First of all, please take note of the size of this unit as it is BIG! It's not for everyone; specially those who may have limited space in their home/office for this unit. Buyer beware.
I've been a HP person all these years and decided to change over to Brother based on recommendations and reviews. It also had much to do about HP's scam of forcing you to sign up to their printer cartridge programs. You lost me for good HP.
The Brother MFCJ6935DW printer is a damn fine printer in every way! It surpasses every HP I've ever owned previously.
Setup from start to finish is super easy if you follow the supplied Quick Setup. I had it setup and running in about 3MINS tops. Zero issues.
We have two PC's, three Android units and six Apple units in the household and they all work flawlessly with the Brother MFCJ6935DW. Flawlessly!
Print speed is excellent..... print quality whether it be color or B&W is excellent.... ease of scan and the scan quality is excellent..... copying - whether thru auto feed or placed under the cover - is very quick and quality is top shelf.
The twin high-capacity paper trays is a welcome addition that will serve me well.
The display screen - albeit slightly small - is very easy to read and see under all lighting conditions. The screen also provides multiple functions the printer can do if you scroll thru it.
I've already printed about 200+ pages in the week or so I've had it, both color and B&W - and the supplied starter ink cartridges still show full. Nice!
A very small flaw if I may: There is a slight lag - very slight - when you print wirelessly [from the time you hit print to the time it actually starts printing] but it's most certainly not a hindrance in any way. Given the wireless source, this is to be expected.
Overall, this printer has well surpassed my expectations in every way. It isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, however, once you have it setup and operating using its multi functions, you will NOT have buyer's remorse.
A purchase highly recommended across the board. Like Nike says.....
Amazon delivered as promised.
Downloaded drivers and software from Brother instead of using included disc so that I'd have the latest ones (because I once had a very bad experience with outdated drivers included with a Suunto product) so I can't speak to the included software. Brother's website seemed to require that I create an account, which I was not thrilled to do. While creating the account, I found that it has an option that is not immediately apparent: if you let it sign you up for emails, you must choose what kind or it will keep kicking you back to the create an account screen.
I connect via USB. Note that there is a track built into the printer that hides the USB port under the cover. Ink is easily accessed on the front of the machine. Downloaded drivers and software installed easily. Test page printed correctly.
Got it for printing ledger sized maps for personal use. The capability to print ledger is cleverly integrated without making the printer enormous. The trays can be expanded to accommodate the long and wide paper. They are easily removed, too, which means that I can keep one loaded with ledger paper and just pop it out to close the armoire in which it's hidden.
The printer does not always repond well when told to scale an image to fit the medium, and it doesn't like to switch back and forth between portrait and landscape when batch printing. If it's being difficult with scaling then closing the program and reopening seems to be enough to fix it. And the problem doesn't occur very often. The batch problem I haven't yet fixed, so I'm just printing portrait and landscape oriented images separately.
If the ink cartridges included in the box are as full as those bought later then ink cartridges do not last as long as I was led to believe. However, they don't cost $300 like they did for my last printer.
Have now printed many topo maps at 300dpi on 11" X 17" (ledger or tabloid size paper) without satellite images and they look quite good. Lines are crisp. Paper is not soaked with ink (and topo maps do put down ink all over.) Even tiny print is quite legible.
When printed at approximately 600dpi, a satellite image almost looks like a cartoon. However, under a 3x magnifying glass it becomes clear (even on 20lb multi-purpose paper) that the image is extremely detailed. And, again, the paper is not saturated with ink. I can easily distinguish individual features--it seems individual trees (though that seems hardly possible).
Bottom line: I would buy it again.
The Brother Inkjet MFC J69xx series has evolved over time. The J69 prefix on a brother model indicates the highest end of this style of inkjet printer from Brother. My old Brother J6910DW has been dying, and is just over 6 years old. My purchase of a new J6935DW is due to very positive experiences with older devices in this line. My ownership of Brother MFC inkjets has been ongoing for about 10 years, some have been low end, J915, others higher end such as this. Generally these are well made units, and work well with 3rd party inks. Color printing is very good, but photo printing is imperfect, if you are seeking a true photo printer this may not be your best choice.
Some of the newer features which have impressed me is getting not only ink levels for each cartridge over a local Ethernet network (Brother has provided this for a long time), but information about paper levels too. It helps to know how low or high the paper volume per tray is. Occasionally a long project may be printed (my record is 235 duplex pages for a friends doctorate). Knowing if there is enough paper without having to go and look helps. It permits me to leave the printer and computer going, while tending to other business.
