Brother MFC-J6710DW Review

Brother International Corporation brings in the mammoth A3-sized multifunction printer, the MFC-J6710W, and it is aimed towards corporates and professionals. Read ahead to know more about the unit and what it has to offer for its price.

Design and Build
As usual, similar to all Brother printers and MFDs, this one too has a rugged and great build quality. Though the huge size is large enough for you to run out of space on your desk, the printer is very neatly designed to accommodate all the features in the most compact chassis possible. The shell is made of tough plastic with a matte finished exterior in a good-looking and all black colour. The MFD is an inkjet-based printer and uses the usual 4-cartridge ink system and can print at resolutions of 6000 x 1200 dpi with a maximum borderless print size of 11" x 17” (Ledger or A3). The printer also incorporates a duplex scanning mechanism, which can print on both sides of the page helping to reduce the paper costs. The top features an A3-sized flatbed scanner, along with an A3-sized ADF and can hold up to a maximum of 35 sheets of paper. Images can be scanned at resolutions of 19200 x 19200 dpi (interpolated) at 48-bits bit depth.

Large footprint

As usual, scanned images can be sent to PC, e-mail, FTP, OCR or saved to media cards and USB flash drives directly. Scanned images can be saved in formats, such as TIFF, JPEG, BMP, MAX, HTM, PCX, DCX, PNG, FPX and PDF. The copier mode can copy a maximum of 99 pages in a single command and can be both enlarged and reduced. Duplex copying is also possible in a single command where the printer scans and holds the first page in its memory, while the other page is scanned and then finally prints on both sides of the page. The copy mode also features N-in-1 function, which can scan and print two or four pages in a single print or print ID copies. Poster printing is also possible using the copier function. The fax function is capable of both B/W and colour faxing and uses a high-speed 33.6 Kbps modem, which can transmit a single page in approximately 3 seconds. It also has a built-in storage memory, which can hold up to 400 pages when the printer tray runs out of paper. Other features of the fax functions, include caller ID, distinctive ring, fax-forwarding and auto-redial.

Features
A retractable 3.3-inch wide colour LCD is located towards the top-front portion of the MFC-J6710DW,  which is part of the large control panel. The control panel is made up of well spaced large buttons that are made of rubber. The extreme front sports the USB port, which also acts as a PictBridge port for connecting digital cameras. Also alongside is the media card reader using which one can print documents and photos from or scan to. The printer also incorporates the PhotoCapture feature, which can enhance photos directly from the USB drive or memory cards without the need of a PC. Using this feature, you can auto correct, enhance skin tones, remove red-eyes, fill light, create scenery effects and light scenes and a few more.

Very ergonomic

Two large paper trays can both individually handle 4 x 6 photos to A3-sizes papers, and the printer can be set to automatically select between them. Towards the rear (top portion) lies a single sheet manual feed slot for thicker papers that cannot bend when used from the tray. It also has a dust cover to avoid dust and dirt entering the internal mechanism. The MFC-J6710DW can be connected to the PC using a USB cable and can alternatively be used by other users over the network using the wired or wireless network interface options. The networking option is future ready with IPv6 compatibility already built-in. The printer has a monthly duty cycle of 12,000 pages, while the recommended monthly print volume is around 250 – 2,000 pages maximum. Consumables packaged with the product are four starter cartridges, which can yield around 600 pages. Each cartridge costs around Rs. 435, which calculates the print economy to be at Rs. 0.70 for B/W prints and Rs. 1.10 for colour prints. Once the starter cartridges are done with, you can opt for high capacity cartridges, which cost almost twice as much, but can yield around four times the print volume.