Brother - INKvestment Tank MFC-J6545DW Wireless Color All-In-One Inkjet Printer - White/Gray

---SETUP--- The setup for this Brother printer is time consuming if you’ve never used an inkvestment type printer before. The size of the printer requires two people for safe handling. The ink cartridges are easy to install and have a unique wedge per color to prevent wrong insertion. The black ink, however, must be shaken 15 times before it can be used. After that, it takes 8 minutes for the ink tanks to do their first cycle. If you do all the steps back to back and with no errors, you’re looking at a 20 minute setup with WiFi. ---FEATURES--- The key feature of this printer is that it uses “inkvestment” technology. All that means is that the ink tanks (read: cartridges) have been modified to fit more ink, require less changing, and be cheaper to replace. The box touts to have 1 year’s worth of ink included in the box printing 300 pages per month. Additionally, it works as a fax, scanner (with OCR), and copier. It has up to 4800 x 1200 DPI color resolution, the ability to air-print (iOS and Android), and scan to cloud services. ---PERFORMANCE--- The performance of this Brother printer was excellent with a few mishaps that may or may not affect you. This printer is meant for small business, but not all businesses use all features. When it comes to printing, the quality is above par. I printed a high-quality color image on photo paper with photo-quality settings and the image looked incredible. Additionally, I printed a similar image on card stock fed through the alternate multipurpose tray that can be used for envelopes or other sizes and paper types and the results were equally impressive. Printing on paper is great as well, but I did find a tiny issue with this. As my multi-paper document was printing, at some point, one of the papers didn’t land flat on the bed. Instead, it curled up causing a few others to coil up behind it (pictured). It only happens once, but I thought I should mention it since it did occur in a setting where there was no air source coming through and the printer was on a stable surface. Another thing that I noticed was that scanning an image through the feeder tray didn’t come out entirely straight, but it’s not a feature I plan on using often. Lastly, I did print using my iPhone, which didn’t require any additional apps once the printer was connected to my network. Printing via the phone, though, has limitations on the options of what tray to print from as well as other functionalities. ---EXPECTATIONS--- The product meets my expectations. This is not the first inkvestment-type printer I own. Being a teacher, I have a lot of printing needs when school printers shut down. These types of printers do live up to their name of saving you money when having to buy ink again. For my needs, it will serve a good purpose. ---VALUE--- The price for the printer in terms of value makes it a good trade-off vs. how much you will save on ink. ---APPROVAL--- I highly recommend this product for people who own a small business, educators, or people who print in large quantities monthly.

The Brother MFC-J6545DW INKvestment Tank all-in-one inkjet printer is a beast of a printer and I mean that literally. This thing is huge, to include the ink cartridges, and requires a two person lift to move it. However, the size is important if you need to be able to scan/print/copy or fax ledger (11x17) size documents. For a small business, this printer has pretty much everything higher end printers have and “1 years worth of ink” in the box. The included ink is listed as 3,000 black and 1,500 color pages, so the 1 year is subjective to use. But, compared to regular inkjet cartridges that tend to max out at 600 pages, this is a huge difference on cost advantage. Comparing to some other Brother Genuine cartridges you can get the ultra yield that has nearly 10 times the ink of regular inkjets (6,000 pages) for about $0.01 a page. While comparing to other inkjet printers the quality on this one is on par with most others I have had but a bit faster on the actual output with a rating of 22ppm. On black, or pages with minimal color, it is noticeable how quick it is. Printing full color or photos does take a while and even comes out kind of damp feeling. Though capable of printing borderless photos, I wouldn’t say it is intended as such as the quality looks flat. As for scanning, the automatic document feeder can hold up to 50 pages, but the 6545 model only supports single sided scanning through the ADF, you can do double sided if you use the bed or get the 6945 model. The copy quality is pretty good, but if comparing copies side by side, you can see the minor differences. The paper tray holds half a ream of paper and expands to hold the ledger size paper. This makes it stick out, but not any further than the paper output tray already is. There is also a multi-purpose tray in the back which makes it easy if you need to print something on card stock, photo paper or a different size than you already have loaded. You can connect this printer using Ethernet, WiFi or USB 2.0 and it is simple to do so. However, once you connect this device to your network, I highly suggest you connect to it through a web browser and change the default password that is listed in the Online User’s Guide, not found in the included Reference Guide. Through the network settings you can enable additional security features such as firewall and external card readers as well as many other advanced configurations that can’t be changed through the touch screen. Printing from any computer and mobile device on my network was simple and worked completely to include double sided printing without additional drivers installed. However, to use other features such as scan to device or send fax from PC/mobile device you need the CD/Downloaded software or the Brother iPrint&Scan app.