My J6935DW came well wrapped, and set up was easy. The cartridges seem very similar to prior cartridges. Most of the print mechanism is similar. Except the paper feed. This has been changed for the better. Instead of 8.5 x 11 paper being fed with the long side perpendicular to the unit, the paper is now adjacent and fed in a way which would have been sideways considered with older printers in this line. That is the long end of the paper in a tray is now parallel to the printer. It comes out parallel as well.
The new method of feeding, printing and ejecting paper means less movement occurs. Instead of 11 inch movement, only 8.5 inches are moved. This may not sound like a lot, but adds up, and there have been no feed problems. The output tray protrudes much less from the printer, and isn't in danger of being damaged. Older units often had almost an entire page length hanging off a very slim piece of plastic. The new shorter feed in and out seems to hold a higher percent of the paper within the printer body. While at the same time, the output tray while a few inches out from the body is also better built (larger, more solid, feels a lot more durable) than older models. The weight is also heavier than older models. This is nearly as heavy as some smaller color laser printers.
Speed is very good, connectivity is great, the bundled software (Paperport with Windows) works well, the MAC software isn't something in use at my home at this time. Support for Windows 10 is excellent. While 3rd party ink is less expensive, the price difference isn't as great compared to Brother MFC models.
Scanning, and in particular duplex scans of ledger size paper has always been a problem. The overall structure of the upper scan unit seems stronger, and manages large paper, even bundles of large paper far better than prior printers. If you scan, or duplex scan a lot of paper, this is a very good product.
Finally there is a 3rd tray, sort of a utility tray, which in older devices was indicated as a printer tray, for the MFC J9635DW function has been extended. It is much easier to feed a variety of stuff through the auxiliary tray input than on any prior model based on my experience. While the J6935DW will be the highest ed of the Brother Inkijet line (for the moment). Other similar units in this series, of comparable design time, are likely very similar. Brother inkjet printers with 4 digits, that is MFC-Jxxxx will always handle ledger paper, the lower the model number, the less a printer model can manage paper (going from duplex to simplex scanning, then to simplex printing, and eventually to a 3 digit printer, which would be a home printer, not an office printer). Brother home printers are good, but not as durable as Brother office printers (generally).
The ink cost, and marketing, are probably a bit of a stretch. Brother seems to be bifurcating market not only on paper handling, but on cost of ink as a consumable. The J6935DW uses the Brother Inkvestment concept. Which to me seems more about marketing than any quality of ink. Thus the Brother MFC inkjet line may be changing from models differentiated mostly by paper handling capability into a series delineated by both paper handling and ink cost. My use is in a home where there is considerable use of our printer, and a single shared printer on a local area network is preferred. If your use does not require ledger, duplex, long prints, or similar heavy use of a printer, other models are probably a much better choice as this is expensive. My Brother J6910DW cost a bit over $200 in 2011, today the J6935DW runs a bit over $300. This is nearly a 50% increase in cost, and while the printer is of much better quality, and paper handling has certainly improved, the quality of the output isn't very different from older and lesser units. Do not buy this for any increase in print quality, buy it for the volume it can print, low cost of brand name ink, paper handling, and scan features.
My last mention here, is the printer still comes with a CD instead of a flash drive. Installing Paperport requires a CD / DVD reader. The drivers can be downloaded. My guess is future versions will either download Paperport to Windows computers via a printer proxy service or Paperport will be installed via a flash drive. Paperport does seem largely downloaded with this version, but the CD is the gatekeeper to assure license. It would be nicer if the printer were the key.
I’m giving this printer 4 stars. I am having some minor issues keeping it connected to my network wirelessly, but I had the same issues with an Epson printer so I’m assuming it’s my network and not the printer. I just enter my network password to reconnect when I want to use it and I have the power saver mode set to come on after it hasn’t been used in an hour, which gives me plenty of time to print everything I need. No issues printing from my iPhone, iPad or android devices. If your android device has NFC (near field communication), you can print from it without an internet connection. It prints extremely fast, does great copies and the printing is very cleanly done. Others have complained about the black looking purplish, but mine looks great. The manufacturer recommends shaking the black ink cartridge before installing, so I’m wondering if they perhaps skipped this step? It does double sided copies in about 1/4 the time it took for my old printer to copy one side. The ink cartridges are fairly inexpensive and you only have to replace the individual color you are out of. It has two paper trays and a rear paper feed, so it’s great for large volume print jobs. It can handle 600 sheets of paper between the two trays and rear feed (250 sheets per tray and 100 sheets in the rear feed). It does a nice job of printing pictures on plain paper. **** I only have one major complaint about this printer. Glossy paper doesn’t work with its ink. The ink remains wet for over 10 minutes and the image is distorted on glossy paper. ****
I purchased this unit to replace a failed large format printer and to acquire large format scanning capability, primarily for original artwork. This unit is connected to our home network via wired ethernet, and it has been in service for about two weeks. This was easy to set up and everything works well, and overall it is a pleasure to use. The color printing quality is above average as long as it is realized that pigmented inks offer longevity over brilliance. The accuracy of the color prints on glossy paper of my watercolor artwork exceeds that of the Canon ix7000 "graphics art printer" that this unit replaced, as long as the source file is accurate (more about that later).
