- Easy to setup wireless (802.11b/g) networking
- Built-In Fax - No PC required to send and receive documents
- 1.9 Inch color LCD display for viewing images and easy menu navigation
- Fast mode printing speeds up to 33ppm black / 27ppm color
- Direct photo printing on demand from your media cardst
In case you got down to the reviews and didn''t realize what you''re looking at: the Brother MCFJ265W is color ink-jet, multifunction machine. It prints, scans, and faxes. It''s wireless. It''s an inkjet. It''s pretty cheap.
I assumed at first, that this was one of those scam printers which lure you in with price, but don''t work very well and charge a wad for replacement ink. Not so! Within the realm of cheap inkjet printers, the output is plenty adequate. You can print photos in a pinch, but it''s perfect for printing out maps, web pages, and other notes where color adds to the information. And the OEM replacement ink is reasonably priced, and available on Amazon.
I use a Mac, and as far as I was concerned, set up was easy. There are several modes of wireless, as well as a USB cable connection. (Cable is not included.) There''s an included CD with software, but I went to Brother''s website and downloaded the latest version. Installing just the printer driver got me printer function, without any additional cruft. I had to install the TWAIN package to get scanner function, which put a little icon in the menu bar. (A *color* icon, actually, ruining the default-black OS X menubar look. Ahem.) And it locked up my menu bar at one point, freezing the clock and nearly making me late for an appointment. But other than that, I''ve had no problems. I no longer have it auto-load on login, and quit when I''m done with it, and that''s been fine.
Scanning was near miraculously easy. I pressed the scan button. The scanner operated. A file appeared in my "Pictures" directory. That''s it. The scan was gorgeous, too.
The printer prints reasonably fast. It''s quiet. It doesn''t vibrate or have any weird smells or do anything objectionable. Since it''s inkjet, it doesn''t take gobs of power to start up as a laser printer -no flickering lights. The print quality is fine, but it''s not as precise and high-contrast as a laser printer. If your business presence involves looking good on paper, you probably want to spend a bit more on your printer than this. For everyday household printing, though, this is easy, fast, cheap, and totally readable. There is no real output paper "tray" -printed sheets just poke out the front, waiting to be taken. If you''re printing more than a couple pages, there''s a little tongue that can be extended to catch them, but I wouldn''t let a whole lot of pages build up there. (Which you probably can''t since the input paper tray isn''t all that large either.)
There''s a very nice color LCD screen on the front, which makes setup easy. It even shows you a little animation of how to install the ink cartridges. The cartridges are easily loaded on the front side, behind a hinged door. Each of the three colors and the black are all separately replaceable. The starter ink claims to be "approximately 65%" of a full-sized cartridge, so the printer comes with about 290 pages worth of ink.
Overall, as a household printer for everyday personal printing, I think this is a great choice.
Buy Brother Black Compact Inkjet All-in-One with Fax and Wireless Networking (MFCJ265W) Now
EDIT: I needed to use this printer, and because one of the color ink cartridges was too low, the printer refused to perform a black and white copy or otherwise function whatsoever. I bought black ink, replaced that cartridge (noticing then that the old cartridge of black ink was full) and the printer still refused to perform a black and white copy because of the color ink level.
I feel pretty clever because I figured out a rudimentary hack to override this ink check.
Remove the ink cartridge and you will see a clear window on the top. The cartridge also compresses, exposing a clear vial with lines across it in the back of the cartridge. I took a black sharpie and colored both windows (doing one or the other alone didn''t work) and the printer then allowed me to use it for faxing, scanning, copying, and black and white copies. I still intend to buy color ink, but sometimes I don''t have time for that when I need this device to function. I know Brother''s competition generally has the same practice (comment below if you know of an example that does not), but this is really too much for me to accept.
I still stand behind the rest of my review, but I cannot call this a five star quality product. It''s changed, in my estimation, from an excellent printer to just OK.
-------------------
Old review follows:
Apologies in advance for a lengthy review. For some reason, I really like thinking about printers.
I noticed that the printer''s ink doesn''t automatically show up on Amazon''s ink finder yet. Ink cost is an important characteristic for any ink jet printer (in my opinion, by far the most important).
It''s $10-$15 to replace the black ink cartridge Brother LC61BK Ink Cartridge (Black). Off brand cartridges are available and inexpensive. 12 Pack. Compatible Brother LC-61 Cartridges. Includes Sophia Global Brand Cartridges for 3ea LC-61 of each Color Black Cyan Magenta Yellow. How many pages do you get? Believe it or not, but I printed about 300-350 pages per cartridge (3 cartridges total so far) before they started to gray in output and I switched back to my beloved Samsung Samsung ML-2525W Wireless Mono Laser Printer (the laser gets thousands of pages per toner cartridge, but then it''s an entirely different category of product).
