BROTHER DCP-130C BLACK OEM INK CARTRIDGE

Brother DCP-130C Review

Overview:

When someone mentions “all-in-one printer”, the first thing that comes to mind is a big unwieldy thing that’s as tall as it is wide.  The Brother DCP-130C is a low-profile USB multi-function 4-color inkjet that make color prints, copies, and scans at speeds up to 25 ppm. It can even take flash media cards from digital cameras and make prints without the need for a computer.

Pros:

The look of the Brother DCP-130C stands out in its simple, clean design. With a 15.7” x 13.8” footprint (add another 3.4 inches with the paper tray out) and only 5.9 inches high, the 15½-pound DCP-130C looks more like a VCR than a printer. You don’t need to turn on the computer every time you want to make a copy or a scan.  The DCP-130C has a full control panel with an LCD display for setup and operation without the need for software.

A slide-in paper tray holds up to 100 Legal-size sheets.  The paper tray also doubles for handling multi-purpose media. Plastic guides adjust to handle post cards and envelopes.

As a printer, the multi-function connects directly to your Mac or PC through a USB 2.0 interface. Having a maximum resolution of 6000(h) x 1200(v) dpi color resolution produces photo-quality images at average speeds of 20 color ppm and 25 B&W ppm.  The DCP-130C can produce borderless prints right up to 8½” x 11”.

It’s always nice to be able to have a printer that can accept Flash media direct without having to fire up a computer.  The DCP-130C has a multiple slots that support not only the popular Type I CompactFlash, SD (SecureDigital), and Sony Memory Sticks, but it also can read from Olympus’ xD and the old MultiMedia (MMC)  card formats as well. Digital cameras that have PictBridge will also be able to directly connect into the multi-function. Brother’s PhotoCapture feature allows for a “thumbnail printout” to be made for choosing which photos to print.

Instead of an Automatic Document Feeder, the DCP-130C has 8.5” x 11.7” flatbed platen to scan A4 or Letter-size originals. Originals can be scanned in straight black-and-white, 256 grayscale or in 24-bit color at speeds up to 3.59 seconds per image.  The optical resolution is 600 x 2400 dpi, and the included software can enhance it to 19,200 x 19,200 dpi. The scanning feature has software support for TWAIN and Microsoft’s WIA protocols. Files are saved in the popular formats: JPEG, TIFF, and Adobe PDF.

The multi-function can make up to 99 copies at the rate of 18 monochrome pages per minute, 16 color ppm. Copy magnification ranges from 25% to 400%. Copy exposures can be set either manually, automatic adjustment of contrast, text or photo modes. Maximum copy resolutions are an impressive 1200 x 1200 dpi for B&W, 600 x 1200 dpi for color copies. Just remember the scan platen isn’t big enough to scan a legal-size document.

Brother equipped the multifunction with 16MB of memory--sufficient for basic print jobs that aren’t’ resource-intensive. There is no expansion for additional memory.

While other printer manufacturers focus on software for Windows computers, Brother realizes that Macs are computers too and deserve the same programs as PCs.  So the OCR (Optical Character Recognition), Document Viewer, and scanner software features are available for Macs as well as Windows.

Cons:

The glass platen is only large enough to copy or scan Letter or A4 sizes up to 8½” x 17.7”. The DCP130C is not suitable for Legal-size originals. To add to the confusion, the multi-function can print on 11” x 14” paper.

Brother does not offer PCL or PostScript print emulation with this model. Instead, the DCP-130C relies on emulation from the host computer itself. For most printing, users won’t notice any difference in performance and considering the low resolutions of this all-in-one it’s unlikely any high-end Adobe graphics will be sent to this multi-function anyway.

Traditionally, inkjet printers tend to be quieter than laser printers. But the DCP-130 can get as noisy as a laser, with noise levels reaching 50dB, the sound level of low conversations.

Finally, while Brother did market the DCP-130C for the small business or home office, the capacity of the paper tray needs to be increased to at least 250 sheets instead of the current 100. Most people buy paper by the 500-sheet ream, and paper waste is increased when a printer can hold only a fraction of the package.