The Brother MFC-J1010DW is a budget all-in-one inkjet printer designed for home use. It has multiple connectivity options like Wi-Fi and USB and supports Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. It uses four ink cartridges with color dye ink and black pigment ink. The scanner has an automatic document feeder to scan long, multi-page documents but doesn't support duplex scanning. This printer has two variants: the Brother MFC-J1012DW and the MFC-1170DW. The former is a Canadian model with the same specifications as the reviewed model, while the latter is an upgraded model with a larger touch-sensitive display, NFC support, and faster-advertised color printing speed.
Our Verdict
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is good for family use. It has multiple connectivity options, making it easily accessible to everyone in the household. It prints quickly, produces high-quality black and color documents, and its cost per print is relatively low due to the cheap cost of its ink cartridges. Its color accuracy is okay for photo printing, but it struggles with bright, saturated colors and darker shades like greens and yellows. It has a high-resolution scanner that's well-suited for digitizing photos, and you can quickly process multi-page documents thanks to its automatic document feeder.
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Wide connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.
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Produces fine details in photos.
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Feels well-built.
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Low cost per print for black-only printing.
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Low black and color page yield.
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No duplex scanning.
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Color printing can get expensive over time.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is decent for office use. It feels sturdily built and has plenty of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi and USB. It produces high-quality black and color documents and prints quickly. However, its scanner doesn't support duplex scanning. Also, it doesn't yield many pages, which is inconvenient in an office as you'll have to replace the cartridges almost on a daily or weekly basis.
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Wide connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.
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Feels well-built.
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Low cost per print for black-only printing.
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Low black and color page yield.
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No duplex scanning.
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Color printing can get expensive over time.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is good for student use. It has many connectivity options, including Wi-Fi and USB, and it's compatible with the Brother mobile app, allowing you to print directly from your smartphone. It also produces high-quality documents and prints quickly. You have to replace the ink cartridges often because they run out quickly, but they're relatively cheap, which helps keep your maintenance cost low. Color printing can still get expensive if you print a lot.
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Wide connectivity options include USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.
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Feels well-built.
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Low cost per print for black-only printing.
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Low black and color page yield.
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No duplex scanning.
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Color printing can get expensive over time.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is good for black-and-white printing. It produces high-quality black and white documents and prints decently fast at up to 16 pages per minute; however, it doesn't yield many pages, meaning you'll have to replace the cartridges regularly. That said, the black ink cartridge is cheap, which helps keep your maintenance cost low. It has a high-resolution scanner with an automatic feeder but doesn't support duplex scanning, so it isn't ideal for scanning double-sided sheets.
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Feels well-built.
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Low cost per print for black-only printing.
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Low black and color page yield.
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No duplex scanning.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is good for photo printing. It produces very detailed photos with reasonably accurate colors but struggles with bright, saturated shades and dark greens and yellows. It can print on glossy paper up to 8" x 11" and supports borderless printing. The cost per print for photo printing is decent as the ink cartridges are relatively cheap, but they can still get expensive if you print a lot because they run out quickly.
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Produces fine details in photos.
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Feels well-built.
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Color printing can get expensive over time.
- Family
- Small/Home Office
- Student
- Black & White
- Photo
Performance Usages
- Color Quality
- Document Quality
- Scanner
- Speed
- Recurring Costs
- Updated Aug 14, 2024: Added mention of the Canon PIXMA TS702a as a print-only alternative with better photo printing in the Color Accuracy section.
- Updated Aug 24, 2023: We've updated the review to improve clarity and to add more information in the Color Gamut and OS compatibility sections.
- Updated Sep 06, 2022: Clarified text in the expected maintenance box that the printheads can clog if left unused for an extended period.
- Updated Aug 30, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Aug 25, 2022: Early access published.
