Brother - INKvestment 5010 Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with 2-sided Copy/Scan & 2.7” Color Touchscreen (MFC-J5010DW) - Gray

Only had it for a week so rating doesn’t include reliability. Prints fast for an inkjet. Haven’t used copy/scan functions yet. Setup was a little confusing mainly around the brother connect for dashboard. It took several tries to successfully connect.

Years ago, I had a Brother printer that I absolutely loved. It was a small MFC printer, and I never had any trouble with it until it got fried by lightning strike near my house. That's why I jumped at the chance to test this Brother MFC printer. This unit doesn't have a large footprint, although it is larger than my previous Brother printer. Initial setup was straight forward; the most challenging thing I had to do was contact my email provider and have them enable the ability to allow the printer to send scans via email using my email address. The whole setup took about 20 mins. The printer is fast and extremely quiet. The text and images are crisp and the color are exact. The display seems a bit small, but it's bright and clear, and finding the setting you want is fairly intuitive. I was really liking this printer... for the first few days. About 4-5 days after I started using the printer, I tried to print something, but nothing happened. I checked the printer queue, and it showed the printer being in an 'error' state. When I checked, the Wi-Fi icon on the printer's display showed that it wasn't connected. The Brother printer is in the same room as my router AND another popular name-brand printer, which I could still use to print. So, I went through the settings and selected "Recover WLAN", which failed. So, I rebooted the printer, and the Wi-Fi connection was restored, and I could print. Later that day, the same thing happened, and again, I had to reboot the printer to restore the connection. The next day, the same thing happened, multiple times. I called Brother support and after about 30 minutes of discussing the issue, I was told the problem was with my ISP. I thought this was a stretch, but I did contact my ISP, and of course they said the problem wasn't on their end. Moreover, the other printer, never lost connection. I went into my router settings and set a static IP for this printer; it continued to lose the Wi-Fi connection. Then I had the issue escalated, but when the email arrived and I replied, my response was kicked back because it said the sending email didn't match the account owner's email. The email also stated that I could log onto the Brother website and update the ticket, so I did that (using the email address that I was told didn't match my account), but I could find absolutely no way to access the ticket. So, I called support again and asked why my emails were being kicked back and/or how I could update the ticket through the website. The rep initially began trying to help me figure that out, but at some point, he decided he was going to help me fix the connection issue. While on the phone with the rep, I removed the printer from the device list on my laptop, but then I couldn't re-add it. After an hour on the phone, the rep told me the problem was with my ISP. After the call, I wound up installing a large software/driver package from Brother and was able to re-add the printer to my laptop, but even though the printer showed itself as being connected (on its display), and even though I could see it in the client list of my router, and even though the Brother software saw the printer and could access info (e.g. ink levels), and although I could see the printer from the Dashboard in my account on the Brother website, and all of the IP addresses matched, when I tried to print, the docs went to the queue but errored out. Today I rebooted the printer and was actually able to print several documents, but an hour later, the connection had dropped, so I just started using my other printer. I'm not really sure what the problem is, it could be something I'm missing with my router, but I don't understand how the other printer doesn't exhibit at least something similar. Overall, when the printer works, it's great. The problem is, the one I have hardly works. Maybe I need to rethink my fondness of Brother printers.

