Small cartridge and unreliable cart holder undermined solid product
Pros:
Refillable cartridge (undocumented)
Holds 100 pages, decent print quality
Cons:
Tiny cartridge, expensive refill
Long-term reliability problems
The Bottom Line:
You may be better off with some other inkjet fax, until Sharp fixes the reliability problem.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Have owned the UX-B700 for well over a year now. The ink cart is tiny and doesn't hold much ink, a couple hundred pages, even with the ink-saver mode turned on (defaults to OFF!) Carts are expensive at about $32 each, and no refurb ones are available... Until you realize that refill is a breeze... Just drill a hole on top and add ink, that's it, no maintain pressure, no seal, no chip reset. Add ink, that's it.
The print quality is decent enough, and with a bit of tweaking, it even co-exists with my answering machine, though it seems to dislike sharing the line with my PC's fax modem, unlike my previous fax. However, it can be worked around by tweaking the fax's settings.
The printing is of a decent speed for an inkjet and thus is unremarkable. So is the print quality. However, this fax cannot receive AND print at the same time. If it has received several pages of fax and started printing, it must FINISH printing before it is able to receive another fax. When you receive a LOT of faxes, one after another, this can get very annoying.
The paper feed section is COVERED. This simply does NOT make sense as you can't tell how much paper you have at a glance. Sharp should really make that cover out of clear plastic. As is, you can simply leave the feed cover off, it won't affect the operation of the unit.
The machine, after a year in use, developed a nasty symptom of "check cartridge", as many other users have ran into. Basically, the machine no longer acknowledge that a cartridge has been inserted, even a brand-new cart is not immune. No wonder there's a proliferation of "refurbished" units out there...
All in all, Sharp has made a solid business machine that does exactly what it does... Albeit with long-term reliability problems (such as the "CHECK CARTRIDGE" problem everybody will run into), and a TINY cartridge that really should hold more ink for its price. If you only use your fax occasionally, then this machine should fit your needs. If you run through 10 pages of fax a day or more, then you may need to consider something sturdier.
