The Brother MFC-L8600CDW ($529.99), the most basic model among three color laser multifunction printers (MFPs) that the company recently introduced, has a good set of MFP features, including the ability to print from and scan to multiple destinations. Although a solid printer in its own right, it lies in the shadow of the Brother MFC-L8850CDW ($1,126.00 at Amazon) , which offers some important extras for just a little more money.

Features and Design

The MFC-L8600CDW ($699.99 at Amazon) can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or as a standalone unit. It can also work as a standalone copier. It supports printing from, or scanning to, a USB thumb drive. And it can scan to a PC, email, an optical character recognition (OCR) program, an FTP server, Microsoft SharePoint, or network folders.

This model costs less than either of the other two Brother MFPs in the line, but can't match their features. It has a lower monthly duty cycle than the Brother MFC-L8850CDW's 60,000 pages, is a bit slower, lacks that MFP's single-pass duplexing scanner, and has a smaller ADF. The Brother MFC-L9950CDW ($799.99) is built for still-higher-volume printing, with a maximum 75,000-page duty cycle, and it can use extra-high capacity toner cartridges to lower its running costs.

The MFP is sizable at 19.4 by 16.1 by 19.3 inches (HWD). At 64 pounds, you'll want two people to move it into place. Its swept-back front panel includes a 3.7-inch color touch screen. On top is a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can scan, copy, or fax pages up to legal size (8.5 by 11 inches).

Standard paper capacity is 300 sheets, split between a 250-sheet main tray and a 50-sheet multipurpose tray. An optional 500-sheet tray ($249.99) brings the maximum paper capacity up to 800 sheets. An auto-duplexer, for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, comes standard. Its maximum monthly duty cycle is 40,000 pages.

The MFC-L8600CDW connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It supports Wi-Fi Direct, which allows for direct printing between compatible devices without the need to go through a Wi-Fi access point. It's compatible with Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan, Mopria, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace for printing from mobile devices. I tested it over an Ethernet connection, with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed
I timed the Brother MFC-L8600CDW on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 6.4 effective pages per minute (ppm), on the slow side for its rated speed of 30ppm for both color and monochrome printing. (While rated speeds are based on text-only printing, our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content.) It was slower than the MFC-L8850CDW, rated at 32ppm, which tested at 7.6ppm, but beat out the Editors' Choice OKI MC362w ($879.99 at Amazon) , which we timed at 5.9ppm. The Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF , rated at a mere 16ppm, effectively tied the MFC-L8600CDW with a speed of 6.3ppm in our testing.

Output Quality
Overall output quality for the MFC-L8600CDW was somewhat below par, with average text, slightly subpar graphics, and subpar photos. Fortunately, even average text quality for a laser is very good. Text with this printer should be fine for any business use except for those requiring very small fonts.

With graphics, colors were generally well-saturated. Some dark backgrounds looked a bit faint in my tests. I noticed mild banding (a regular pattern of faint striations) in several backgrounds. There was significant dithering (graininess, and in some cases, dot patterns) in most illustrations. Graphics quality is good enough for any internal business use, including PowerPoint handouts, but it falls short of what I'd consider usable for formal reports, let alone marketing materials.

Photo quality is below par for a laser. There was a loss of detail in some dark areas, and a monochrome photo I printed showed obvious tinting. Several prints showed dithering in the form of dot patterns. Quality is fine for printing out images from Web pages, but that's about it.

The Brother MFC-L8600CDW has some nice MFP features, such as the ability to scan to multiple destinations, work as a standalone fax machine/copier, and print from various cloud-based services. It also has a good set of connectivity choices, including Wi-Fi Direct. It falls short of its prodigious sibling, the Brother MFC-L8600CDW, in both features and performance, but it costs less. It edges out the Editors' Choice OKI MC362w in speed, but falls short in terms of paper handling and output quality. If you're looking for a reasonably fast, low-priced color laser MFP, the Brother MFC-L8600CDW is a suitable choice, provided that your color output is largely for in-house use.

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