Last year Brother launched the world's first compact multifunction inkjet A3 machines and now the company has kicked off 2009 with five new A4 multifunction inkjets, using the same engine as that series.

At the bottom end of this new series is the MFC-250C which retails at under £80 and offers full print, scan, copy and fax capabilities. Measuring a tidy 390 x 365 x 150mm and weighing a highly portable 7.2kg, this All-in-One is clearly targeted at the home business user on a budget.

The paper tray at the front holds 100 sheets of A4 plain paper as well as glossy photo paper, transparencies and envelopes. There's also a USB port to the left of the paper tray which allows for memory stick photo printing and PictBridge printing direct from a digital camera.

The fax unit will print colour faxes fast, contains 40 speed dials, has a 170-page memory and is able to send the same fax message to up to 250 recipients. In addition, there's a separate external TAD interface for connecting telephone answering devices (but, alas, no handset).

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The maximum (enhanced) scan resolution is 19,200dpi, while the regular setting is 1,200 x 2,400dpi. There are just four individual colour ink cartridges which slot discreetly and easily into the compartment on the front right of the unit.

Now, while all this might sound quite attractive, there are unfortunately several design flaws in the MFC-250C and a lot of them concern the input tray. For a start, we had several issues with the paper jamming, even with plain A4 paper.

Secondly, the plastic ‘barrier' that marks the line-up point for 10 x 15cm photo paper is nowhere near deep enough, so frequently prints would be jammed or would emerge with too much white visible. Also, you have to pull the tray out in order to remove a finished 10 x 15cm print, which is highly inconvenient.

The other annoyance is the LCD screen which is text only, and therefore the only ways of previewing your images are to view them via your PC photo software or by first printing a 'contact sheet'. Furthermore, the scanner cover is held up by a rickety plastic arm that is unwieldy to position and collapse.

Even some of these flaws could be forgiven if the performance was as good as claimed. Brother suggest printing speeds of 27ppm for mono and 22ppm for colour but the best we could manage was 20ppm for greyscale text at the Fast setting.

It was considerably better when it came to a 10 x 15cm photo, which Brother reckoned could be printed in 49 seconds: we managed one in 30 seconds from a flash drive using the Fine setting. However, when we switched to the regular Photo setting it took two minutes and five seconds. A4 copied colour photos at Fast setting took one minute twenty, while the same photo at Fine setting took a massive seven minutes and five seconds to complete.

In terms of quality, the lowest quality level text was visible but very faint and this was also true of scanned colour photos, where there was a notable degeneration of colour and contrast. Colour prints from flash drives were much crisper and more vivid and, together with prints from PC files, produced the best results. Copied photos, though, tended to produce paler results and duller colours.

Sometimes the race for faster and more versatile printers means too many corners are cut. The MFC-250C is just such an example, resulting in serious design flaws and disappointing print quality.