Brother launches Work Smart series of compact, connected printers for home

By Hillary K. Grigonis Published June 20, 2018

Brother MFC-J895DW Image used with permission by copyright holder

The newest printers from Brother are small on both size and price — on Tuesday, June 19, Brother International Corporation announced the Work Smart Series, a line of connected budget printers for casual users and home offices. The series includes four models priced from about $80 to $130: the MFC-J491DW, the MFC-J497DW, the MFC-J690DW and the MFC-J895DW.

Brother says the new inkjet line is designed with a mix of features in a more compact design. All four new printers include a built-in scanner along with copy and fax functions. The full series includes wireless connectivity, allowing the printer to handle files from both a desktop computer and a smartphone. That connectivity works for prints as well as receiving scans using compatible apps. The highest priced model, the J895DW, also includes near field communication (NFC) to send prints and receive scans from a mobile device that’s also equipped with NFC and uses Android OS 4.4 or later.

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Designed for home use, Brother says the new printers are more compact than earlier options. Ink for the new series is available in a standard capacity as well as high-yield, along with compatibility with automatic ink replacement with Brother Refresh and Amazon Dash Replenishment. All four also include a USB 2.0 connection for wired communication.

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The $130 model, the J89DW, uses a 150 sheet tray and has an Ethernet cable along with that NFC. Both that model and the $120 J690DW have a 2.7-inch color touchscreen, slots for scanning SD cards, a manual feed slot, and faster color prints at 10 pages per minute. The J491DW and J497DW use smaller 1.8-inch touchscreens. The J690DW is the only option in the series with a photo tray. Across the series, the printers have a 12 page per minute print speed for black and white prints.

“These all-in-one printers offer a lot of functionality without taking up a lot of space,” Phil Lubell, senior director of B2C product marketing at Brother, said in a press release. “The new Work Smart Series delivers the quality expected from Brother along with reliable printing in a compact size, without compromising on connectivity, mobile device printing or paper handling.”

The new Work Smart printers are available beginning today both online and in-stores.

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Hillary K. Grigonis

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…

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