Product Listing

Brother MFC-J6910DW A3 All-In-One Printer - Mr. Do-It-All

By Ng Chong Seng - 20 Apr 2011
Launch SRP: S$628

Design & Setup

A Black-suited Executive

The MFC-J6910DW is not a flashy-looking printer. Like most AIOs, it's black in color, and the chassis is almost totally covered in a matte texture. The only glossy bits you’d see are the ADF support tray (which disappears when you flip it over) and the bezel that surrounds the 3.3-inch, touchscreen color LCD. If you’re familiar with Brother’s MFC line, you can almost recognize it being a Brother printer from a distance away. In other words, aesthetically speaking, every inch of its massive frame looks prim and proper. Its size and weight might even have one mistaking it for a laser AIO, albeit a rather compact one. Be warned though, at 18.5kg, this thing is heavy. And at 669 x 590 x 331mm (with flaps opened), the MFC-J6910DW is certainly not meant to sit on your messy work desk. Like every good boss, you should arrange a dedicated workspace for this ‘employee’.

The process of setting up the printer is pretty much the same old story: you load the paper, connect the necessary cables, insert the ink cartridges, turn on the printer and let it run the initial setup sequence. It’s no rocket science - just follow the prompts. There are a few set-and-forget settings pertaining to fax that we recommend that you setup at this juncture, such as deciding which tray to use for copy or fax jobs; the fax receive mode to use; and whether you want to have a fax transmission report.

There are three ways you can interface with the AIO: direct connection via USB, over a wired network, or over a wireless network. The supplied CD installs the MFL-Pro Suite of software, which basically consists of the drivers for the various devices on the AIO (remember, it’s not just a printer, but also a scanner and multi-card reader), and the ScanSoft PaperPort with OCR (optical character recognition) software. The latter also serves as a document management system. For the Mac, instead of ScanSoft PaperPort, you get Presto! PageManager. Similarly, you can use it to scan, share and organize your documents and photos. If you need to use the AIO on more than one computer on the network, you’d need to install the MFL-Pro Suite on each of them. If you're using Linux, you can go Brother's support website to download the drivers.

The MFC-J6910DW also supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity. If your wireless access point or router supports WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) or AOSS (AirStation One-Touch Secure System), all you need to do is to press a few buttons on the AIO and the router.

 

Body Elements
 

While the MFC-J6910DW has a 3.3-inch touchscreen LCD (it can be tilted), for quick access, many key controls are still button-based. For example, the duplex, mode, and stored numbers keys on the left, and the dial pad and start keys on the right. For the LCD, you can use it to check call history, adjust system settings, monitor ink levels, select and confirm advanced options, among others.
 

The MFC-J6910DW's four ink cartridges go behind a cover at the bottom right of the AIO. The orange part serves to protect the ink tubes in the AIO; you'd need to remove it before installing the cartridges. There's a cavity under the scanner unit for housing it. At the front of the printer is a PictBridge-enabled USB port. You can print photos directly from a USB flash drive, a PictBridge-compatible digital camera, or a camera that uses the USB mass storage standard.
The AIO accepts a slew of memory card types (check the specs table for details). When a flash drive is connected or a memory card is inserted, the Photo Capture key on the control panel would light up (correctly inserted) or blink (being read or written to). Power supply is integrated, so there's no need for an external power brick. Here, you can also find two line sockets: one for connecting to the telephone wall socket, the other to a telephone (i.e., if you only have one line and need to share it with a phone).
Like many Brother MFCs we've come across in the past, the USB port and the LAN port are located under the scanner unit. A cable channel lets you tuck the cables and route them toward the back of the AIO. USB cable is provided, but not LAN cable. For multi-page fax, copy, or scan jobs, the 35-sheet ADF comes in handy. We've used A4 paper in this illustration, but as you can guess from the extra space around it, it accepts A3 documents. For items that don't fit (e.g. a book), use the scanner glass instead.
The manual feed slot at the back is for printing on special media, such as envelopes, labels or thicker paper. Only one sheet of paper can be inserted at a time. This slot doesn't support borderless printing; you need to use Tray #1 located at the front. If there's paper jammed at the back of the machine, the LCD would show "Paper Jam [Rear]". Proceed to open the rear cover to remove the offending paper. Paper jams can also occur at the front or ADF; the user guide has instructions on how to manage them.
The 250-sheet Paper Tray #1 also accepts inkjet paper (coated), glossy paper, and transparency. For A3, Legal or Ledger size paper, you can press a guide release button to extend the tray. The output tray cover (flipped up here) is extendable too. Paper Tray #2 (here with cover opened) only accepts A4 (250-sheet), A3, Ledger, Letter or Legal size paper. It also doesn't support borderless printing. For paper size bigger than A4, you need to press a guide release button to extend the tray.

 

Ink Cartridges

With regards to consumables, Brother has two types of replacement ink cartridges for the MFC-J6910DW. You can find more details from the table below. One thing to note is that like many printers, the ones that come in the box with this AIO are “Starter” cartridges. According to Brother, they’ve lower yield than the standard ones (65%). This translates to about 390 pages. So our recommendation is to grab at least another set to serve as spares.

Replacement Consumables
Type Model Approx. Advertised Yield Price
Super High Yield Black LC77XLBK 2,400 pages S$59
Super High Yield Yellow LC77XLY

1,200 pages (each)

S$29 (each)

Super High Yield Cyan LC77XLC
Super High Yield Magenta LC77XLM
High Yield Black LC73BK

 

600 pages (each)

S$32
High Yield Yellow LC73Y

 S$19 (each)

High Yield Cyan LC73C
High Yield Magenta LC73M
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8.0
  • Design 8
  • Performance 7
  • Features 9
  • Value 8.5
The Good
A3 printing + A4 duplex scan
802.11n Wi-Fi
500-sheet paper capacity
35-sheet ADF
The Bad
Relatively slow A3 print speeds
Lackluster graphics quality
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