I print an enormous amount of material, so it was easy to see how this printer performs economically. It''s easily the most affordable per page inkjet I''ve ever used. A laser printer is cheaper, faster, and I like the quality, so bear that in mind if you''re just planning to print black and white documents in large numbers. In fact, a limited paper tray makes printing more than 100 pages at once with this printer quite a hassle (most people see no issue here, I bet). I should mention that if you want your ink to last, use fast printing. I think the results were easy to read.
Of course, this printer does a lot more than my b/w laser. I printed a couple of photos, and they were color accurate and looked pretty good (not excellent). Loading images from my Sony camera''s memory stick was simple (you can load from USB or SD card). Frankly, I think it''s very silly to print photos at home when the quality and price per picture is much better at a store nearby (my grocer''s website makes it easy). However, the results are reasonably good at home. Color prints at high quality take an enormous amount of time. It felt like at least a minute per page, but I didn''t time it. The black and white printing seems slow as well unless you use the fast mode, and even then, is slow when compared to a laser printer.
I''ve always been highly annoyed with ''printer cleaning'' that wastes a ton of ink. This printer does not waste much ink when performing this function.
I sent a fax to my wife (who was very surprised as she didn''t know we had a fax machine!). This sucker really is a great fax machine. It was very snappy with the scanning. If you''re running a business and worry about employees not being familiar with the fax machine, this is a very, very good one (it''s so simple to use).
And onto the scanning. I consider the quality of this scanner to be outstanding! It''s the strongest aspect of this all-in-one. Colors were accurate. Everything is sharp.
Of course, all of these features (except the fax) are tied together with its wi-fi interaction. And this is where I initially ran into problems. The CD''s included software failed to complete installation, repeatedly (I use Windows 7). I find this unacceptable, but it''s my only major gripe. I downloaded a newer version from Brother''s website and that installed. You can log into your network from the printer''s screen and keypad, either putting it in a mode where the software sets it up for you, or punching in your router login. The process is easy for people familiar with their network''s equipment, but I think the process could confuse a few people. The printer''s reception is acceptable, but it''s not as strong as some of my other devices. One of the benefits of 802.11 N is increased range, but this printer is 802.11 B/G. Most people will simply keep this near their router and never experience a problem.
For scanning or faxing, I think this is good enough for any user. It isn''t a professional photo printer and it''s not as effective for high volume printing as a laser printer, but it''s certainly not bad. And in all functions, I found it easy to use. Before you consider a different brand, please consider the cost to refill the ink cartridges. I always review Vine products (or anything else) with the price in mind, and I believe this is a strong value for around $100.
Read Best Reviews of Brother Black Compact Inkjet All-in-One with Fax and Wireless Networking (MFCJ265W) Here
I calculated it out, and it was actually cheaper to buy this NEW PRINTER than buy overpriced ink cartridges for my noisy ancient HP printer. (I still can''t get over that!)
Pros:
1. Cost: great for price, especially considering it''s functionality
2. Scanner: pretty good quality considering, but again, I''m used to my fossil of a printer... obviously wouldn''t be the best for applications requiring intense scanning capabilities, but for everyday use, awesome
3. WIRELESS: Sorry, but this concept to me is still astounding. "you mean, I can have my printer on the other side of the house and still print things from it?!" Much better than keeping the printer within two feet of the computer, and it reduces the number of unmanageable tangled cords by at least one [no usb connection needed] (two [power cord] if you located the printer away from the computer)
4. Fax, though I don''t use it (or have a main line for that matter) is a nice additional feature. Maybe once they (maybe they already have) figure out a way to attach cell phones or go over the internet, this will be more useful for me. Still, good feature for others needing this, as fax is still a pretty common form of communication and document sharing.
5. Separate color ink cartridges: FINALLY! I hate having my HP color cartridge run out of ONE color and then having to figure out how to use it still; there''s still two colors of ink in there... but they''re pretty useless for full color images (and you better hope you don''t forget which one of the three it is). Now they''re all separate and easy to get to (front flap folds down) and change.
6. Cheap off-brand ink cartridges: Unlike other companies (cough cough) there seems to be an abundance of off brand ink cartridges for Brother printers... which is good! Saves you a LOT of money, as long as you''re willing to put up with a dud every once in a while (for the money... about $1 per cartridge... it''s totally worth it). Additionally, the pages per cartridge for this printer is much higher than HP''s 21 and 22 cartridgesmaking the price per cartridge even more enticing.
