Brother PocketJet 7 PJ723-BK Review

Like most portable thermal printers, the Brother PocketJet 7 PJ723-BK ($459) is smaller and lighter than most portable inkjet printers. It also has an advantage over most thermal printers, offering 300-by-300 dot-per-inch (dpi) resolution for a noticeable step up in image quality. These features, combined with a long list of accessories and paper stock to choose from, are enough to make the PJ723-BK($407.69 at Amazon) our Editors' Choice portable printer. If you need a printer to take along with you, it should be at the top of your short list. 

Except for its 300-by-300 dpi resolution, the PJ723-BK ($407.69 at Amazon) is essentially identical to the $379 Brother PocketJet 7 PJ722-BK. Its higher resolution—compared with 203-by-200 dpi for its near twin—allows for significantly improved output quality, but at a slightly slower speed. However, the two printers share the same size, weight, and setup procedure, as well as the same choices for accessories and available paper stock. For details on all of these areas, take a look at my review of the Brother PocketJet 7 PJ722-BK ($222.99 at Amazon) .

Basics
Briefly, the PJ723-BK, like the Brother PJ722-BK, is one of Brother's PocketJet 7 series of thermal printers. Both the PocketJet 7 series and the previous-generation Brother PocketJet 6 series—including the Brother PocketJet 6 PJ662-K and the Brother PocketJet 6 Plus PJ663-K—share a similar size and weight. Key differences between the two groups include a 33-percent faster speed rating for the PocketJet 7 models and longer battery life. Brother rates the PocketJet 7's rechargeable lithium-ion battery at 600 pages on a full charge.

Brother sells the printer in several configurations. The actual printer is the PocketJet PJ723 ($379), which you can buy without so much as an AC power adapter. The PJ723-BK (BK is for Basic Kit) I tested includes a USB cable, an AC power supply, 100 sheets of fanfold paper, and documentation. In addition, there's the $439 PJ723-VK (VK is short for Vehicle Kit), which lacks and AC adapter and fanfold paper, but has a DC car adapter and roll paper.

Brother says the Basic Kit is meant for mobile professionals who print from a laptop or PC, while the Vehicle Kit is meant for users who need to mount the printer in a car or a truck. You can also customize either of the kits or the bare printer by adding a battery or any of the other accessories outlined in the Brother PJ722-BK review.

Speed
The PJ723-BK offers only a manual feed for cut sheets, but I was able test it with our full business applications suite, including the multipage documents, by using fanfold paper. I clocked the printer at 1.9 pages per minute (ppm). That makes it a bit slower than the Brother PJ722-BK, which managed 2.2ppm on the same test. That's not surprising, since the PJ723-BK's higher resolution means the computer and printer have to handle more data for any given image.

I can't make full speed comparisons to the PocketJet 6 models, because I tested those printers with cut-sheet paper, which limited my timing tests to one-page documents. On the two files I was able to time with those printers, however, the PJ723-BK was slower than either PocketJet 6 model for both files.

See How We Test Printers

A more interesting comparison is to portable inkjet printers. The PJ723-BK was significantly slower than the Canon Pixma iP110 Wireless Mobile Printer ($190.79 at Amazon) , which managed 2.3ppm on our tests, but a bit faster than the HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer , which managed 1.8ppm. Its speed is at the low end of the range for portable printers, but not at the very bottom. Keep in mind that inkjets and thermal printers aren't directly competitive. If maximum portability is your key concern, thermal printers are a better bet. Otherwise, a portable inkjet is the obvious way to go, for its better looking output and lower price.

Output Quality
The 300-by-300 dpi resolution gives the PJ723-BK the advantage for output quality compared with thermal printers like the PJ722-BK that offer only 203-by-200 dpi. Text quality was good enough on our tests to be highly readable for most fonts at 10 and 12 points, but it was also ragged and harder to read at smaller sizes.

As with the output from the lower-resolution Brother PJ722-BK, graphics showed obvious dithering, in the form of visible patterns, in almost every shade of gray. The patterns with the PJ723-BK were a little finer, leading to slightly improved output. Both printers delivered photo quality good enough to print recognizable images, but the PJ723-BK did a better job with shading, and details were easier to see.

Conclusion
For color output or printing on plain paper, you're better off with a portable inkjet like the Canon Pixma iP110 or the HP Officejet 100. But for applications that demand maximum portability, don't require color, and can use thermal paper, the Brother PocketJet 7 PJ723-BK is hard to beat. For slightly faster speed and a lower price, you can save $80 on the Brother PJ722-BK. The PJ723-BK's improved output quality, though, particularly for text, makes it well worth the higher price. That's also enough to make it our Editors' Choice portable printer.

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