Brother MFC-J5330DW review

We liked

The Brother MFC-J5330DW offers all the essential features a small to medium-sized business might ask for in a printer.  From its deep paper tray and 50-page ADF, to its fast duplex print speed and fax capability, this is a multifunction printer aimed squarely at the office. 

It performed quite well in our tests, especially when it came to colour documents, and didn’t display any faults, or suffer from any paper jams. 

The printer’s own interface and the companion app make it easy enough to use and the overall design, with its neat internal cable management, is well thought out. Most impressive, however, is the way this MFP can also accommodate A3 paper, which could be a deal-clincher for some businesses.

We disliked

Few printers can be described as attractive and the MFC-J5330DW is certainly not one of them. It’s larger than your average A4 MFP, yet it cannot hold as many A4 sheets in its single paper tray. That’s because of its A3 printing capability of course, but remember that it cannot scan (or copy) at that size. So if you’re unlikely to need large format printing, you’ll save money and bulk by choosing a different model. 

We also had some slight issues with the Wi-Fi during our review, and found that it took longer to print colour documents than Brother’s quoted page rate.

Final verdict

As a four-in-one multifunction printer, the Brother MFC-J5330DW performs quite well in all tasks. It’s fast, but not as fast as some rivals, and it’s well-specified, lacking only NFC and an SD card slot. It’s also quite well-designed in the way that it manages cables internally and can accommodate A3 paper, even though its footprint is not much bigger than the average A4 MFP.

This device is also quite competitively priced, but the real advantage for many potential buyers is likely to be its A3 capability, which opens up the possibility of producing good quality colour posters and booklets.

• We’ve highlighted the best business printers out there