The Brother MFC-J5945DW is one of the most affordable of the three 4-in-1 multifunction devices.

Because inkjet technology takes up lesser spaces than laser, Brother has provided more paper and ink capacity into this very compact desktop unit. Also, it can even print A3-sized paper, plain or glossy. It comes coupled with standard-sized ink cartridges, but with high-yield cartridges available and capacity to deliver 6,000 pages, this printer has a low running cost than some laser printers.

Like many of office-oriented printers from Brother, the MFC-J5945DW is a perfect sized machine. The footprint is fairly large, especially when pulled out, the multipurpose paper tray at the back and extended the front paper tray to fit A3 sheets.

The lid of the scanner bed is also somewhat bulky as it holds a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). Also, the compartment which holds the four ink cartridges sticks out from the front of the machine by a few centimetres. In all, the MFC-J5945DW takes up quite a lot of space, yet it is smaller than a laser-based device that offers all of these features.

The colour display and control panel has a good size too. The 9.3cm touchscreen is well responsive and is fitted in a tilting panel that makes it quite easy to operate. There is a USB port in the front panel for a flash drive plugin and another USB port is available in the body of the printer.

The Brother MFC-J5945DW is a four-in-one multifunction device as it can print, scan, copy and fax. Both Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity are built in so it can print and scan remotely, or by pairing with an NFC-enabled smartphone.

There are two paper trays that have a total of 500-sheet capacity and there is another multipurpose paper tray at the back for envelopes and letter-headed paper. As it is an inkjet it can load glossy photo papers as well. It does not have duplex printing option on A3 paper or scans A3-sized documents, but with a built-in feature it very easily blows up an A4 scan to A3 paper.

The print speed is 22ppm at full speed in mono, that is quite fast for an inkjet, but slower than the average laser printer. The maximum print resolution is high at 1,200 x 4,800 pixels and this printer can scan at up to 600dpi.