Brother MFC-J5340DW review: Print in A3, copy & scan in A4

Value When Reviewed

$249.99

Finest Costs At present: Brother MFC-J5340DW

Dwelling workplace A4 all-in-one printers are the commonest kind you’ll discover on the market, however what do you do if you want one thing that may print on A3 paper as effectively? 

The Brother MFC-J5340DW is the entry-level mannequin of Brother’s MFC-J5 vary of A4/A3 color inkjet all-in-ones for 2022, and simply could be the one you’re after.

It’s the follow-up to the MFC-J55330W that we reviewed again in 2017.

Moreover A4 and A3 printing, the MFC-J5340DW is a house workplace multitasker, providing most of the options you’d anticipate to see on an all-in-one inkjet – there’s an scanner and copier, auto duplexing (computerized double-sided printing), and an ADF (computerized doc feeder). 

A color touchscreen management panel means it’s straightforward to function and run out of your desk, and if you happen to’re away, you may remotely queue print jobs out of your cellphone through the Brother Cellular apps. 

There’s built-in Wi-Fi and Apple AirPrint compatibility, so Mac, iPhone and iPad house owners can get arrange with comparatively little fuss. For individuals who choose a dependable wired community connection, there’s additionally an Ethernet port. A USB 2.0 port sits on the entrance of the MFC-J5340DW, so that you’ve obtained the choice to print straight from flash drives.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Design & Construct

• Cumbersome and heavy at 17kg
• 250-sheet single paper tray
• 50-sheet computerized doc feeder

The Brother MFC-J5340DW seems like a mini model of your typical workplace photocopier. That’s to say it’s pretty boxy, but additionally utilitarian-looking with its no-nonsense straight strains and curved corners. The one factor that’s lacking is just a little tray for paper clips. 

It’s straightforward to determine the place a lot of the key options and capabilities are. The Kind-A USB port, paper tray, and the deal with for the ink cartridge cradle are all clearly marked out on the entrance, and it’s straightforward to see the place you have to grip and raise the scanner cowl on the perimeters. 

What’s much less apparent is the place the Ethernet and Kind-B USB ports are – that’s as a result of they’re hidden beneath the scanner mattress. 

Raise this up and also you’ll see that the networking ports have been tucked away inside, with a cable gutter, which terminates on the prime proper nook of the scanner mattress. This may affect the place you set this up in your house workplace, and/or pressure you to put money into some longer cables.  

It’s a good contact, although, because it means these cables don’t stick out of the again, requiring much more depth in your desk, and in addition protects the connectors.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

The copier and scanner beds are just a little on the heavy facet, however slow-close arms imply that they’re straightforward to function. And talking of heavy, the MFC-J5340DW itself weights a not inconsiderable 17kg. 

That’s fairly cumbersome, however contemplating all the inner elements and the massive 250-sheet paper tray, crammed right into a 305 x 530 x 398mm cuboid, it’s maybe not stunning that it weighs greater than your typical all-in-one, such because the Epson EcoTank ET-3850 and the HP Envy Encourage 7220e, each of which weigh lower than 7kg.

Having stated that, the DCP-L3510cdw weighs a good heftier 21kg, so this isn’t the heaviest printer Brother’s ever launched. 

It’s value declaring that the scanner is A4 dimension, not A3. There may be an computerized doc feeder, which holds as much as 50 sheets of A4 and permits fast scanning (and copying) of lengthy paperwork.

Across the again there’s a manual-feed slot which helps you to insert single sheets, equivalent to an envelope or different ‘particular media’ you wish to print on often with out eradicating all of the paper from the primary tray first.

The paper tray itself can maintain as much as 250 sheets of A4 or A3. It’s not designed to have the ability to maintain two completely different paper sizes on the identical time, and if you happen to load A3 paper, you’ll have to take away the tray and lengthen it. This makes it poke an additional 20cm (8in) out from the physique of the printer. That’s not the top of the world, however one thing to think about if desk area is an element. 

In the event you want to have the ability to shortly change between printing on A4 and A3 paper, then the bigger (and, at round £400, costlier) MFC-J5955DW could be higher suited to you, as this options two trays.

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Setup, apps & wi-fi printing

• 2.6in touchscreen management panel is straightforward to make use of and navigate
• Clip-in ink cartridges are straightforward to put in
• Brother Cellular apps allow you to print recordsdata saved domestically or from the cloud

Organising and working the MFC-J5340DW is made straightforward due to the presence of a touchscreen management panel, and an intelligently laid out person interface. 

