network scanning (via e-mail).
Brother’s MFC-9700 and MFC-9800 are compatible with an optional Print/Fax Server board (NC-8100h). This option, planned for November, has a variety of LAN networking solutions, including Internet fax, network printing, network scanning via e-mail, network faxing and Web-based management utilities. It also allows these models to connect with a 10/100Mbit Ethernet Network. Multiple protocol capabilities allow users in Mac, Windows, Novell and Unix environments to simultaneously have access to the MFC 9700/9800. The suggested retail price of the NC-8100h is $399.99.
And what about Mac OS X? Brother is supporting the new operating system initially through downloadable drivers on its Web site and with out-of-the-box readiness on later production models.