Review: Business-Class A3 Inkjet Printers and AiO’s – Brother’s MFC-J6920DW is Best in Class

Since we at Wirth Consulting estimate that the processing of A3 documents in the office is in the single-digit percentile, we have always thought that the ultimate mix of digital-imaging devices for small business was one or more fast B/W A4 printers coupled with an economical A3 MFP or All-in-One (AiO). The problem is that most major vendors would prefer that an office spend upwards of $7,500 for a toner-based A3 MFP.

Thus, Business-Class A3 Inkjet Printers and AiOs fill an important role. In our research, we found six devices ranging in price from $179.99 to $299.99, from Brother, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard that fit our definition of A3 “business class:” network interface, automatic duplex printing, A3 platen glass (AiO/MFP), and automatic feeding of multiple sheets of A3 media.

Selecting a “Best in Class” usually involves splitting hairs on decisions about feature sets, performance, and Total Cost of Ownership. However, in this case we have a clear-cut winner:

The Brother MFC-J6920DW is Best in Class due to the simple fact that it is the only device in this class that offers full A3 print, scan, copy, and fax functionality, and, additionally, the Brother MFC-J6920DW has.

• Lowest in-class overall Cost per Page by far, and the second lowest Total Cost of Ownership.
• Automatic duplex printing and scanning for up to A3 media.
• Fastest in-class print speeds.
• 3.7″ touch-screen display and touch-panel controls.
• Color scan to network, FTP sites, OCR, email servers (with LDAP support),  I-Fax, and USB flash-memory devices (also print from USB devices), and memory cards with shortcut capability.
• Apple AirPrint and Wi-Fi Direct mobile printing; Google Cloud Print and Cortado Workplace remote printing.
• Brother Outline & Copy, Outline & Remove, Outline & Scan and Note Scan cloud apps.
• Secure Function Lock (restrict print/scan/copy/fax, restrict color printing and establish print quotas for up to 10 users).
• Includes Scansoft PaperPort v12 SE software with OCR for Windows and Presto! PageManager for Mac desktop file-management software.
• Brother iPrint&Scan app for wireless printing and scanning from Apple iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7 mobile devices.
• Compatibility with Brother’s BRAdmin Light and BRAdmin Professional 3 network-management solutions.

Additional Resources:

• Business-Class A3 Inkjet Printers and AiOs Head2Head Comparison Report
• Brother MFC-J6920DW What You Should Know Evaluation
• About Reports
• How We Test