The Brother MFC-7300c and MFC-7400c are nearly identical, though the MFC-7400c offers a few more important additions. Both work well as printers but fall a bit short on some other functions.

The units offer USB and parallel ports, sheet-fed scanning, telephone handsets, and a direct-copy feature that does not require an attached PC. Both have an unusual feature: composite video inputs that let you print or capture images from any video camera or digital camera with a video output. A large complement of useful software includes Twain drivers and ScanSoft's PaperPort and TextBridge. The printers support color fax transmissions between compatible devices and will simultaneously fax, scan, and copy while printing.

Installation for both was a bit confusing, though accurately documented. Microsoft Windows identifies the device, and the Add New Hardware wizard proceeds to install the various print and scan functions separately. The MFC-7400c lets you fax directly from a PC application–a feature missing from the MFC-7300c–but you have to run the device management program to configure this function, and this step is not well documented.

Print quality was good, but scans left a lot to be desired. Color copies were dark and posterized, with colors noticeably shifted. The scanner frequently fed small photos unevenly, resulting in skewed images. We tried to scan a large black-and-white image on thick stock, but the scanner would not feed at all. Both units turned in nearly identical print speeds and quality, as we expected. The MFC-7300c's 2.7-ppm average speed in default mode leads the category.

The MFC-7400c's extra features are notable: In addition to PC faxing, the unit has slots for SmartMedia and CompactFlash. You can take a card from your digital camera, plug it directly into the MFC-7400c, and print either a thumbnail directory or a full-size picture.

The color scanning and copying functions of these devices are weak, offsetting the good print quality, reasonable speed, and software bundle. The lack of a PC fax feature in the MFC-7300c is a significant drawback; the MFC-7400c's main appeal is to digital camera owners who want to use the memory card slots for walk-up printing of snapshots.