Brother MFC-J497DW Review - Review 2022

Permit's give Brother some credit up front: This printer packs a bunch of value and functionality into a minor space. The MFC-J497DW ($79.99) is a compact, low-volume inkjet all-in-1 printer, forth the lines of the four-star/Excellent-rated HP OfficeJet 3830 All-in-One. Like the HP model, the MFC-J497DW prints well, delivering smart-looking photos on premium-form glossy or matte photo paper. But, even for an entry-level printer, the MFC-J497DW's running costs are exceptionally loftier, especially when compared to the OfficeJet 3830 (and other HP models) paired with that company'south Instant Ink subscription service. The Brother MFC-J497DW does support 2-sided printing, faxing, and a few other civilities that the HP OfficeJet 3830 does not, notwithstanding, making it a adept fit for many homes, home offices, and small workgroups with modest print and copy needs.

They Don't Get Much Smaller Than This

At 6.viii by fifteen.vii past 13.4 inches (HWD) and 18.1 pounds, the MFC-J497DW ($114.95 at Amazon) is indeed a tightly designed AIO, if not a whole lot smaller than most of its many competitors. (Maybe the smallest non-portable AIO available today, at five.half-dozen past xv.nine by 7 inches and 10.four pounds, is the HP DeskJet 3755 All-in-One ($59.99 at HP) .) HP's OfficeJet 3830, for instance, is a footling bigger in height and depth, and lighter by about four pounds. I could cite entry- to moderate-level printers with similar dimensions for a while, but the signal is that you lot tin can detect a slew of desktop printers designed to sit comfortably on your desk beside you, and seldom is the overall footprint all that different from one to the other.

As for paper handling, the MFC-J497DW comes with ane 100-canvas paper drawer. In addition, unlike the HP OfficeJet 3830, the print engine is auto-duplexing, meaning that it can impress two-sided pages automatically, which is not a given on an nether-$100 printer. Epson's similar Expression Abode XP-5100 Small-scale-in-One, on the other paw, does non support auto-duplexing, but the company's next model upwards, the Expression Premium XP-6000 Modest-in-One, does.

Brother MFC-J497DW Control Panel

Unusual on a less-than-$100 printer, though, is the MFC-J497DW'south automatic document feeder (ADF) for sending multipage documents to the printer. The MFC-J497DW comes with a 20-folio ADF, every bit does the HP OfficeJet 3830 and the Brother MFC-J690DW. (The latter, which is in the process of being reviewed, does not list for under $100; Brother's list price is $119.99.) In addition, the MFC-J497DW is rated for a 2,500-page maximum monthly duty cycle, with a recommended monthly print volume of up to ane,000 pages (the aforementioned as the MFC-J690DW). The HP OfficeJet 3830's duty wheel, though, is a mere 1,000 pages. Epson, meanwhile, doesn't publish duty-cycle ratings for its family and home-office printers, such equally the Expression Habitation XP-5100 ($119.99 at Epson) and Premium XP-6000 .

Brother MFC-J497DW ADF

Yous tin configure the MFC-J497DW and perform walkup operations from its decorated (and somewhat complicated-looking) control panel. It comprises lots of buttons, a number pad, a set of navigation pointer keys, and an OK button for executing commands—as well as a non-impact-sensitive i.8-inch colour LCD. Compared to some of Brother'southward (and others') highly slick control panels full-bodied on a large touch screen, this console isn't all that efficient-looking. But Brother has relied on this old staple for a few years, and information technology works well.

Connectivity and Software

The MFC-J497DW's connectivity options are nearly right for an $79 AIO. Standard interfaces consist of 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking, Wi-Fi Directly, and connecting to a single PC via USB 2.0. Wi-Fi Direct is a peer-to-peer protocol for connecting your printer to your mobile device without either of them existence connected to an intermediary network or router. Options for mobile connectivity, meanwhile, include Apple AirPrint, Google Deject Print, Mopria (for Android printing), and Blood brother's iPrint&Scan.

Brother MFC-J497DW Mobile

Brother'southward iPrint&Scan and Web Connect Deject Services connect y'all to popular cloud sites, such every bit Google Drive and OneDrive, as well as to several of Brother's ain cloud apps. These include Scan to Give-and-take, Scan to Excel, Scan to PowerPoint, Scan to Searchable PDF, and Easy Scan to Electronic mail. Unfortunately, to browse direct to a flash-retention device, you'll have to step up to the Brother MFC-J895DW. The MFC-J497DW tin can't practice that.

Middle-of-the-Pack Speed

Most entry-level AIOs are rated at between 8 and 14 pages per infinitesimal (ppm), with many of those hovering effectually 12ppm. The latter include Brother's MFC-J497DW and MFC-J690DW. More important than any AIO'southward speed rating, though, is how many pages per minute does the AIO actually print?

