Product Face-Offs
Brother DCP-385C
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| Resolution | 6000 x 1200 ppp | ||
| Speed B&W / color | 30 / 25 ppm | ||
| Ink drop size | 1,5 picolitres | ||
| Number of cartridges | 4 | ||
| Number of base colors | 4 | ||
 See all specifications | |||
| Scanner / Copier / Fax | oui / oui / non |
 Hide specifications | |
Nilofar Hadjanadjiboudine
Test date: January 28, 2009
Test date: January 28, 2009
Scanner and copier
The scanner gives good image quality. The colours tend slightly towards red, but are sharp and overall pretty accurate. But it is pretty slow on the initial preview, taking 12,75 seconds. A full scan of a 300 dpi 4x6” print only takes 11.10 seconds however: pretty fast. Canon takes 14 seconds and Epson 20.
When it comes to the copier, a black and white copy takes 24.65 seconds and a colour copy less than 40 seconds.
All Brother printers have almost exactly the same architecture, only changing the casing and adding options as you go up the range. The 385C is a mid-range model with a colour LCD screen and separate cartridges. High speeds and resolution are given in the manufacturer’s spec. One surprise: the finest ink drop size is given as 1.5 picolitres, when Canon goes down to 0.5 picolitres. This no doubt will give lower photo resolution. Another problem: Brother offers two cartridge capacities, standard and XL – the XL being more economical. But this 385C doesn’t take the XL size. So your ink comes in at a higher price.
A nice design
The DCP-385C comes in a white and grey case, with the interface taking up little space. The inclining colour screen is at the front of the printer (8.4 cm diagonal), as well as all the buttons needed work your way around it. These are very simple; the menu is clear and the number of buttons strictly limited to the necessary. The printer is compact, light and doesn’t take up too much of your desk. Another point, no need to open the scanner/copier compartment to change the cartridges; much simpler that that, the cartridges are at the front right as you can see in the picture.
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Office printing: slow and innaccurate colours
Brother promises 30 pages a minute. The DCP-385C almost comes through in black and white draft mode, but we might as well get it out in the open, this mode will only be of any use to verify page layout and so on. The characters are not very precise and the black is washed out. In standard mode, for text, the black is not dark enough and the drops can be made out a little.
In standard mode, the printer is too slow: 4.4 ppm in colour and 4.5 ppm in black and white on our test documents. Brother didn’t want to modify the performance of the printer, as the 330-C (old model) already offers these speeds. Of course, this is well under the average of 6/7 ppm.
On graphs, tinted areas are nice and even, characters only average (drops visible), and colours less accurate; you get darker tones. The printer is more than usable and fine for everyday printing. Nevertheless, note that the competition offers better results at a comparable price.
On colour prints, the tones are fairly accurate although a little lighter than on the original. The images are very light. This difference is all the more visible on black and white photo prints: the prints have a greenish tinge. Print lines are unfortunately visible (back and forth of carriage).
As for print speeds, a 4 x 6” takes 1 minute 40 to print, while the competition, Canon for example, gets down to 20 seconds. Don’t expect better results for A4 prints – they take even longer: 5 min 10 secs for our test documents.
Low energy consumption but high cost per page
A good point, the printer consumes little energy during printing, 21 Watts and 4 Watts at rest. The same can’t be said for the cost per page: very expensive. Small piece of advice then, go for black and white prints as they’re much less expensive.
A nice design
The DCP-385C comes in a white and grey case, with the interface taking up little space. The inclining colour screen is at the front of the printer (8.4 cm diagonal), as well as all the buttons needed work your way around it. These are very simple; the menu is clear and the number of buttons strictly limited to the necessary. The printer is compact, light and doesn’t take up too much of your desk. Another point, no need to open the scanner/copier compartment to change the cartridges; much simpler that that, the cartridges are at the front right as you can see in the picture.
Office printing: slow and innaccurate colours
Brother promises 30 pages a minute. The DCP-385C almost comes through in black and white draft mode, but we might as well get it out in the open, this mode will only be of any use to verify page layout and so on. The characters are not very precise and the black is washed out. In standard mode, for text, the black is not dark enough and the drops can be made out a little.
In standard mode, the printer is too slow: 4.4 ppm in colour and 4.5 ppm in black and white on our test documents. Brother didn’t want to modify the performance of the printer, as the 330-C (old model) already offers these speeds. Of course, this is well under the average of 6/7 ppm.
On graphs, tinted areas are nice and even, characters only average (drops visible), and colours less accurate; you get darker tones. The printer is more than usable and fine for everyday printing. Nevertheless, note that the competition offers better results at a comparable price.
Colours are slightly darker than on the original document
Photo: slow but good colour reproductionOn colour prints, the tones are fairly accurate although a little lighter than on the original. The images are very light. This difference is all the more visible on black and white photo prints: the prints have a greenish tinge. Print lines are unfortunately visible (back and forth of carriage).
As for print speeds, a 4 x 6” takes 1 minute 40 to print, while the competition, Canon for example, gets down to 20 seconds. Don’t expect better results for A4 prints – they take even longer: 5 min 10 secs for our test documents.
Low energy consumption but high cost per page
A good point, the printer consumes little energy during printing, 21 Watts and 4 Watts at rest. The same can’t be said for the cost per page: very expensive. Small piece of advice then, go for black and white prints as they’re much less expensive.
| Cartridge | Lifespan (pages) | |
| LC1100BK (black) | 450 | |
| LC1100C (cyan) | 325 | |
| LC1100M (magenta) | 325 | |
| LC1100Y (yellow) | 325 |
Cartridge lifespan - ISO test for office
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Easy of use / good ergonomics
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Low energy consumption
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Quality and speed sufficient for everyday use – although the competition is better
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Overall quality a notch below
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Lines visible on photo prints
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Slow
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High cost per page
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Can’t take XL cartrides
The real plus point is this is a compact printer. For the rest: speed, precision and cost per page, it is down on the competition.
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