I won a gift certificate to
J & R thanks to epinions first review sweepstakes. We decided to buy a fax machine. We bought it in July but it has taken this long for me to review it. Let me make it clear. This was not due to the fault of the machine or manual. The reason is that both my husband and I are technologically challenged.
Our daughter is getting married so our first two faxes to come in were contracts to sign. The first one took a few minutes for us to figure out how to receive it. The second one was a piece of cake. Then it came time to send a fax. I immediately thought we couldn’t do it. Truly it took three seconds of looking at the manual and it was sent. So let’s talk about the
Brother IntelliFAX 775.
I will leave the specifications below which I am not going to note in this review.
All about the machine:
The first aspect I want to note is my feeling that this is a good home fax machine or very small business fax if you work out of your home. Although it says right on the box “home/office plain paper fax, phone and copier" having used a fax machine in an office years ago I remember it had the ability to handle more paper and was faster.
The 775 is built with a telephone handset, a speakerphone, and the ability to store speed dial number. It will hold up to 58 locations on speed dial ad 8 locations on touch dial. That is more than enough for us but note that others can hold up to 200 locations. We paid $80.00 for this machine so keep that in mind.
The keypad is very easy to use. It is on the front of the machine where I can dial a fax easily, have the other end pick up (I hear it dialing but I noted in my mind when I sent my most recent fax that it is very quiet.) and submit the transmission in less than 15 seconds. It was really easy to send these two pieces of paper.
I did have to copy what I was sending because it will accept only paper that is between 5.8 and 8.5 inches wide and between 5.9 and 23.7 inches long.
The machine is nice and small. It measures 13.3 inches x 12 inches x7.2 inches and weighs less than 10 pounds. I think it is attractive and not an eyesore on our desk.
Please note that this comes with a starter printing cartridge that will handle up to 30 pages only. I want to emphasize that because I was reading a lot of negative reviews (elsewhere) and one complaint was that the cartridge was empty very quickly. I am wondering perhaps if these writers didn’t realize this was a starter cartridge. Although I have not had to change the cartridge for the purpose of this review I took a look at it. It is very easy to change- just a drop in cartridge and this one will handle up to 250 pages.
The modem speed is 9,600 bps. This isn’t the fastest around but it works for me. Translated into real numbers if I were to send 10 pages that would only take 2 1/2 seconds to complete. (I hope my math is correct.)
I have never had any jamming problems with the 775.
The paper capacity of this machine is 100 sheets which go in easily by opening the paper cover at the top of the machine and then closing the cover. That couldn’t be easier.
The 775 has 512kb of memory and can store up to 25 pages for what is called out of paper reception. This means that if the paper runs out while a fax is coming in the Brother 775 will store any transmissions until I refill the paper holder.
The 775 will give you what is called a “transmission verification report with an image." When I recently sent a fax I didn’t know the machine did this so I asked the receiver to acknowledge receipt. Since then I sent another fax and was able to test that feature out. What all this means is that I am shown what I have sent and it can show up as a picture.
The 775 also copies up to 99 copies, sorts, enlarges and reduces.
It has a USB interface which runs at 1200 x 600 dpi resolutions.
The 775 can make my prints darker or lighter. This machine has 64 scales that I can adjust.
One negative is that the phone is not clear. It echos and is fuzzy so don't count on using this as your main phone.
The Brother IntelliFAX 775 has a limited one-year warranty.
Final thoughts:
Other than having to attach the document support into openings at the top of the machine and attach the paper wire extension this was all put together. Although it took me awhile to review it I have to say that it is truly very easy to use.
It is compact, acts as a phone, copier and fax machine and is perfect for our small needs. It is great to be able to say when asked “Yes I have a fax number.”
We use the 775 as our answering machine so it comes in handy for that as well. I do want to mention one problem we had due to our limitations with items such as this. We were finding that if we didn’t pick up the phone it went into fax mode making the person on the other line listen to the sound of dialing. After reading the instructions we realized we had the machine on FAX/TEL rather than manual. So if you run into this problem it really isn’t a problem.
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Specifications not listed:
Print Technology Ribbon Transfer Technology
Faxing Capability B/W Faxing
Group Dial (up to x groups) Yes (4)
Quick Scan (Memory Transmission)‡ Approx. 14 sec/page
Delayed Transmission/No. Timers Yes/1 Timer
Remote Fax Retrieval Yes
Fax Forwarding/Paging Yes
Coding Method Mono:MH
ITU-T Group G3
Max. Fax Resolution 203x392 lines/inch
Fax/Telephone Switch Yes
External TAD interface Yes
Automatic Redial (times/interval) Yes (3 times/5 min.)
Distinctive Ring Detection Ready‡ Yes
Caller ID Ready‡ Yes
Call Waiting Caller ID Ready Yes
Tel Index Search Yes
Copying Capability B/W Copying
Copy Reduction/Enlargement 50%-150% LCD Size (characters/lines) 16 characters/1 line
Min. Input for ADF (Width/Height) 5.8"/5.9"
Max. Input for ADF (Width/Height) 8.5"/23.7"
Sheet Weight - ADF (Min./Max.) 17-24 lbs.
Sheet Weight - Paper Tray (Min./Max.) 17-24 lbs.
Power Source AC 120 V 50/60Hz
Power Consumption - Sleep/Standby/Peak less than 5W to less than 170W
Energy Star® Compliant Yes
Operating Environment: Temperature 41-95 degrees F
By the way you will find this for less online as well as rebates online.
For more information on the first review sweepstake contest go to the member center and scroll down.
