Brother’s MFC-J1205w (130 USD) is a multifunction, basic printer that excels at all tasks. The printer does not include a duplexer, so you can make copies or two-sided prints. It also lacks an automatic document feeder, which allows for scanning and copying multipage documents.
In many tests the MFC-J1205w did well. The downside to this cheap unit is its photo printing speed, which is likely to disappoint, despite high image quality.
This multifunction includes a USB port as well as Wi-Fi connectivity. You can use four cartridges to ink it: the standard black, yellow, cyan and magenta. Each cartridge can yield 750 pages. It is easy to place the four cartridges in the cartridge compartment, located to the right hand side of the tray paper. Brother Refresh is a program that allows for automatic order of ink cartridges if the printer runs low.
Brother MFC-J1205w Review: Design
You can connect via USB by routing the cable from the chassis to the port under the scanner lid. The route will reduce the distance between your cable and your computer by approximately four-and-a half inches.
It measures 14.1 inches (d), 17.1 inches (w) and 6.3 inch (h), which is about average. The depth can be increased by extending the catch and 50-sheet output tray to 18.1 inches. The 150-sheet input tray is placed on top. You will need to slide in the guides on either side to print onto photo paper measuring 4×6 inches.
It weighs nearly twice as much as the HP DeskJet 2755e at 17.5 pounds. The MFCJ1205w measures 14.3lbs. It’s light enough to be carried by one person if necessary.
To the left of scanner lid is the control panel. The control panel has five buttons, including paper size, wireless ON/OFF, power/stop and monochrome/color copy/scan. The LCD is not available. Aside from the lights above three buttons, there are also an error indicator and low-ink light. These lights will indicate the state of your computer. In one instance, both the power button and error lights flashed simultaneously. It was difficult for me to find these explanations when I looked at the setup manual. Unfortunately, the online FAQ & troubleshooting page didn’t make it easy to search by light combination—instead it offered a list of 12 categories of errors for me to search through.
Brother MFC-J1205w review : Fast printing
A five-page text document was printed by the MFC-J1205w in just 24.5 seconds, or 12.2 ppm. This is significantly quicker than the 33.8 second average (3.9 ppm). Mixed text and colored graphics were also printed faster than the average. The six page PDF was printed in just 53 seconds, or 3.2ppm. It was quicker than the two-minute and twelve second average (or, 2.75 ppm). Comparatively, printing the same document with the HP DeskJet 2755e for $85 took less than 3 minutes (2 ppm).
The photo printing process was slow. It took the MFC-1205w 8 minutes, 16 seconds, to create a glossy photo 8×10 inches. It took almost double the time it takes to make a glossy print of 8×10 inches. This is compared with an average printing time of 4 mins and 19 seconds. The HP DeskJet 2755e took 7 minutes 8 seconds to print a photo 8×10 inches.
The Brother Snapshot printer was even more impressive. To make a 6-by-6 inch photo print, the Brother needed 3 minutes and 43 seconds at maximum quality. To make a borderless print in Windows 10, you have to use the Brother iPrint&Scan software. Printing a borderless 4-by-6-inch glossy took nearly 4 minutes—nearly twice as long as the average of 2 minutes and 9 seconds. The HP DeskJet 2755e, on the other hand, was quicker than average. It took 1 minute 44 seconds to print the 4-by-6-inch glossy.
Brother MFC-J1205w review : Copy speed, scan speed
MFC-J1205w produced a color copy in just 28.1 seconds. This is the same time as comparable models. The HP 2755e, on the other hand, was slightly faster, turning a color copy in just 32.4 seconds.
The Brother makes black-and white copies the fastest. The MFC-J1205w made a monochrome copy of a single page in 10.8 seconds on average. This is significantly quicker than the 15.9 second average. Black-and-white copies were produced by the HP DeskJet 2755e in half the time of the Brother’s, which took 25.1 seconds.
It was equally impressive in scanning. It quickly captured a high-resolution 600 dpi color JPEG scan of an 8-by-10 photo, doing so in just 37.5 seconds—almost half the average time of 1 minute and 6 seconds. The HP2755e took 1 minute and 36 seconds for the same scan.
The MFC-J1205w took just 9.1 seconds to scan a monochrome 300 dpi document into PDF format. This beats the 11.7 second average and is far faster than the HP DeskJet2755e which took 19.4 seconds.
Brother MFC-J1205w Review: High quality printing
The attractiveness of text prints was evident. The letterforms looked well-designed and were dark enough. The edges were slightly crisper that those printed with the HP DeskJet2755e.
