Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Brother - MFC-J1170DW Wireless Color All-in-One inkjet printer in black is a nice, compact printer that is mostly easy to install. Since I am a CPA in public practice, I use all kinds of printers for all sorts of applications-mostly laserjet for fast numerous printing of lengthy tax returns, but all in one inkjets for billing and other miscellaneous printing jobs. The only hiccup that I had was after I had officially set up the printer. So, on its LCD screen there was a message that a firmware update was available. I hit the arrow that takes you through a series of prompts to eventually have to enter a password. Well, silly me, I thought the password was the same one as my online Brother account and even changed that thinking I had it wrong when the message on the machine's screen kept telling me that I had the incorrect password. Little did I realize that on the back of the machine there is a little stamped area that not only has the machine's serial number, but also has a PWD and I believe 7 combo of letters, caps and lower case, numbers, and special characters. The easiest way for me to enter and read was to use my phone's camera to take a picture and read and enter it into the machine. I did wind up calling Brother's toll free number, speak with someone off shore, I believe from their accent, which I do not like. However, after almost pulling my hair out over this password thing, all was done. I already had the Brother set-up program and its utility type programs so downloading the necessary software to my older desktop was easy. I have a newer Dell 2 in 1 on a different floor and that connected to this new Brother machine quite easily, too. Pros-small enough to set on an ottoman, see attached picture, or on any desk surface area. Quick 1st paper out, quality of print, and speed. This is good for smaller office type jobs or smaller home type jobs. I also had the Brother Mobile Connect app already downloaded to my smartphone and I love using that to print necessary items right from my phone. The literature states that ISO print speeds are up to 17ppm for black print and up to 16.5 ppm for color print. I used wireless connectivity, but there is ethernet available, automatic duplex (2 sided) printing, and many things , like the Cloud, Dropbox, etc., can be reached directly from the machine itself, and a 20 page auto doc feeder. Con-Does not state on the box that it is compatible with the recently release Windows 11, so I would call the toll free Brother number and get an opinion on that if you have that operating system. I have not priced replacement Brother brand ink for this machine-there is a "Refresh" Brother program found at www.RefreshmentEZPrint.com that is similar to that of HP's instant ink program where the machine communicates with them seamlessly and for a monthly fee, based on projected number of pages to be printed on a monthly basis, you will receive ink without even having to request it by mail or some other delivery service of their choosing. This machine comes with only starter cartridges for Bk/C/M/Y. The standard ones per Brother will print around 200 pages where the high yield print up to 500 ;ages. I will be looking into the best ink pricing to see what is the most economical way to buy ink because unfortunately, that can be more in the long run than the machine itself.

TLDR; 17ppm black, 16.5ppm color. Capable of 2-sided printing. Has both scanner feed and scanner bed. Scanner only capable of single-sided scans. Can perform faxes, if needed. Can be connected via ethernet or wirelessly. With a Brother account set up, you can print wirelessly from anywhere (remote printing) using the Brother Mobile Connect App. Ink is a 4 cartridge setup, and the cartridges are relatively small. Brother encourages you to sign up for their Refresh Program, automatically sending you ink when you’re running low. Program is a monthly fee. The Brother MFC-1170DW mult-function printer can print, scan/copy and fax, plain and simple. But at the price point, I'm very impressed with what it has to offer. Firstly, the printer itself is very good at printing everyday documents and I really had no complaints here. Once out of the box and plugged in, the printer will prompt for the installation of ink cartridges and then follow-up by performing its self-diagnostic (checking for clogs, alignment). This is a relatively painless process time-wise, and once complete you’re off to the races. During my tests, I did a combination of multi-page pdf documents as well as some documents with color in them. One print job was a welcome packet from a doctor’s office that was about 14 pages, and the Brother ink-jetted its way to completion. I would say that the claimed 17ppm is about in-line with what I was experiencing. I reprinted the same doctor’s office doc, but this time 2-sided and similarly it performed very well. I think 2-sided printing is a huge plus here and I would think at an entry-level, this printer would not include that feature. For color documents, I copied a couple of work orders from the service center for our vehicle. The original document was printed on watermarked paper and the Brother’s copy came out almost identical. The printer did a fairly decent job replicating the tiny disclaimer text usually found on the bottom corners of these work orders. A quick tweak of the scanner and printer DPI settings should probably take care of this a lot better. I only have one complaint about this printer thus far, and that it only does one-sided scanning. Wireless printing set up is also straightforward as the unit guides you step-by-step. The end result is that your printer is now part of your home wireless network. And since it’s on your wireless network, anyone with access to your network can use your printer. But it doesn’t end there; if you acknowledge and consent to remote printing, you’ll be able to print documents from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet. This is done using the Brother Mobile Connect App. The Brother Mobile Connect App allows easy use of your printer for document printing, photo printing, scan/copy and maintenance, all through your phone. The app uses content on your phone (docs, photos) and it makes it easy to select these files and send them off to print. Lastly, there is the Refresh Program, which is Brother’s direct-to-home ink service. This isn’t like your typical “Subscribe-and-Save” program, if you know what I mean. It’s actually a bit more complicated actually. Based on the subscription service you choose, you’ll be allocated a page allowance and based on that page allowance, you’ll pay a relatively low monthly fee! This is made possible by the printer sending your print statistics to big Brother (zing!). So maybe I'll use myself as an example here. I signed up for the Moderate Plan ($4.49/month) that gives me 80 pages a month as a print allowance. If I end up printing less than 80 for the month, my pages carry over as an extra allowance (max carry over of 80 pages). Now if I go over my 80 page allowance in a month, every 10 pages I print will cost me an additional $1. I guess it’s worth mentioning that when the ink does get low, Brother will automatically send you a fresh batch of ink. So the name of the game here is to find out what your level of use really is, and you can save a lot of money on ink. They have various plans with adjusted allowances and page rollover and overage costs. If I do the math (and I stay consistent with printing use), I would only spend $60/year for ink using the service. If I chose to not use the service and bought ink locally, I calculated it to be about $120 for the same amount of pages. Not too shabby! If you find yourself using less or more, you can change your plan at any time, or cancel if you no longer need the plan altogether.