About 7 years ago I made the (reluctant) choice to try a Brother AIO printer. I was frustrated that I was wasting money on "the other guys" only to have their printers die after a year or two. I had noticed that we had Brother fax machines at the office that had been used daily and looked like they were manufactured in the 1980s, so I brushed my fear aside and gave Brother a shot. Unfortunately, 7 yrs later my entry-level AIO gave up the ghost. I was more than willing to buy another AIO and was very interested in the INKvestment Tank "technology" used in the MFC-J6545DW. Honestly, I don't know that "bigger ink" equals "technology" but the thought of not replacing a bunch of tiny ink cartridges all the time is quite nice. Regardless, when the printer arrived at my doorstep I was also shocked at how big the printer itself is. That's my fault for just shopping online and not stopping to think that a device that can scan and printer in ledger size has to be twice the size of my 8.5x11 all-in-one. First impression, size aside, is how easy the setup was. I chose to connect to wifi manually, but they offer WPS for anyone who wants the "push button" option for connecting to wifi. The longest part of setup was the 8 minute wait after loading the ink. Apparently the device needs to siphon the ink from the cartridge into internal storage tanks. Regardless, less than 15 minutes from unbox to printing for me. My Windows 10 laptop found the printer without any action on my behalf (other than clicking on "find printers"). I have been impressed with how quick, clean, and crisp the output is. Documents print about twice as fast as my old Brother personal printer...which was still pretty quick. The printer also holds about 5x as many pages of paper than my old printer which is nice. (I was always running out of paper mid-job.) To get the full benefit of the printer, like scanning documents to cloud accounts, you need to install the FULL driver. It comes on a CD in the box. Fortunately it is also available for download on the Brother website. Speaking of scanning, the ADF (auto document feeder) claims to hold 50 sheets. It is important to note that it will NOT scan/copy both sides of a sheet automatically. (You need to step up a model for that option.) Scanning speeds are just average. I tried using the ADF to scan some old 4x6 photos and had mixed results with some photos getting stuck. Additionally, the Brother scanning software isn't the greatest forcing you to set the scan size rather than "auto-detecting." There might be a way around that but I have not spent enough time scanning to know for sure. It would be nice to be able to lay photos on the glass and have the scanner detect the individual images or scan without cutting off the edge because you set the wrong size in the software. I love the scan to cloud (OneDrive, Google Drive, Evernote) options. JPEG, TIFF and PDF are the only options. I am disappointed PNG is not a built-in file format for scans. You can also scan docs with OCR. The scanner can "scan and send via email" if you don't want to save to the cloud, flash drive, or PC folder. The scan quality felt average for photos and good as a copier, and as mentioned previously, scanning is not much faster than my old scanner--but at the same time, it is scanning twice the surface area. The touchscreen is small. Icons for navigating the touch screen are large, but when it comes to selecting items or typing words on the touchscreen, it can get a bit hairy if you have big fingers or an unsteady hand. A larger touchscreen would be nice, but at least it pivots to help with glare and angles. My Android phone, which still had the old Brother printing app on it, found the printer without any effort. I was able to print direct from phone just as fast and easily as printing from the laptop. If I can get the same life out of this Brother AIO as I did my old one, it will be a good investment. There are devices out there that will undoubtedly scan more clearly and maybe even faster, but the Brother MFC-J6545DW has enough features (especially since I can forego automatic double-sided scanning) and a high quality output perfect for my needs at a reasonable price.

