Customer Ratings & Reviews

Prints well but requires quite a few steps and to use from smartphone have to go through an app and takes multiple steps to do a simple document. So it is not plug in and go as I am use to also be aware it does not do two side printing.

The Brother j1205w is designed to combat the scourge of high ink prices which often accompany cheap printers. This it does well by delivering an average page cost of $0.047 based on 2 black pages for every color page. This compares favorably against a $0.057 per page cost for the HP printer my parents have and cost nearly 3x more to begin with. The downside is color correctness. In my first few print tests, there were certain colors which did not appear on the page at all. After contacting Brother, they advised me of a special cleaning mode which would use up all the ink that the printer had come with. They also offered to spend replacement cartridges so that I didn’t have to waste money on a factory defect. The cartridges arrived and I was able to run the cleaning process. While it improved the overall quality, colors are washed out compared to an older Brother ink jet and with a Brother color laser that I use regularly. Black is sharp and readable. Printing is relatively speedy, especially for a printer in this price range. It’s quiet and connects quickly. This year’s printers use a different app than last year’s printers. The app is necessary to configure the printer initially, but it can be controlled via the web after that. It’s unfortunate that the older app can’t be used as I now have to keep both installed. On the plus side, the app lets me print straight from my phone so I don’t have to boot my laptop to print email attachments. The app also shows ink levels and usage. This is critical as there’s no LED screen as there is on many similar printers. Brother seems to have taken cost cutting to a new level with this model, taking off anything which doesn’t directly support printing documents. While this isn’t for everyone, it provides exactly what Brother advertises: A cheap printer with cheap ink that provides reasonable colors.

The Brother MFC-J1205w is a color inkjet printer. Brother call it an "inkvestment tank" printer and claim you get up to a year of ink in the box. It has only been a few days, so I don't know about the year part yet but I am confident that is true for black. :-) The Brother support website says the black is rate for 750 pages which would definitely be more than a year for me based on our current average printer use. I will say, each ink cartridge on the MFC-J1205w is the same size (width) but the black carries a lot more ink than the colored cartridges. Brother has also made the cartridges transparent - so you can see how much ink is left. A nice touch rather than hoping the printer is reporting the correct amount (see photo). I'm not sure how much replacement cartridges cost. As this Brother printer is a very new model, Best Buy doesn't yet stock replacement cartridges although it does seem to be cartridge compatible with the MFC-J1215w This is the more affordable of the Brother Inkvestment printers, so there's no LCD screen. You do all the setup via the Brother mobile app. There's a QR code sticker on the printer to download the app, but oddly it goes to a support page and you have to scroll to the end to find the app link. Or just search for "Brother Mobile Connect" in the app store. The Brother app is MUCH improved over earlier generation brother iPrint apps. The app is free. Setup once you get the app is smooth. No need to register as part of the setup (Thank you!) I was able to connect to my WiFi 6 network, first go, no problem. Once connected, loaded with ink and paper and I was able to print directly from my phone (iOS AirPrint) and Windows 10 laptop. I should not the Brother MFC-J1205w has NO LAN port. There is a USB port but it's in the weirdest location (under the scanner cover, kind of behind all the buttons). There's a space to run the cable out but it's a very unusual design choice and I don't feel it's even practical - means you need an extra-long USB cable (no USB cable included). Print quality is great. Yes, you can AirPrint from iOS. It's an Inkjet, so for the best results, invest in good quality paper. At black, I seem to be getting 15-16 pages per minute in my tests. Color is about 7-8 when printing on standard paper stock. These are not scientific speed test results, just me with my phone stopwatch. I do like that the MFC-J1205w has a fully enclosed paper tray and the tray supports 4x6" photo card stock. Scanning quality is great too and it scans fast, straight to your phone. Which I love. The biggest (no pun intended) is the size of the Brother MFC-J1205w printer. It's wide, about 17" and it's just noticeably BIG. Wider than comparable "tank" style printers from other manufacturers. So it looks big on your desk. Overall, would I recommend it? This is a tough one but I think not and it's why I landed at 3 stars. The print quality is great, but the large footprint, weird location of the USB port means I wouldn't recommend it. I still can't get over the weird USB port location, the first time I had to read a manual to find the USB port. Ha! If you like Brother and the size doesn't matter, I'd probably upgrade to the next model up that has the LCD screen. Btw, I like that Brother makes the users guide HTML (not PDF). If you want to read more before you buy, check out the user guide here https://support.brother.com/g/s/id/htmldoc/mfc/cv_mfc1205w/use/index.html

