Phone/Copier/Plain Paper Fax: a must in our home office!
Written: Mar 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use, versatile, handy home copier.
Cons: Can't think of any.
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| vickie's Full Review: Archived Electronics Reviews |
This is a great, multi-purpose machine for the home office and/or small office! At $189.98 the price isn't too bad either! Versatility and ease of use are the hallmarks of this product. While it does not have an internal answering machine, you can easily plug an external answering machine into it and it works well. You can even pick up your messages from a remote location while the machine is set to receive faxes by entering a remote activation code remotely and then picking up your messages. If your desk is located near where you have placed the unit, you can easily set it to ring for inbound calls but to receive faxes silently (no phone ring) so you are not unnecessarily disturbed.
Prepoia (2/18/00) wrote a good review of this machine, pointing out how easy it is to install and use. Our household really puts this machine "through its paces" and in this review I will comment on some of the additional features and functionality:
One-Touch Dial
This machine stores up to 6 numbers in "One-Touch Dial", providing rapid access to frequently used numbers. It is easy to program the numbers and easy to remember how to access them. The fact that you can check the stored numbers on the display makes it easy to add and delete numbers as your usage patterns change. "One-Touch Dial" works for dialing the phone or sending a fax.
Jog Dial
This function give you an additional 50 phone numbers that you can program into the machine, again, for rapid access to frequently used numbers. In contrast to "OneTouch Dial" (with which you press one or two keystrokes to access the name and number), with "Jog Dial" you turn a dial on the machine's control panel until you see the name of the person you wish to call and then press a key to initiate the call. "Jog Dial" also works when dialing the phone or sending a fax.
Faxes
With this machine you can have a conversation with someone during the same call as your fax transmission, without the added time and expense of making another call. The other party's machine must also be equipped with a voice contact feature. Frankly, we've never found a need to use this function.
This machine does the usual office faxing functions easily, things like: confirmation logs, delayed transmissions and sending a single fax to multiple locations.
IQ Fax
This feature can only be used if you apply to a third party FaxSav service.. This function allows you to send faxes (like a small "fax blast") by the internet. The FaxSav service manages the delivery of your fax(es) to any fax machine in the world. It routes the fax via the most efficient route and will automatically resend a fax if the receiving machine is unavailable. Frankly, we use email blasts for this communication purpose and not faxes. However, I can see where it might come in handy if you had a small office direct marketing campaign and you wanted specifically to go to fax machines instead of email. Panasonic pre-programs the Fax Sav company number into the machine and provides a blank application form in the machine's "Operating Instructions" manual.
Pager Call
If you are a real "type A" about knowing when an important fax has been received, you can set the machine to call your pager when it receives a fax and you are away from your office. We don't carry pagers so we obviously don't "hang out" if we're waiting for anything we consider to be this important!
Film Detection
This is a feature which warns you that you are getting low on the consumable film that the machine uses to image onto paper. A window on the display panel lights when you only have enough material left for about 15 pages. This is handy so that you don't run out!
Copying
This machine makes a handy home office, plain paper copier. While it is far from "industrial strength" it makes multiple copies easily and even print multiple copies of collated material (no-it doesn't staple them together again for you!). You can enlarge a document by 150% or 200% and reduce it by 92%, 86%, or 72%.
"Operating Instructions" Manual
This is an incredibly valuable and easy to understand booklet-one of the best I have ever read! I work for a computer software company and know how rare it is to find a good, technical instruction manual. This manual is so easy that you are motivated to try new things-not put off!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
vickie
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Location: Waltham, MA
Reviews written: 75
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