Brother MFC-J4555DW Ink Cost Per Page: Fax and a Touchscreen at a Cost Premium
The Brother MFC-J4555DW is an ink tank all-in-one that prints, copies, scans and faxes, with a touchscreen and duplex printing built in, for $280. Running costs land at $1.67 per 100 pages in black and $9.37 in color. The black figure traces to the LC506XXLBK cartridge, $83 for 5,000 pages.
Stepping outside ink entirely, the HP LaserJet Pro 4006dw actually costs more per page in black than the Brother does, at $2.23 per 100 pages, even though it runs on toner rather than ink. The HP prints only, with no copy, scan or fax, and its own price is $400, well above the Brother's sticker. Its top speed of 47 ppm far outpaces the Brother's 20 ppm.
Within ink tank printers, the Canon PIXMA G3270 holds the running-cost floor at $0.38 in black and $0.97 in color per 100 pages, against the Brother's own $1.67 and $9.37. The Canon sells for $249, copies and scans but skips fax, and has no duplex printing or touchscreen. It also prints at just 11 ppm, well under the MFC-J4555DW's top speed.
Within Brother's own tank lineup, the MFC-J4355DW matches the MFC-J4555DW's black and color rates exactly. It sells for $210 but lacks Ethernet and has no touchscreen, both of which the MFC-J4555DW includes.
Two more Brother siblings, the MFC-J6560DW and MFC-J6960DW, share the MFC-J4555DW's running costs too, part of a six-way tie for 24th among the 30 ink tank printers InkTax tracks on black cost per page — with two more models beyond these three carrying it. The J6560DW costs $310 and the J6960DW $390, and both step up to 31 ppm engines, faster than the MFC-J4555DW's 20 ppm.