Brother Inkjet Printer, MFC-J985DW, Duplex Printing, Wireless Connectivity, Cost-Effective Color Printer, Business Capable Features, Amazon Dash Replenishment Enabled

I have had this printer for a couple of weeks. Selecting it was a bear because of all of the disparate reviews, biased websites, and crazy comments about all of the different brands. Trying to find the "perfect" one was definitely going down the rabbit hole! Part of the reason I selected this one is that I liked the idea of fair ink pricing, as well as not having to replace the cartridges very often. I was a bit scared because of some of the comments I saw (including a number of single stars!) I can say that I am very glad I purchased this printer. The print quality is fine, the ability to print double-sided prints is AMAZING at this price point, the quality of the scans is great, and not a single problem. I will admit that the color prints are not professional photo-quality (probably why the cartridge lasts so long!) but I expected that. You can get very high quality color printers, but they will cost much more, and definitely eat through your ink in a heartbeat. I dont understand people - some of the comments are clearly old OS, user error, and poor infrastructure issues ("It was difficult to set up on my Windows 7 system...." Um Windows 7 is 8 years old... how about updating your computer? "It was hard to set up with my WiFi..." I am not sure how that is Brothers problem...? WiFi is set up over the network by the user on the users device...) yet they rate the printer lower because of it. Yes, this is not a commercial-quality printer, but it is also not priced that way. It is a home-use printer, and performs (and is priced) just perfectly for that. No problems with WiFi - I have 2 MACs, 1 PC, 3 tablets, and 2 iPhones that can print from this device over my home network. Bravo Brother!

Show more

Great product so far! Ive had this printer for about a week and so far Im very impressed. I had a lot of printers over the years and all of them have been HP. After destroying my old HP printer by putting off brand ink in it (their ink and new ink refill program are really expensive), I decided to try a Brother. I print a decent volume of items, but usually in batches, so I may not print much for a few months, then print a couple hundred pages in a couple days. With the HP auto refill program it just didnt make sense for my ink usage. I decided to try this Brother because it includes 2400 pages of black and 1200 pages of color worth of ink. My first impressions of this device out of the box is how can it be this small? Ive gotten used to the HP Officejet 8000 series, which is at least more than double the size of the Brother. I have a small home office, so the space is much appreciated. The build quality also seems to be a little better than the HP printers. There is not as much paper storage in the tray, but theres plenty for me. The print quality is great for what I have printed so far. Document with text look good and crisp, even in fast mode. I also tried to print an edgeless 4x6 and it turned out great. Scanning on this printer is easy and painless. I was amazed at the speed the ADF scans, especially compared to my old HP. The included PageManager software is even pretty helpful, which is uncommon in my experience for printer software. Scan quality is good, I havent tested it with images though. I had no issues setting it up with OS X, which impressed me. I always had problems with HP printers (especially the scanner function) connecting to my Macs. So, we will see how long this printer last, Im hoping that the ink will last me over a year, maybe even two. I wish that I would have had one of these in college, I would go through the 2400 pages in a semester.

Show more

Pretty certain the one we received was defective. Color & two sided printing issues. But before I get into that: Took a little longer to set up than expected but managed with no help. The design is incredible, so compact for a multi-function printer very impressed. Love the closed top design and you can tilt the display panel for viewing. Some parts seem very flimsy but not worried if the result was good, just needed to be a bit more careful with them. First photo print that came out was a shocker! Instead of a sharp pink it came out dull with more tan hews. Tried several other photos. Some colors better than others. Though much of the time not only where all photos dull, washed out but color completely wrong. Example, part of the photo that should have been green ended up more tan. Some shadows appeared redish, and human faces red blotchy. Spent the entire time on-line support and using the printer color adjustments. You have an option to choose from vivid or natural, print copies look exactly the same. No matter how we adjusted the color none of the prints showed the correct colors. Found the printer color adjustment difficult to use as it puts up a display photo so you can see how your adjustments are altering the photo, but it really is hard to see any changes. So I just went with it and tried various adjustments. After spending hours making adjustment color quality never improved. Adding a sample in my pic. One on top is the Brother the one on bottom is an older HP. Both set to normal. As far as the DPI they both do an amazing job, but you can see the Brother just cant get the colors even close. In addition two sided printing, several attempts failed. It never drew the paper back, only started a new page. So disappointed, really loved the design.

