Brother DCP-385C Review June 27, 2011 11:49 by Matt Bird

Overview

This is one of Brother’s low-profile, inkjet all-in-ones. It includes a couple of interesting extras, such as its double-width LCD display and the paper tray which holds both plain and photo paper, but connects via USB only. Print speeds are a lot slower than Brother’s claims, but are not that far away from its main rivals. It produces reasonable text and graphics prints, though photos come through a little dark. Using compatible cartridges, it's cheap to run and is supplied with a good suite of software.

Ratings

Brother DCP-385C

Main Review

It’s sometimes difficult to tell inexpensive Brother inkjet all-in-ones apart. They all have the same basic shape, with a gently curved top to the scanner, extending to a control panel in front. The DCP-385C is a little different, as it uses Brother’s double-width LCD panel, so you can view photo thumbnails at the same time as selecting options from a menu displayed to the side, a great little perk. This machine doesn't include fax facilities, but there are easy-to-use controls for copying, scanning and handling photo cards. The machine supports SD, MemoryStick and xD formats, but also the older and larger CompactFlash. There's also a PictBridge socket, so you can connect a camera directly. The 100-sheet plain paper tray, which fits in below the memory card slots, has a photo feeder built into its top cover, but this has to be engaged manually, by removing the cassette and sliding the photo feed forward. USB is the only connection provided and you have to reeve the USB cable through a duct under the scanner section to find the USB socket, set in the middle of the machine. The DCP-385C is compatible with Windows and OS X and Brother provides Nuance PaperPort 11SE for document management, as well as its own Brother MFL-Pro Suite and driver . It's hard to guess how Brother measures the speed of its all-in-ones, since the figures it quotes far exceed the speeds we see, even when testing in fast mode, which is a very light draft. Typical black speed in normal mode is 3ppm, and 9.7ppm rather than the quoted 30ppm in fast mode. Colour prints are slower, and a normal mode speed of around 2.5ppm is typical. Finally, photo prints take around 1:45 which, while not being quick, is about average for this class of machine. Black text print quality on plain paper is fair and is quite suitable for home or small business use. Colour graphics come through a little pale, though copies lose little of the intensity of the originals they come from. Photo prints, on Brother's own glossy paper, are the opposite, coming out rather dark and losing some detail in areas of shadow. The four separate ink cartridges slide in behind a pull-down cover at the front and are very easy to install. The black cartridge is rated at 450 ISO pages, while each of the colour ones should provide around 325 pages. Manufacturer’s original cartridges give costs of around 4.0p for black and 13.3p for colour, but compatibles are also available, reducing these to 0.9p and 3.6p, respectively. This is not a particularly expensive all-in-one to run.