Large format printing capabilities in a multi-function machine. It was easy to set up. The large ink tanks boast 300 pages per month for a full year. The bottom tray hold 250 sheets. The rear tray hold 100 sheets of different sizes. The flat bed scans up to ledger sheets. Great for CAD drawings and such. I do a lot of CAD work, so this will be perfect for large drawings. Being a multi-function machine, it FAXes, scans and prints in B&W and color. Very cost effective per page printing. Cloud print via most common apps and cloud drives. No problems printing from my moto e6 cellphone, WIN10 laptop and iPAD. Love the crisp high resolution print quality. I definitely recommend this for a small office where many people can share a great quality printer at a low cost.

First, and foremost, even though Brother calls this an “INKvestment Tank” printer, do NOT confuse it with an actual ink-tank printer…it is NOT. It uses ink cartridges, just like all other traditional inkjet printers. Also, while they claim “one year of ink”, I haven’t had it long enough to prove/disprove this. That being said, I’ve never come across an ink cartridge-based printer that held up to its claimed length-of-use on the cartridges. So, let’s dig in………. UNBOXING & INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: To say the box is large is an understatement…at almost 3ft long, 2ft wide, and 1.5ft tall, it’s huge. If buying this printer, make sure you have an empty trunk, or an available seat (or the entire backseat), as you’ll need it. It’s also heavy, exceeding 44lbs, so make sure that, wherever you plan on placing the printer, it can support the weight. The printer, itself, is well-packed, but I suggest having someone assist in unpacking it, especially considering the (approx) 23”x19”x12” size of the printer. Btw, the huge size is due to it being able to scan/copy/print as large as 11x17”. The button layout is nice, plus it has a cool touch-screen (something my previous Epson ink-tank printer didn’t have). SETUP: Setup, as with most printers these days, is as smooth & simple as it gets. I remember when Brother printers could be a PitA when attempting to set up the printer on a network (wired, or wireless)…no more. To keep things simple, it’s almost a “plug & play” situation, as the included instructions, and the installation software, walks you through every step of the way…so much so that it’s almost impossible to mess things up. Additionally, you can set the printer up for remote printing. It doesn’t matter whether you use Dropbox, MS OneDrive, Google Drive, or Brother’s own mobile apps…you will be able to print from wherever you are. PRINT QUALITY: Let’s start with the “bad” news…while a reasonably-fast printer, it won’t keep up withy your laser printer. Brother claims (and, by my testing, it is only slightly slower than their “claimed” speed) 22ppm b&w, and 20ppm color. Realistically, expect a speed approx 10% less than the claims speeds. Additionally, I wouldn’t suggest using this to print photos. It does a fairly good job at printing photos within a document, but as a “photo printer”, I would barely call it “acceptable”. Ok…enough of the “bad”…how about some “good”? If you’re printing text-only documents, the 4800x1200dpi will leave you hard-pressed to tell the difference between prints done on this Brother, and prints done on a laser printer. Comparing a single-page document done on the Brother against the same page printed on my HP LaserJet Pro, the differences could only be seen when using a magnifying glass (yes, I did actually do this) – the Brother is just that good. Color me impressed. ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: Unfortunately, there is another piece of “bad” news…NO duplex scanning. If you have 2-sided pages needing to be scanned/copied, you’ll need to do it the old-fashions way, one-side-at-a-time. Additionally, while the flatbed scanner scans at a fantastic 1200x1200dpi, the document feeder only scans at 600x600dpi. On the plus side, the document feeder can hold up to 50 pages. The primary tray holds 250 sheets, but there is a (so-called) second tray, located from the back-side of the printer (you have to pull the plastic “tray” piece up) that holds an additional 100 sheets. THE GOOD: • Easy to setup & configure • Print quality is almost equal to a laser printer • Ability to print huge 11”x17” THE BAD: • No duplex scanning • 600x600dpi ADF scanning • Photo print quality barely “acceptable” THE UGLY: • Nothing I can think of (at least right now) FINAL VERDICT: My biggest “complaint” is that it’s cartridge-based. While all the other printer manufacturers have been releasing ink-tank AIO printers for at least a few years, Brother seems to be holding back. Also, while not a “deal-breaker”, the lack of duplex scanning is a ‘problem’. AIO printers…especially printers of this side…should include duplex scanning. That having been said, if you need a printer primarily for printing photos, this is not the printer you want. Instead, allow me to suggest something made by Canon or Epson, as they both manufacture excellent printers for printing photos. On the other hand, if you need an inkjet printer for documents, the Brother MFC-J6545DW is a very good choice. If you need a reasonably-priced printer capable of printing 11”x17” and/or want an inkjet capable of producing laser printer-like text quality, then this printer should be on your “very, very short list”. Text print quality is like none I have seen before from an inkjet printer. Disclaimer: This product was provided free, or at reduced cost, for the purpose of reviewing the product. Nevertheless, the above review, be it positive, negative, or anywhere in-between, is a 100% honest review, and the price paid played absolutely no part in my review.

