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This review has not been without it's problems. Initially I got a lot of paper jams, I thought I could see the reason as when the paper was stacked in the paper tray it was very slightly convex, the paper guides however seemed to be fully open. I eventually managed to get another few millimetres and from then on no more jams.

It is 38x35x18cm but the first figure the width needs another 6cm at the rear as the solid power lead enters at the back of the left side. The USB lead enters at the far right side of the back and connects internally.

The initial install gave problems and while it completed I got an error message until I had rebooted a couple of times. Another recent unit it came with other software as far as I could tell no such software is supplied here and therefore when you scan items it will default to Windows Paint, you can change this but that is the default.

See also: Multifunction printers

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I was happy with the scan quality normal proviso give a good original and get a good scan onto the PC. I was also happy with the OCR software provided an early cut down version of Paper Port (SE4) and it scanned and correctly OCR'ed  newspaper type taking the columns and just turning it into text, no option for .RTF so bold etc is lost but the actual text was correct.

Copying direct from the machine with the PC not on or even connected worked well and the range of features it has goes beyond that normally available. A straight copy has three possible speeds the fastest gives an okay copy in around 20 seconds. However you can print from cards via the two slots that accept most popular types including SD and XD. However the Pict Bridge slot is more intelligent than some other manufacturers offerings in that it will read images on a pen/stick drive.

All these can be viewed on the small 4x3.5cm TFT screen and not only can you print 15x10cm photo prints but also A4 offerings. The small paper tray has a fitment in the top to take 15x10cm paper but you have to remove the tray and manually push this fitment forward or it will continue to print from the main tray.

I was surprised not to find an on/off switch you either need to turn off at the plug or remove the cable from the rear of the unit. I can understand this when a unit has fax but as this does not it seems strange not to be able to switch off, remember the planet.

There are a total of 15 buttons to the right of the TFT on the face of the unit and these allow quite a lot to be done on the machine. There is a front end within Windows and this can help the novice do most things that the DCP 560-CN can do however if you enter it via a scan from the unit then to make changes to the defaults in Windows you need to rescan.

This leaves printing and while the figures for printing are not good they are an improvement on earlier models. Printing even in best mode (there are four fine, normal, fast normal and fast) is not entirely black and in the fastest mode is is a mid grey. Printing the 200 word test page was only 12PPM and the 1500 word document spread over four pages was 10PPM.

Printing a 15x10cm photo was 1minute 50seconds while an A4 borderless print took a huge 19minutes and 40seconds (nearly five minutes quicker than an earlier model). The quality was however good and not surprisingly the image emerged dry.

Certainly a 'curates egg' of a machine some nice things some strange and some poor. However it does allow a cheap entry to network printing if you prefer that to USB.

Doing my Internet searches found the Brother DCP 560-CN at a best price of £96.35 from the first link below.

http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php?xProd=35335

www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_page/50670/s_level/36230/s_product/DCP560CNU1