Show more

I bought on Amazon in late June. I dont print very much at all. Maybe 30-40 pages so far if that? This morning I got a message about a paper jam; I went through the machines 6 prompts to clear it - though in the end, there was no paper jam after all. Then I get a message saying "Ink Absorber Pad Full" and to consult the troubleshooting guide. There is no troubleshooting - per Brothers not-very-user-friendly website, it is a "regular maintenance item" that is not under warranty. Seriously? After three months and very little use, I have to replace a part? That *really* stinks.

Show more

I did a LOT of research before choosing this printer. The printers i was considering buying: Brother DCPL2540DW MFC-J5920DW MFC-J985DW MFC-J985DW XL I was thinking about all the options. Do i need color? black and white? Should i go for Ink or Laser? First off, if you are trying to get a black and white printer, i would go with a a brother laser printer. It looked like it prints fast and the high yield toner allows 2 cents per black and white page. The thing that dumbfounded me was the INKvestment Technology that was released with Brothers Inkjet printers. They boast less than 1 cent per black and white and less than 5 cents per color page. Doing the calculation based on how much the INKvestment ink is right now it came out to 0.7 cents per page for black and white. You have to be careful though! There are many different printers from Brother that are "Ink Efficient" but make sure you pick one that has "INKvestment" technology so it can reap benefits of high yield efficiency with its ink printing. I have read the reviews of other people saying the "Colors are faded" but that has to do mostly with the Settings they used. Last night, i literally printed a photo from our wedding on glossy photo paper and couldnt be happier with it. Of course it is not as high quality as getting it professionally printed, but for "at-home" use and printing for kids projects, i couldnt be happier. the ONLY draw back would be the Printing Speed. It is much slower than i would have wanted, but I do not run a at home business and only print for the convenience and occasional projects for kids so it really serves that purpose. If you want to get something that prints faster and has all the same benefits, i would go for the MFC-J5920DW. I didnt get the XL version of this printer because the two extra packs of ink would only cost an extra $10 based on market value of the ink being offered. Didnt seem to be worth it RIGHT NOW. especially with the possibility of ink prices going down, it may not be worth it at all really. I highly recommend this printer for at home and would have really liked a printer like this for college. being $150 and comes with a set of INKvestment high yield ink.... i dont think you can choose a better printer. If you have any questions regarding my experience, leave a comment, i will try my best to respond

Show more

Ive owned two Brother laser printers in the past and have had very good luck with them so when I needed to get a light duty all-in-one I felt comfortable going with Brother again. Needless to say theyve done an excellent job again. Setup for this printer could not be more painless and if youre configuring it to be used wireless you dont need to install any software or even connect it to a computer. The cartridge cleaning took about 5 minutes and then all I had to do was connect it to my network and I was good to go. If youre using a Mac just add the printer and the drivers install in 1-2 minutes. I was up and printing in about 15 minutes counting the cartridge cleaning time. What I really like is that you can configure the scanner to send the scanned images straight to your email. This is so much easier than any other scanning process Ive seen and as a bonus you can have multiple email addresses stored and protect them with a PIN so random people dont send scanned images to your email. The touchscreen is nice and crisp and responds well to inputs, the print speed is more than adequate and the image quality should be fine for most home office uses. Two things I noticed are that the yellow prints very lightly which is not a huge deal to me and the paper tray is really tiny. I dont do that much printing so this isnt a huge issue, but for some it may be annoying to constantly be refilling the paper tray. If you need a solid all-in-one printer for light duty home office needs I cant recommend a Brother printer enough. Beats the HP and Epson printers weve had in the past handily!