This printer was easy to set up. Following the instructions it recognized my WiFi automatically. This printer does not have a window where you can put in instructions so it’s just basically a print and copy machine. As near as I can figure out the scan part means only that it scans the paper that you want to copy. Can you can copy in color or not. It’s always on and ready to print which I like and will print from I pad and I phone. Their was no need to download these apps. The print is very nice and color good too. Will only print on one side of the paper. So if you want a printer that does only basic things, this is the one. Oh yes, it will print envelopes too. I like it a lot but I’m going to have to order another one, another Brother, that has more options.

When I purchased this printer I was mostly concerned with the cost of ink which is what drew me to this model. HOWEVER since having it I have realized that not having a LCD screen is a nightmare. Every time there is an error you have to look in the manual to find out what the combination of blinking vs. solid lights means. It is ridiculous! I have had this printer for 4 months and have only used it maybe 10 times. 9 out of those 10 times I had to figure out what all of the blinking light errors meant. I also ran out of ink after printing less than 5 times! Also, there is no app for your computer, you have to use their mobile app which is horrible. Only pro is the quality of the prints when the printer actually decides to work.

Pretty easy to use. Ink is pretty reasonable and prints good quality

Not my favorite printer. It is too complicated and heavy in my opinion. The fact that the ink can last a whole year is definitely a plus but other than that I don't believe other features are that great. It is an average item to be completely honest. would not recommend purchase for this price.

The price was very good and the ink does last a long time. Not having an automatic feeder for copies and scans limits it's usefulness

My bad because this printer does not print on both sides which causes more paper usage. Print quality is great. Will I buy again? Nope.

works flawlessly, however even though there is space for xl high yield, cartridge is not yet offered. This results in cost of ~ 4 cents per sheet vs 1 cent

The printer works great but the app leaves a lot to be desired. Setting up the printer wasn't too difficult, but it seemed to take a long time for the printer to get set up on my wifi. The colors look really good when you factor in the cost of the printer. It scans, copies and prints really well. Using the app is extremely puzzling. I am hoping an update to the app will help, but it is not as smooth and easy as it should be. I really try to stay away from using the app as it will just drive you crazy.

I loved my Brother All in One, (modelJW480) and was so sad when it broke after 6 years of use. It did everything including faxing. It had an automatic feed and duplex printing. If I could have fixed it, I would have. This printer is Okay, but doesn’t have all the features of the older model. And this is supposed to be progress? No one seems to be making true all-in-ones anymore, Based on previous good experience with Brother I hope this one holds up as well and their excellent Tech Support will be available.

Good for the value, its an entry level printer with quality

I would have liked it to have a feeder for multiple copies but works great for making e-copies!

Will not stay on Wi-Fi. Prints good when I get it going

The printer itself is fine. However, the support in the store was less than expected. Long wait for help, then when I asked for help the guy was cranky with me. When the support arrived, he was very nice. I stated that the printer needed to work with PC and Apple/Mac. He showed me a couple that would fit my needs. This was one that he showed me... it isn't compatible with any of our Apple products.

hard to set up and had intermittent connection issues

We returned this because it was very hard to get it to connect to our Wi-Fi. There's no screen to interface with and the directions only showed us how to connect with a button on the wi-fi which ours didn't have. When we did connect, it printed poorly and then stopped. It's noisy though. We gave up quickly and switched to a Canon.

Brother printer did not connect to my iPad so brother company sent me another printer.

Printer works fine, and prints really well. My drawbacks on it is the life span of the ink is rather low, and the initial set up is a bit of a pain. If they could make the app software a bit more fluid it would raise the rating for me.