Good quality graphics printed in accurate colors and with great detail. Graphics printed with the Brother’s printer had slightly better textures and finer detail than those produced by the HP 2755e. The Brother’s print however had some faces that looked too bright which led to the loss of contour. However, the text of our PDF test printed clearly (which was not possible with the HP DeskJet). The Brother’s printers also printed text that was in graphic areas in our PDF test more sharply.
The glossy photos were attractive with their accurate colors and details. The Brother doesn’t hype yellow or red colors like other models. This gives photo prints a more warm look.
It also produces excellent-quality copies. High scan quality was another plus. This Brother’s scanner had the same tendency as its graphics prints to raise exposure. This led to some misalignment of mid-tone transitions, but it was not noticeable in scans. It prevented faces from appearing unattractively dark by blocking out harsh shadows. Contrary, the HP DeskJet 2755e scans the same midday photo without any shadows.
However, the dark background shadows of another test scan came out too dark and lost some details.
Review of Brother MFC-1205w: Ink yield and cost
Brother’s high-yield ink cartridges are low-cost per-page for their MFC-J1205w. For text pages, the cost is 3.5c per page. Color pages are 9.1 cents.
These costs continue to be significantly less than those of the standard-yield ink cartridges, which average 10 and 21 cents for text respectively. This Brother beats even the low page costs for high-yield cartridge models: 6.2 Cents (text), and 15.7 Cents (color).
For comparison, HP 2755e’s page costs are 8 cents text/25 cents color, when you use standard cartridges. High-yield cartridges have ink costs that are significantly more than the Brother at 10 cents per page (text) or 22.5 cents each (color).
The Brother ink cartridges are estimated to yield 750 pages. Black ink cartridges are $25.99 each, and color cartridges $15.49 each. There are no high-yield cartridges available.
Brother Refresh offers convenience by allowing you to automatically order ink cartridges when your ink levels are low. It isn’t a subscription program with a monthly charge.
You can find a more detailed explanation about ink subscriptions, including Brother Refresh, at “HP Instant Ink Vs. Canon vs. Epson”: Is ink subscription worth the cost?
Brother MFC-J1205w Review: Installation and Software
While the software included is not very advanced, it does what it needs to. One drawback is that you will need to use the Brother iPrint&Scan software to make a borderless photo print. Borderless printing wasn’t available with the Windows 10 print driver in my testing.
For scanning purposes, some photo lovers may want an 8-by-10 inch scan area. You will have to use the auto crop function. Auto crop was successful in almost all cases. Auto crop can only take a very small amount of an image, with the exception of a magazine cover illustration. A scan of a magazine pages page was also cropped. Many other pages in magazines were automatically cropped.
Brother Creative Center Software is included, offering templates and printable products such as invitations, cards, calendars. Party decorations. Coloring graphics.
It is simple to set up the MFCJ1205w. The starter cartridges fit easily. The printer will automatically produce a test sheet for print quality after you have loaded your paper. Three sheets of paper were pulled through the printer’s paper path in this first print. My later prints pulled in two more sheets, possibly indicating issues with paper feed.
Setup from a personal computer is easy with the prompts and large illustrations. These reference materials and the troubleshooting guides show how to use LED indicators lights and buttons for checking the print quality (mono/color).
The QR code found in the set-up guide was used to initiate wireless connections. I then downloaded the Brother iOS app onto my iPhone. However, the app did not identify my printer model automatically. It was necessary to choose it from the list and confirm that two lights were on my control panel. The app then established a WiFi Direct connection.
However, the rest of my wireless setup proved to be a problem. Although the printer could be used on my wireless network using both my iPhone or my Windows 10 laptop, it was not working for me. My first attempts at connecting to the printer were unsuccessful. When I attempted to add my printer to my wireless network using the Brother iOS app and entered the network password, the Brother iOS app failed.
Attempting the wireless network setup from my Windows 10 PC, I was unable to find a wireless connection setup in either the Brother iPrint & Scan software or in Brother Utilities (perhaps because I had previously set up a USB connection). So, attempting to add the printer in Windows Settings, I was prompted to enter the printer’s WPS PIN—but I could not find this information in the setup guide. The Brother support website described a method of pressing the printer’s Wi-Fi button three times as well as my router’s WPS button—but this also failed to place the MFC-J1205w on my network.
The iOS and Windows 10 Wi-Fi connection issues were resolved after a brief reprieve. I did not have to contact the support centre. This setup is not something I have ever attempted.
Review of Brother MFC J1205w: The bottom line
Brother’s bargain printer delivers high quality images and fast printing. You can quickly print text and graphics as well as make copies or scans. It’s a great choice for office work because of its low ink cost.
However, photo enthusiasts will not be pleased by slow photo printing and limited borderless printing options in the software. The basic model doesn’t have a control screen, so users can only use it with a phone or PC.