Show more

I was doing alright with this printer - it seemed rather stable even though the parts felt cheap and rickety, and the screen was tiny. Ill even go so far as to say that as advertised, an ink tank will get you through 1200 pages. Thats where the compliments end. After only 63 days of ownership and light usage, first the printer jammed whenever I tried to print double-sided. Next, the printer jammed every time. When you speak with Brother-USA "tech support", they have absolutely no idea how to troubleshoot anything. Their only purpose is to ask you a long list of questions and write down the answers. They have no technological knowledge and are either prohibited or incapable of exercising any critical thinking skills. For example, the first person I spoke to had me check the ink levels repeatedly, even though there was clearly a problem with the paper feed system. After being on the phone with "tech support" for over an hour, and getting nowhere, I gave up. They refused to submit a warranty unless I went through their interminable and ridiculous process. Now I own a high-tech paperweight that does nothing at all.

Show more

After having it for two months. I am now dealing with it saying that there is a paper jam after each page printed. I have tried to restart it, do the setting changes, nothing fixes it. It is amazing how long the ink does last but I shouldnt have to waste my time calling the manufacturer because of this issue.

Show more

Okay, so I should have listened to the reviews about Brothers customer support...unbelievably bad. I decided to replace my many-years-old HP Envy 6420 Wifi MFP. It has been an extremely good printer, but the ink was just getting ridiculously expensive and the scanner software wouldnt work on my Mac anymore. After much research, I decided to go with PC Mags recommendation for the Brother J985DW. My home network consists of two PCs and one iMac on Ethernet, and another PC and numerous iPhones and iPads using WiFi. I had my old HP hooked into the network via Ethernet for those workstations, and on WiFi for the mobile devices and the third PC. Everything worked great. After receiving the Brother, I simply removed the HP and hooked the Brother up the same way. But, in spite of a lot of troubleshooting, none of the Ethernet workstations could find it, and none of my mobile devices could see it. It was on the network with a good IP address, but neither AirPrint nor Brothers proprietary app could find the printer on any of my IOS devices. The only computer that could print was the PC that was using WiFi. (?) Called up Brother customer support for help, and explained the situation as above. The first thing the tech asked me to do was to make sure I hadnt plugged the Ethernet cable into the USB port on the printer!!!!!! Really!?!? She went through some basic things, putting me on hold numerous times, but the end result was, "Well, if its printing from the one PC, theres nothing wrong with the printer." Regarding the computers using Ethernet not seeing the printer, "That is a network issue that youll have to fix and regarding your iPhones and iPads not seeing it on WiFi, that is an Apple issue and youll have to get with Apple to troubleshoot that." In spite of my explaining that everything was working wonderfully before--that all that had changed was the printer--she wouldnt budge and ended the call. So, I had a printer that I could only use with one device. Unacceptable. So, I returned it to Amazon an hour later. Adios, POS! I then drove to my local Office Depot where I found an HP Officejet Pro 8710 on sale and after a quick look at the very positive reviews, purchased it, brought it home, unpacked it, and hooked it to my system in the same way that the Brother (and previous HP) had been. EVERYTHING WORKED WONDERFULLY! I didnt even have to do anything with the WiFi--I dont understand it--but all my mobile devices can print (and even scan) and I never even joined the printer to my WiFi network. I guess because its a network printer....? All my Ethernet-connected workstations connect wonderfully, as does my WiFi PC. Like night and day compared to the Brother. I dont know what the Brother engineers are smoking, but they could use a lesson from those at HP.

Show more

Works great... however... I kind of wish you didnt have to pull a tray completely out of the printer in order to put paper in. THE PRINT QUALITY is disappointing - there is no doubt about that - it is light and not a nice dark, fine print at all. There are many others who warned me of this prior to purchase but I took the plunge anyway due to that darn review by PCMag. Perhaps the mediocre print quality is how it gets away with the claims over their Inkvestment system. Also, why is the startup sequence eating nearly half of the colored ink (according to their own store description - the startup procedure leaves you with 90% black and 60% color, according to brother themselves?!) NOTE: in order to connect this printer with either a USB cable OR a network cable, for some very odd reason they designed it to require you to lift the entire scanner portion of the device, where the connection port is in the middle center of the unit, and requires you to run the cable along a guide area inside the middle of the machine and out the back of the printer - unlike any other printer Ive owned in decades where you just find the port on the outside of the machine, which is far more convenient and practical.

Show more