Brother MFC-J430W Review

The MFC-J430W by Brother, one of the largest and well-known manufacturers of MFP and AIO units, is an all-in-one printer which features print, scan, copy and fax. Most of these AIOs are usually similar in looks, but differ in features. Let’s have a look at what this one has to offer.

Build quality and design

The MFC-J430W has a superb build quality. The shell has a matte-finished exterior, but the ADF cover (which also acts as the ADF paper feed tray) is made of a high-gloss translucent plastic which can collect dust, fingerprints and scratches in no time. The input paper is rugged, but the output paper tray is a bit flimsy. Towards the right of the paper tray is a door which opens up to the cartridge compartment. The control panel is available on the top and comprises of a 1.9-inch colour display for all functions and photo viewing before printing. The rest of the control panel is made up of rubber buttons which are well-spaced and tactile. 

Neatly placed buttons with an easy to view display

Features 

The MFC-J430W is a compact inkjet all-in-one printer with a built-in fax. It can be connected to the PC via the USB 2.0 interface and can also be shared / connected via the built-in wireless networking interface. Documents and photos can be printed using the wireless network from any smartphone, be it Android, IOS or Windows phone. The printer can print at high resolutions of 6000 x 1200 dpi and the manufacturer claims that print speeds can be acquired as fast as 30 pages per minute in black. The printer features a front tray-loading mechanism with a paper tray that can accommodate up to 100 sheets.

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Load up your cartridges and start printing away

The output tray is also located on the front. The printer uses a four cartridge ink tank system (CMYK) and uses Brother’s Innobella inks. The monthly duty cycle of the printer is 2,500 pages while the recommended monthly print volume is around 800 pages. The scanner featured is a flatbed with an optical resolution of 2400 x 1200 dpi @ 48-bit. The scanner lid also includes an automatic document feeder (ADF) mechanism with a capacity of 20 sheets. Reduction and enlargement of photocopying documents is available. Scanning from the glass to email, image or OCR is possible and the available formats are TIFF, JPEG, BMP, MAX, HTM, PCX, DCX, PNG, FPX and PDF. The fax featured here has a speed of 14.4 Kbps which includes caller-ID and distinctive ring modes.

It also features a built-in fax storage memory of up to 170 pages in case you run out of blank pages in the paper tray. The AIO lacks both the multimedia card reader and the USB port for pen drives or for PictBridge support which would have been helpful for those who want to print directly from pen drives, mobile phones or camera. The only option is to print from a wireless source or from the PC. The printer also does not feature an automatic duplex mechanism that could help save time and paper. The product bundles along the four Innobella ink cartridges, a few 4x6 BP71GLTR photo papers and a driver CD with OCR and a document viewer utility.

Well built MFP

Performance

The MFC-J430W is pretty simple to install or connect via the wireless network. It supports Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n network connection in both Ad-Hoc as well as infrastructure modes. To test the printing capabilities with respect to both speed and quality, we fired a few test prints from the test PC. The printer could spew out a maximum of 19 ppm (text) and 15 ppm (mixed text and graphics) in draft mode. Normal printing modes can give you a maximum of 9 ppm and 8 ppm respectively.

Scanning an A4 sized photo using 300 dpi resolution at 24-bit can take you just 16 seconds while photocopying black and color documents can take you 18 seconds and 23 seconds respectively. A single 4x6 color photo in best print mode takes about 1 minute and 45 seconds. The qualities of the prints are pretty good in all modes—draft, normal and best. Photo printing was excellent—it looks like Brother is heading on forward to give Epson and Canon close competition in terms of photo printing quality. 

On a final note, we have to say that Brother is doing a pretty god job with their printers. The print speed with great printing quality at a very economical price seems to be a good choice for those opting for AIOs for their homes or business environment. 

Verdict

The MFC-J430W by Brother is a great AIO option for those who need speedy document printing, good quality photos. It’s a compact AIO with wireless networking abilities at an economical price making it even more attractive. Of course the fact that it lacks a PictBridge port and card reader slot does put a dampner on things; however, on the whole, the product is nevertheless worth the money.