Brother DCP-J4120DW Colour Multifunction is a compact colour inkjet printer with a few tricks up its sleeve. Although it has a really small footprint, this inkjet printer can print up to A3. This capability alone puts it ahead of the curve, as versatile paper handling is a much sought after trait in lower priced inkjet printers. In the box with the printer you get a power cable, drivers and software for Mac and PC, a quick setup guide and finally, your ink cartridges. These cartridges are “starter” ink cartridges and do not hold the same amount of ink that a standard cartridge does.
The estimated yield for these starter cartridges is around 360 pages, which is enough to get you started, but if you’re a frequent user, you’ll probably be buying replacement cartridges pretty soon after purchase… So it might be worth getting a replacement set with the printer. The LC-223s are the standard yield cartridges and these will offer up to 550 pages, which will most likely be good enough for the standard home user. However, if you’re using this device in an office, you’ll most likely be better off with the LC-227 and 225XL cartridges. These ink cartridges offer up to 1,200 pages each, meaning not only will they last longer, but your printing ends up being much cheaper, in most cases, costing less than 2p per page, for a standard mono document.
The ink cartridges for this machine are kept behind a little panel here on the right hand side of the device, and they’re very easy to replace. Simply open the panel, press down on the lever, pull out the cartridge, and when you replace it, it just slides in, and clicks into place. Looking at the features of this printer, we can see a flatbed scanner at the top of the machine. The scanner gives high quality scans quickly, and if you’re willing to lower the resolution, it can scan a full colour A4 document in less than 4.2 seconds. Which is pretty good.
Moving down the machine, we can see the 6.8cm colour touch screen display. This is a very easy to use display… While some touch screens on other printers can feel cheap and clumsy, this one works brilliantly. Moving through the menus we can see the various functions available including, scan and copy, as well as direct printing. Direct printing allows users to print JPGs at the printer from USB flash storage. There’s also pictbridge connectivity for those of you that like to print directly from digital cameras.
Speaking of connectivity, this machine comes with loads of options, many more in fact than competitors in the same price bracket. There’s the standard USB connection that we all know and love, but then there’s the wireless capabilities, like built in Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi direct. The inclusion of these two connection methods means this machine would be great in a home with multiple users, or in a place of business where visitors may need to print something. You simply need to connect the printer to a wireless network, and anybody on that network can send a job to the printer, using things like Brothers iPrint&Scan app or Apple’s Airprint. Wi-Fi Direct allows users to print to the machine, without a network at all. So if you don’t have a wireless network, or don’t want to make your passwords public, Wi-Fi Direct is a viable option. In terms of paper handling, there’s a single paper tray at the front of the machine that can hold up to 150 sheets of standard office paper, or paper weighing up to 220gsm.
There is duplex printing with this machine, which is great because it slashes paper usage in half, but be warned, as it’s only rated for A4 paper weighing up to 120gsm. So if you have some really thick paper in the tray, you’d be best keeping it single sided, so as not to wear out the inner workings of the machine. In terms of performance, this printer does really well. It can print up to 35 pages per minute on its fastest setting and as there’s no warm up time, because it’s an inkjet printer, it’s quick to get the first page out. At the back there is a manual feed slot that can take media up to A3 in size, and that is the key feature with a machine like this. A3 is twice the size of A4, so you can make prints with real impact on this machine. Perfect for school projects, posters and signs. It looks cool, doesn’t take up much space, it’s cheap to buy, cheap to run and cheap to refill.
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