Brother MFC-J280w

As a budget MFP geared to a home office or micro office, the Brother MFC-J280w ($100 street) is a mixed bag, having some strong business features while lacking some sensible, complementary ones. Like the Editors? Choice Brother MFC-J430w ($100 street, 4 stars), it?s decidedly business-oriented rather than home?unusual for an MFP at its price point. It has some nice touches, like good speed and a low claimed cost per page, but the MFC-J430W presents a better rounded and more compelling package.

The MFC-J280w can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or standalone faxing without needing a computer. However, it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF) for unattended copying, scanning, or faxing of multi-page documents. It also lacks a port for a USB thumb drive as well as a media-card reader. The MFP is compatible with the Brother iPrint&Scan app, which allows you to print or scan from an Apple, Android, or Windows 7 Phone mobile device on the same wireless network.

The matte-black MFC-J280w is reasonably compact, measuring 6.3 by 15.9 by 14.9 inches (HWD) and weighing 19.2 pounds. It has a 1.9-inch color touch screen with touch panel controls for navigating menus. It has a 100-sheet paper tray, a bit meager for home-office use, and lacks an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

The MFC-J280w connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via WiFi (802.11b/g), but lacks Ethernet connectivity. I tested it over a USB connection with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Print Speed

The Brother MFC-J280w printed out the latest version of our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic?s hardware and software) at a zippy 4.3 effective pages per minute (ppm), matching the speed turned in by the MFC-J430w. It proved faster than the Editors? Choice Kodak ESP C310 All-in-One Printer ($99.99 direct, 4 stars), which chugged through the tests at a 2.7 ppm clip.

In contrast to its business printing speed, the MFC-J280w turned in a lackadaisical 1 minute 57 second average in printing out 4-by-6 photos, effectively tying the MFC-J430w (1:59). The Kodak ESP C310, which is a more home- than business-friendly MFP, turned the tables in photo printing with an impressively low average of 46 seconds per 4-by-6 print.

Output Quality

The MFC-J280w?s output quality was a touch below par across the board. Text quality was suitable for schoolwork or general business use, but not up to use with documents like resumes in which visual impact is important, or documents with smaller fonts.

As for graphics, illustrations generally looked slightly pale or faded. Some dithering (solid areas appearing grainy) was apparent, and several graphics showed minor banding (a regular pattern of faint stripes lighter than the background).The graphics were suitable for displaying data in reports or PowerPoint handouts, though I?d hesitate in giving them to, say, a client I was seeking to impress through their visual appearance.

In some photo prints there was considerable loss of detail in brighter areas. Still, most of the prints could pass for drugstore quality. Printing photos proved tricky, as the printer frequently failed to recognize Brother?s letter-sized photo paper (even with the driver set for it) and I?d have to reload it, sometimes several times.

Other Issues

Brother?s claimed running cost is 3.8 cents per monochrome page and 10.7 cents per color page, a low figure for a printer at its price. The color figure is even lower than that of the MFC-J430w (11.3 cents).

The Brother MFC-J280w is a rarity, a budget inkjet MFP with home-office chops but few home (namely, photo-centric) features. It has very good speed, a low claimed cost per page, and some nice flourishes like the ability to work as a standalone fax machine as well as to initiate faxes from your PC. Still, it lacks some of the features of the similar, Editors? Choice Brother MFC-J430w?such as an automatic document feeder, which lets you fax, copy, or scan multi-page documents without having to feed each sheet in by hand. If you?re looking for a more home-oriented budget inkjet MFP, be sure to check out the Kodak ESP C310.

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