Brother MFC-J4550DW vs Epson EcoTank ET-3950

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MFC-J4550DW compared with EcoTank ET-3950

	BrotherMFC-J4550DW	EpsonEcoTank ET-3950
Overview
Released
Released	July 2025	September 2025
Printing
Type
Type	Inkjet	Ink tank
Colour
Colour	Yes	Yes
Speed, black
Speed, black	20 pages a minute (better)	18 pages a minute
Speed, colour
Speed, colour	19 pages a minute (better)	9 pages a minute
Resolution
Resolution	1200 × 4800 dpi	4800 × 1200 dpi
Prints both sides
Prints both sides	Yes	Yes
Printing detail
Printing detail	Inkjet with pigment inks; 2-sided printing at 11 ipm black and 10 ipm colour (ISO/IEC 24734); borderless printing up to A4; 256MB memory; quiet mode	PrecisionCore print head, 400 black nozzles and 128 per colour; 3.3 pl minimum droplet; automatic 2-sided printing on A4 plain paper at 7 pages a minute black and 5 colour (ISO/IEC 24734); borderless printing; up to 35 pages a minute black and 23 colour in draft on 75 g/m² paper
First page out
First page out	5.8 seconds black, 5.9 seconds colour (ISO/IEC 17629)	8.5 seconds black, 13.5 seconds colour (ISO/IEC 17629)
Ink or toner
Ink or toner	LC527 cartridges (1,300 pages black, 900 pages each colour) or LC527XL (3,000 black, 2,000 colour)	Pigment black and dye cyan, magenta and yellow in refillable tanks; 127 ml black and 70 ml colour bottles
Page yield
Page yield	Starter cartridges in the box for about 350 black and 350 colour pages; yields declared to ISO/IEC 24711	Ink in the box (a full set plus an extra black) prints 15,100 pages black and 5,500 colour
Duty cycle
Duty cycle	Up to 2,000 pages a month recommended	Built for up to 100,000 pages over its life; warranty 12 months or 100,000 pages
Scanning and copying
Does
Does	Print, Scan, Copy and Fax	Print, Scan and Copy
Document feeder
Document feeder	Yes	Yes
Scanner
Scanner	Colour CIS scanner with A4 glass and 20-sheet document feeder; 1-sided scanning at 17 ipm mono and 7 ipm colour (ISO/IEC 17991); 1200 × 2400 dpi from the glass, 1200 × 600 dpi from the feeder; scan to USB, email, network, FTP, SFTP, file and image	Contact image sensor (CIS) with flatbed and 30-page document feeder; 2-sided scanning from the feeder; 1,200 × 2,400 dpi optical; feeder 5 ipm 1-sided and 3.5 ipm 2-sided, black or colour; flatbed A4 in 9 seconds black and 21 seconds colour; saves BMP, JPEG, PICT, TIFF, multi-TIFF, PDF and PNG
Copying
Copying	13 ipm black and 10.5 ipm colour 1-sided, 5 and 4.5 ipm 2-sided (ISO/IEC 24735); first copy in 10.5 seconds black, 13 seconds colour; up to 1200 × 2400 dpi; 25–400% zoom; 2-in-1 ID copy	2-sided copying from the document feeder (A4 plain paper)
Fax
Fax	14,400 bps G3; PC-Fax send and receive; 180-page memory; broadcast to up to 50 locations	–
Paper
Largest paper
Largest paper	A4	A4
Paper tray
Paper tray	400 sheets (better)	250 sheets
Paper sizes
Paper sizes	Input 150-sheet tray and 250-sheet lower tray, plus a 1-sheet manual feed slot; tray 1 A4, Letter, Legal, Folio, Executive, A5, A6, 10 × 15 cm, 9 × 13 cm, 13 × 20 cm and envelopes C5, COM-10, DL and Monarch; lower tray A4, Letter, Legal, Executive, A5 and Folio; document feeder 139.7–215.9 mm wide by 148–355.6 mm long; 2-sided A4, Letter, Executive and A5	A4, A5, A6, B5, B6, Letter, 10 × 15 cm, 13 × 18 cm, envelopes (No. 10, DL, C6)
Paper types
Paper types	Tray 1 plain, inkjet, glossy and recycled paper, 64–220 gsm; lower tray plain and recycled, 64–120 gsm; manual feed slot 64–300 gsm; document feeder 64–90 gsm; 2-sided 64–105 gsm	64–300 g/m² (300 g/m² with Epson Ultra Glossy Photo Paper)
Output tray
Output tray	100 sheets	30 sheets; opens automatically when a job starts
Connections
Connects by
Connects by	Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct and USB	Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct and USB
Connection detail
Connection detail	Hi-Speed USB 2.0; front USB host port; Fast Ethernet (10/100); Wi-Fi 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n and 5GHz 802.11a/n; Wi-Fi Direct; WPS	USB; Ethernet; Wi-Fi 5 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) on 2.4 and 5 GHz; Wi-Fi Direct; WPA3
Printing from phones
Printing from phones	Apple AirPrint (print and scan), Mopria, Brother Print Service Plugin; Brother Web Connect for Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Evernote and SharePoint Online	Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service, Mopria Scan, Epson Connect (Email Print, Remote Print Driver, Scan-to-Cloud)
App
App	Brother Mobile Connect (Android, iPhone and iPad)	Epson Smart Panel
Control panel
Control panel	6.8cm (2.7″) colour touchscreen	6.1 cm colour LCD
Design
Weight
Weight	10.4 kg	7.2 kg
Power use
Power use	22 W copying, 3.5 W ready, 0.9 W sleep, 0.1 W off	15 W copying (ISO/IEC 24712), 6.9 W ready, 0.6 W sleep, 0.1 W off; TEC 0.09 kWh a week
Noise
Noise	54 dB(A) printing (sound pressure)	–
Size
Size	440 × 355 × 250 mm (W × D × H) on the UK spec page; the datasheet gives 435 mm wide	375 × 347 × 240 mm (W × D × H)
In the box
In the box	Printer, starter ink cartridges, power cord, quick setup guide, warranty card	Printer, one set of ink bottles (127 ml black; 70 ml cyan, magenta and yellow) plus an extra black, power cable, quick setup guide, warranty document