PRINTING. The Brother MFC-J985DW prints using inkjet technology, which sprays liquid ink onto the paper from a moving head. It prints Very Good photos on glossy paper that most people would be happy with. Its text printing is Good, though not as good as most inkjets. Text printing was reasonably fast, 9.4 pages per minute, costing 2.7 cents per page. It prints color graphics well enough for most purposes, such as school reports, at 4 pages per minute, costing 12.3 cents per page. It has auto-duplex printing to print both on sides of the page, though there's a slight loss of quality. If any color ink runs out, it stops printing—it can't be set to just use the remaining black ink. If the black ink runs out, it stops printing—it can't be set to just use the remaining color ink. There's a second tray for full-size paper, allowing you to load letterhead paper, for instance. It also has a separate tray for snapshot-size photo paper.
SCANNING and COPYING. Scanning performance was Very Good, fine for general-purpose scanning. It can scan or copy an area up to 10.9 x 8.4 inches (letter size). Copying performance was Very Good, suitable for most purposes. It has an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for easily scanning/copying a stack of pages. Includes OCR (optical character recognition) software, useful for making scanned documents editable in a word processor program.
CONTROLS and DISPLAY. The printer has a medium-size 2.7-inch display screen with a touchscreen that can preview each photo in a 1.3-inch window.
CONNECTIVITY and NETWORKING. The Brother MFC-J985DW has a memory-card reader for directly printing documents and images stored on an SD card. It has USB PictBridge for direct printing from cameras. You can connect directly to a PC with a USB cable, or to your network router either wirelessly with WiFi or with an Ethernet cable. There's a WiFi Auto-connect feature that makes it easy to link to your wireless router. Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print are built-in, to print wirelessly from smartphones, tablets and PCs. You can also install Brother's app on your smart phone or tablet, as another option for printing over your WiFi network. This model has built-in faxing, can store incoming faxes if the paper runs out, and can send faxes from an attached PC.
COST OF OWNERSHIP AND INK. When this section was last updated, the printer's purchase price was about $200, typical for an all-in-one inkjet printer. Printing uses up ink. Over time, as you print, the costs add up. This printer uses 4 cartridges. The Brother ink cartridges used in testing were the LC20EBK, LC20EC, LC20EM and LC20EY. At the time, their prices were $35 for black and $23 (each) for the other three. We estimate the ink cartridges to last a very long time — around 11 months — following a typical printing schedule. After 2 years of typical use, we estimate the total cost to be $347, typical for an inkjet. The estimated yearly cost is $74, also typical for this printer type. So the 3-, 4- and 5-year estimates are $421, $494 and $568 respectively.
NOTE. This printer was noisier than most while printing, so you might want to locate it away from sleeping areas.
PRINTER FIRMWARE. Firmware is software that exists inside the printer. All models are evaluated using the latest firmware version available at the time of testing. The firmware version of the Brother MFC-J985DW was G.
SOFTWARE. The collection of software accompanying the printer may include: the printer driver, printer applications, electronic user manual, (and for all-in-ones:) scanning, faxing, and OCR apps. These get installed on your personal computer. All models are evaluated with a Windows 10 PC using the latest version of printer driver and printer support apps available at the time of testing. The software version was 1.7.0.0.
ABOUT THE INK CARTRIDGES, SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE. Our test results are valid only for the Brother-brand ink cartridges, and the software and firmware versions indicated. If your printer's software or firmware differ from the ones shown you either have an older or a newer version of these. Manufacturers may periodically upgrade the printer's firmware to enhance operation, fix bugs, or add features. Firmware updates are downloadable directly to your printer via a wired or wireless network (if internet capable). You can check your printer's firmware version, or upgrade to the latest firmware by either (1) running the Brother printer-update app installed on the PC, or (2) accessing the "Settings" section of the printer menu and navigating to the firmware update option. Consult the user manual or Brother's website for further guidance. Try searching online.
