Wireless Multifunction Printer for Mac

[ankapadi]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to buy a multifunction printer, scanner, fax and copier and from reviews of some products I've researched it seems that there's bad with the good, however, there is a limited amount of software support for Mac's.

I'm looking for a wireless laser MFP that does not have any issues with mac OS. My budget is around $200-250 and the wireless connectivity and laser printing are really the defining characteristics that I'm looking for (in addition to no compatibility issues).

Can anyone recommend an MFP they use or that they know of?

Thanks!

 

[mfenn]

Color laser or monochrome? Just so you know, a good color MFP will probably be more than $250.

If monochrome, Brother generally has very good Mac support. Check out the MFC-7860DW.

 

[Cerb]

Any printer that supports Airprint, has a wired network jack, and lists OS X, should be just fine. I've used brothers w/ macs a couple time, but it was literally click, click, then print, just like in Linux. Scan to email via the PC may or may not work perfectly, I can't say, but network printing and scanning, and local fax, tend to just work with them.

How much do you print? $250 could be a silly, if you print a couple thousand pages per month, FI. If not, then mfenn's linked Brother would also be what I'd get. $170 for it really is a good price.

For a more serious B&W MFC:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Printe...dp/B008CNXZQ8/

The only real negatives I can think of for Brothers is subpar color print quality, showing up mainly in photos, with their color models, obviously, and the scanners in their MFCs aren't great photo scanners. They don't get mixed reds, like skin and foliage, right, IME. Fine for document scanning/copying, though. Canon and Lexmark definitely do better for photos, but Brothers tend to, "just work," and have more reasonable consumable costs.

If you can go through 2000 pages in a months or less, don't buy a cheaper unit, as the usage costs will make up for the initial savings. If you don't print anywhere near that much, then a cheaper one will be fine. Toner isn't as bad as ink when sitting around, but it's still not best for it to let it, and I know of no small printers that turn it regularly, like big copiers tend to.

IME, HP have firmware issues and driver issues (I'm not sure how to handle those on Macs), and both HP and Canon use rather costly consumables. Brothers also handle 3rd-party toners pretty well (use real Brother drums, though!).

P.S. Handy chart:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/os/macintosh.html