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Brother DCP-365CN 

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This is an All In One (copy, print and scan) unit that is smaller than a lot of equivalent ink jet printers. At last manufacturers realise that fax is not required by the majority of small businesses as email has long overtaken it.

brother DCP 365CN colour multifunction printer
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The Brother DCP-365CN measures 37x36x14cm but space will be required in front of the unit for printed pages to be ejected as they are printed to a shelf above the input paper tray, around 15cm should be plenty making the actual second figure 50cm.

This is a four cartridge and four ink unit, swapping cartridges is easy as they fit into the front right edge of the unit.

All the controls are on the front edge, 15 buttons and a small one line display black on grey. The power plug inserts left side at the back and the USB or Ethernet lead inside the unit entry point at the back right of the unit.

In my recent review of the Canon iP2702 I went into more details about how speeds are measured. Manufacturers test at the fastest speed in the case of this unit ‘Fast’ but they also have ‘Fast Normal’, ‘Normal’ and ‘Best’. Their test method is with a 200 word document which is around a couple of paragraphs only.

I got 16PPM in the ‘Fast’ mode for the 200 word document. For a more normal 1500 word offering spread over four pages I got 9PPM in ‘Fast’ mode. The 1500 word document printed in ‘Normal’ mode was 3PPM. The normal mode was black and crisp while the fast mode was only a mid grey and only really acceptable for checking. 

Printing an A4 borderless print is a slow process with the Brother (you are warned that borderless will take time) and I do remember one unit some years ago that took more than 24 minutes. This took 8 minutes and 31seconds using Windows Printer and Fax viewer as no special software is provided by Brother for this purpose.

Copying can be down from within Windows or direct from the unit, in the latter case Windows does not need to be on or the All In One even connected to the PC. A black A4 copy takes 30 seconds from pressing the copy button on the unit. The same in colour takes 45 seconds.

Scanning of course depends on the quality of the input image or text but let’s assume you give it a pristine sheet of A4 paper with a standard letter. You can start from the unit but of course the PC must be connected and switched on. It took 105 seconds to scan open the OCR software and deliver the output to the word processor you have selected.

To scan an image takes 30 seconds from selecting scan to image on the unit and then whatever time your chosen program takes to open, the default is the basic Paint program from Windows say around 10 seconds extra.

It can read various card types as well as having a USB port, but as it only has a single line display the files have to display on the PC. Certain other All In One units can display on the units TFT and therefore images can be printed – like the copy function – without the PC needing to be connected. Really this is just a card or USB port on the unit. Printing an A4 borderless image stored on a memory stick connected to it took exactly the same as mentioned above 8minutes and 31seconds.

Rather like the previous printer the Canon I reviewed last week it is an entry level offering but does have the advantage of being four cartridge and of course it can also scan and copy. Printing from a card or memory stick with this unit requires the computer to be turned on as previously stated it is really only a card and USB port. It would be fine for the occasional user and takes little space when not in use.

Doing my Internet searches found the Brother DCP 365-CN at a best price of £71.87 from first link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002XE36RK?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_page/166900/s_level/36230/s_product/DCP365CNZU1

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Features2
Performance2
Value2
Ease of use2
Design2
OverallBrother DCP-365CN rated 68 out of 100

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