Brother MFC-J995DW Printer Review: A Printer With Excellent Versatility

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Small offices and home offices alike will appreciate the Brother MFC-J995DW All-in-One Printer, which delivers a nice blend of convenience and productivity advantages. This particular printer provides a lot of versatility in any environment you put it in thanks to its excellent features. If you’d like to learn more about this printer, just keep scrolling to read our review below.

See Where The Brother MFC-J995DW All-In-One Printer Ranks In Our List Of The Best Wireless Printers For Home Use In 2021.

Overview Of The Brother MFC-J995DW

The Brother MFC-J995DW is an all-in-one inkjet printer that can handle practically any task you throw at it. This printer features a flatbed scanner with high resolution and color depth, as well as a sheetfed scanner that can automatically handle multi-page documents. It supports Apple AirPrint for mobile printing, as well as Ethernet, USB cable, and Wi-Fi printing.

While it’s a printer ideal for home offices, this particular model is also versatile enough to be used in plenty of other areas such as smaller offices. Thanks to its impressive INKvestment Tank System, the MFC-J995DW can easily yield larger volumes of paper without a fuss. On top of that, the INKvestment Tank System also allows the cartridges to be replaced less frequently, cutting the cost-per-print.

However, when it comes to photo printing, the results may just be slightly less than ideal. Although the photos printed look to have some little banding, they appear to still be detailed and of decent quality. On the upside, the two input trays can easily handle a variety of paper sizes, with the rear feeder working best for smaller photo paper.

You should be aware, however, that while the first page prints quickly, the printing performance for subsequent pages does not improve at all. In addition, the color accuracy is just passable. This color quality should be sufficient for most casual printing, but it is not recommended if accurate color reproduction is necessary for your line of work.

It’s also worth noting that the Brother MFC-J995DW does not allow Bluetooth printing. I don’t find this minor drawback particularly a major deal-breaker but that depends on who’s using it. Regardless, this is a terrific multi-functional printer that is ideal for both home and small office use.

Features & Specifications

Type Of Printer: All-In-One
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 13.4 x 17.1 inches
Product Weight: 19.2 lbs.
Technology: Inkjet
Printing Speed: 12 ppm (monochrome) / 10 ppm (colored)
Paper Sizes: Up to 8.5 x 11.7 inches
Paper Capacity: 150 sheets
Color: White
Extra Special Features: Inkvestment tank system, eliminates ink replacement guesswork, and mobile device printing.

What’s In The Box

Fax/Phone cable
Installation CD
User guide
LC3033BKS Black x 1
LC3033CS Cyan x 1
LC3033MS Magenta x 1
LC3033YS Yellow x 1

Want To Check Out Other Printers? Click Here To Read Our Top Recommendations For The Best Wireless Printers For Home Use This 2021.

What We Like About The Brother MFC-J995DW Printer

Design & Build Quality

To be honest, the MFC-J995DW’s overall design is pretty plain and there’s really nothing extraordinary about it. However, the simplicity and straightforwardness of its design make it very user-friendly and easy to understand even for people who are not so knowledgeable about handling complicated printing machines. So this is something I can truly appreciate and commend.

Weighing in at 19.2 pounds with dimensions of 7.7 by 17.1 by 13.4 inches (HWD), the printer’s general construction feels really solid and sturdy. The ink cartridges are easily accessible from the front, and the scanner lid and input tray are quite well-made. But the power wire isn’t removable.

The front control panel is angled upward 45 degrees, making the 2.7-inch color touch screen easier to operate. Most menu selections were easy to navigate using the touchscreen display, while items that required a full keyboard to fit on the screen, such as a Wi-Fi password, made operating it a little more difficult. If you’re going to put the unit on a low table, the panel should be slanted upward 90 degrees.

The USB and ethernet connections are situated inside the printer, underneath the scanner bed, and the cables are routed through grooves to the printer’s back. If you plan on using these ports, the cable routing will reduce the length by roughly one foot, thus you may need longer cords. Wireless, USB, and Ethernet connections are available, as well as near-field communication (NFC) for usage with a mobile device.

Cartridge System

Brother has dropped a new generation of its INKvestment ink-cost savings technology with the MFC-J995DW, which carries more ink per cartridge. The INKvestment Tank System is a cross between a conventional cartridge system and a cartridge/onboard tank setup. When you’re short on cartridges, you still buy and replace them, but the cartridges are now emptied into internal secondary tanks.

The electronics of the cartridge have been shifted to the interior tanks, resulting in a large increase in the capacity of each of the replaceable cartridges, which as Brother claims, up to one year’s worth of ink.

In addition, instead of displaying those terribly inaccurate ink volume indicators, Brother instead has included a gauge in the MFC-J995DW that counts how many pages you’ve printed and estimates how many you have left. The printer also monitors ink levels and alerts you when they’re low, similar to HP’s Instant Ink program, and you can order replacement cartridges straight from the control panel.

Printing Quality

Across the board, the printing quality of the Brother MFC-J995DW was excellent. The text was sharp and dark, though duplex printing produced somewhat lighter text. Colors were decent and beautifully saturated, and graphics were reproduced with a lot of detail. Graphics looked just as good in duplex prints as they did in single-sided prints too.

However, color accuracy could use some improvements and if you’re looking for a printer to use mainly for photo reproduction, this might not be the printer for you.

Printing Speed Is Okay

When you’re in an office setting, quick and fast outputs are key to maximum productivity. Especially if one of your regular daily tasks includes printing out large volumes of documents. While the Brother MFC-J995DW shines in almost any aspect of printing, its printing speed is no exception.

Overall, the printing speed of the MFC-J995DW is adequate, and it is somewhat faster than other models under the same manufacturer. Producing speed varies little between the first and subsequent pages of black and white documents while printing color pages is just as fast as printing black-only documents.

Our Least Favorite Things

Photo Printing Output Is Subpar

The biggest disadvantage I found with the Brother MFC-J995DW Printer is its photo printing output. It’s actually not that bad and it’s decent enough to suffice for casual photo prints that don’t require you to print out with 100% color accuracy, however, it definitely could use some improvements. Scanning photographs also somewhat resulted in muddy outputs that lacked contrast and detail.

In A Nutshell

Now that we have discussed the things we liked and disliked about the Brother MFC-J995DW, here is a narrowed-down list of the good and the bad with this particular printer.

Pros

Perfect for family use and home/small office use.
Excellent printing capacity that can easily handle printing large volumes of documents.
INKvestment Tank Ink system allows you to save money from replacing your ink cartridges too often.
Simple, straightforward design with a sturdy, high-quality build.

Cons

No Bluetooth capabilities.
Photo printing is just okay.

Our Final Verdict

The Brother MFC-J995DW is an all-in-one wireless inkjet printer that’s ideal for both home and small office use. This model includes a number of small office capabilities that allow it to yield large volumes of pages as well as high-capacity ink cartridges at a low cost per page all thanks to its INKvestment Tank System. According to Brother, the INKvestment Tank cartridges included in the package might last up to a year, making it one of the greatest all-in-one printers for low-cost ink we’ve seen in the market.

Do you already own the Brother MFC-J995DW? Or are you still contemplating it and checking out other printers? Let me know in the comments section below if you have insights, questions, or suggestions to share. I would love to hear all your thoughts!