Brother MFC-L8690CDW, a fast and versatile laser printer

The Brother MFC-L8690CDW is a high-performance color laser printer for medium-sized businesses and SMBs with heavy print loads. But, in addition, it is also a work center with scanner, fax and copier functions. All of them with the option of double sided automatically. And with a paper capacity that can carry up to 1,300 sheets through four additional paper trays.

This equipment supports a recommended printing rate of up to 3,000 pages per month and has advanced mobile printing options such as Mopria certification (direct printing through an Android mobile without the need to install apps) or AirPrint for the iPad and the Iphone. You can find it in stores for an official price of 580 euros . We analyze its main characteristics in this article.

Brother MFC-L8690CDW Printer Datasheet

Good performance and speed

Without a doubt, one of the main keys of the Brother MFC-L8690CDW is that it is designed to operate continuously. This equipment achieves print speeds of up to 31 pages per minute in both color and black and white. As is customary in this type of equipment, it incorporates automatic double-sided printing as standard. If used, the speed drops to 14 pages per minute.

The idea that it is geared towards continuous use is reinforced by its recommended print cycle. Up to 3,000 pages per month . This is the maximum number of impressions per month to ensure that it works correctly throughout its useful life. However, in case of having to force it at times of higher workload, a maximum cycle of up to 30,000 pages can be reached.

Double-sided copy, scan and fax

It is another of the trends that we increasingly find in more models. Brother is one of the companies that is betting the most on this idea, and the Brother MFC-L8690CDW is no exception. We have both copy, scanner and automatic two-sided fax . Without a doubt, an addition that can give us a lot of play in our day to day. To take advantage of these features, a 50-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) has been included.

The copy function matches print speeds, with a maximum speed of 31 pages per minute for one side and 14 pages per minute for two sides. The maximum resolution is 1,200 x 600 pixels.

But above all, this printer stands out for the speed of its scanner. It is capable of scanning up to 56 pages per minute in case of using the double-sided function. This speed drops to half if we scan the documents on one side. The maximum quality of the scanner is 2,400 x 600 pixels. As expected, we can use OCR technology to recognize characters and be able to directly edit documents in applications such as Word. We also have different tools to scan directly to Internet services like Dropbox.

The printer's main tray has a capacity of 250 sheets

Paper and media handling

Another aspect in which Brother has wanted to influence is the versatility of this printer. In addition to its advanced functions, it also offers us different options when working with paper. By default, the Brother MFC-L8690CDW has an input capacity of 300 sheets , spread over a main tray of up to 250 sheets and a multipurpose tray of 50 sheets.

If we print constantly (that's what this printer is designed for) it will be very useful to expand the available trays so that we do not have to change the paper almost daily. This printer is capable of adding up to four extra paper trays with a 250-sheet capacity, for a total of 1,300 sheets . As for the capacity of the output tray, it stays at 150 sheets.

Keep in mind that this printer departs somewhat from Brother's idea of ​​always having an open door to A3 printing. In this case, it only holds A4 prints and other A5, A6, letter or legal formats. Nor is it designed to withstand very heavy weights. In its main tray it can work with formats ranging from 60 to 105 g / m2, while its multipurpose tray does give an extra performance with weights that go up to 165 g / m2.

Mobile printing and connections

In the field of connections, we have a good range of options. A slot has been included to use USB memories and scan documents directly to this memory (or print the documents that we have in the unit). This printer has both an Ethernet slot for connecting to the Internet via cable and WiFi connectivity. I would also like to highlight the option to use WiFi Direct . In this case, what we do is create a printer's own network to print directly without having to be connected to the company network. This option is very useful if, for example, a worker or visitor comes who we do not want to give the network keys.

In the field of mobile printing, this team has the main advances in this field. Thus, for example, it includes Mopria certification. It is a technology that different manufacturers have developed. The idea is that you can print from different mobile applications (Android) through the menu itself, without having to install a dedicated app for each manufacturer. That is, in a similar way to what we have on platforms like Windows.

It also has AirPrint technology , a similar idea for the iOS operating system of the iPad and iPhone. Despite these technologies, the use of Brother iPrint & Scan's own app can be a good solution if we want to perform scans from the mobile. Its interface is quite intuitive and you can send the digitized documents directly to your mobile.

Lastly, it also supports Google Cloud Print 2.0. In this case, it is Google's own menu that we can access through the browser and that allows us to work with the printer through the cloud.

Design and touch screen

Keep in mind that this is a multifunction printer designed for important workloads. And that shows immediately in the design. Its measurements are 435 (W) x 526 (D) x 539 (H) millimeters. That is to say, without being very high or wide it does have a good depth. Something to keep in mind when looking for accommodation in the office or office. The good thing is that with WiFi connectivity we have more play when it comes to placing it in a corner of the company without having to pull the cable.

As for its appearance, few surprises. The combination of white for the body of the printer and black for the area of ​​the touch screen, buttons and the numeric keypad for the fax has been chosen.

When it comes to handling this printer, we have the help of a 9.3-centimeter LCD touch screen . The interface of Brother printers is very successful with large icons that make it much easier to use and the option of creating custom shortcuts for our usual tasks.

Consumables

In the field of consumables, we have several options depending on the workload of the company and the cost at once that we want (or can) carry out on toners. Those that are included in the printer have a capacity of around 3,000 printed pages for black toner, and 1,800 pages for cyan, magenta and yellow toner.

And what is the cost of the official consumables for this printer? The standard black toner has the printing capacity of up to 3,000 sheets and is priced at about 110 euros, while the cyan, magenta and yellow toners allow printing up to 1,800 pages and its price is placed at 96 euros. In other words, a complete change of consumables will cost us about 400 euros.

To this must also be added the cost of the drum, which lasts approximately 30,000 impressions. Its cost is 140 euros.

In case we want to achieve a better cost per page and can afford a greater investment, we can opt for long-lasting toners. The black toner is used to print up to 6,500 pages and has a price of 125 euros, making it an option to take into account (just 15 euros difference for more than double the number of prints).

Long-life cyan, magenta and yellow toners go up to 4,000 prints and are priced at 170 euros. In this case, the complete change of consumables would go up to 635 euros but in return we could print more than double.

The printer can be expanded with up to four additional 250-sheet paper trays

Price and reviews

The Brother MFC-L8690CDW printer is a very complete machine that seeks to maintain excellent performance without giving up the versatility of copy, scan and fax functions or advanced mobile printing options. It sits midway between the largest work team loads and SMBs that have to work with many documents. And it does so with a fairly moderate price of 480 euros for what it offers. Perhaps the only point that I would miss is a larger touch screen, although it is one of the sections in which it has surely been saved so that the final price does not skyrocket.