This Brother Inkvestment MFC-J5010DW is a solid printer and my 3rd Brother MFC printer and 2nd Inkvestment printer. It is replacing my still functioning, 11yr old MFC-J885DW that has started to show signs of increasing gaps and streaking--largely due to my infrequent, random printing. While larger and a bit louder than my smaller, 11yr old J885 printer, the MFC-J5010DW is FAST in comparison: EVEN FOR COLOR PRINTOUTS! 28ppm B/W, 26ppm color. Unlike my J885, this printer will also hold 250 sheets of paper and will automatically print duplex if desired. The manual feed is great for specialty paper like sticker paper (for all the Cricut users out there) or 8.5x14. The ADF (automatic document feeder) is a non-negotiable for me: I need a printer that has an ADF and can do dual-sided scanning. For me, it is less about making copies and more about scanning to PDF which brings me to the onboard software and screen... The onboard touchscreen is the main reason I have knocked a star off the review. The screen is too small and the software/display is unchanged in over 11 years. In some ways it is nice that the software hasn't changed but it also feels like I am running Windows 3.1 on a brand-new device. All the basics are there from maintenance functions to email/scanning/copying/faxing functions, to an address book, etc. but they are hard to navigate on such a small screen. Fortunately, you can use a web browser (with password protection you set up when you onboard the printer to your network) to do much of the setup and maintenance. Plus, the web interface has FANTASTIC metrics about your ink levels, print history, error logging, etc. Much of my scanning to PDF goes to the cloud or email. Brother offers "easy" (in that the process is simple but the use of the touchscreen can again be a bit challenging for thicker fingers) connectivity to cloud sources like Google Drive and One Drive (and Dropbox, Sharepoint, OneNote, Box, Evernote). Fortunately, the entire process is NOT driven by the touchscreen. To scan to Google Drive, for example, you select "Scan to Google Drive" on the touchscreen to start your account setup. After that, the bulk of the activation is done by going to bwc.brother.com and authenticating your cloud service on a phone or computer rather than the tiny Brother printer screen. To complete registration, you grab a multi-digit code from your bwc.brother.com browser session and tap it into the printer touchscreen rather than having do all the authenticating on the device. The print quality is very good. A keen eye knows it is inkjet and not laser, but the quality is on par with laser at least for b&w printing. The "Inkvestment technology" effectively pours individual, higher yield ink cartridges into a storage pool in the printer resulting in less replacement of cartridges. Inkvestment is not an ink subscription program (however, Brother does offer a "Refresh" ink subscription service). Out of the box setup was easy. Unbox, peel off some blue tape holding things together in shipping, turn it on, select your language, scan a barcode, connect to your wifi, install the ink and follow prompts. (There was an option to set up the printer without the phone app or direct from the touchscreen but I was not willing to navigate the smaller screen.) There is a mandatory test print and optional scanner alignment process but all-in-all I think it took about 5 minutes. My Windows 11 PC found the printer almost instantly and configured it on my laptop within 60 seconds. Another reason for me to replace my 11yr old printer with the MFC-J5010DW is the Brother Mobile Connect app. I am not a huge fan of apps to control printers, but it was time to take advantage of the upgraded Brother app (which is not backwards compatible with my old printer). I would recommend the printer unless you have serious issues working with a small touchscreen. I am more than satisfied with the quality and speed of the printer as well as the perks to connect to various services for printing, scanning, faxing and copying.

Having tried a variety of printers from various brands has given me an affinity for Brother printers. They never let me down. This printer is easily discoverable by any device and prints double-sided in just seconds. It is definitely perfect for home-based and small businesses. *Quality of Product* The printer doesn’t make more space than the average home printer in width and depth, it is just slightly taller. It feels robust and well-made, all the hinges and opening feel durable and sturdy, plus the plastic is thick even on the extendable printout tray. The screen can be pulled up for easy viewing if it is below eyesight, is highly responsive to touch, and makes a satisfying click to register touch. The one downside is that I want to lower the volume of the clicks but can’t find a way to do so. It has volume settings for other noises but not for that. *Print* When it comes to printing, it is incredibly fast. It will print out a full double-sided page in about five seconds. The quality of the text is pretty good for its speed. There is a tiny bit of fuzziness when printing under “normal” quality, but the effect is so minimal that most people won’t notice it if they aren’t specifically looking at that as the text is completely legible. I have had similar results with another ink saving printer, and it seems to be a cause of ink conservation. With the “best” quality setting, the text is highly pigmented but there are still a few out of place ink “pixels,” just far less frequent that with the normal quality. It does, of course, take slightly longer to print out a page under this setting. I actually printed an entire 91-page textbook for a weekend course I took and am pretty satisfied with the quality and color. I also printed out a photo I took and it did a fantastic job at keeping the colors accurate. *Scan* This printer has duplex scanning capabilities, a feature that is absolutely worth it to have when the need arises, which for me is quite often due to my remote job. I like being able to have all the functions in one machine, rather than a separate scanner for just that. The printer was able to scan over 10 pages in under a minute. I had about three sets of 10 pages to scan and all had been folded in half, but it only jammed once and the compartments are easy to lift to clear the jam. *App* The Brother app is very simple and streamlined. It shows the function options clearly, plus the amount of ink level remaining. It has no frills, no distractions, just what is needed for printer use. *Conclusion* This is overall a great multi-purpose printer than is benefits any small business and even families that prints a lot. It is quick, prints adequately, saves ink, and has duplex scanning plus has a small footprint.

FAST! Very clean print-outs that rival my laser printer and Brother DOES NOT force you to buy their ink! Does everything I need for my small business, and then some!