Brother NQ1700E review

What the NQ1700E is

An embroidery-only machine. It does not sew: no straight stitch, no seam, no hem. That is the category, and it is why the same field costs less here than on a combination machine that has to contain a sewing head as well.

It is single-needle, so a multi-color design is a sequence of manual re-threads. It sits at the top of Brother’s single-needle embroidery-only range, one tier above the 5 x 7 in PE800 and PE900. The full type breakdown is on the three machine types.

What 6 x 10 inches actually covers

Sixty square inches, and the shape matters as much as the area:

• A name or design across the back of a jacket or hoodie - yes, this is the tier that does it
• A full-width band across a bath towel - yes
• A sleeve run down a garment - yes
• A large tote panel - yes
• A full-back commercial design at scale - marginal; that is multi-needle territory

The long axis is the point. A 5 x 7 in machine forces a back design to be split across two hoopings and re-aligned by eye, which is where those jobs go wrong. Ten inches removes the split. The concrete list by hoop size is on what fits in each hoop.

The specification Brother stopped publishing

This is the most interesting thing about the machine and it is not a compliment.

Brother published 850 stitches per minute for the NQ1600E - the fastest figure it gave for any single-needle machine it sold, and the reason that machine ranked well on this site. The NQ1700E page carries no embroidery speed at all.

So the successor is, on the published record, an unknown quantity on throughput where its predecessor was a known one. We are not going to carry the old machine’s figure across - they are different machines and Brother has not said they run at the same rate. The cell stays blank and names the maker that left it blank, which is the standing rule here and the reason this machine does not score higher.

For scale, Brother does still publish 650 spm for the PE900 and the SE2000, and 1,000 spm for the PR680W.

What it gained over the NQ1600E

To be fair to the machine, the documentation trade runs both ways.

A published work area

8.3 in from needle to arm. Brother published no work-area figure for the NQ1600E, so this is a real addition to the record - and 8.3 in matches the widest Brother publishes for any machine in this family. