Brother - Network-Ready Wireless Color All-In-One Printer

It is very easy to setup the wireless function and it works flawlessly But, most-of-all its bullet proof or should I say Ocean Passage Proof. My 2 year old well used printer made the 28 day trip from Honolulu to Newport Oregon. It sat under a leaking porthole and got doused with salt water during the two storms encountered on the cruise. It's still working great but shows its wear proudly. I have just bought another one for my shore based office.

I make my own nautical charts for navigation.Buying new ones from a retailer can cost hundreds of dollars. Using this color printer and copying charts off of the N.O.A.A. website I take them to Kinkos for lamination.Including the cost of the printer,paper,ink and kinkos I saved over $250 on twelve charts! I also take astronomical pictures that I blow up to make frameable prints and the photo quality is outstanding.

There are two main negatives, and they are not a big deal when you think about it for most people, so I'll mention them straight away: There is no media reader. Many previous AOI machines had media card readers for camera memory and all that, but now that every desktop, laptop and netbook has card readers, who cares! No need to waste the money by Brother. The other fairly unimportant missing detail (for most people) is that the scanner is not legal paper sized. If you're a law student, you'll want a little higher end machine. Okay, that's about it for bad news. The good news is that if you're even slightly tech-acclimated, you don't need the manual except to make sure you've removed all the well designed and effective shipping inserts. But first, while I really greatly dislike abs foam (styro) packing, this was not only well designed, but perfectly intact, as was the machine. I was surprised the Brother was as heavy as it is: they must be using that space-aged material, metal, in this. Compared to machines that sell for $50-60, this weighs about twice as much. I've always felt that you should buy stationary tech products, in part, by the pound. Shipping is costly, and a company that cares enough to make their product heavy is worth noting. The printer was very well protected, took a while to remove all the film, spacers, locks and extraneous sales-verbiage stickers. It comes packed with a utilities loaded CD for PC and MAC, and a set of starter (light use) ink tanks. There is a "quick start" guide and a full (and for most people, probably unneeded) manual. There is also a registration sheet describing the full One Year Warranty, which is pretty cool, since most printers in this price range are only covered for 90 days. Shockingly, this is a US market product: NO WALLWART OR ADAPTOR! It actually has a hardwired regular ol' AC cord on it! Woohoo! That saves space on your outlet strip. This printer has WiFi, which, after I plugged it in, it was clear from the Quick Start sheet that I could just go to the menu, which on first powerup, let's you do an initial setup. Let's just say it was a snap, once I got used to the menu, which was quickly. So I decided to join my WiFi network. The numeric keys are also alpha. First they show lower case alphas, like a cell phone, then UPPER CASE and then the numeral on the button. you CAN enter a long key with mixed upper and lower case characters. It worked the first try, easy peasy. Next, I added the software (drivers and a couple of specialty items for scanning or photos) from the disc. On Windows 7 it went fine, but there are, as they warn, lots of windows to say "yes" to, and to not close any of them: the installer does it all, and it worked. Restarted the computer, everything was where it should be and worked and the printer was now visible as hardware on the network. So, at the end of the actual printer powerup before messing in the menu, you print a test sheet after installing the ink carts. They are CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black), and the black tank is larger (which makes sense). The slide in with a reassuring snap after hearing a "woosh" and seeing ink fill a small sump on the front of the cart upon releasing the vacuum seal. Nicely done... I'm scared to see the cost of replacement carts. The go in the front of the machine through their own little door: no harangue at all. Very well thought out. The Test Sheet looked great on the first go through, all colors were bright, text clean, no gaps, on plain ordinary universal paper. The speed is okay. Not earth shattering, and the noise level is also. It's not a "hush" quiet printer, but it doesn't vibrate and slide around, either. I then printed a web page and it came out great. Absolutely ZERO issues, and that's been the case with all subsequent pages. Easy, quick enough, machine stays put (having weight helps), and seems to have good paper handling. There is a document feeder, which is shocking for this price point. It works, the scans are good enough (for a student or scrapbooking). If you need a high-end photocopy, you can do better with a real console copier and paying for copies. Of course, those machines also cost ten grand, too. I think the most remarkable thing about this machine is that there is nothing surprising or remarkable: no bad behavior, no annoying feature or function, though the paper tray could snap in a bit more firmly, and it was absolutely a snap to get up and running. It is not gorgeous. It's a black box that does stuff. It can handle a regular phone line or VOiP. Also, while it does not come with the cable, you CAN hardwire this via USB if you don't have or want to use WiFi, though it's as secure as your network is. It's not bluetooth. The scanner lid can sip out of it's hinges so you can lay a pretty big book across the glass. Scan rez is decent, speed is okay. This isn't the Library of Congress here. I cannot speak to the fax, haven't used a fax in years... or a wired phone line, for that matter. It's there, there is a received fax memory and it can be configured. The software included enhances text scanning, basic photo editing, which can be handled by several apps for free otherwise, a creative projects app (calendars, etc) and a "whiteboard" app that gets that blue-gray cast out of paper scans that so often happens. Sure, you can do all that in a good photo editor, but a dedicated app (ideal for students, reps, etc) does make things easier. We all like easy! Good, essential printing/communicating with documents tool, overall, and they ditched stuff you don't need anymore in such a printer. While this CAN print photos, I did not test that but may do and add another time, if I go get some Photo Paper. I'm a photographer and normally use a photo chemist for prints. Overall, nice, simple, easy to set up, no surprises, been running for several days and it just simply works well. It's pretty cool to be able to sum up a review that way. It simply works well. Woohoo!