The quality of scanning of my B&W ink illustrations exceeds that of my Epson Perfection V500 scanner. The lines in my art are smoother and appear much less pixilated when viewed under magnification. Unfortunately, it is with color scanning that the J6935DW seriously falters. The scanner seems to have trouble with the color yellow, since all colors for which yellow is a constituent color are shifted, i.e. tan shows up on the scanned file as green, orange as red, and yellow > orangish ochre. Mysteriously, if I make a hard copy of the original, the copy is relatively accurate, but if I scan to a file, the colors are shifted. I am working with Brother Technical Support, who have been very responsive and inquisitive about this issue, but I doubt that they are going to be able to mobilize the engineering team in Japan to make the necessary (presumably) software fixes for this problem. I was prepared to return this item but reconsidered, since 90% of my work is B&W, and acquiring a better 11x17 color scanner would actually cost almost 10x as much as this unit.
Summary: This can be a perfect unit for anyone not expecting high quality color scans.
Feature Product
- UP TO ONE-YEAR OF INK IN-BOX: The Brother MFCJ6945DW INKvestment Tank color inkjet all-in-one printer provides up to one-yearof ink.
- REVOLUTIONARY INKVESTMENT TANK INK SYSTEM: Brother reengineered its ink cartridges to hold more ink and created an internalink storage tank.
- PRINT WITH CONFIDENCE USING PAGE GAUGE: Help take the guesswork out of when to replace ink by using the intelligent BrotherPage Gauge.
- VERSATILE PAPER HANDLING: Two paper trays with 500-sheet total capacity, up to 100-sheet multi-purpose tray.
- AMAZON DASH REPLENISHMENT ENABLED: Upon activation, Amazon Dash Replenishment measures the ink level and orders more from Amazon when it's low.
- FOR USE WITH BROTHER GENUINE INKS: LC30373PKS, LC3037BK, LC3037C, LC3037M, LC3037Y, LC3039BK, LC3039C, LC3039M, LC3039Y.
Description
"The Brother MFC-J6945DW INKvestment Tank color inkjet all-in-one printer with tank technology delivers reliable performance, enhanced productivity and professional results - ideal for small businesses and home offices. The MFCJ6945DW features high-capacity cartridges and an internal ink storage tank delivering uninterrupted printing for up to 1-year(1) without buying ink. With INKvestment Tank, there's no sweating over running out of ink - just the features, convenience and affordability you need.
Brother INKvestment Tank all-in-ones use familiar cartridges that hold more ink to help minimize cartridge replacement. INKvestment Tank all-in-ones use the Brother intelligent Page Gauge(3) that monitors the amount of ink used and the amount remaining to help eliminate running out of ink in the middle of an important print job. Remaining page counts are displayed so you can print with confidence and without interruption.
Features include mobile device printing(2), NFC ""touch to connect"" print and scan without a network connection(4) flexible paper handling, 11"" x 17"" print, copy, scan and fax, automatic two-sided printing and onscreen navigation using the 3.7"" color touchscreen. Connection options include built-in wireless, Ethernet and Wi-Fi Direct or connect locally to a single computer via USB interface. Includes a 2-year limited warranty with free online, call, or live chat support for the life of your printer.
