After owning HP printers for years, we decided to buy this Brother due to HPs declining reputation. We were looking for a tank based ink system to stop buying high priced cartridges.
I certainly hope that this printer lives up to the reviews, because in my first day of ownership, I'm not impressed so far. Construction appears cheaply built. Plastic is flimsy, and our 5 year old HP seemed much more solid.
That's not the worst part. The setup is terrible. It seems that whoever designed the software, never tested it or used it in real life.
There are a few ways that it allows you to setup the printer. From a mobile device, computer or from the archaic display on the printer (not touchscreen) . First attempts to use an iPhone to set it up proved frustrating. The printer provides a QR code, which takes you to a setup package, but instructions are confusing and we were unable to get it to link with our wireless network.
Next, we tried using our MacBook. Same frustrating and confusing experience. We thought we'd try setting it using the interface on the printer. It got the job done, but it felt like I was setting up a printer in the 90's. Tapping tiny rubber buttons and squinting to see the tiny graphics on the screen doesn't seem very 2026.
The setup by either method, starts the process electronically and leads you through the first few steps, then you're given a link which leads to a printed set of instructions online that feels like you're putting together a piece of IKEA furniture. If they're not going to step you through it on the printer interface, then why not just include a set of paper instructions?
It's just plain terrible… it took my wife and I nearly 2 hours to get this functional. We feel we're both intelligent professionals, and never have problems setting up tech, but this took longer than setting up our recent computers.
Some positives. The ink loaded very easily with no mess, as I had feared. And it prints.
That's about it. As I said, I sure hope it's reliable, because for the price, we're not very impressed so far.
We probably would have sent it back if the old HP hadn't died and we needed to print some docs.