The interface may be very straightforward to navigate – whichever of the three residence screens you’re on, shortcuts to the Wi-Fi menu, ink ranges, and basic settings menu will at all times be pinned to the underside of the display screen. You’ll be able to even create your personal shortcuts, and do you have to ever get misplaced, there are Again, Dwelling, and Cancel comfortable keys inbuilt. 

The setup course of takes about ten minutes, and at first sees you eradicating the ink container panel, clipping within the cartridges, and dropping in a single sheet of A4 in panorama within the guide feed slot.

As soon as the nozzle and print alignment checks are accomplished, you then place the printout on the scanner glass, and the MFC-J5340DW will run a fast take a look at to ensure the scanner’s working accurately. After that, you’re then free to attach the printer to your property community. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Even if you happen to’re connecting the MFC-J5340DW to your router through Ethernet, you’ll nonetheless most likely wish to hook up with your property community through Wi-Fi as effectively, to permit for printing through the Brother Cellular apps. This can be a easy case of discovering your property community’s SSID from the record and getting into your password.

You’ll then be prompted to enter the default admin password of the MFC-J5340DW, which you could find printed on the again – you’ll be requested to vary this as quickly as doable. This can be a good factor, because it makes your printer inherently safer, particularly if you happen to choose a pleasant, sturdy password. With that out of the best way, the MFC-J5340DW is then able to obtain printing directions out of your units. 

Because the printer helps Apple AirPrint, any MacOS units mechanically recognise the MFC-J5340DW when utilizing the identical Wi-Fi community – head to System Preferences > Printers & Scanners, and it needs to be there. Home windows customers can obtain the drivers from Brother’s web site.

It’s also possible to join on to the MFC-J5340DW with a Kind A to Kind B USB cable. 

Likewise, the Brother Cellular (iOS, Android) apps ought to immediately hook up with the MFC-J5340DW in the event that they’re on the identical Wi-Fi community, if not, you may simply seek for and add units from inside the app. 

The apps allow you to print paperwork and pictures saved domestically in your cellphone or from cloud-based drives utilizing the ‘Doc Print’ and ‘Photograph Print’ instruments. Supported cloud storage choices embrace Field, Dropbox, Evernote, in addition to Microsoft OneNote and OneDrive, and Google Drive. 

Out of your cellphone you may also test ink ranges and order extra cartridges if you have to, run upkeep cycles.

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Efficiency

• Quick printing – A4 at round 28ppm, A3 at round 24ppm
• < 1 min for photographs on shiny 10x15cm (4x6in) paper
• Scans plain textual content on A4 at 300dpi in beneath 5 seconds 
• Satisfactory prints at Regular high quality setting

The MFC-J5340DW prints textual content and pictures shortly and outcomes on Regular mode are good, however if you happen to actually wish to impress, kick the standard up a notch – simply control your ink ranges. 

Inkjets are usually slower at printing than lasers, however the MFC-J5340DW managed 20 sheets of plain textual content on A4 in slightly below 42 seconds (41.86s), equal to  28.66 pages per minute (ppm). That’s critically spectacular: the form of efficiency you’d historically affiliate with a laser printer.

Textual content with color graphics was naturally a bit slower, however not by a lot, with my 20-page take a look at file rising after 49.84s (equal to 24.07ppm). 

Printing 20 pages of plain textual content on A3 took longer, as you’d anticipate, at 49.84s (or 24.07ppm), however 20 A3 pages of textual content and color pictures was slower going, taking 1 minute 34.58 seconds (or 12.68ppm).

As for duplex A4 printing, it took slightly below a minute – 52.50 seconds (or 22.85 ppm) – for the 20 web page plain textual content file to be printed on 10 sheets of A4, and simply over – 1 minute 2.23 seconds (or 19.92 ppm). 

Contemplating the standard of the output – well-defined serifs, barely any bleed, sheets nearly dry as they emerge – that’s glorious going, excellent news if you have to print of a number of paperwork or letters in a rush. As with the HP Envy Encourage 7220e, there was a slight grainy end to lighter colors on the pie charts (significantly the blues) on Regular high quality, but it surely’s not horribly noticeable. 

Images printed on shiny 10 x 15cm (4 x 6in) picture paper had been carried out in round 55 to 55 seconds, which is commonplace for inkjet printers. 

High quality can be good – darker areas of photographs are much less exaggerated than on different prints, and so whereas this may imply your vacation snaps look just a little lighter, rather less wealthy by comparability, extra particulars is seen, on account of darkish areas not wanting like swimming pools of inky blackness. Colors regarded much more pure right here than they did on the HP Envy Encourage 7200e, which had a bent to magnify blues a bit. 

