Brother Printer Does So Much, But Isn't Easy

But the real mind-boggler is the printing cost per page: The high-yield black cartridge, which claims a ridiculous 6,000(!) page capacity, costs just $77 each at Amazon. (Sorry, I love my job but I'm not printing 6,000 pages to test this.) So let's assume that claim is only half true -- that still grosses up to two cents a page. P/> Are you kidding me?

What you don't get
The 9970 falls short of first-line, top-drawer functionality.

Sadly, the unit is not imported from Hogwarts School of Desktop Printer Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is not magic. The printer achieves all this marvelous functionality at a clear cost; Brother is not a shop that invests in slick engineering, so an Apple iMac this thing is not. Setup, while perfectly manageable, is supported by a manual that makes Google Translate look like Ernest Hemingway. Printing quality is not firstrate. On-screen menus are clunky, and so is finagling the replacement cartridges. But the real bummer? Network access. Yes, the printer does support Wi-Fi, but you'd better be ready to mess with firewalls, IP addresses and other heavy bits of tech wonkiness.

Basic functions are solid, but do anything tricky and this Brother turns into a nasty brother, fast.

Bottom line
There are issues with the 9970. Setup, manuals, ease of use -- you get the idea. But for a little more than an inkjet printer you can get a legit laser imaging system that really does 90% of what a small business needs.

You can almost hear H-P, Canon and all the rest moaning, "O brother, where art thou?"

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