- Updated Aug 10, 2022: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jul 18, 2022: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jul 02, 2022: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Brother MFC-J1010DW printer. There are two variants; you can see the differences between them in the table below.
| Model | Display | NFC | Advertised Color Document Printing Speed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MFC-J1010DW | 1.8" | N | 9.5 PPM | - |
| MFC-J1012DW | 1.8" | N | 9.5 PPM | Canadian model with identical specifications as the MFC-J1010DW. |
| MFC-J1170DW | 2.7" Touchscreen | Y | 16.5 PPM | - |
You can see our unit's label here.
Compared To Other Printers
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is a great printer compared to other models in its class. It stands out for its low cost per print, as well as for its fast printing and scanning speeds. However, it isn't as good for photo printing as it produces pictures with a visible printing pattern.
For other options, see our recommendations for the best home printers, the best all-in-one printers, and the best office printers.
The Brother MFC-J4335DW and Brother MFC-J1010DW represent Brother's mid-range and cheap all-in-one inkjet printer offerings. While they offer similar features, the J4335DW performs better overall. It provides faster scanning through its ADF, faster printing, a much higher page yield, and marginally better scan quality. Really, the choice comes down to your print load. If you don't print very often, the J1010DW is a good choice; however, if you have a larger print load, the additional performance of the J4335DW makes it the more suitable option.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW and the Brother MFC-J1205DW are both all-in-one inkjet printers with similar features. If you print a lot, the MFC-J1205DW is a better choice as its ink cartridges yield significantly more prints, which will help you save money in the long run. However, the MFC-J1010DW produces better quality color documents and prints black documents faster.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW and the Canon PIXMA TS6420a are both budget all-in-one inkjet printers. The Brother has a few more features, like an automatic document feeder, and its ink cartridges yield more prints, meaning you won't have to replace them as often. It also prints faster and feels sturdier. On the other hand, the Canon produces better-looking photos because it can print a wider range of colors.
While both the Brother MFC-J1010DW and HP DeskJet 4255e/4252e are budget all-in-one inkjet printers, the Brother is much better in almost every way. Its four-cartridge system yields much more prints, prints much nicer-looking documents and photos, and has much more robust build quality. The only advantage the HP offers is its ADF-equipped scanner; this is convenient for scanning multi-page documents, as you can load up to 35 pages at a time. Just know the scan quality of the Brother is superior.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is better than the Epson Expression Home XP-4100 for most uses. The Brother feels more sturdily built and has more features, like an automatic document feeder. It also prints faster and yields more pages per set of cartridges. The Epson can produce a wider range of colors, but its color accuracy is significantly worse.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is much better than the HP DeskJet 4155e for most uses. The Brother's build feels much sturdier, and it has a larger color display with more buttons to help you navigate the settings menu. It also produces better quality documents and photos, scans and prints faster, and its ink cartridges last longer, which will help you save money.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is better than the Canon PIXMA TS302a overall. The Brother has higher page yields and lower maintenance requirements, and it prints better-quality documents. It also comes with a flatbed scanner that produces excellent-quality scans. The Canon is better at photo printing, however, so it's the better choice if you print a lot of photos at home.
The Canon PIXMA TS702a and Brother MFC-J1010DW are both great budget inkjet printers. The Brother is the better choice for printing documents and scanning. It stands out for its low cost per print, as well as for its fast printing and scanning speeds. However, it produces pictures with a visible printing pattern, so photo printing isn't recommended. By contrast, you should get the Canon if you print a lot of photos at home. It excels at photo printing thanks to its fairly wide color gamut and very good color accuracy. As a print-only unit, you can't scan anything with it.
Test Results
The Brother MFC-J1010DW's build quality is great. Though entirely plastic, the printer feels sturdy, with a solid damper to hold the printer open. The design has some downsides, as you can only access paper jams via the back panel, and the power cord isn't removable, making it impossible to replace if it gets damaged. The USB port is inside the printer, which means the cable's length is slightly shorter on the outside. Lastly, you can't separate the input and output trays as they're a single piece.