This Brother wireless all-in-one is a workhorse for small offices and home offices. It holds a large ink supply, is well-designed, is intuitive to use, and you can print wirelessly within a few minutes. The printer uses four large ink cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) and has an internal ink tank so does not need replacement cartridges often. It prints single-sided pages very quickly, up to 22 ppm, and easily prints double-sided documents without paper jams or misfeeds. The color and print quality are good on the “normal” setting, fine for most everyday business documents. I printed a 30-page spreadsheet double-sided with no problems, and the quality of text and graphics was good. The features that stand out the most are its ink capacity and the ability to scan and print pages up to ledger/ tabloid size (11 x 17-inch). The Brother all-in-one can print multiple pages on a single sheet of paper, allowing you to print brochures, booklets and other marketing materials. You can use different paper types and print quality settings. The printer comes ready to use. Just plug in the power cord and follow the on-screen instructions to insert the ink tanks. It takes up to 10 minutes to insert the cartridges and fill the internal ink supply. If you want to use the fax function, then open the printer and plug in the included phone cord, attach to a land line or VOIP phone, and enter your fax ID settings using the screen prompts. I recently ditched my VOIP, so did not test this function. For wired printing, connect a USB or Ethernet cable (not included) to your computer, also by plugging it inside the unit and laying it inside a cleverly-designed channel. For wireless setup, identify the network to which you want to connect your computer, smartphone or tablet. Then print... I was able to print seamlessly from my iPhone. It took a bit more work to download printer drivers for my laptop. Pros: - Ready to print, right out of the box - Intuitive controls and large color screen - Wireless and wired network capability - Auto document feeder - Large scanner bed - Print up to 11 x 17-inch documents - Fast print speed - Connects to smartphones and tablets without loading print driver software - Large ink tanks - Front paper tray plus rear paper feed path - Printer control screen has adjustable angle - Ability to scan to USB drive, email, cloud Cons: - Took bit of trial and error to get printer to work with laptop on wireless network - Large printer footprint because of 11 x 17-inch scanner bed and paper tray I recommend this printer for small offices and home offices, as it yields professional results. I would give this printer 4.5 stars, mainly because of the two issues listed above.

Brother - INKvestment Tank MFC-J6545DW Wireless Color All-In-One Printer - White/Gray. The Brother MFC-J6545DW inkjet printer is an all in one solution to your printing needs. On this particular model there is only 1 actual paper tray as well as the manual paper feed tray. The automatic document feeder is only single sided. For the removal of the second tray and second scan head they have added larger ink tanks and cartridges. I own 2 other Brother printers and I can say that this one feels a bit less, tight?. The scanner/ADF lid doesn’t seem to fit quite as well as with my other 2 printers. They are all in the same line as this one, I’m guessing they shifted manufacturing plants. This in no way effects the performance of the printer. The printer does double sided printing all the way up to the 11 X 17 size paper. It will do double sided copies or scans manually. You have to flip the original over on the scanner glass. Or you can place 2 originals in the ADF and have it make those 2 originals into 1 double sided copy. Functionality is top of the line. After making about 50 prints/copies, there is still perfect quality. The software is a slightly different story. By the time you read this review Brother will probably have these issues fixed. I normally like to install my printers using the online drivers/software from the manufacture. This gets away from outdated CD’s they come packaged with. When installing this printer from the online source I found that several functions failed to work correctly. Like scan to computer, or selecting what type of scan you want. After trying the online software/drivers twice, I uninstalled all of it and used the CD. Once I installed it with the CD everything worked as it should. Like I said, Brother probably has this fixed already. On a separate note about drivers. I noticed that when I restarted my computer the printer disappeared. It was easy to just do an “Add a printer” from windows. Knowing all the software was already installed I gave this a shot. It reinstalled it in the printer section with all the software associated with it. I’m going with this was