Tech / Special Interest → PC Hardware Discussion/Reviews > HP 8600 plus vs Brother MFC-9340CDW

HP 8600 plus vs Brother MFC-9340CDW

Would anybody have an opinion to share regarding these two printers?

Full disclosure... I have had terrible experiences with ink jet printers. HP, Canon, Epson. A few years ago I vowed never to buy an ink printer again. Got a laser printer and have not had a single problem since.

I am looking to replace now because I want/need the othe functions. Duplex scanning, Duplex printing, and color (not for photos).

I was pretty much set on the brother until the staples guy petty much refused to sell me the device and told me the HP is superior and cheaper.

I am susupicios of his sales incentives.

I am getting this for my wife and kids who will be homeschooling and will be producing a lot of print materials and such.

Appriciate your feedback.
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From Arrested Development
Narrator: Then George Sr. stumbled across a loophole in the Mexican legal system.
George Sr.: (holding up cash) I have money.

Apples vs oranges. The Brother is a LED (similar to laser but with a fixed instead of scanning print engine) while the HP is an inkjet. Frankly since you're not planning on printing photos I would go for a laser/LED printer rather than an inkjet (you already know the reasons).

For something comparable to the Brother you linked to you would be looking at the HP M276nw, the Samsung CLX-4195FW. The Brother has better features (it's the only one that has a built in print duplexer, but personally I'd go with the HP or Samsung for better print quality.

I have had the 8600 for nearly a year, using it for my wife's home office and for assorted kids school projects. I generally have been pleased at its performance and quality.

My only concern is over the past month or so, it occasionally has to be reset (power on/off) due to some unknown reason (tried troubleshooting it extensively with HP and they can't determine a cause). It's kind of a annoying but I have a feeling that its due to 1) the wireless network I have it connected to, or 2), the infrequent use (it can go a few weeks without use).

I haven't had a brother product in my house for a long time so things might have changed, but their quality has always been a little suspect to me.
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Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult!

Just picked up a 9340 yesterday. I haven't had a chance to test it out extensively.

It's funny that you're saying that about the Staples guy. I had the same song and dance from an OfficeMax guy. In the end I went and got the 9340 from Staples. I don't like dealing with inkjets, although I'm keeping my Epson photo ones around because those really can't be beat when it comes to photo quality.

But so far, in the few hours I've had the Brother, I'm pleased with the print quality, build quality and ease of setup.
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Yes, he's an idiot. And no, they aren't laughing with us.

Me too.

Picked it up yesterday.

It went on sale and it was all I needed to push me over the edge.

»www.staples.ca/en/Brother-MFC-93···=certona

Tested from my Windows 7 and Ubuntu systems and all seems good. Have not played too much with it yet.
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From Arrested Development
Narrator: Then George Sr. stumbled across a loophole in the Mexican legal system.
George Sr.: (holding up cash) I have money.

Ahh, I didn't see you're in Canada. You got a fantastic deal. At the $349 US price, which is $100 off retail and about $100 cheaper than most other places, I think it was a good deal in the US. It had been on sale here for about a week and stock was getting low near me, which is why I pulled the trigger.

Hopefully neither of us will regret the decision. To me the winner was the fact that it could do full duplex scanning and faxing (single-pass no less) and duplex printing at this price point for a laser/LED unit.

Works great with Windows 8 also. It's a relatively new product line (I think it came out during 2Q2013, so hopefully the support will be there for a while.
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Yes, he's an idiot. And no, they aren't laughing with us.

The only thing I am trying to figure out is if it will email a scanned document with out the need for a computer.

I also printed from my iPhone with no problem.

That would be a great feature. We have that at work, but I'm a little skeptical for the home machine. I'll actually have to read through the manual to see all the features this has.

Also, I wonder if there is a way to increase the memory on the unit. I tried looking around and thought I saw where it takes PC133 SO-DIMMs, but I can't find anywhere that shows how to install it and any definitive information as to whether the memory truly is upgradeable.
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Yes, he's an idiot. And no, they aren't laughing with us.

Seems Odd. I was able to set up an smtp server and send a test email. All the functionality is there just did not put the two together.

I hope they add google dirve support in the future.
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From Arrested Development
Narrator: Then George Sr. stumbled across a loophole in the Mexican legal system.
George Sr.: (holding up cash) I have money.

I assume that if these printers prove to be successful then they create enhanced software/firmware. But I'm not holding out hope given the short lifecycles of all things tech.
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Yes, he's an idiot. And no, they aren't laughing with us.

I have had the 8600 plus for over a year now and had no problems at all with it. It gets used pretty heavily at times.

I had a 1 year old MFP Kodak that the Brother replaced. That thing had to be reset fairly often. I assume it was losing its connection. I feel the the antenna on the Kodak must not have been as good because it used to display a weaker signal strength. The Brother has been a great replacement so far.
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Yedinitsy do nulya. Good job, idiot.

JSY, well, I got fed up with it and bugged tech support again. They couldn't find out what was the issue so they just sent me a new printer under warranty. It just arrived yesterday and I hooked it up today (and sent back the old one via FedEx with the prepaid shipping forms they provided) so I hoping this one lasts longer without issues.
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Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult!