Printers have been stuck in their ways for so long, it’s rare to find one that does something that other printers can’t. The Brother DCP-J1800DW is a bit of a first for the Computeractive office, though – it’s the only printer we’ve seen that can also cut paper like a guillotine. After churning out a sheet of A4 (which it can print on both sides automatically), it can also slice it into two sheets of A5. Read our Brother DCP-J1800DW Review.

This could be invaluable if you tend to print lots of flyers or handouts. When you choose this feature in the print settings via your computer, any document that would have taken up one or both sides of an A4 sheet will automatically be scaled down and printed as two double-sided sheets of A5. The cutting is quick and clean and the blade is deep inside the machine so there’s no chance of injury.

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Its unique cutting function could be invaluable if you often print flyers

Brother has managed to do all this and keep the price of this well-specified three-in-one device (printer, scanner and copier) down to a reasonable level.

Even if you’re unlikely to use the paper-cutting option, the DCP-J1800DW still has much to offer. It’s compact but includes a concealed 20-sheet ADF (automatic document feeder) for its A4 scanner, a 150-sheet tray in the base, and a rear tray for feeding in thicker material such as envelopes and cards.

SPECIFICATIONS

3-in-1 printer, copier and scanner • 17ppm print speed • 150-sheet paper capacity • 1200×6000-dpi print quality • 1200×2400-dpi scan quality • Connects via USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet • 172x400x341mm • 8.3kg • One-year warranty

There are USB and Ethernet ports hidden inside the unit, which means the cables won’t be yanked out by accident. Alternatively, you can connect it to a Wi-Fi network. It also has a 6.8in touchscreen that can be tilted out so it’s easier to use.

It starts producing prints after around six seconds, which is fast for an inkjet printer, then continues to print singlesided mono prints at 17 pages per minute (ppm). When printing on both sides, however, the speed drops to 5.5ppm.

It passed all of our quality tests without any paper jams or misprints and the cutting function performed as expected. Pages of plain text look sharp and while it’s not the boldest black ink we’ve ever seen, it is consistent. Adding colour to documents revealed that Brother’s own colour inks aren’t especially bright, but they do hold fast on plain paper. When printing photos on glossy paper it fared better, with the colours looking much more vivid.