a result of the attempts with the online drivers. Quite mode slows the printer down slightly but shows no sign of a difference in print quality. I have checked both options with a printers loop and find no difference. The Inkvestment option is a good deal if it works as advertised. With Inkvestment the cost per copy is about $0.07 per sheet. With my other Brother printer, that is slightly better than this one in respect to features, the cost per copy is $0.12 per sheet. This is really a huge difference and I will be retiring my old Brother printer in favor of this one. A replacement set of Inks will set you back about $100.00, but cost per copy is so low that this is really a non issue. It can print pictures form USB drive. It can not print any other documents from the USB drive. It can scan to the USB drive with all the standard scan options. The LCD windows gives you a preview of any pictures that are on the USB drive. I did not set up any FAX options because I do not use them. I also did not set up the options to scan to the web, as again I do not use that. I did print from my phone and the results were perfect. The phone is a Galaxy S8, I know, old. My bottom line is, for the cost, this printer can’t be beat. It comes with what they say is a years worth of ink. My guess is it wont last quite that long, but 50 sheets in and the ink levels have barely moved at all. With other printers 50 pages would be a noticeable chunk of your ink. Remember, once features and quality are out of the equation, it’s cost per copy that wins the game.

Brother All-In-One Printers just keep impressing me and have become almost effortless to set up. With the new line of Brother INKvestment Tank color printers, my constant battle with not enough of a cartridge color of ink might be over. This printer uses ink cartridges and ink tank technology that can last up to a year. To remove any guessing as to when ink colors might run out, there is a Page Gauge that records the amount of ink remaining in the tank and gives an estimated number of pages that the ink supply will print in each color, and in black. The MFC-J6545DW Wireless Color All-In-One Printer can not only print on letter and legal-size paper, but it can produce ledger size documents of up to 11”x17”. This is a great size for charts and prints. But for me, it perfect for small architectural residential or office layout documents. The printer can print single or double sided and has a document feeder that will hold up to 50 sheets of paper. Other features include the “easy scan” and “fax” functions that can be directed from the touchscreen on the face of the printer. Documents are clear and crisp and the colors vivid and bright. Brother’s INKvestment Tank technology has designed cartridges that are engineered to hold a surplus of ink. The cartridges are front loaded in a traditional sense, but there is also an internal ink storage tank that assist to deliver many more printed pages beyond what just the cartridge ink can provide. Cartridges are manufactured in both Super and Ultra High Yield capacities. The booklet states that the Ultra High yield replacement cartridges allow for printing cost at $0.01 in black and less than $0.05 in color per page. If this is true, I am in for a real treat on ink cartridge savings over my present “go-to” printer. The paper tray holds up to 250-sheets and is adjustable to fit the letter, legal or ledger-size papers. The printer is designed to only hold up to 100 sheets of envelops and card stock in the multipurpose tray. This is very adequate for my needs and it works very well. There are several ways to print and its most easily done with the Brother i-print and scan. Brother’s wireless cloud printing and scanning was also easy to set up and works great with my pc laptop, iPad and iPhone, but so does the Brother i-print and scan app. All features of the printer, scanner, fax, and copier set up without any complications, and I had the whole printer all-in-one ready to go and started using it in 15 minutes. The Brother - INKvestment Tank MFC-J6545DW Wireless Color All-In-One Printer is a great addition to my office and small business. It delivers professional looking documents and is priced at a good price. When I calculate the money that I will save per quarter by using the Tank printing over what I normally spend with an older but great model of a competitor’s product that this is replacing, I’m more than thrilled with the cost savings. I think this is a perfect buy. I highly recommend the Brother - INKvestment Tank MFC-J6545DW Wireless Color All-In-One Business Smart Pro-Series if you are in need of a new All-In-One and/or if you are tired of paying over $100 a pop, over and over throughout the year for ink cartridges and always finding your ink supply to be too many of one color and not enough of another.