7. LCD screen: it''s in color! I didn''t realize when I boughtnice surprise.
Cons:
1. hidden paper tray: I was initially very excited about this feature... so tired of papers sticking out of the printer and getting bent, folded, dusty, dirty, etc. However, it doesn''t hold as many sheets as I would have hoped and it gets jammed a lot. I''ve used the printer for three days now, and of all three times, it got jammed twice. Hey, maybe it''s just user error, but I re-read the directions, just to make sure I wasn''t being an idiot.
2. Wireless: Wait, yes, I did have this listed as a pro above, but I at least HAVE to mention that obviously if your internet/router/service goes down, you literally can''t print unless you manually haul the thing back over to your computer and dig out a usb cord. I know, not the end of the world, but still, a bit frustrating.
3. EVERY time it gets manually connected to a wireless network, it prints out this sheet saying so... completely stupid and not very sustainable.. plus it just wasted some of your ink and a page of paper. Can you stop this? I''m sure. However, it''s still frustrating... especially for a sheet of paper you''re just going to throw out anyways(or cut up and recycle as notes!).
4. Footprint: I was hoping it would be a bit smaller (I realize the dimensions are listed). It''s still massive on my bookshelf.
5. Noise: I was hoping for a decently quiet machine... while this is quieter than my last printer, it''s still pretty loud.
Overall: Good product for the priceThe pros outweigh the cons, and seriously, some of those cons aren''t even much of an issue. For someone who''s just looking for something that prints and not necessarily too concerned about professional prints and a little noise (aka. students, home office?, etc.), this is a good deal. Again, especially for the price. Compared to others in it''s $$ range, this probably has the most bang for the buck (gadget wise and cheap ink.. if nothing else)
Want Brother Black Compact Inkjet All-in-One with Fax and Wireless Networking (MFCJ265W) Discount?
I didn''t use the fax feature on this "All-in-one" printer, so I am going to count that out.
Setup: The printer supports connectivity with upto 2 computers. Connection to my desktop computer, which is connected to the modem using a wired connection (but is also capable of wi-fi functionality) was fairly painless. I used wireless networking to achieve this. But I had a really hard time connecting it to my laptop (on which I use wireless connection to connect to the internet), which is pretty ironic. For some reason, my laptop couldn''t recognize the printer even if we were on the same network. I had to resort to a wired connection instead. And no... cables weren''t included, so I had to go through my cabinet to find a matching one.
Print: The print quality is mediocre even on the "best" setting. Even my oldest printer, the Dell 125 all-in-one printer prints better than this. You can notice some significant "grains" on the picture. The contrast, the sharpness, it really doesn''t match up. The printing speed isn''t all that great either. The way the paper tray is built "in" isn''t quite user-friendly too.
Scan: Scans work as it is intended to. Sure, they are not the best scans but I doubt you will notice much difference.
Interface: The interface is quite user-friendly. Even my 10 year old cousin had no problem browsing through. If you are also looking to register your machine, you can find the serial no. under "Machine info."
I, however, ran into what I thought was some hardware problems. Most of the time, when the machine goes into sleep mode, the display screen would still have lights on. And if you wanted to re-activate the machine, touching any button would give you the three beeps of error. Only way to restore control was to soft-reset the machine by plugging the power cord off.
Few hiccups aside, the machine is still a fine all-in-one printer. But if I had a $100 to spend on a printer, I would spend it on a different one.
**********EDIT***********
Sorry for the late update everyone, but six months into owning this printer, it has died on me. I only ever use it casually to print about a couple of papers every week or so. Google "Brother Printer Three Beeps." It''s a pretty common problem with this brand. The customer service will suggest you to look for any "stuck" keys, but since there are none, all you can do is send it in for repairs.
It''s basically what Dustin (see http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ZHFZ58MXHQ6F/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2ZHFZ58MXHQ6F) experienced, but his suggested method never worked on my printer.
I recently purchased a Brother MFC-J265W printer to replace my MFC-210C that stopped printing in black after four years of great service. The J265W was an outstanding value on Amazon. I have a small home office for my artwork business and this MFC does everything I ask of it quietly and efficiently. Some of the comments I read about this printer said that it did fair color printing of photos. I have printed photos and several artworks using quality photo paper and the results are superb. It scans photos and artwork better than many professional scanners. The ability to make quick easy in-house copies is also a big plus. I have not used the fax or the card reader function as yet.
A marvelous feature of Brother MFC is the inexpensive ink cartridges, the name brand cartridges are cheaper that HP, Canon, Lexmark, and others. Amazon has great non-OEM Brother cartridges at veru low prices that work flawlessly with this printer.
I highly recommend this very quiet and dependable little workhorse fax, copier, scanner, printer.