I needed another color printer and decided to buy an all-in-one to have versatility in scanning and color copying. I have not been disappointed in the overall functioning and quality of this machine. It has operated reliably since installation (two months ago) and the copies have been perfect. The automatic document feeder for originals is a real plus, eliminating the need to insert each original manually on the platen. Toner cartridges are easy to install, and as of now, it appears that this printer does not use an excessive amount of toner. I would like to have seen a feed area to insert the copy for duplex printing; one has to open the paper tray and insert the copy properly placed to make a duplex copy. The paper tray is a little cumbersome to operate, but it's a small price to pay for the overall good performance of the machine. The software for the scanner function is easy to understand and configure. My only major problem with this machine is that I was not able to set it up for wireless communication, even though I followed the instructions perfectly. I ended up using USB connectivity which is probably more reliable anyway. I cannot comment on the fax function as I have not used it. I have had much success with Brother office machines and would recommend them highly over the other leading brands. All my Brother machines have lasted for many, many years.

I got angry! Researched printers AGAIN, but this time I remembered our two Brother printers at work that have held up so well (6+ years). So, I picked up a MFC-J435W at $85, and extra ink cheaper on Amazon than you can imagine. Up and running in no time. So, I bought three more (one for each neighbor, and one more in case any one dies). Wish I could buy the company. Ink at Amazon: 10 LC75 High Yield Compatible Ink Cartridge Combo (4xBk, 2xC, 2xM & 2xY) $7.28. Not $7.28 for each cartridge. $7.28 for that whole set of 10! And yes, they came in the mail and look good. I have not tried them yet, but other reviews there indicate it will not be a problem, and why should it? It just works. And some of us just want to print. Simple. Nothing fancy. This may not produce the best output, especially since I've stock piled Amazon ink which may not be as high quality (which folks say has been working fine for them), but I am just looking for a home printer that works for once - I am not in the print business (actually, I am, but not at home). But, with the original "best quality" ink that came with it, it is good enough I can't tell. And, I gather it does not eat that ink, for those that want to buy original. Me, I don't care if quality goes down a bit with other ink (for my needs). And, the front hardware panel is not very user friendly. But I setup and printed (XP, Remote Desktop XP VMs, and Win 7 all setup), and scanned from the front panel to my computer, in no time. How often does that work? Every time with the Brother's I've seen, and never with others. Programming computers for 25 years, I've gone through my share of home HP (nightmares) and Cannon's ink jets (just a bit better), with all deeply researched, and am tired of killing myself to set them up to work on the computers in my house. Then every time I go to print the EXPENSIVE ink is gone, or the software is crapped out. All I want to do is print a simple Google map to get to a party! Simple setup, working well, cheap ink now stockpiled, and then it was so cheap I have a replacement on hand... my problems should be way down. If you are tired of "what now? why can't I print?", then this may be the answer. Hint: this one seems just like the old Bothers at my workplace, which also prompted me to buy an old $100 used Brother HL-5250DN laser on eBay (one of the ones at work), to use at home for those high volume black and white community service jobs. That works too, just as expected. Brother, am I happy.

There is a comment here Posted by: Sull345 from Tucson, AZ on 11/09/2011 were they are complaining about an ink problem. I am not here to criticize them, but to offer more useful information for potential buyers. The problem they were having is simply they did not use the printer enough. The ink was drying out. All ink-jet style printer work better if you use them. They cannot just sit for weeks and months with no use and expect the ink to still work. If that is the kind of printing you do, you should purchase a Laser Printer where sitting without use will not affect the toner. Hope this helps people when they are looking at this printer or any printer for that matter. Ink Jets have to be used or any of them, regardless of Manufacturer will have a problem with drying out. This is a good low cost printer that is both wireless and feature packed!

I needed this printer in a hurry as I was coming up to finals in my degree program. This printer took about 35 minutes to set-up, simple wi-fi set-up. I never had to call the support for help. I have a 32 character passcode for my internet and it was simple to enter in the code. This is an amazing printer for the price (best buy didn't have many that were reasonably priced like this one. I have used the copier portion, which made excellent copies. I was disappointed when I had to buy the cable to scan a document in, this function is not usable via wi-fi. I love being able to sit in my living room and print to my office. I have not attempted the fax, though I imagine it works as well as the rest of the machine. The printer is very efficient, however it is quite loud and large.

The scanner with this Brother printer has a variety of strict page settings to select from to scan. Also, I wish the scanner bed was a little larger. I found that in scanning an 8.5 x 11, about 1/8 of an inch of the edge was cut off. A little annoying if you're trying to scan in documents that have print all the way to the edge. I had a Dell all-in-one printer from 2003 that had a scanner as well. The software used to control the scanner had more flexibility and the actual scanner bed was slightly larger. With that printer/scanner I was able to preview the document and manually select what I wanted scanned. I kinda miss that. This printer should really come with a USB cable. It is not included, but luckily I saved my other one from my last printer and it works just fine. I wasn't able to set up the wireless connection at the time. Still haven't needed to set it up yet, so no word about how that works. Paper is pretty easy to load. Paper does get a small/slight dent on the edge where the printer collects each page. So far prints nicely on 22 lb and 24 lb paper as well as 24 lb resume paper. The quick print setting uses less ink and the font looks almost completely different, but suffices for a quick preview for editing. Cartridges are good for about a 6 month period and aren't that expensive. Haven't used any other features besides printing and scanning, but so far those 2 features work without problems. Overall this printer is great for basic uses. Great for a student, professional, or anyone who just needs to do a bit of printing/scanning/etc. at home.