This is a review of one of the best all-in-ones for under $180, the Brother MFC-J475dw. As a printer tech with 23 years experience I’ve been both an end user and repairman for the all-in-ones I’ve owned over the years.
We’re around copiers and printers all day you would think we wouldn’t have much use for an all-in-one. The truth is many techs have inkjet and laser printers at home and love them. This one stood out to me as having the best features for around the office. However, those same features would also work great for ambitious home projects as well.
Brother All-in-one
The Brother MFC-J475dw all-in-one gets good marks for having easy to load ink and paper. Being able to pull out the tray entirely to load paper is a big plus in my book. This makes it easy to see the paper is in correctly. Adding ink is a snap from the front. Open an access cover and the cartridges slide in and out.
Another nice feature of this all-in-one is the location of the cable connections. Simply lift the lid and the USB, Fax, and ethernet are toward the front clearly marked. You don’t have to pull the entire machine out or spin it around to plug the wires in the back. The wires are still routed out the back, so allow for a few extra inches of cable length.
Setup is pretty standard removal of a few packing materials, loading ink, and pushing a few buttons. Wireless setup is via CD-ROM, manual, or WPS push button. Print driver can also be done via the CD-ROM. They recommend doing everything via the installation CD to save time.
The ink cartridges have better than average yields for their cost. Not always available but there are compatible ink cartridges for this all-in-one if you wanted even lower operating costs.
Additional Tests
I used a standard scale and ruler to test its dimensions and weight. When I placed it on the scale I found it weighed 19.9 lbs. I also printed test pages to the 3 different Brother printers I had to setup.
The color print speed averaged to 9.2 pages per minute. Although my test page had much more coverage than the ISO/IEC 19798 and 24711 color test pages. I was still happy with the results. The color quality is more than acceptable for business purposes. Passable for home use.
The black and white test pages I printed averaged to 13.8 pages per minute. A whole 1.8 pages per minute faster then the specs. Although, my test page had much less coverage than the ISO/IEC 19752 standard test page.
I also measured the Brother MFC-J475dw all-in-one with my ruler. I found it to be .2 inches wider, .1 inches deeper, but exactly 7.1 inches high.
Notable Features
Notable printing features are the poster mode, booklet, and overall intuitive print driver. This is one of the most intuitive print drivers I’ve come across. All the settings have either a graphic or info box to explain what they do. The quality settings, 2-sided, or poster mode are easy to use. Poster mode will print a regular image using 4 or 9 pages, which are then laid out to make one larger image. Booklet mode will take a document with 4 or more pages and print it such that it can be later folded and stapled to make a small book.
Notable fax features are the Overseas mode, TX lock, and PC receive. Overseas mode can be enabled for poor phone line conditions. It isn’t just for overseas though, it can be enabled for any faxing with poor connections. PC receive mode will send all the faxes to your computer. Then you can decide which ones you want to print or just store on your computer. PC receive will save you $$ on ink and paper. Enabling TX lock mode will require a passcode be entered before a fax can be sent.
A notable copying feature is remove background color. Handy when copying colored paper, newspaper, or removing stray dots from the page.
Another notable feature is the Brother creative center. Free software is sometimes bundled on the installation CD’s. Brother provides access to their Creative Center website, a site dedicated to business and personal printing proects. They have templates for business cards, craft projects, and marketing materials. Being online means new ideas and templates are added regularly.
Cons
The only negative thing I found is the low tray capacity and memory. More memory is nice but unless you’re regularly working with 200 page documents, it isn’t a big deal. Unlike some starter cartridges these are rated for 80% of full cartridges, so even that isn’t so bad. C’mon Brother you’re going to have to try harder to get me not to like your products.
Pros:
- Low operating costs
- Easy to load paper and ink
- Location of communications cables (toward front)
- Easy setup
- Auto duplex scanning
- Intuitive print driver with poster and booklet modes
Cons:
- 64 MB Memory
- Tray capacity is only 100 sheets
- Scan glass length is Letter size (Legal size done from ADF)
This is one of the best all-in-ones for it’s price available on the market today. Fast and efficient. Good fax and scanning features. Awesome print driver. Great addition to any office.
The Brother MFC-J475dw All-in-one
The Copier Guy, aka Dave. I’ve worked on scanners, printers, copiers, and faxes since 1994. When I’m not fixing them I’m writing about them. Although, I’m probably better at fixing them. I’ve worked with every major brand. As well as several types of processes. If it uses paper I’ve probably worked on one.
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