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Brother has a reputation of delivering really rugged devices with features that are just right for offices. The Brother DCP-165C seems no different in terms of its ruggedness, but this non-FAX MFD goes a step ahead of office needs by boasting of photo-printing features. We have got this device with us and we will put it through our tests to find out how well it fares. 
Bundle Brother DCP-165C 4 Cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) 4" x 6" Photo paper pack Power cables with plug socket adapter USB data cable Software and Driver CD User Manual Quick Setup Guide 
Indeed, we have nothing to say but applaud the fact that Brother leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the bundle. To emphasize the fact that this is a photo-printing MFD, they have also provided a pack of 4" x 6" photo paper for you to print photographs. Specifications 
Features The DCP-165C is an MFD that can print, scan and copy but it does not feature FAX. Still sporting the trademark office-like looks of its brethren, Brother has tried to jazz it a little by giving it a grey, black and cream body, with the curve in the front bulge out a little. It is built ruggedly and will withstand the rigors of office work. It is quite sleek; the height is just 15 cm and the power connector is located at the back, making it easy to place it against any wall, thus saving space. 
The input and output tray consists of a single cassette-like structure with the cassette holding the input paper face down, while the output paper gets accumulated on top. Paper is to be placed with the side to be printed on facing down and the leading edge in, while it comes out with the printed side facing up and the leading edge out. 
Like in all Brother devices, there is no power button, so you have to use the soft power switch. The interface is USB 2.0 and the USB cable has to be channeled through a narrow canal into the interior of the device, which may be a problem if the cable is stiff, but it also avoids accidental disconnections. This has to be done by opening the MFD like the bonnet of a car. 
On the right, you can see a flap that opens to expose the cartridge bay. This is very convenient, as you do not have to stick your hand inside the device to install the cartridges. As you can see, there are four separate color cartridges and you only have to replace the empty cartridge. This, unlike tricolor cartridges, can save you a lot of money. 
The control panel is situated at the front and consists of multiple keys. This is very easy to use and lets you access different functions such as Photo Capture, Scanning, Mono and Color Copy, as well as different MFD settings by means of the Menu button. The Ink Management button shows you the ink-level in individual ink cartridges. 
In addition to the PictBridge Direct Printing support, the MFD can read a number of memory card formats such as SD, xD, etc. The PictBridge port can also read and print directly off a USB Flash drive and a Flash drive plugged into this port is accessible in the PC as if it has been plugged into the computer's USB port. The 1-line LCD relays necessary information about the status and settings. The LCD shows you various functions and settings available in the MFD and there is a red blinking LED exclamation mark to its left to indicate errors of any sort. Unfortunately, since this is just a alphanumeric LCD, you have to know beforehand what you wish to print in the PC-less mode (from memory cards and USB Flash drives) as there is no way to preview the print job. Scanning to e-mail, image, OCR, file, card or USB memory stick is supported in the JPEG, PDF or TIFF formats is supported using the Scan key. 
A panel situated at the back of the MFD comes off and lets you clear paper jams. The scanner is of flat-bed type and is situated at the top as usual. The lid seems sturdy and is adjustable, letting you scan thicker objects like books. The overall build seems very good and that also includes the trays. This printer supports a color print resolution of up to 6000 x 1200 dpi and can print borderless prints. The claimed droplet size of 1.5 picolitres should help it produce nice photo prints. The scanner resolution is 1,200 x 2,400 dpi (optical) and WIA interface is supported along with the older TWAIN. Drivers and Software The DCP-165C comes with drivers for Windows as well as Mac, but we tested this using only Windows, as it is the operating system that you are most likely to have. The driver interface is simple; there are just two pages to it. 
The first page titled "Basic" lets you do basic things such as selecting the media type, print quality, paper size, color mode, orientation, number of copies and page layout. 
The advanced page lets you select between color/grayscale printing mode and also whether you want the print to scale according to the paper size. You can also embed watermarks or print in the mirrored mode. 
If you click on the Color Settings button here, you can refine the color settings by adjusting various settings such as color density, white balance, contrast, brightness and hue. By default, Bi-directional printing is enabled, but you can disable it here so that the printer prints only in one direction, thereby improving image quality at the expense of a little time. 
Bundled along with this MFD is the ScanSoft PaperPort - a good document management and OCR software, which is a definite bonus because it saves you the cost of having to buy such software. 
