Brother MFC-J870DW Pro Reviews

Brother doesn’t target any of its printers or MFPs for the home or consumer market – the MFC-J870DW we tested is marketed as a device for small businesses. But the same features and functionality that make the MFC-J870DW attractive to a small business – good quality output, fast printing, and economical operation – will also appeal to home users. In fact, because of its relatively small-capacity paper tray, the MFC-J870DW may be more suitable in a home than in an office. Plus, at $150 and with affordable supplies, it’s not expensive to buy or operate.

There's no question that the Brother MFC-J870DW has a host of excellent features including optical-disc direct printing and touchscreen controls. While it showcases NFC capability this will be of limited appeal since photo print speeds are very disappointing.

We love this MFP's interface and comprehensive features, but both print and scan quality are disappointing

A potentially great fit for a micro or home office, and packed with MFP features, the Brother MFC-J870DW inkjet MFP can print from a near field communications (NFC) capable phone.

The MFC-J870DW is an attractive, strong-performing AIO, crammed with nearly every feature available to midrange AIO printers here in 2013. It’s fast, the print quality is good, and it deserves recognition for being the earliest inkjet to our hands that provides NFC—even though Near-Field Communication technology itself may not be quite ready for prime time outside of the Android world. During our tests with a Samsung Galaxy S III, it worked flawlessly. But the usefulness of NFC is predicated on you owning one or more NFC-compatible mobile devices, and currently it's not supported on Apple’s iOS (iPhones and iPads) or Windows Phone. Given Apple's recent rollout of new iPhone 5 models minus NFC, we're not sure it will make it to iOS devices anytime soon, either. Overall, this printer is a solid citizen for light-printing small offices, but, as mentioned, the cost per page is a bit too high, and we’d have much appreciated an auto-duplexing ADF this time around. Regardless, if your small or home office is looking for an occasional-use AIO with a wealth of connectivity options, as well the ability to print CD and DVD labels, the MFC-J870DW will serve you well.

The Brother MFC-J870DW deserves credit for being progressive, adding NFC ahead of its competition—and arguably, ahead of customer readiness. The printer’s actual performance remains unremarkable, however, so you have to decide whether you want more features or better quality. The HP Officejet 6700 Premium offers better performance, if not quite every bell and whistle.