BIOS: Technology Means Business

Inkjet-based all-in-one devices tend to fall into one of two categories. They are either clearly aimed at office use, with an automatic document feeder and standalone fax capability, or they’re heavily photocentric and aimed at home users. Brother’s latest offering is neither, lacking fax functionality and decent photographic features. So while it’s an odd-ball product that we can’t really recommend, it does have one really neat feature - built in 802.11g Wi-Fi.

For the first time Brother has integrated wireless networking into its best-selling range of inkjet all-in-one devices. While Wi-Fi is slowly starting to be integrated into printers, the technology has generally been the preserve of corporate lasers. With the DCP-340CW (£99) you can now easily add a 4-colour all-in-one device to your network for sharing basic print, copy and scan duties.

More and more users are turning to wireless. In fact, a recent report claimed that seven out of eight network card sales were wireless. We’re not at all surprised! In addition, sales of wireless routers have risen 178 per cent between July 2004 and July 2005, which indicates that consumer and small business demand for wireless networking is at its highest ever.

We all know that wireless is proving popular with home workers as it provides them with the flexibility to work from a laptop anywhere in the home. Office workers are also enjoying the freedom and space a cable-free environment offers. Wireless is just so much fun, too! Brother’s DCP-340CW is a compact and robust all-in-one document centre, but it lacks the cool sophistication and chic appeal of Canon’s latest offerings. In fact, the DCP-340CW looks quite antiquated.

But where the DCP-340CW excels is its robustness and ease of use. Similar to most Brother products, the device is strong enough to take everyday office wear and tear and its on-screen menu system is easy to follow. You also get a decent range of features including a flatbed colour copier, colour scanner, printer, memory card readers (SmartMedia, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, xD Picture Card and MultiMedia Card) and integrated 802.11g wireless.

The downside is that print and copy quality is average, there’s no built-in wired NIC or Bluetooth, and paper handling is bordering on the pathetic (there’s only one 100-sheet paper tray so you can’t load different papers). You can also forget about fax functionality, an essential feature of any self-respecting business all-in-one device. The fact that there’s no LCD preview screen also makes printing photographs from large memory cards a nightmare because you have to know the image file number - unless of course you keep wasting ink printing image index cards. Finally, the ink cartridges are tiny, so high throughput environments will forever be reordering consumables.

Most machines in Brother’s new range feature a PhotoCapture Centre, allowing you to slot a photo memory card directly into the machine and print index sheets with thumbnail-size images for selection. You can then print your chosen photograph in a variety of sizes, as long as you know the image number - there’s no LCD preview screen! There’s also a borderless print feature, for adding a little authenticity to your home prints.

The DCP-340CW is styled to appeal to the SOHO (small office, home office) market. The machine is among the most compact (343x345x135mm, 6kg) on the market, and stands no taller than an average coffee cup, ideal for environments where space is at a premium. As with all previous Brother inkjets, the device uses single ink cartridges which means a cost saving because, unlike combined cartridges, when one colour runs out it can be replaced separately - unused ink doesn’t have to be thrown away. You also get a 1-year on-site warranty - an important feature for the user who cannot afford downtime on their products.

The all-in-one is no record breaker in terms of raw power, but it does offer up to 15ppm printing speed in colour, up to 20ppm printing speed in monochrome, print resolution of 1200x6000dpi, 600x2400ppi optical scan resolution, and 1200x1200dpi copy resolution. Other technical necessities include a 100-sheet paper capacity (which was pretty lousy and kept crushing paper in our tests), 10-sheet automatic document feeder (sits at top of unit), 25- to 400 per cent copy reduction/enlargement ratio in 1 per cent increments, and the ability to scan to e-mail, image, OCR, file or card.

Text output quality was average for an inkjet printer. Fonts were easily readable at most popular sizes, but appeared very fuzzy on regular office photocopy paper – certainly not good enough to hand out to clients or customers. Graphics were also disappointing and well below what we’ve come to expect from a modern all-in-one. Full-page graphics even made our test paper curl, so you’ll need to choose your graphics, or paper, carefully - even for internal use! You should also forget about making high-quality glossy photos too - the DCP-340CW’s 4-colour print engine is terrible compared to the latest offerings from Canon, Epson and even HP. [6]

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