Brother DCP-310CN > Reviews > Great for homework

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Good
Printing speed	Average
Colour sensitivity	Good
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Network Printer
Disadvantages:	I can think of none  -  update 09 - Jun - 07  -  There are none .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Having 3 computers in the house and being connected to a wireless home network, it made sense to get a network printer. A printer that we could just connect to the router that everyone on our network could access. Mine cost me £116 from a local office supplies store though I understand it can be bought for less at other places. The only lead it came with was it's mains lead.

In order to use The Brother DCP-310CN on your network, it first needs to be connected to the router (the printer is not wireless network enabled), then the printer drivers and software (if required) need to be installed on each computer that will be accessing it. The printer does not need to be physically attached to any of the computers that will be using it. Installation instructions are easy to follow. Ink cartridge installation is also very easy.

With the facilities the DCP-310CN provides, we have no need for separate scanners and copiers. The machine can scan at a resolution of 600 x 2400dpi and it can also be used as a copier (600 x 1200dpi). To use the copier it does not need to be attached to a computer. The copier has an enlargement/reduction ratio of 25 - 400% in 1% increments. The printer is capable of printing to a resolution of 1200 x 6000dpi and has a photocapture centre which allows you to print directly from 6 different types of storage media.

The Brother DCP-310CN takes four separate ink cartridges, when you come to do a test print, if the printout is not as it should be; there are instructions in the backlit display window. For example, it will ask you if the printout was ok. You tell it no… it will ask you if the black was ok... you tell it yes, so it then asks you if the colour was ok… you tell it no, and the machine goes ahead and cleans the colour print heads. The bumf tells us that from the black cartridge we can expect up to 500 A4 pages @ 5% coverage, and the cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges are expected to give us 400 A4 pages @ 5% coverage. Paper is loaded at the bottom via a pull out paper tray. The paper tray has a capacity of 100 sheets. Double sided printing is not supported. If you should want to print on both sides of a sheet, the side you want the print to appear on should be placed face down with the top of the sheet facing into the machine.

The Brother DCP-310CN is neither the fastest nor the quietist printer but I cannot fault the quality of its output.

*** UPDATE 09 June 2007 ***

Network drivers for Windows Vista are now available.

Before Vista drivers became avalable, I had to physically connect the printer to my Vista running pc, no drivers required, Vista would find her immediately and install her. Now though, Brother have brought out the network drivers for Vista and it is once again accessable wirelessly.

Oh... and she's still going strong.