MFC-J1170DW. wireless connection to PC, cellphone and tablet good quality prints. I especially like individual color cartridges . A good model if you don't need a printer with ink tanks for high volume printing. I have two of them.

Great printer, easy to set up, works well over wifi.

The Brother MFC J1170DW printer is an excellent choice for business or at home. Packed with features that work when you need them. I have used this printer for multiple uses and it has out performed itself each time. My favorite feature is the glass scanner as it scans to perfection. Scanner: Since the scanner is my favorite feature I decided to start off with it. I had a large photo scanning project that needed to be done. So I scanned about 80 pictures in one day between this brother MFC and another major brand printer. I have to say the brother printer scanned beautifully and outperformed the printer which I though it could beat and was way more expensive. I did notice scanning at 1200 dpi the brother was much much slower but it produced a much better high quality image than the other brand at the same dpi. I was scanning at 600 dpi then which the brother moved much quicker and it produced yet again a high quality image. The document feeder works well and holds 20 pages. The only dislike I have is that the document feeder is single sided scan only. This should be duplex as I will need this. Software: The Brother Iprint&Scan i think is the best on the market. There are no gimmicks here. The software was able to automatically detect corners and images that I scanned and crop them precisely on the edge. At the same time, I tested my other brand printer scanning images and it messed up every single photo and could not detect the correct edge or corners in fact in couldn't even get out the white background (it would leave a thin white border). Brother just has it down right. My own thoughts when using their program is that it is clear, concise, and works professionally as it should. Printing: Fast, quiet, precise and accurate. Just the way I like my printer. It holds 150 blanks in the tray and also prints duplex. I like when my ink is separated and not just two cartridges meaning it has a cyan, magenta, yellow, black cartridge. What I like about having the 4 cartridges rather than 2 (one black and the other holding the three colors combined) is that it last so much longer and I feel as though its so much cheaper. In addition, the black ink cartridge in this series is larger so it just lasts. I feel as though buying all 4 cartridges doesn't cost me anymore than systems with 2. In my opinion Brother really has a good price for their ink compared to all the other brands. Setup/wireless: Setting up the MFC J1170DW was a breeze. The wireless printing works great and once the printer was connected to my wifi all of my devices connected via wireless or network cable had access to the printer and I could just click print. As simple as that.

So this is our first inkjet printer in probably 10 years. I have been doing color laser for well over a decade, because ink jets were just not reliable. Well.. with the changing market, we decided to give this one a go, when our one printer died. So far.. so good... almost too good. So let's get this out of the way: This comes with a fax port, and wire, and connection... that I have ZERO way to test or even try to use. I was actually really laughing when opening the box and there was a phone cord in there for the fax. So I don't have a review on that other then... yes, it is there. For setup... this was super easy. Very quick connection to the wireless network. Normally I do wired, but we want this one in the kitchen, and we don't have a network jack there. But it was quickly added to our mesh wifi network, and so far: 100% reliable. It is seen by our iPhones, it was seen by our Mac and Windows computer with no funny business... and I haven't had to do any "tweaks" to keep it reliably connected. Now for Print speed: it has been great. From the iPhone, the print out maybe starts in about 15seconds. Computer, depends on what it is.. .but it is almost as fast. And I have NEVER seen an inkjet print at this speed. It is faster then the laser printers. And this is my only nit pick on the printer. It prints so fast, it ejects the paper sometimes too much and it is on the floor. Printer quality is great. I wouldn't say photo realistic quality but for a general color print... it is really good. The printer is a little on the noisy side, doesn't bother us.. but if you have light sleepers or pets, you may want to factor that in. it is very light weight, so in wireless mode, you can relocated this to your work space and have it right next to you.

Pros: * Wireless * Multi-functional * Easy to set up * Small footprint Cons: * Uses ink cartridges (vs refillable tanks) * Touch screen is hard to use * Can only print files (other than Word docs) through their proprietary program Keep in mind, I'm reviewing this compared to my experience with a variety of multi-function printers from different brands (including Brother), both wired and wireless. Also, I'm running Windows 11, as an FYI. Personally, I prefer the tank printers over the cartridges. I don't print that often, so the ink frequently just sits there, and after using for the first time after a couple of weeks of rest, I tend to get better performance with the tank printers than I do with cartridge printers. Plus, there's the environmentally friendly part of using the tanks, as well. The touch screen is difficult to use - the buttons are entirely too small, and even with my smallest fingertip my touches weren't getting registered correctly (i.e., I pressed 8 and it registered a 5, and this happened multiple times). Red flag and star loss for me: I can't seem to get any PDFs or pictures (JPGs and PNGs) to print unless I use their proprietary program to open and then print the file, which is a pain! I've never run into this issue with any other printer (wired or wireless), so I'm not sure if it is a Brother thing or something else. I was able to print a Word doc from Word without a problem, however! That all being said...it was easy enough to set up and get connected wirelessly to my computer and network, but with the requirement of going through their proprietary app to print anything, I personally would pass on this printer. That extra hassle just isn't worth it when other printers don't have this restriction.