Brother's
DCP-J140W inkjet printer is its cheapest wireless all-in-one to date, targeted squarely at small-business and home-office
users working to a tight budget. It offers print, scan and copy modes, but
there's no fax capability.
It has a
rather compact design at 390x360x150mm, yet still weighs in at a solid 6.8kg. A
textured finish to the scanner cover marks Brother's attempts to jazz up the
otherwise entirely matt black casing.
Brother DCP - J140W
Available
for just £45 ex VAT, we found plenty of evidence of cost-cutting in the
Brother's spec. In place of a touchscreen is a 16-character, one-line LCD with
no backlighting, for example.
In the base
is a relatively flimsy 100-sheet A4 feeder tray, and a
USB port (for connection with the PC) is found below the scanner. There are no
memory card slots, PictBridge or ethernet
connections, yet the Brother DCP-J140W does offer easy-to-configure wireless
connectivity. There's also an iPrint&Scan mobile
app for printing from a smartphone.
We found
mixed results in our tests. In the printer's standard mode, our test document
comprising text and colour graphics dawdled out at 5
pages per minute (ppm), albeit with bold lettering and strong colours.
Draft mode
is much faster - 17ppm in our tests - if still some way off Brother's
performance claims. The trade-off is grainy text and washed-out colours.
Fast-mode
A4 colour photos zapped out in 1 minute 30 seconds,
but display a notable red tinge. Meanwhile,
fine-quality A4 prints took 3 mins 50 secs and offer authentic tones and good detail.
The Brother requires four individual ink tanks,
with running costs typical at around 4.2p for a page of text and 12p for colour
We found
10x15cm prints generally took around 30 secs to
output, and are of consistently good quality. Copies of A4 photos emerge with
only slightly paler hues than the originals.
The Brother
requires four individual ink tanks, with running costs typical at around 4.2p
for a page of text and 12p for colour. Despite this
and its low asking price, however, the DCP-J140W offers only average value for
money in the face of less expensive and more fully featured multifunction printers
such as the Epson Stylus SX445W.
Verdict
This cheap
all-in-one offers wireless support and decent print quality for documents and
photos. Sluggish speeds and a dearth of features are less welcome.
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Details
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Price
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$85
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Contact
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brother.com
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Specification
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Colour
inkjet printer/ copier/scanner; 32MB memory; 6000x1200dpi max print
resolution; 1200x2400dpi maximum scanner resolution; quoted print speed:
33ppm (mono), 27ppm (colour); 4 individual colour tank printer; A4 max document size; USB 2.0;
802.11b/g/n; 390x360x150mm; 6.8kg
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Build
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4/5
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Features
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3/5
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Performance
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5/5
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Value
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4/5
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