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Brother MFC-420cn

Brother MFC-420cn
Brother MFC-420cnBrother MFC-420cnBrother MFC-420cnBrother MFC-420cn
alaScore 75

13 reviews

Feb, 2025

alaTest has collected and analyzed 13 reviews of Brother MFC-420cn. The average rating for this product is 3.8/5, compared to an average rating of 4.0/5 for other products in the same category for all reviews. Reviews about the print quality and multifunction are overall positive. The price and size are also mentioned favorably, but some have doubts about the durability and performance.

usability, size, price, multifunction, print quality

performance, durability

We analyzed user and expert ratings, product age and more factors. Compared to other products in the same category the Brother MFC-420cn is awarded an overall alaScore™ of 75/100 = Good quality.

Review analysis

(Based on 13 reviews)

Expert Reviews  

User Reviews  

Review Ratings

  (27% of reviews)
Show all 5 star reviews   (36% of reviews)
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Features

usability
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size
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performance
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price
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multifunction
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durability
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print quality
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design
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paper handling
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noise
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Showing 13 review(s)

Expert Reviews User Reviews

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Showing 1 - 10 of 13 Show Reviews: in English

Expert review by : M. David Stone (pcmag.com)

Brother MFC-420cn

 

The Brother MFC-420cn is a full-function all-in-one that's priced and sized for light-duty use.

Small size. Rich feature set. Network port. Automatic document feeder. Prints directly from memory cards. High-quality photos. Scans and faxes over network.

Slow performance. Limited paper capacity, at 100 sheets standard and maximum.

More multifunction printer reviews: • Brother MFC-L8610CDW• Brother MFC-L8900CDW• HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 All-in-One Printer• OKI MC573dn• Canon Pixma TS9020 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One Printer• more

Aug, 2005
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Expert review by (cnet.com)

Brother MFC-420cn series

 

The Brother MFC-420cn series of small inkjet multifunction machines is designed for small offices and homes. The MFC-420cn and MFC-620cn models include an automatic document feeder.

Nov, 2004
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Expert review by : Jeffrey Fuchs (cnet.com)

Brother MFC-420cn review

 

Intro The Brother MFC-420cn is a diminutive inkjet all-in-one with features worthy of a much more expensive product. It prints, scans, copies, faxes, and delivers photos directly from its set of built-in media-card readers. Just in case that's not...

Low price; compact space-saving design; good-quality text, photo, and color graphics output.

Limited paper supply; flimsy plastic parts.

The Brother MFC-420cn is a good multifunction for easy digital photo printing, but it's too limited for heavy workloads.

Nov, 2004
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Expert review by (cnet.com.au)

Brother MFC-420cn series

 

The Brother MFC-420cn series of small inkjet multifunction machines is designed for small offices and homes. The MFC-420cn and MFC-620cn models include an automatic document feeder.

Nov, 2004
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Poor Text Quality

 

It's a shame that the printer with everything I needed had poor quality performance on all of those things. I ended up giving it away.

Excellent idea to add 10/100 network support to home printers. Printer has everything I needed

VERY poor text quality and not very good color image quality

Nov, 2006
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

worth the price

 

I would recommend that you keep the status monitor running, as it will maintain a connection with the printer. However, it may sometimes not see the printer. In that case you can run the Install Diagnostics, which will reestablish the connection.

This printer does it all. Scan quality is great. Copier is good too. Can't comment on the fax since i use a different fax machine. Tech support was very helpful. Didn't take them long to find the problem. They even did a followup a week later

I had to reinstall the software a few times because it wouldn't see the printer. I think it was because i turned the monitoring program off

Oct, 2006
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Easy Setup

 

Just had setup one day so other problems have not been seen. Replaced HP PCS2210 AIO which crapped out.

Easy setup, seems to print OK. Used Linksys wireless router WRT55AG and two laptops setups without problems (do what the lit say and disable firewall/antivirus. Wired Desktop also setup easily

Flimsy feeling plastic parts

Jul, 2006
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Not too bad

 

Pros include ; cheap third party ink, one cartridge per color ; better print quality for text and small graphics than my other epson and hp ; lots of features, fax/copy/print etc ; handsome look, with relativly small space taken up

very poor scan quality. dark scans with too much blue ; fairly poor and slow photo print quality, grainy

Apr, 2006
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Has network FAX limitations

 

I believe that the scan-in fuction (to PC) has also been cobbled up to use USB only. So if you want full network functionality of paperless FAX and scan then U R forced to go for the bigger buck MFC-640CW.

Nice features if you understand it's limitations. Would be a 5+ if Brother didn't limit what it can do

I purchased the MFC-640CW (wired and wireless version of this same machine) and told a few business friends about what a great small office multi-function device it was. So a friend purchased this non-wireless version figuring that all he was losing...

Apr, 2006
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Consumer review (newegg.com)

Brother MFC-420CN

 

very nice full featured printer at a good price. very compact for a flat-bed scanner.

Compact, network ready, automatic document feeder, flatbed copy/scan

Only real con is the software the comes with the printer. My HP all-in-one printer/copy/scan/fax saves images of faxes being sent. This printer does not. If that isn't important to you, its a good printer

Mar, 2006
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