Brother rates the MFC-J4410DW at 33 pages-per-minute (ppm) in black and 25ppm in colour, however during testing we were unable to get anywhere near these claimed speeds. Our five-page black text document produced a speed of 8.6ppm, while the 20-page variant increased it to 12.2ppm – the highest speed we we able to get from the machine. The five-page text and colour graphics print gave 3.2ppm, just over an eighth of the rated speed.

Duplex print is standard and the 20-page document printed 10-page duplex gave 5.9 sides per minute, which is comparatively quick. An A3 text and graphics page took 42 seconds, which equates to 1.4ppm. A single A4 page copied from the flatbed took 16 seconds, while five, black text pages copied from the ADF completed in 52 seconds. The speeds, in general, are better than average for this class of machine.

Trying to feed an A3 sheet proved fiddly, however, and feeding a single A4 sheet of Brother photo paper also produced some ‘misfeed’ messages that asked us to clear the jam. Even when we removed the sheet the messages remained and when, as a last resort, we turned the printer off and on to try and clear the error condition, the problem remained with a ‘busy – try again later’ message flashing up. Faced with this kind of intransigence, we opted to simply pull the plug.

The new print engine developed for this range of Brother printers hasn’t addressed the fundamental shortcomings of its Piezo technology. Plain paper text looks fuzzy compared to the output from Canon and HP manufactured thermal inkjet printers, and colours also lack vibrancy. Colours in copies are even more pale and insipid, though photos are suitably bright and pastel, depending on what an image calls for.

Brother claims to use a newly developed technology to ‘ripple’ A4 landscape sheets and prevent them jamming. The fluttering noise made just before starting each page print is pretty loud though, peaking at 75dBA at 0.5m, which makes the printer rather annoying to have sat on a desk beside you.

Using high capacity ink cartridges, pages cost 2.8 pence for black and 6.6 pence for colour, including a 0.7 pence paper cost. Both of these are competitive with other inkjet all-in-ones and noticeably lower than any colour laser we can think of.

Verdict
The Brother MFC-J4410DW is a stylish multifunction printer that reduces its desktop footprint by printing sheets sideways. With single-sheet A3 printing, wireless connectivity and front-panel memory card and USB sockets, it also offers a good degree of versatility. Unfortunately though, it’s also noisy and print quality – particularly those from colour copies – is below average.