The Brother MFC-J895DW is a decent all-purpose inkjet printer. It best suits those who mainly print in black only, as it's otherwise very costly to print in color at large scale due to the cartridges' low yield. The scanner is equipped with an automatic document feeder that can simplify your workflow; however, the lack of duplex scanning makes scanning double-sided documents a frustrating and tedious task. Its color accuracy is just okay, so it isn't recommended for professional use, but if you just want to print the occasional photo, it does it quite well. While the lack of external storage support can be an issue for some, Brother's superb mobile app can make it a bit easier to get the job done.
Our Verdict
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a decent family printer. Even though it's not a dedicated photo printer, it prints good-looking photos. The downside is that it gets very expensive if you do it often since the color cartridges are expensive and don't yield a lot of pages. That said, it's a lot cheaper to print in black only. The scanner's lid has hinges that can extend for thick documents and there's an automatic document feeder, but it can't perform duplex scanning.
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Great build quality.
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Good photo printing quality.
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Superb mobile app.
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Bad cartridge system.
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No duplex scanning.
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Print job interrupted if one cartridge is out of ink.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a sub-par printer for home or small offices. Its black page yield is bad, which means that you have to replace the cartridge very often. It prints decently fast though and it can do double-sided printing, which can save you a lot of time. Scanning documents is fast with the automatic document feeder, as long as you don't have to scan double-sided documents since it can't perform duplex scanning.
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Great build quality.
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Bad cartridge system.
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No duplex scanning.
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Print job interrupted if one cartridge is out of ink.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a decent printer for students. It's fairly cost-effective to print in black-only, which is great for students who are on a budget. However, printing in color can get very expensive if you use colors regularly. It's able to churn out the first page of a document quickly, but if you have a long report to print out, it's not the fastest.
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Great build quality.
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Superb mobile app.
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Bad cartridge system.
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Print job interrupted if one cartridge is out of ink.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is an okay printer for printing black and white documents. The cost of printing in black doesn't rise significantly over time due to the reasonably priced ink cartridges, but you still have to change the cartridges often since they run out pretty quickly. Printing speed is decent; the first page is fast, but subsequent pages aren't much faster.
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Great build quality.
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Bad cartridge system.
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Print job interrupted if one cartridge is out of ink.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is good for photo printing. Even though its color accuracy is just okay, it prints good quality photos that are rich in detail. There's a bit of graininess in the pictures, though, as well as some colors in the grayscale. It can print on glossy photo paper and it supports most photo paper sizes.
- Family
- Small/Home Office
- Student
- Black & White
- Casual Photo
- Updated Jun 08, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 0.8.1.
- Updated Jun 05, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Jun 03, 2020: Early access published.
- Updated May 27, 2020: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated May 19, 2020: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
Compared To Other Printers
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a decent printer for home use. Compared to other printers in its price range, its performance is a bit middling. It has good photo printing quality, but its low page yield makes it difficult to recommend, as other similarly-priced printers perform much better in that regard. For other options, you can also check out our recommendations for the best all-in-one printers, the best home printers, and the best inkjet printers.
Overall, the Brother MFC-J995DW is significantly better than the Brother MFC-J895DW. The MFC-J995DW's cartridge system is significantly better, which results in a much higher page yield and lower cost-per-print. It also prints slightly faster and it prints higher quality photos, but it doesn't support external drives, which the MFC-J895DW does.
The Brother MFC-J895DW and the Canon PIXMA TR8620 are both all-in-one color inkjet printers, but the Canon prints significantly better photos, with good detail and vibrant colors. The Canon also has better page yields and a lower cost-per-print for photos and color documents, and it can print directly from SD cards. On the other hand, the Brother prints faster overall, particularly for color documents.
The Epson EcoTank ET-3760 is an overall better printer than the Brother MFC-J895DW. The Epson has much better black and color document yields, significantly better cost-per-print, and somewhat better printing speed. On the other hand, the Brother has significantly better photo printing quality, and it prints photos much faster. It also feels better built and has faxing capabilities.
Overall, the Canon PIXMA TR8520 is better than the Brother MFC-J895DW. The Canon yields more black and color pages, and it's significantly more cost-effective in the long run. The Canon also has better color accuracy and photo printing quality, but the Brother prints faster and has a larger input tray.
The Brother MFC-J895DW is a somewhat better small or home office all-in-one color inkjet printer than the Brother MFC-J497DW. The J895DW has a slightly better black page yield and black-only document cost-per-print, better overall printing speed, and better photo printing quality. It also has an Ethernet port and a better display. On the other hand, the J497DW has a better color page yield and color document cost-per-print and marginally better color accuracy.
The Epson EcoTank ET-4700 is a much better overall printer than the Brother MFC-J895DW. The Epson has a much better cost-per-print and black and color page yield. They both have great scanning features, but the Epson includes an Automatic Document Feeder. However, the Brother does print documents faster.
