Brother MFC-J6710DW review

The Brother MFC-J6710DW is the only A3 printer here, but it’s also one of the most expensive. However, you get a lot for your money. In terms of design, it’s a workmanlike printer. The front fascia looks old-fashioned and the screen is a bit too small. Having to press 1 for Yes, 2 for No for some options is rarely intuitive, but it’s even harder when the 3.3in LCD panel is so difficult to read.

On the plus side, the MFC-J6710DW does all the important stuff well. It printed our page of photos at its highest quality in seven seconds, which is blindingly fast. Quality isn’t up to the best on test, as some of the colours look washed out, but it’s still more than acceptable. A page of mixed text and graphics took just 14 seconds to emerge, while the first page of a black text document took just 10 seconds, with subsequent pages coming through at a rate of 8.9ppm.

Scans are slower, with a 600dpi scan of an A4 photograph taking 23 seconds, but the results were worth it, with accurate colours and plenty of detail.

The printer connects through a direct USB 2 connection, 802.11n Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and setup is fairly simple, although finding the hidden USB port was a bit of a challenge. The installation software is quick, and it wouldn’t be too troublesome to have to install it on multiple machines, which will be good news for ICT coordinators.

The MFC-J6710DW has two separate paper trays, either of which will take paper of up to A3 in size. It also features built-in A3 duplexing, and it makes quick work of doing so. Print costs come in at 4.3p per A4 colour page and 0.8p per monochrome page with Brother’s high-yield inks. Other printers are cheaper to run in colour, but the Brother has the edge if you need to do a lot of black-and-white printing.

The Brother MFC-J6710DW doesn’t do anything spectacularly well, but it’s a solid performer, well built and proved reliable in our tests. If you want the option of A3 printing and scanning – perhaps for classes in digital art or design – then it’s definitely a good buy.

Author: Ian Marks