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The Brother MFC-J430W is a squat device that can print, scan, copy and fax. There’s also a smallish colour display and wireless networking, but no wired Ethernet connection or memory card slots. This is an office-orientated device, though, so memory card slots aren’t a surprising omission.
This MFP has a single paper tray that clatters paper noisily into its belly. It’s not the only part that feels a little cheap; the 20-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) is formed by a panel that flexes, and which needs a firm push at the rear edge to lock it closed when not in use, otherwise it swings open when the lid is raised for access to the scanner platen. The lid’s hinges extend upwards to accommodate thick original documents, but it’s a wobbly movement rather than a precise one.
The MFC-J430W takes four ink cartridges inserted into a compartment at the front right, with ink fed to the heads via capillary tubes. While this is generally a quiet device, this ink system produces a characteristic high-pitched sucking sound, and the control panel tends to chirp and beep more than most – you can turn audio alerts off, though. The choice of ink cartridges includes Brother’s LC1240 range which are good for 600 pages each, giving this MFP reasonable running costs of 7.6p per page overall.
Despite the lack of a touchscreen, this is an easy device to use directly rather than via a PC, with the exception that entering a wireless password can be a fiddle if not using Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). It’s a similar story with the print driver, in which the options are ranged across three simple tabs, with a pane at the left to summarise the selected options. It’s straightforward to change individual options or to select a profile from the Print Profiles tab.
The MFC-J430W can’t print on both sides of a page, but it can help you do it manually
Although not exactly fast, this printer is quick enough, delivering more than eight pages of text per minute, or three pages of mixed colour graphics. Colour prints were quite good, but text had a shaky outline that was just visible to the naked eye. Although draft text was even chunkier, it was good enough – and fast, at more than 17 pages per minute (ppm).
Brother’s scan interface isn’t the best, but it’s easy enough to use
Brother’s scan interface is simple, but it has the annoying habit of deleting the preview image if you change between the Photo, Web and Text scan types. There’s no auto-exposure feature and the auto-crop is entirely automated; you either need to select a scan area manually from the preview or trust that the scanner will get it right. Frustratingly, although you can select the size of your original, you can’t choose the orientation of the resulting crop, so you must pay attention to the guide marks around the platen. Our results were OK for office work, but photo scans revealed a lack of dynamic range, leading to a loss of detail in very light and dark areas.
Overall this is a capable MFP for the home office, but its cheap feel and so-so results make it hard to love.