This printer requires a fair amount of maintenance. Like most inkjet printers, the printheads can clog if you don't use the printer for an extended period. However, there are built-in functions to help resolve the issue, like printhead cleaning and alignment. The ink cartridges yield very few prints, so you'll have to replace them regularly. The printer doesn't need to be on to change the cartridges. The input tray holds 150 sheets of paper, which is on the lower side but fine for home use. Unfortunately, you can only access paper jams via the panel on the back of the printer. You can see the user guide here.
The display is decent. The screen is on the smaller side, but it doesn't impact the ease of use as it isn't touch-sensitive. It has good vertical viewing angles, meaning you can see the screen well from slightly above or below, but it's a little tougher to see from the sides. The Brother MFC-J1170DW variant has a different front panel with a larger 2.7-inch touch-sensitive screen and fewer physical buttons.
This printer uses color dye ink and black pigment ink. Unfortunately, these cartridges don't last very long, meaning you'll have to replace them often. The printer stops printing as soon as it detects that there isn't enough ink to produce a good-quality print, though this also means that you'll be discarding cartridges that still have some ink left.
This printer has decent scanner features. The lid has a foam backing to help smooth out uneven sheets, and its hinges can extend slightly to accommodate thicker items like textbooks. It doesn't support duplex scanning even though it has a feeder, so you'll have to flip the pages manually when scanning double-sided sheets. To use optical character recognition—a feature that lets you create a searchable PDF—you can either select 'OCR' as the file destination from the printer's menu or save the file as a PDF and enable the 'Searchable PDF' option in Brother's iPrint&Scan software application.
The scan quality is outstanding. The text looks crisp, and fine details are clearly visible. The scanner boosts the contrast and color saturation, which isn't a problem for documents, but it might not be ideal if you expect perfect accuracy when digitizing photos.
- Quick Setup Guide
- Telephone cord
- LC401 starter ink cartridges:
- 1x Black
- 1x Cyan
- 1x Magenta
- 1x Yellow
This is a corded desktop printer with no built-in battery.
The print quality for black and white documents is outstanding. Text looks sharp, and small details come through clearly. There are some vertical lines when printing in the Standard Quality mode, but they aren't present when printing in the High Quality mode.
The print quality for color documents is outstanding. Text looks sharp, and all the fine elements are visible. The only complaint is that the colors look slightly washed out.
The cost per print for black-only printing is low, but color printing can get expensive if you print a lot. This printer is eligible for Brother's ink subscription service, Brother Refresh, which might help you save money.
The Brother J1010DW doesn't take long to initialize and get a single page out. It's decently fast for longer documents when printing in black and white but slow when printing in color. The output tray holds 50 sheets, so you'll have to watch it during large print jobs as it can overflow.
The Brother MFC-J1170DW variant prints color documents faster because its color printheads have more nozzles (210 x3 vs. the MFC-J1010DW and MFC-1012DW's 70 x3). The MFC-1170DW has an advertised color document printing speed of 16.5 PPM, while the MFC-J1010DW and MFC-1012DW have an advertised speed of 9.5 PPM.
This printer has a mediocre color gamut. It has trouble reproducing bright, saturated colors and darker shades of blue and green. There's some banding, but there isn't much grain. The printing pattern is only visible up close; it isn't a problem when viewing the photo at normal viewing distances.
The color accuracy is okay. It struggles mainly with blues and darker skin tones. The color accuracy is good enough that pictures don't look unnaturally off, but it's still not ideal for professional photography. If you want a print-only model that prints nicer photos for home use, consider the Canon PIXMA TS702a.
The Brother MFC-J1010DW is outstanding at reproducing small details. Fine elements look clear and well-defined; the halftones (dots) only make distant objects harder to see.
You can find the USB input by lifting the flatbed scanner.
Brother's Mobile Connect app is outstanding. It lets you print, scan, and copy directly from your smartphone. You can also use it to perform maintenance tasks like printhead cleaning, manage your ink subscription, order supplies, and access the printer's support page.
You don't need to install drivers or apps to use the printer on Chrome OS and macOS devices. On Windows devices, it isn't necessary to manually install drivers to print or scan, but you won't have access to all the functions available. You can download the drivers here.