Brother DCP-9040CN. Overall good performance but one major flaw

I bought this printer on clearance from a big box retailer. Compared to other network ready color laser printers the price was unbeatable. However, would I buy it again? No. Here's why:

The color output (either printing or copying) appears substandard. There is a lack of brilliance to the colors when compared to other color laser printers I have used (I have gone so far as to compare documents side by side). I called Brother, where the support was prompt and thorough, and we walked through a number of steps to make sure that the printer was calibrated for peak color performance. In the end, there was no change to the output and I am left with a printer that is very functional/very solid in many respects but lacks the richness in color output that I would have hoped for.

On the plus side (beyond the fact that it was inexpensive), it was easy to get up and running. The networking worked without a hitch (which was nice seeing that I am not an IT professional). The paper feed and B&W print quality are both as expected. The scanner is much faster than other scanners that I have used. This is particularly helpful when you are scanning a lengthy document. The ability to customize pre-set scan buttons is also nice. This machine has been reliable for copying. The sheet feeder--even with large documents--works without a hitch.

Negatives beyond the color output are as follows: 1) even at low scanning resolutions the file sizes of scanned images are large, 2) there is no fax capability with this all-in-one (which, of course, you know going in, 3) the first page out is slow which drives down the overall output speeds. However, once the first page is out the output of subsequent pages is satisfactory.

By way of recap, the machine is reliable and does very well most of what it is supposed to do. Were it not for the color quality, I would be quite pleased (particularly in view of the price I paid for a network ready printer). However, I can't recommend it on account of the sub-standard color output.