Whether schoolchildren, students or employees in the home office: In order to be well equipped, you need a printer. If you want to digitize documents quickly, you also need a scanner, and the advantages of a fax machine are also noticeable in everyday work from time to time. Multifunction printers are the ideal solution because they combine all three devices in one – this saves energy, costs, time and space. In addition to HP, Canon and Epson, the market leaders in this product category also include the Japanese manufacturer Brother. It offers a range of models, of which COMPUTER BILD has examined five. The overview shows what they can do.
The BrotherMFC-J5730DW printed very quickly in the test – and could handle large DIN A3 sheets. Its paper drawer offers space for up to 500 DIN A4 sheets – that’s practical. A generous touchscreen also displays thumbnails and makes operation easier. Also good: He used the expensive ink sparingly, his printing costs are very low. It’s a shame, though: it delivered printouts with streaky gray levels and somewhat pale colors.
- Very low printing costs
- High printing speed
- Prints smooth gray tones in gradations
- Card reader and Bluetooth are missing
The Brother MFC-J5330DW prints DIN A3 sheets – ideal for large overviews and long Excel tables. However, as with the HP 6970, the device’s ink dries very slowly and the print quality could be improved in the test run. Annoying: The power adapter beeps in standby mode, for which it was devalued.
- Also prints DIN A3 pages
- Print quality acceptable
- Photo printing expensive
- Disturbing beeping in stand-by
The MFC-J5720DW has a very extensive range of equipment, and the printing costs are very low: If you print out the lavish paper supply of 500 pages, you only pay 4 euros for the ink for black and white pages. The Brother also prints in color very cheaply, a color page costs a good 9 cents. The print quality is decent, the print speed is high in black and white and slow in color.
- High print quality
- Fast text printing in black and white
- Slow color printing
- Very noisy when printing
The Brother DCP-J4120DW is not a sprinter, but it prints in high quality and at low cost – you can print a DIN A4 page in black and white from just 1.3 cents. In addition, it remains comparatively quiet. Practical: The multifunction printer also prints pages in the larger DIN A3 format.
- High color print quality
- Low printing costs
The Brother MFC-J4620DW prints almost as well and inexpensively as the larger MFC-J5720DW model. And like its more expensive brother, it requires patience for color printing. However, the equipment is less extensive, the J4620DW also has to make do with a smaller paper drawer. Like the 5720, the 4620 also prints DIN A4 pages horizontally, with this trick individual DIN A3 pages can also be printed. Too bad: The app for mobile Windows devices did not find the printer in the test.
- High print quality
- Fast text printing in black and white
- Slow color printing
- Very noisy when printing
Conclusion: Brother multifunction printer in the test
The MFC-J5730DW clearly wins the race among the multifunction printers from the Japanese manufacturer Brother. Not only is it particularly fast, it also prints on DIN A3 paper and works inexpensively.
