Epson SureColor P600 Inkjet Printer vs Brother MFC-J985DW

The Epson P600 ink does not fade or lose color, the prints will look great for a long time. Wilhelm Research Institute ran an accelerated print longetivity test on the prints and found that the inks last up to twice as long as previous Epson inks. The P600 ink(UltraChrome HD) is one of the best inks when it comes to longetivity of the colors.

P600 users do not report issues when using the printer. It's reliable and easy to maintain.

The only issue arises when the printer is not used for several weeks, when parts of the printhead can get clogged with ink. This is a well-known problem for inkjet printers and for the P600, it can be fixed via an automatic "head-cleaning cycle".

You can connect the P600 to your PC/laptop using USB, wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Wi-fi connection is useful when connecting to several computers. Keep in mind though, that wireless printing can be twice as slow.

The manual paper feed on the P600 can handle sheets up 1.3 millimeter thich sheets. Though for regular printing 1.3 mm is quite excessive, then the thickness is important for example when printing on metal sheets, which can be fun experimenting with.

The P600 has a foldable color LCD display. The display allows you to for example switch between photo and matte prints, check the remaining ink levels to avoid unpleasant surprises, and do maintenance without the assistance of a technician. This will save you a lot of headache.

The 25.9-millilitre ink cartridges cost $32. Therefore, one millilitre of ink costs $1.28. Though some inkjet printers have lower ink costs, then the P600 beats the average. It is much cheaper than the ink of multi-function printers, which can exceed $2 for a millilitre.

The colors are accurate and perfect the images. The printer uses the standard CMY(cyan, magenta, yellow) inks, but also adds Light Cyan, Vivid Magenta, Vivid Light Magenta, Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Black and Light Light Black. Unlike cheaper printers, the P600, using a wide range of colors, can accurately portray details of landscapes, smooth shadows on faces etc.

The printed images are very detailed. According to Wirecutter, the P600 has a nine-color inkset, which can print dots as small as two picoliters, or two trillionths of a liter.

The printer comes with 12 high-yield ink-cartridges included. If you print 300 pages (70% black-and-white, 30% color prints) per month, then this ink should last you for two years.

The Brother MFC-J985DW costs $239.99. The price is low for a business-printer, making it a great option when costs like this matter.

The printer has a touch-screen display so it's easy to operate.

The feeder capacity is 100 sheets. Many large business printers can handle many times this much, but 100 pages should not cause issues for small business use.

The printer is capable of automatic two-sided(duplex) printing. This can be crucial when printing stacks of documents.

You can send your documents to the printer wirelessly over WiFi, Ethernet or WiFi Direct. You can use AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, Brother iPrint&Scan and WiFi Direct to get the files from your device to the printer. Or you can print straight via USB.

Overall connecting to the printer is not an issue. It tends to work without problems.

You can print 12 black-and-white pages or 10 color pages per minute. Many large printers can be several times as fast, but a page per five seconds is a decent speed and shouldn't cause any issues in a small business with less printing activity.