(1)Based on average monthly print volumes of approximately 300 pages at 60% black pages / 40% color pages in accordance with ISO/IEC 24711 using 4 cartridges provided in-box. (2)Requires connection to a wireless network. (3)Page Gauge is an estimate for informational purposes only. (4)Requires an Internet connection and an account with desired service. (5)Approximate page yields in accordance with ISO/IEC 24711. (6)Based on average monthly print volumes of approximately 300 pages at 60% black pages / 40% color pages in accordance with ISO/IEC 24711 using 8 cartridges provided in-box. (7)Based on ISO/IEC 24734 (after first set of ISO test pages). (8)The mobile device must have NFC capability and run Android OS 4.4 or later.(8)Based on ISO/IEC 24734 (after first set of ISO test pages). "
WOW, what can I say about this printer? GET IT! It arrived much earlier than expected which was a pleasant surprise. I recommend having two people lift the box rather than one when it arrives. It is a bit bulky and heavy. Once it is out of the box, however, one relatively fit person can lift with decent ease. It took me about an hour to set up but I had to do it on multiple computers. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that this printer has 'three' trays. The two in front which can fit various sizes of paper. But only tray 2 can do 11x17. There is a locking mechanism to slide to open it wide enough to fit the larger paper.
The only 'issue' I had which was not reviewed in the manual was printing envelopes. I use the third tray or aka the MP tray to fit 4 x 9.5 in envelopes. The issue is that when setting up the tray settings there is no option for that size. It is very important for this printer that your print settings are correct in order for the right information to be sent to the right tray. At first, I could not get the printer to print from MP tray just tray 1. But after playing with the page setup the printer understood what I was trying to do. I had to add a custom size to the field of 'paper size' on my Microsoft word settings and set the printer tray setting to C5 for the printer to automatically print from MP tray. Same when printing the 11x17. Printer tray setting was set to A3 and page setup on the computer was put to A3 Borderless.
Everything else was easy to install. Mac no longer supports CD so I downloaded software from the website. Registration was easy as well.
The printer prints very quickly even when doing a two-sided document. The ink was simple to install and required very little effort or wait.
NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A MAC THAT CAN NO LONGER UPGRADE TO 10.8 OSX OR LATER. You can still print from this printer by adding it to your system preferences however, you will not be able to download the software and use the whole features of this printer.
This printer is ALMOST exactly everything that I needed. I read one review complaining about the ink it comes with being "starter ink" and not lasting long at all, but I've been using this printer for a couple weeks now, and am still on the starter ink.
The quality is good- not quite as vivid as my last laser jet was, but that printer stopped working entirely after a year with no ongoing support, so... there's that. I love that this machine will scan directly to my Google Drive. No more searching for where the scan saved and moving it to another location.
The one thing I do really wish it had and was surprised and disappointed to find was not a feature is the ability to print remotely. The last 3-4 printers I had allowed me to send an email to a certain address to print, and I took it for granted as a standard, modern printer feature. I have missed it several times already in the last few weeks.
This all-in-one printer has transformed our household into a small publishing house. The ink tanks last much longer than the other printer we have been using for years, As a result the other printer is only used for very large (13"x19") print jobs. Since the Brother handles up to 11"x17" print jobs, the vast majority of printing is done by it. Both text and graphics print out near-perfect and the feature to print on both sides of the paper saves a lot on paper costs. I can be a little nit-picky about its Wi-Fi connectivity, which occasionally has to be restored, but it's probably no better or worse than other Wi-Fi connected printers. Because it scans and prints up to 11"x17" documents, the Brother is sized accordingly and takes up some serious space, but again no worse than other large format all-in-ones IMHO. The Brother's ink system requires little auto-cleaning: a process that wastes ink during each cleaning. So far, in nearly a year of use, the auto-cleaning procedure has only occurred twice; whereas the other printer goes through a cleaning cycle prior to - and after - every print job. I also need to say how quickly and quietly the Brother prints and scans: a nearly perfect machine!
