A near twin to the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J6920DW , the Brother MFC-J6720DW is also aimed at micro and small offices that need to print and scan at tabloid size (11 by 17 inches and the ISO A3 equivalent). There are at least three differences between the two, but the key difference is that, unlike its more expensive sibling, the MFC-J6720DW can't scan both sides of a page. The most likely reason you might prefer it that you don't need the duplex (two-sided) scanning.
The two other main differences between the two multifunction printer (MFP) models are that the MFC-J6720DW doesn't support NFC (near-field communications), and it offers a smaller touch screen for giving commands from its front panel.
NFC makes printing from or scanning to a smartphone or tablet far more convenient by making it easy to establish a connection. However, not all phones and tablets support NFC (notably iThings), and if your mobile device doesn't offer it, having it in the printer doesn't do any good. If you don't need duplex scanning, and don't need NFC, that makes the MFC-J6720DW the much more likely candidate. The smaller touch screen, at 2.7, rather than 3.7, inches also makes giving commands a little less convenient, but it would be hard to justify buying the more expensive printer just for the touch screen.
Paper Handling and Other Basics
As with the Brother MFC-J6920DW, the MFC-J6720DW's paper handling is the main reason to choose it over models that are limited to letter-size paper.
For printing, you can set either of both of its two 250-sheet paper drawers for up to tabloid-size paper. That gives you the option of loading 500 tabloid-size sheets at once, or 250 letter-size sheets and 250 tabloid-size sheets, so you can switch between paper sizes easily. You can also use the one-sheet manual feed to print on other paper stock without having to swap out paper in the tray, and the automatic print duplexer lets you print on both sides of a page.
As already mentioned, you can't scan in duplex. However, both the flatbed and 35-sheet automatic document feeder can handle up to tabloid size, which is more than most MFPs can manage.
Beyond that, the MFC-J6720DW delivers lots of MFP features. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to your PC, including over a network; work as a standalone fax machine and copier; print directly from PictBridge cameras; and both print from and scan to memory cards and USB memory keys. It also offers Web-connected features that let you print from and scan to an assortment of online services, including Evernote, Dropbox, Box, Facebook, and more.
Mobile printing and scanning support includes printing through the cloud and both printing from and scanning to a smartphone or tablet over a Wi-Fi connection. And because the connection choices include Wi-Fi Direct along with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, you can print from or scan to a smartphone or tablet even if the printer isn't on a network with an access point.
Setup, Speed and Output Quality
Setup is typical for an inkjet. For my tests I connected the printer to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.
Print speed is a definitive plus. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), I clocked the printer at 5.6 pages per minute (ppm), which counts as a tie with the MFC-J6920DW at 5.5 ppm. (The actual difference is only two seconds, with one rounded up and one rounded down.)
As another point of reference, both of the current generation printers are significantly faster than the 4.1 ppm speed for Brother's last generation Brother MFC-J6710DW, which is still available at this writing, and which the MFC-J6920DW replaced as Editors' Choice. Photo speed was also fast, at 52 seconds for a 4 by 6.
Not surprisingly, given the similarities between the two printers, the MFC-J6720DW also delivers the same output quality as the Brother MFC-J6920DW, with better-looking text than most inkjet MFPs, but not quite as good-looking graphics and photos. Text quality in my tests was near the high end of the range for inkjet MFPs, which easily makes it good enough for most business use.
Graphics output was a touch below par. That still makes it good enough for any internal business use, but depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photos on photo paper were higher quality than most businesses need, but at the low end of what you would expect from drugstore prints.
If you need a tabloid-size MFP with duplex scanning, NFC support, or both, the Brother MFC-J6920DW is the obvious choice. If you don't need either the duplexing or NFC, however, the Brother MFC-J6720DW offers all the same capabilities otherwise, and it costs less too. The combination can easily be enough to make it your preferred choice.
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