Brother MFC-J1205W All In One: In-Depth Review and User Opinions

The Brother MFC-J1205W is an all-in-one color inkjet printer intended for home and home office use. Part of Brother's INKvestment line of printers, the MFC-J1205W is designed to deliver professional looking documents while keeping ink costs low.

Some key features of the MFC-J1205W all-in-one printer include print, copy and scan capabilities, built-in wireless connectivity, automatic 2-sided printing, a 35 page auto document feeder, and cloud printing and scanning. It can print at speeds up to 12 pages per minute in black and 10 pages per minute in color.

With an emphasis on high print yields from its ink cartridges, the MFC-J1205W is a solid option for those looking for an affordable printer that can handle document printing, copying and scanning needs for home or a small home office. Its compact size allows it to fit into tight spaces while still providing versatile functionality.

Design

The Brother MFC-J1205W has a sleek, compact design that won't take up much space. It measures 14.7 x 13.1 x 6.8 inches and weighs 14.77 pounds, so it has a relatively small footprint but still has some heft to it.

The MFC-J1205W comes in either a crisp white or sleek black housing, allowing it to blend in seamlessly with most color schemes. The angular lines give it a stylish, modern look. There is a flatbed scanner and an automatic document feeder on top, while the paper trays and output tray are located in the front and back. Despite the compact size, the intuitive control panel is angled on the front for easy access. Overall, the neat design means the MFC-J1205W won't be an eyesore in your home or home office.

Print Quality

The MFC-J1205W produces excellent print quality, with sharp black text and vibrant color graphics. It has a max print resolution of up to 6,000 x 1,200 dpi for crisp, detailed prints.

Print speeds are fast for both black and color prints. For black printing, normal quality prints at 19 ppm, while high quality maxes out at 10 ppm. Color printing is a bit slower with normal quality at 15 ppm and 7.7 ppm for best quality.

The printer supports automatic two-sided (duplex) printing, allowing you to print on both sides of the page. This helps save on paper usage. Duplex print speeds are 9.5 ipm for black and 6.5 ipm for color.

Overall, the print quality from the MFC-J1205W is suitable for both home and office use. Text documents look sharp, while photos and graphics print with good detail and vibrant colors at quality print settings. Duplex printing further expands the functionality for higher volume printing.

Scan and Copy Features

The MFC-J1205W all-in-one printer offers decent scan and copy capabilities for home office use.

• For scanning, it can scan documents and photos at up to 1200 x 1200 dpi optical resolution. This allows it to capture fine details and text accurately.

• The scan speed is approximately 21 ipm (images per minute) for black and white pages and 10 ipm for color pages. This is quite fast and makes scanning multi-page documents efficient.

• Copy speeds are also reasonably fast at up to 20 cpm (copies per minute) for black and white and 10 cpm for color. For occasional home office copying needs, this should suffice.

• The auto document feeder can hold up to 20 sheets and allows hands-free scanning and copying of multipage originals.

• Overall the scan and copy features of the MFC-J1205W are suitable for light home office use. The speeds and resolution should handle most basic scanning and copying tasks adequately.

Connectivity

The Brother MFC-J1205W offers versatile wireless connectivity options for home use. It connects via WiFi 802.11b/g/n to allow printing from any device on your network. Setting up the wireless connection is straightforward with the printer's control panel or Brother's installation software.

For direct wireless printing, the MFC-J1205W is compatible with AirPrint, Mopria Print Service, and Google Cloud Print. This allows you to print directly from your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets. No setup or drivers are required, just connect your mobile device to the same WiFi network as the printer.

The printer also supports wireless printing from Windows using the Brother iPrint&Scan app. This lets you print from any Windows device without needing to install drivers. Brother's free apps for iOS and Android also enable scanning and fax capabilities from your smartphone or tablet.

Overall, the wireless and mobile printing options are versatile for home use. The MFC-J1205W integrates seamlessly into a WiFi network for whole home printing from computers and mobile devices.