This Brother All-In-One replaces the Dell E525W Color Laser All-in-One Printer/Copier/Scanner I bought on Amazon 2 yrs ago. I hated that piece of junk worse than anything I've ever bought on Amazon, and that's ALOT of stuff! This machine is quite the opposite, and I've not had a single problem with it. It has very good print quality, it's much faster than I expected, WAY faster than the Dell, it has 2 front loading paper drawers, very convenient, plus a vertical sheet feeder in the back, AND I've not had a single paper jam! Not one! But, wait......the piece de resistance is its AUTOMATIC DUPLEX print, copy and scan!! Having had this machine for only 2 1/2 months, I already know that I will never again buy a printer that doesn't have auto duplex capability. It's absolutely wonderful and very easy to operate! Functions can be controlled from a computer or from it's own tilting user panel. It has plenty of features so there's plenty to learn, but the basics are pretty self-intuitive right out of the box. That's a good thing since the accompanying operating manual is pretty much a waste of paper and ink. Thankfully, you can find better instructions and information online, and I've only had to look that up once. We don't have Wi-Fi where we live, so I can't comment on that feature at all. The only negative thing I could say about this machine is its size. IT IS HUGE and IT IS HEAVY!! It's 3 times the size of the Dell it replaced and I thought that was big when we got it! It must have something to do with the duplex function, I can't imagine why else it would be so much larger than another all-in-one machine. You need to have decent access to the backside of the unit and that back paper tray as well as a stand big enough and sturdy enough to accommodate its size and support its weight. Finding a place to put this monster isn't quite as easy, especially in home settings. We have it sitting on a table for now, BARELY FITS, and we plan to find a suitable stand that will give better positioning and access to both front and back. I was pleasantly surprised to find access to the ink cartridges is right in front, don't have to be a contortionist to change cartridges. NICE! It'll take some time to find a stand, then rearrange the room to give good placement. In spite of the size, I'm thrilled to have this machine, but it is something to consider if looking to buy the Brother MFC-J6935DW Inkjet All-In-One color printer/scanner/copier.
This printer has great print and scan quality for everyday use. Some people want highly detailed graphics that this machine does not have. The print quality for graphics and text is pretty darn good for what I need. I am a casual printer user, but like the large scan area. My last printer scan area was too small for what I needed. I looked at a lot of printers and this has the best feature to cost ratio of any printer I looked at. If the cost per page printed is true, then this is a bargain. Overall, the set up right out of the box was real easy except the wireless configuration is a little fussy. After figuring it out, I added a laptop without any problems.
I made sure that there was an authorized Brother repair center near me just in case I had a problem. The 50+ pound shipping charge to return it for warranty repair would be outrageous. I purchased the four year Square Trade warranty for around $30.00 because they will cover the shipping charges if I needed to send it back to the manufacturer.
I have yet to have a problem with an unscanned border area that that some reviews have mentioned. However, I am only scanning standard (8.5"x11.0") papers or things that are a little larger such as legal or a even a little wider. I primarily use Adobe software to run scans.
Recently I could not get Adobe to recognize my printer to scan using my main PC or my laptop. Then I found out that it would not scan anything. This happened at the same time on both computers. When I tried re-installing the software, I kept getting a 1001; scanner driver not installed: 1001; error. I talked to Brother technical support and they eventually had to get a person with more expertise to help. I waited about a 10 days (when I had time) to contact them. By this time a new version of the Brother installation software became available. Once installed, the scan problem went away. Apparently, their older software version had a conflict with a Windows 10x64 bit update and they resolved by updating their software.
This same scan error returned on my laptop after two weeks. For some reason the device manager was not allowing the brother image device driver to be the default driver. However, the main PC was allowing the brother driver to be the image driver. The Brother technical support representative could not help be because they said it was a problem with my computer or Windows. I am sure that if I contacted windows, they could resolve it. Instead of wasting all of that time, I reinstalled windows 10. I had to reload a few programs along with the Brother software to fix the problem. I wish their technical support personnel were more Windows savvy. They had me performing other procedures that were a waste of time.
Every time there is a newer software version available, I install it. That is what I do with any other software that I use without any problems. Updated software is supposed to take care of security flaws and other problems. For some reason, I always get an error that prevents the installation of the Brother Scanner driver. Now I cannot use my scanner. This has occurred more than one time. The last time this happened, the Brother Support personnel could not resolve the issue by reinstalling the software using their procedures. They would not go any further because they believed it to be a Windows 10 problem. I contacted Microsoft support and the only way the technician could resolve it was to restore windows to a point before I installed the latest Brother software.
Why is Brother the only software of the thousands that I have installed to be so problematic?
Now that I am out of school, I had time to look at the scanner software problem. After searching many posts on various printer errors, I resolved the problem by clearing the registry and all user directories relating to the printer. I am not a computer expert, and it surprises me that Brother can’t provide this solution.
The printer is still a great machine, but they could provide better software support to the customer.
I am knocking the review down one star from my original review.
I have scanned loose leaf college books after classes are finished to keep for reference purposes and then donating the paper copies. I can scan a 500 page book fairly quickly into a searchable document. This is great for finding information to do homework for future classes.
When using adobe, I can do a custom scan and pick the dimensions of the size of paper to scan (show native interface of scanner). Since auto-crop isn't that perfect all the time, I love the custom scan.
I have printed about 500-700 pages of mostly black and white and several color documents. There is still about 1/2 of the ink left on the original cartridges that came with the printer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment