The scanner function is slow and not very true. The scanned photos are of poorer quality than usual for a flatbed scanner, but are quite adequate enough for an office context where requirements typically go no further than text and graphs.

Note that the driver supplied was not fully developed. In fact, it is the Windows generic driver and the trouble is that it deprives the MFC 590 of some of its functions. The Windows XP scanning range is only 100 to 600 ppp (Brother claims this is temporary), and not 75 to 9600 ppp, as originally intended.

Photocopier

As you'd expect, the MFC 590 reproductions are not as good as on the other three devices. The copies come out fairly fast but their quality is not up to the level of those from the HP. As with the printer tests, the highest resolution available is still not adequate for photo reproduction.

Ranking