Paper Handling

The Brother MFC-J1205W has a 250-sheet paper input tray which can hold letter or legal sized paper. An additional 10-sheet photo paper tray is also included for printing photos directly onto specialty photo paper.

The paper output tray can hold up to 100 sheets of paper. This is an ample capacity that allows you to print multi-page documents or make dozens of copies without having to frequently empty the output tray.

In addition to letter and legal sizes in the main tray, the MFC-J1205W can print on envelopes, index cards, postcards, and photo paper up to 5" x 7" in size via the rear manual feed slot. Both plain paper and photo paper are supported. The device is quite flexible when it comes to handling various media types you may need to use.

Overall the paper input and output capacities are sufficient for home office needs. The inclusion of a dedicated photo tray and support for printing on envelopes and other media via the manual feed slot make this Brother printer a versatile option for paper handling.

Ink System

The MFC-J1205W uses Brother's INKvestment ink system. This printer comes with a set of Brother LC3037 starter ink cartridges that can print approx 300 pages for black and 260 pages for color.

The ink cartridges are available in standard and high yield options. The standard cartridges print approx 300 pages for black and 260 pages for color, while the high yield ones print approx 600 pages for black and 500 pages for color.

Replacement ink cartridges are fairly affordable. The LC3037 standard cartridges cost around $20 for black and $15 each for the individual color cartridges. The LC3039XL high yield cartridges are better value at around $30 for black and $20 each for color.

Overall page yields are decent and ink costs are reasonable with the Brother INKvestment system. The ability to use standard or high yield cartridges provides more flexibility.

Software and Apps

Brother provides several software options and apps to enhance the functionality of the MFC-J1205W. Some key features include:

• The Brother iPrint&Scan app allows wireless printing and scanning directly from your mobile device. It supports Apple AirPrint as well for printing from iPhone, iPad and Mac devices.

• Brother's Web Connect platform lets you print from popular cloud apps including Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and more.

• Scan to Office feature allows scanning to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other popular file formats. OCR capabilities convert scans into searchable PDFs, Word docs, and more.

• Brother Control Center 4 provides quick access to the printer's functions and lets you customize settings.

• Status Monitor app shows ink levels, alerts, and other helpful status information.

• Built-in support for Google Cloud Print 2.0, Mopria Print Service, and other mobile printing standards.

• Brother regularly updates drivers and firmware to add new features and fix any issues.

Overall, Brother provides a good suite of apps and software that expand the capabilities and convenience of the all-in-one. Mobile device printing and scanning along with cloud connectivity stand out as useful features for an inkjet aimed at home and small office users.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Fast printing speeds up to 24 ppm in black and white and 20 ppm in color
• Automatic 2-sided printing to save paper
• Built-in wireless and Ethernet connectivity for flexible setup
• Scan and copy resolutions up to 1200 x 2400 dpi for crisp text and images
• 50-page automatic document feeder for easy scanning and copying
• 2.7" color touchscreen for intuitive navigation and previews
• Mobile device printing support via AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Brother iPrint&Scan app
• Produces lab-quality photos with 6-ink system and up to 4800 x 1200 dpi
• 100-sheet tray capacity plus 20-sheet photo paper tray
• Economical to operate with high-yield ink cartridges

Cons

• Lack of support for printing from USB thumb drives
• Manual duplexing for copying
• No ADF on flatbed scanner
• No built-in fax capability
• Maximum paper capacity of 120 sheets could be limiting for high volume printing
• Ink cartridges not widely available from third party manufacturers

Conclusion

The Brother MFC-J1205W is an excellent all-in-one printer for home and small office use. It offers fast print speeds, high-quality output, flexible paper handling, and low running costs.

The inkvestment ink system helps keep ink costs down without sacrificing print quality. Scan and copy functions are easy to use and deliver great results. Connectivity options like WiFi and WiFi Direct provide flexibility.

Overall, the MFC-J1205W packs in all the key features most home users need in an all-in-one machine. It's compact, affordable, and reliable. For anyone looking for a versatile printer with low maintenance costs, the Brother MFC-J1205W is highly recommended.