The Brother MFC-J6945DW is a wide-format printer designed for home offices and small businesses. It can scan sheets sizes up to 11" x 17" with both its flatbed scanner and its automatic document feeder, which is important if you need to scan large blueprints, posters, brochures, or other oversized documents. Of course, you can also print on 11" x 17" paper yourself, so you can print bulks of shipping labels, postcards, or anything else on these large sheets. Like most Brother inkjet models, it uses the INKvestment Tank, a hybrid between traditional cartridges and supertanks. These cartridges hold more ink than the cartridges on most other inkjets, and once you install them into the printer, the ink empties out into internal reservoirs.
Our Verdict
The Brother J6945DW is an impressive printer for family use. It has both a flatbed scanner and a duplex-scanning automatic document feeder, so you can easily digitize old photos. The cost-per-print for black and color documents is incredibly low, and it can print directly from USB flash drives. It prints fairly good-looking pictures, and while colors are a bit off, it isn't bad enough to make your photos look weird.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Can print directly from USB flash drives.
- Flatbed scanner has good scan resolution and color depth.
- Decent color accuracy.
- Visible banding and graininess in photos.
The Brother J6945DW is an excellent printer for small or home offices, with fantastic page yields, a very low cost-per-print, and a quick warm-up time to print the first page. The automatic document feeder can duplex scan, supports 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets, and exceptionally, can scan with a resolution of up to 1200 DPI. There's easy access to paper jams, an outstanding touchscreen display with easy-to-navigate menus, and it has an Ethernet port and supports Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, the printing speed for black text documents is disappointingly slow.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Outstanding touchscreen.
- 11" x 17"–format printing and duplex scanning.
- Warms up impressively quickly to print the first page.
- Slow printing speed for black text documents.
- Frequent paper jams.
The Brother J6945DW is a superb printer for students. The cost-per-print for black and color documents is outstandingly low, and the warm-up time to print out the first page is great. Also, it has a flatbed and automatic document feeder that both support scanning large 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets. Although it can print directly from USB flash drives and Wi-Fi Direct, it doesn't support Bluetooth.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Can print directly from USB flash drives.
- Warms up impressively quickly to print the first page.
- Doesn't support Bluetooth.
The Brother J6945DW is excellent at printing in black and white. There's easy access to paper jams, and it feels excellently well built. The page yield is outstanding, the cost-per-print is remarkably cheap, and it warms up quickly to print the first page. Also, the automatic document feeder supports duplex scanning of large 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets up to 1200 DPI. Sadly, it's disappointingly slow to print black text documents.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Outstanding touchscreen.
- 11" x 17"–format printing and duplex scanning.
- Warms up impressively quickly to print the first page.
- Slow printing speed for black text documents.
- Frequent paper jams.
The Brother J6945DW is decent for printing casual photos. Pictures look reasonably good but have visible banding and graininess. Also, some colors look a bit off from their originals, but they aren't inaccurate enough to make your photos look bad. However, the cost-per-print for photos is outstandingly cheap, and it supports 4" x 6" and 5" x 7" glossy photo paper.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Supports 4" x 6" and 5" x 7" glossy photo paper.
- Decent color accuracy.
- Visible banding and graininess in photos.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
- Superb page yields at a very low cost-per-print.
Performance Usages
Changelog
- Updated Sep 08, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Aug 25, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated Aug 04, 2022: Added mention of the Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5180 in the 'Cartridge' section as an alternative with better page yields.
- Updated May 03, 2022: Since we updated this printer to the new test bench, we added text to the new tests. We also updated some of the older text to be more in line with our current guidelines.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Brother MFC-J6945DW in white and grey, which is the only color scheme. It's closely related to the Brother MFC-J6545DW, which has only one paper input tray, and whose automatic document feeder doesn't support duplex scanning. You can see our unit's label here.
Popular Printer Comparisons
The Brother MFC-J6945DW is an amazing printer for small or home offices. Unlike most office printers, it supports printing and scanning 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets, and its duplex-scanning automatic document feeder can scan up to 1200 DPI. Like other Brother printers that use the proprietary INKvestment Tank, it has fantastic page yields, but it still isn't as good as dedicated supertank printers.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best office printers, the best all-in-one printers, and the best 11x17 printers.
The Brother MFC-J6945DW and the HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 can both print 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets. The Brother is better for small or home offices due to its significantly higher page yields, much lower cost-per-print, and larger display with a full physical keypad. Also, unlike the HP, the Brother's ADF can duplex-scan tabloid-format sheets at a much higher resolution of 1200 DPI. On the other hand, the HP prints better-looking photos, but it prints color documents slower and holds 100 fewer total sheets in its input trays.
The Brother MFC-J6945DW and Brother MFC-L3770CDW Laser are both amazing printers for small or home offices, but the J6945DW is an inkjet that can scan and print 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets, while the L3770CDW uses laser technology to print. The J6945DW has higher page yields, lower cost-per-print, and it prints far better-looking photos. Also, its flatbed scanner is larger. On the other hand, the L3770CDW prints much faster.
The Brother MFC-J6945DW and the Brother MFC-J995DW use the proprietary INKvestment Tank hybrid cartridge–tank system for superb page yields at an outstandingly low cost-per-print. However, the J6945DW is better for small or home offices, while the J995DW is better for families and students. The J6945DW can scan and print 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets, and it holds significantly more sheets in its input trays. On the other hand, the J995DW produces significantly better-looking photos, and it can print directly from SD cards.
The Brother MFC-J6945DW offers better performance than the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-7840. Both can scan and print 11" x 17" tabloid-format sheets. However, the Brother is better for small or home offices as it offers significantly higher page yields at a much cheaper cost-per-print and a faster color document printing speed. On the other hand, if you primarily print black documents, then the Epson is a better choice as it prints black text documents much faster.
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