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The Brother DCP-J315W measures 38x35x15cm and it weights under 7kilos. The front edge – in front of the landscape scanner lid – has fifteen buttons including the ubiquitous joystick layout. To the left of this what looks like a 6.3x3.8cm screen however it is actually only 4x3cm.

Just below the scanner lid and above the output tray are two card slots one for various memory sticks and the other for SD. To the right of this the entry point for the four inks. Below this at the base is the paper input tray stated to hold 150 sheets. The right side and the rear are clear with the power lead fitting back left of the left side.

See also: Multifunction printers

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As so many people now use Wireless I decided to review this using wireless rather than USB especially as Brother always fit the USB lead inside the unit. However as the automatic detection of a modern router did not work I still had to attach a USB lead to enter the routers pass code, this however is a very easy process to complete.

Paper is inserted in the tray face down and is delivered on the shelf above the tray face up. The ink insertions are easy but do take it slowly as otherwise it will not recognise the inks and you have to remove them and start again.

The software installation took around ten minutes on a Windows XP system and it took 200MB of hard disc space.

As a copy machine you do not need the PC turned on, I printed a one off mono A4 image in 30 seconds from pressing the copy button. A colour A4 image took 40 seconds from the same point. In theory it is the same from inside Windows.

Scanning of course requires the PC to be turned on, using the Brother software it takes 20 seconds to scan a page and this will be default open Paint and show it as an image. To OCR a page takes 50 including opening the OCR software and the accurate conversion to editable text. Either process can be done from within your own favourite software.

Printing of mono text pages using the fastest mode - Fine, Normal, Fast Normal and Fast are the options – the nonsensical 200 word page printed at 17PPM but was grey and not black and the printing was noisy. The output was also noisy and grey for the more normal 1500 word document spread over four pages and this was 13PPM.

Printing of an A4 image on photo paper borderless took a long time at 8 minutes 31 seconds, however before you say some expletive this was almost 1/3 the time an earlier model took mind you to be fair all photo printing then was a lot slower.

So the plus points ability to work from a wireless connection, reasonable scanning and copying time with good mono printing times. The minus point very slow photo printing times. I liked the squat shape and although it is grey black it can always live in a cupboard so you only need to visit to remove printed pages from it.

At the price below it is a good buy for those who want to scan a little copy a little and print a little but not for photo printing.

Doing my Internet searches found the Brother DCP-J315W at a best price of £66.89 with free delivery from the first link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0041X9NQ4?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_page/215760/s_level/36230/s_product/DCPJ315WU1