There seems to be a bit of a stampede at present amongst printer manufacturers to produce a new generation of mono laser printers. As Brother is very much at the forefront when it comes to quality compact printers, it was only a matter of moments before it joined in the chase with the new multifunction 7000 series.

The MFC-7840W is at the top end of this series of five models, which start at £102.12 (plus VAT). Aimed principally at the small business end of the market, this is a sturdy, solidly square machine - 428 (W) x 396 (D) x 304 (H) mm - that weighs 11.2kg. Yet it's far from ugly, designed with sleek, ergonomic curves and in shades of gun-metal grey and silver.

This is a four-function All-in-One combining fax, scan, copy and print. On the top is the 50-sheet ADF and at the bottom is the front-loading, 250-sheet input tray. Unfortunately there's no automatic duplex facility, so double-sided printing will have to be dealt with manually. The supplied toner cartridge has to be slipped into its housing at the front and, apart from attaching the usual cables, that's most of the physical work out the way.

Brother claims this is the only compact 4-in-1 MFP with wireless (802.11b/g) networking built in, and in addition you have separate wired and USB connections available. Setting up the wireless function is a piece of cake: you just type in your WPA or WEP encryption key via the number pad and LCD and within seconds you're locked on.

The supplied software will also enable drivers and print options via USB in the standard manner. The top two models in the 7000 series also feature a downloadable 'ifax' function, so you can send faxes over existing computer networks to compatible machines for free.

The control panel is one of the most clearly laid out and user friendly we've seen, with Fax, Copy and Print menu buttons on the left-hand side and instant set-up buttons for Fax, Scan and Copy nestling beneath the centrally positioned, two-line text LCD. As well as the two main paper holders, there's also a straight paper path feed to make life easier with more fiddly media such as envelopes, labels and card.

In terms of operating speed, Brother boasts 22ppm at the most basic settings, with the first printed page emerging in less than 10 seconds. In practice, it took around 25 seconds for the machine to warm up and then print speeds tended to be pretty consistent whether on the draft, standard or high quality settings, averaging around 16ppm. For instance, we copied a 70-page game walkthrough that contained large amounts of screenshots in just over 3 minutes and completed an A4 photo scan in 30 seconds.

It also managed an OCR text recognition scan in 7 seconds. There was good quality reproduction on ‘press release' style text but it was noticeably struggling when trying to read text with smaller or more italicised fonts. The print quality overall was good without being exceptional: scanned photos (which scan in colour) came out noticeably darker and grainier when printed in black and white, with significant amounts of banding even at high resolution. Simple text rolled out relatively sharp, though it became less focused when copied from, say, a magazine article.

While it's relatively inexpensive to run (a high-yield toner costs just under £40, will produce 2,600 pages and there's a toner-saving setting), you may have to weigh up whether the admittedly excellent fax facility and the wireless function is worth the slightly weighty price tag.

A solid, speedy and user-friendly compact mono laser printer with good wireless connection and fax facility, let down by comparatively low print quality and a high price tag.