It’s hard to stand out as a $150 printer. Many, many models crowd this affordable price range. Brother pulls off quite a feat, therefore, with the $150 MFC-J870DW. It beats out every other competitor by being the first to offer near-field communication (NFC) as a standard feature. It also crams this product with nearly everything else you could possibly want in a consumer printer. Even better, the printer has reasonably priced inks and a two-year warranty.
Checking features off a list is just half the race, though. Performance counts, too. And there, the MFC-J870DW is just an also-ran.
[h=NFC eases printing from tablets and smartphones]2[/h] NFC is a common feature in smartphones and tablets. You’ve likely seen commercials where people touch devices together to exchange a photo, or you’ve heard of handling payments by touching your phone to something. Frankly there’s not much more to NFC at this point, but Brother’s got the right idea in using it to ease printing from mobile devices. You don’t even need to touch your device to the printer—you can be several feet away (see video). You do, however, need to download Brother’s free iPrint & Scan app (available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone), and the printer and the device must be on the same wireless network. Other mobile-printing options include Apple AirPrint for iOS devices, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado’s workplace solution for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices.
In addition to NFC, this printer also boasts CD/DVD printing from a front-loading tray, ethernet and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n, not 802.11ac) connectivity, and a 20-sheet photo tray as well as a 100-sheet letter/legal input tray. The control panel has a 2.7-inch diagonal touchscreen, plus a touch-sensitive control panel whose buttons light only when they’re needed.
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