The 1200 x 2400 dpi A4 scanner glass isn’t any slouch both, taking roughly 5 seconds to scan A4 pages (textual content, pictures, and a mix thereof) at 300dpi, and 15-20 seconds to scan the identical at 600dpi. 

The 600 x 600 copier took round 1 minute 3.22 seconds (18.98 ppm) to scan and print a single copy of a 20 web page textual content. Duplex copying is supported as effectively, albeit from the scanner glass – printing out 20 copies of double-sided plain textual content took 1 minute 52.78 seconds (10.64 ppm).

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Working prices

• The XL cartridges are higher worth for cash
• The 4 cartridge system signifies that upfront prices are excessive

The MFC-J5340DW makes use of 4 ink cartridges – black, cyan, magenta, and yellow – which are available in two varieties, the standard-sized LC422 cartridge and the larger LC422XL selection. 

Whereas this implies increased overheads in comparison with inkjets printer which take simply two cartridges as a substitute of 4, that’s not the case. Having separate tanks for every color means if you happen to run out of cyan ink first, however you continue to have loads of magenta and yellow, you don’t have to interchange a complete tri-colour cartridge. It’s much less wasteful. 

As for costs, a standard-capacity LC422 Black cartridge prices £22.79, whereas the usual color LC422’s value £16.79 every. Within the US, these cartridges are known as LC402 and are $24.99 every.

These standard-capacity cartridges have sufficient ink for round 550 pages, which signifies that the fee per web page works out at roughly 4¢/4p and 10¢/9p, for black and color pages respectively.

The high-capacity cartridges are naturally costlier, however work out to be higher worth for cash.

A black LC422XL will set you again £41.99 (LC402XL within the US, at $55.49), however will print 3000 sheets, whereas all the color LC422XL’s value £29.99 every (LC402XL, $35.49), and will offer you sufficient for 1500 prints.

Black-and-white prints work out at round 1¢/1p per web page, which is improbable worth for cash. Color pages value extra, after all, as you want three color cartridges to print these 1500 pages in color. It really works out at 7¢/6p per web page (with the standard 5% protection – it’s significantly extra for full-colour pictures).

What’s much less improbable is the prospect of forking out for a full set of cartridges – a full set of ordinary LC422/LC402’s involves £73.16/US$84.96 altogether, whereas 4 LC422XL/LC402XL’s involves £131.96/$161.96, which is nearly half the RRP of the printer itself. Nevertheless, that’s the fee if you happen to purchase all 4 individually. Purchase them collectively from Brother and also you do save: 4 standard-sized LC422’s are £63.59, and 4 LC422XL’s £118.79.

Within the US, two commonplace black LC402 cartridges are US$44.99, and three color LC402XL’s are US$95.99

The MFC-J5340DW isn’t at present out there for Brother’s EcoPro subscription plans, so there’s no choice to pay a set month-to-month value for ink.

Cheaper suitable cartridges from third-party producers will little doubt be out there quickly, however a fast search revealed nothing on the time of assessment.

Value & availability

The Brother MFC-J5340DW is available for purchase now, and prices $249.99 on Brother’s web site. For these within the UK, it’s £274.80 direct from Brother. There’s an inventory for the printer on Brother’s Australian website, however no RRP on the time of writing. 

Different locations within the UK that promote the MFC-J5340DW embrace Amazon (£226.80), Cartridge Individuals (£224.90), Printerbase (£238.76), Scan (£244.99), and Viking Direct (£226.80).

It’s exhausting to seek out the MFC-J5340DW within the US exterior of Brother, however Connection was charging $296.91 – greater than Brother. Because it had no inventory on the time of assessment, your greatest guess is to purchase immediately from Brother. 

Likewise, there are presently no distributors in Australia stocking the MFC-J5340DW, so contact Brother immediately if you happen to’d like to purchase one.

Verdict

The Brother MFC-J5340DW is a good residence workplace printer which produces good-quality outcomes shortly and is economical to run. The principle disadvantage is the excessive up-front value of the ink cartridges. 

• Color inkjet all-in-one printer, copier, scanner
• Ink kind: Cartridges
• Print decision: 4800 x 1200 dpi (color), 1200 x 1200 dpi (black)
• Scan decision: 1200 x 1200 dpi
• Most paper dimension: A3 (plain), 13 x 18 cm (shiny) 
• Dimensions: 305 x 530 x 398 mm (H x W x D)
• Weight: 17.0kg