Brother MFC-J825DW

Bottom Line

With its balance of features and price, the Brother MFC-J825DW can be a compelling choice for a small office that has its eye on the bottom line. Print quality is only acceptable, however, and it's not the fastest multifunction printer available.

Ease of Use

Straightforward setup and use. Setting up the Brother MFC-J825DW is quick and easy. It  installs easily via Wi-Fi (USB and Ethernet connections are also available), and it has a clearly designed interface. In addition, the four ink cartridges are simple to install; open a door on the front-right of the printer and click them in. The slots are spring loaded, so you don't have to adjust any latches.

Performance

Mixed reviews, but text is good quality. The Brother MFC-J825DW receives mixed reviews for speed and quality. One reviewer says it's fairly fast, but images come out a bit grainy; another finds the print quality excellent but complains that long warm-up times and slow network speeds can slow printing considerably. The choice of paper used to print on may be a factor here. In PC World's tests, the overall quality of the MFC-J825DW's prints was good. Text looked dark and crisp in most fonts, and photos printed on Brother's own glossy stock looked quite nice as well, though the color palette was a little on the light side. However, on plain paper, the same photos appeared faded and grainy. Scan quality was also a disappointment -- orangey and a bit cartoonish, with harsh shadows.

Features

High-end features in a low-cost printer. For a value-priced printer, the Brother MFC-J825DW packs in an impressive variety of features. In addition to its built-in fax, it has a 3.3-inch LCD display, PictBridge support, web connectivity to specific sites (such as Google Docs), compatibility with popular memory cards, and both wired and wireless networking options. It can also print on CDs and DVDs, a feature many higher-priced multifunction printers lack. A duplexer for automatic double-sided printing is also on board.