The Brother MFC-J895DW and the Canon PIXMA TS9520 are both all-in-one color inkjet printers, but the Canon produces significantly better-looking photos with much more accurate colors. The Canon also has better page yields and a lower cost-per-print, it prints photos faster, and it can print via Bluetooth. On the other hand, the Brother prints color documents much faster, it can fax, and it supports printing via Wi-Fi Direct.
Overall, the Brother MFC-J895DW is much better than the HP ENVY Pro 6475. The Brother has more connectivity options, a better mobile app, and a much higher page yield. The HP has significantly better color accuracy and comes with a two-year subscription to HP's Instant Ink service.
Test Results
The Brother MFC-J895DW has a great build and design. The printer feels well-built even though it's mostly plastic; the only part that feels a bit flimsy is the rear input tray. The ink cartridges are easily accessible, and while paper jams can only be accessed from the back of the printer, it isn't complicated and doesn't involve too many steps. The scanner lid's hinges can be extended if you need to scan thicker documents or books.
There are a couple of downsides with the design. The power cord isn't removable, so if it gets damaged, you have to replace the whole printer. The USB and ethernet ports are located beneath the scan bed and towards the center of the printer. This effectively shortens the cable length by about a foot, so you'll need to adjust accordingly. Lastly, the output tray is part of the front input tray, which means that if you need to load paper during a print job, you have to remove the prints first.
The Brother J895DW is a compact printer, good for tight spaces like dorm rooms and small home offices.
The Brother MFC-J895DW's display console is excellent. It has good vertical viewing angles and it can tilt for better visibility, making it easy to see whether you're standing or seating. The display is touch-sensitive and is very responsive. It dims after a set amount of time; you can set it to stay on for up to five minutes.
- Fax/phone cable
- Set of starter ink cartridges:
- 1x LC3011 Black
- 1x LC3011 Cyan
- 1x LC3011 Magenta
- 1x LC3011 Yellow
- User guide
- Installation CD
The Brother MFC-J895DW has a poor cartridge system. The ink runs out pretty quickly, so you have to replace them often if you print regularly. Furthermore, the printer won't continue printing if any of the cartridges are out of ink, even if that color isn't needed for the print job. That said, there are high-yield cartridges available. If you're looking for a similarly designed printer with cartridges that last a bit longer, then consider the Brother MFC-J805DW INKvestment Tank or Epson WorkForce Pro WF-3720.
When using third-party cartridges, the printer doesn't recognize them, but they still work; it just isn't able to detect or display ink levels. Note, however, that while third-party cartridges work, using them may void the manufacturer's warranty.
The Brother MFC-J895DW has great scanning features. You can process a lot of pages quickly thanks to its automatic document feeder, but it can't perform duplex scanning and the scan resolution is limited to 600 DPI when using the automatic feeder.
The Brother MFC-J895DW's cost-per-print is decent. Due to the printer's low yield for both black and color pages, the ink cartridges need to be replaced often. However, black ink cartridges are reasonably priced, so the cost remains low over time. Color printing, on the other hand, can get very expensive if you print a lot.
Keep in mind that even if you print only in black, most inkjet printers continue using the color cartridges for servicing tasks, so you'll likely still need to replace them eventually.
The Brother J895DW has a decent printing speed. Although the first page of a black-only document comes out pretty quickly, subsequent pages aren't that much faster. Strangely enough, it prints color documents faster, but it's still on the slow side. Thankfully, the input tray can hold a good amount of paper and the printer can perform double-sided printing, which can save you a lot of time.
The Brother MFC-J895DW's color accuracy is okay. It's fine for personal use or a small splash of color in a document, but it's not recommended for professional use.
The Brother MFC-J895DW has good photo printing quality. Colors are well-defined, however, there's quite a bit of graininess, and there's presence of color in the grayscale. Although the printer is able to perform borderless printing, the images would often be misaligned and would require manual adjustments to straighten it.
These results are based on the actual physical photo, not the scanned image provided for reference above, which may not be representative of the printer's photo print quality.
If you're looking for a printer with better photo printing quality, check out the Brother MFC-J995DW.
The Brother MFC-J895DW has a front input cassette and a rear manual feeder that accepts most common paper sizes. The output tray is part of the front input tray and it can hold up to 50 sheets of paper, while the input tray itself can hold up to 150 sheets.
The Brother MFC-J895DW has great connectivity options. It's only missing support for Bluetooth and external storage devices, like an SD card or a USB thumb drive. However, it does have NFC capability, so when a device that has Brother's iPrint&Scan app installed is nearby, it launches the app automatically.
Brother's iPrint&Scan app is superb. If you have a mobile device with NFC capability, the app is launched automatically when the device is close to the printer. This app allows you to print, scan, and copy directly from the app, as well as to perform maintenance tasks like checking ink levels and ordering ink. When printing PDFs and Microsoft Office files, the app needs to convert them first, and it's done automatically without the need for any user input.
Note that Brother doesn't currently have an ink subscription service.