Strengths:Easy to use, relatively small foot print, set-up with use of the quick setup quide
Weaknesses:User manual was written for 4 different multifunction machines sometimes making it difficult to know whether the instructions applied to the 2820 or not
Summary:I finally broke down and bought a dedicated FAX.
I decided that I wanted a laser FAX because I didn\'t want to deal with inkjet inks. I also wanted a plain paper one.
I asked one of my friends what she owned and she told me that she and her family owned several different FAXes over the years and all of them had problems.
I was about to talk to some other friends, when I remembered that I had just faxed several things over the last two weeks at my local Staples store. The machine that they had was easy to use and didn\'t take up a lot of space. I didn\'t know if I could afford that unit but I called the store to find out what model they were using. It turned out to be the Brother 2820.
That was another reason that I bought the 2820: if Staples is using the 2820 for its self-service FAX station, I decided that it had to be a good unit. If it wasn\'t then Staples would constantly servicing it and would replace it with a different unit (because if the FAX didn\'t work, then they wouldn\'t be making any money with the Fax service).
Nice machine. Everything is accessible - no hidden/hard to reach knobs, plugs, doors.
Set up was relatively easy -- follow the quick set up guide and you\'re done in less than 10 minutes. Nothing was cumbersome or klutzy to setup.
I\'ve only used it to make two photocopies. Nice and quick -- and beats getting into the car to run to Staples/OfficeMax/OfficeDepot. When I faxed from Staples, the unit was easy to use and worked fine.
Someone else mentioned the $30 rebate which brings the list price down to $170. Some of the big box office supply stores are offering another $30 off (in my case, it was Office Max) and free shipping. My final cost after sales tax will be around $150.
