The Brother MFC-L8850CDW ($599.99), the midrange model of three recently introduced color laser multifunction printers (MFPs) geared to workgroups in smaller offices, is fast for a color MFP at its price. It has a nice range of features, including single-pass duplex scanning from its 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF).

Features and Design
The MFC-L8850CDW ($1,126.00 at Amazon) can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or as a standalone unit without needing a computer; it can also work as a standalone copier. It supports printing from or scanning to a USB thumb drive. It can also scan to a PC, email, an optical character recognition (OCR) program, an FTP server, Microsoft SharePoint, and network folders.

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. This paper capacity is relatively modest, making the printer most suitable for a smaller workgroup or a busy home or micro office.

The MFC-L8850CDW has a faster rated and tested speed than its little brother, the MFC-L8600CDW ($699.99 at Amazon) —one of the two workgroup MFPs launched at the same time—and a higher maximum monthly duty cycle (60,000 sheets to the MFC-L8600CDW's 40,000). Its 50-sheet ADF trumps the Brother MFC-L8600CDW's 35-sheet unit, which lacks the MFC-L8850CDW's support for duplex scanning, copying, and faxing. The other new model, the Brother MFC-L9950CDW ($799.99), has all the features of the MFC-L8850CDW, but is built for higher-volume printing, with a maximum 75,000-page duty cycle, and can use extra-high capacity toner cartridges to lower its running costs.

At 20.9 by 19.3 by 20.7 inches (HWD), this MFP is too big to share a desk with. Given that it weighs 67 pounds, you'll want two people to move it into place. Its swept-back front panel includes a 4.8-inch color touch screen. On top is a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that supports single-pass copying, scanning, and faxing of two-sided, multipage documents of up to legal size.

The printer 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 MFC-L8850CDW, rated at 32 pages per minute (ppm) for both color and monochrome printing, on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 7.6ppm, a good clip for its price and rated speed. (While rated speeds are based on text-only printing, our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content.) It was faster than the Brother MFC-8600CDW, rated at 30ppm, which turned in a speed of 6.4ppm in my testing, and the Editors' Choice OKI MC362w ($879.99 at Amazon) , which we timed at 5.9ppm. Its speed fell well short of the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf Color Laser Printer , which I timed at 8.3ppm in its default duplex printing mode and a fast 10.1ppm in simplex.

Output Quality
Overall output quality for the MFC-L8850CDW was somewhat below average in our testing, due mostly to subpar photo quality. Text quality was average for a color laser, and graphics a touch below par. The printer's text is fine for any business use short of ones that require very small fonts, such as demanding desktop-publishing applications.

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With graphics, colors were generally well-saturated. Some dark backgrounds looked a bit faint in my tests. The printer did well in showing very thin, colored lines, and in distinguishing between similar tones. Several illustrations showed mild banding (a regular pattern of faint striations). There was obvious dithering (graininess and in some cases dot patterns) in most illustrations. Graphics quality is fine for any internal business use, up to and including PowerPoint handouts.

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

This printer is slightly more expensive than the Brother MFC-L8600CDW, but brings more to the table: the capacity for higher print volumes, better speed, a larger ADF, and the ability to scan both sides of a sheet of paper in a single pass.

The MFC-L8850CDW is about midway in price between two Editors' Choice models, the OKI MC362w and the Dell C3765dnf Color Laser Printer. It falls well short of the higher-end Dell C3765dnf in running costs, speed, paper capacity, and graphics quality. It has a similar set of MFP and workflow features to the OKI MC362w and is a bit faster, though it couldn't quite match the OKI MFP's output quality or paper handling. Thus, the OKI MC362w remains our Editors' Choice for medium- to heavy-duty color laser MFPs in a micro or small office, but the Brother MFC-L8850CDW is fine in its own right, and a good choice especially if speed is a priority, and your color output is limited to internal use.

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