Brother MFC-J430W Review

The MFC-J430W does what it says on the tin, is easy to use and is satisfactorily quick for the money, but on the other hand, its fickle user interface, cheapish build quality, lack of duplex printing and average results made it lose some points in Expert Reviews' eyes.

Compared to some of the competition, the Brother MFC-J430W has slightly higher print costs, particularly for colour pages. In the high quality mode, print speeds are only modest too. For a home office, MacWorld believe it delivers a lot of versatility, with a printer, copier, scanner and fax for a decent price. Busier offices will probably need a better performance though.

Brother's compact MFC-J430w is a quick performer that produces very respectable output, and PC Advisor were impressed to find that as well as boasting a low price tag, running costs are affordable too. Aside from the fact that there's no automatic duplexing they found little to complain about, and overall, they say it's an effective option if your demands aren't too high.

Capable of pretty good print speeds, and boasting an automatic document feeder and in-built Wi-Fi, Brother's MFC-J430W is a decent printer for the affordable price. It's also simple to set up and use, but CNET say that as colours lack vitality and text could be sharper, print quality isn't a match for what's on offer from similarly-priced rivals.

Value for money: 4 out of 5 points

Gadget Speak had some issues with feeding photo paper into the Brother MFC-J430W, but everything else seemed to work well and it was not difficult to set up. Print speeds were reasonable and there was only a slight hint of grey on the black text. Copying produced documents that looked almost as good as the original, and it doesn't need to be connected to the computer to copy.

Brother's MFC-J430W impressed IT Reviews with a stylish, compact design, and they were glad to find that it's user-friendly and well laid out. The quality of documents and photos on offer was reasonable, and speeds were pretty good, but photocopies were a bit pale. Wireless mobile printing was a nice bonus, but some standard features are missing.

Value for money: 7 out of 10 points

The MFC-J430W is a decent device considering its price and it will certainly appeal to customers who don't want to spend a lot but still want a device with a fax function. It's also pretty speedy and has a wireless internet connection. However, Trusted Reviews weren't impressed by the quality of photo prints. Also, the display screen could stand to be bigger.