I tested this i over USB on our standard Intel Core i5-based testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional person. When printing our 12-page Microsoft Word text certificate, the MFC-J497DW churned at 11ppm, or 1ppm slower than its black-text-printing rating, and 0.4ppm and 0.2ppm behind the MFC-J895DW and MFC-J690DW, respectively.

Epson's Expression Habitation XP-5100 and Expression Premium XP-6000 beat the MFC-J497DW by 2.8ppm and 4.8ppm, respectively, likewise, and the MFC-J497DW beat HP's OfficeJet 3830 past 2.5ppm. When I combined the score from this text-certificate test with the results from printing our total-color Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF sample documents, the MFC-J497DW's print times plummeted to less than half, or 4.4ppm. (So do most printers at this point in our testing.) That ties its MFC-J895DW sibling, beats the MFC-J690DW by 0.3ppm, and falls behind the XP-5100 (by 0.4ppm) and the XP-6000 (past one.8ppm). And it beats the HP OfficeJet 3830 by 1.7ppm.

I likewise tested how speedily the MFC-J497DW printed our 2 vibrantly colored and detailed 4-by-half-dozen-inch test snapshots. Its average of 32 seconds was par for this class of printer, with but the HP OfficeJet 3830's score of 51 seconds falling significantly behind the lot discussed up to this point.

The Output's Skilful

Like most other Blood brother entry-level printers, the MFC-J497DW prints excellent-looking text with well-shaped and legible characters down to very small-scale font sizes. (The quality cutoff depends primarily on the font itself.) Everyday serif and sans-serif fonts looked good to virtually 4 to 5 points, and decorative fonts held their shape downwards to well-nigh vii or 8 points. The latter is okay, because you typically wouldn't use them for much other than headlines and callouts.

Business graphics look good, for the most part. As with its slightly higher-end MFC-J895DW and MFC-J690DW siblings, the MFC-J497DW does prove the occasional flaw in business organization-graphics output, such as slight banding and fifty-fifty a little streaking (uneven ink distribution) in dark backgrounds. Overall, though, text press and graphics output are usable for most small-business organisation materials, home printouts, and student homework.

Brother MFC-J497DW Output

The MFC-J497DW also turned out decent photos, almost what you'd await from an entry-level office-axial inkjet AIO. I noted counterbalanced, accurate colors and admirable detail. Granted, yous can find many consumer-grade photo printers out there that churn out higher-quality images (if not many listed at $79). Just the MFC-J497DW's photo output is fine for most small-business, student, and family unit use.

Costly Consumables, Though

Well-nigh as a rule: The smaller and cheaper an AIO is, the more its replacement ink costs. The exceptions are few, and, unfortunately, the MFC-J497DW, like the recently released MFC-J895DW and MFC-J690DW, is not one. Using the visitor's advertised prices for its highest-yield ink tanks, I calculated the MFC-J497DW's monochrome running costs at vi cents per page. Color pages, meanwhile, price about 16.five cents per page.

Compared to the Epson Expression Domicile XP-5100'southward and Premium XP-6000'due south lofty vi.four cents for monochrome pages and 17.five cents for color, the MFC-J497DW's cost per folio (CPP) may seem incrementally better. Only the real issue here is that this is still a lot of money per folio, and at these rates, it adds up fast. (For instance: Keep in mind that press x,000 pages at 6.v cents each will cost $650; cutting the CPP in half will salve you well over $300, several times the toll of this printer.)

There are means around spending this much on ink, of course—among them, paying a piffling more for a higher-volume printer. And so, likewise, at that place'due south HP's Instant Ink program bachelor on the HP OfficeJet 3830 ( at Amazon) and many other HP inkjet printers. With Instant Ink, you can impress up to 300 pages monthly, including full-size (8.5-by-11-inch) photographs, for but $9.99 per month. Then, too, you can consider Epson'due south and Canon'due south EcoTank- and MegaTank-brand machines, which use bulk-ink delivery. The bottom line in minimizing your running costs nowadays is that y'all have to have a very good idea of how much you program to impress going in, then buy accordingly.

Stick Within the 100-200 Page-Per-Calendar month Range

Brother makes very capable printers, and the MFC-J497DW is one of them. But it'due south important that yous keep in mind that this is a low-volume, depression-end printer. Despite its 1,000-page recommended monthly print volume, it really does its best work in the range of 100 to 200 pages per month. That it comes with an ADF and automated 2-sided printing for just $79 is a proficient value, too.

The too-high running costs foreclose it from receiving our Editors' Selection nod. But if y'all don't print a whole lot, per-page ink costs don't matter as much. And if you discount that cistron, the MFC-J497DW works well equally a small-scale-office, abode, or dorm-room printer for making a minor number of prints and copies.