The ControlCentre3 is a control panel that puts all the functions of this MFD at a single point at your disposal. In addition to the above, the software disc includes Reallusion FaceFilter Studio - a simple and easy to use photo editor that lets you fine-tune your photos before printing them. Also included is BookScan&Whiteboard Suite - the BookScan software corrects scans of books, while the Whiteboard cleans up and enhances the text and images from photos taken of your whiteboard. Performance The installation is fairly straightforward, but it takes a little longer than 10 minutes. We put the MFD through a variety of tests to test its printer as well as scanner components. Font size printing test: We printed a page containing all the letters in font sizes ranging from large to very small. The printer had no problem in printing all the font sizes and they looked crisp. Text print speed: We printed a page of black text in draft and normal quality to find the speed as well as quality of the print. The first page took 16.5 seconds in fast mode and 35.8 seconds in normal, which is not so fast. The continuous printing speed in the fast mode in the first minute is 11.6 ppm and later reaches a maximum of 14.6, while in the normal mode, the ppm in the first minute and subsequently were 2.2 and 2.9 respectively. The speeds in fast mode are average, while the normal mode speeds are quite slow. The normal mode quality is decent, the fast mode quality has a lot of fringing and the edges are not well-defined, but it is a lot better than the Brother DCP-350C we had tested earlier this year. 
Presentation document speed: This consisted of a page of multi-colored graphs, text, charts, patterns, and photos. The first page of the document took just 16.6 seconds in fast mode, while it took 38.3 seconds at best quality - slow. The continuous printing speed in the fast mode was 7.9 ppm in the first minute and reached a little over 9.5 thereafter, while these speeds in the normal mode were 1.74 and 2.05 ppm respectively. The quality is decent in the normal mode as was in the text print, but in the fast mode, the colors were washed out and there was a fair amount of fringing. 
Photo print: Since this MFD has photo printing features, we printed the test photograph collage as well and it finished the job in 4 minutes 6 seconds, which is a bit on the higher side when compared to other printers, yet considerably faster than the Brother DCP-350C. The intricate details were neatly produced, but there is some amount of graininess and the whole print has a red cast that makes it unsuitable for photo printing as the color reproduction is not good. The scanner test: The scanner exhibited good performance. It could capture all the details, and the color and grey shades were faithfully captured as well. It took 13.9 seconds for a preview scan - a decent performance. Mono scans at 200 dpi for A4-size paper take just 13.1 seconds which is fast. The color scanning at 600 dpi is one of the fastest we have seen thus far and takes just 45.2 seconds. The copier test: As you may know, an MFD is also a copier, and our copier test tries to find how well the printer and scanner components work in tandem. A black copy took 33.6 seconds, while a color copy took 49.9 for the first copies. The ppm for mono copies ranges from 2 to 2.3, while that for color is 1.4 to 2.3 ppm from first minute to subsequent minutes - average speeds. Copy quality is good in the normal mode. Unlike the problems we had faced with Brother DCP-350C, which was not able to lift photo paper of 150 gsm, Brother seems to have solved this problem in the DCP-165C and we faced absolutely no paper handling issues. Our Verdict The Brother DCP-165C is a multifunctional solution for printing, scanning and copying for SoHo segment. Though a Fax is absent, you can still connect it to the PC for PC-Fax functionality. The UI is pretty simple to use and the swivel color LCD shows you the various options and status of the device, as well as lets you preview images from the memory card before printing them. It is supports photo printing and this can be seen by the presence of the PictBridge port as well as various memory card slots. However, it does not produce photo prints that are really useful. The photo prints, though detailed, have fair amount of graininess and have a reddish cast that is an indication that the color reproduction is not faithful. The text and presentation print quality is decent in the normal mode, but the fast mode is pretty grainy and the colors are washed out. It uses four ink cartridges and that makes it a lot more economical to use than MFDs with tricolor cartridges. The various color cartridges each cost Rs.440 and can print 260 pages, thus their cost per page is Rs.1.69. The black cartridge on the other hand costs an unreasonably high of Rs.720 and can print 300 pages, thus yielding a higher cost per page of Rs.2.4. Since this printer is presumably going to be used in an office, you can purchase a pack of two black cartridges for Rs.1,360, thus reducing the black cost per page to a more economical Rs.2.27. Also available is a pack of three color cartridges, which is available for Rs.1,240, dropping the cost per page for color cartridges to around Rs.1.59. With a decent software bundle, the Brother DCP-165C is decently priced at an MRP of just Rs.5,000 + Taxes and comes with 1-year on-site warranty. With 83 service centers around the country, you should not have problems getting this MFD serviced. Even though it exhibits average performance, we recommend it due to the low price. Test unit sourced from Brother International Pvt Ltd. Brother DCP-165C
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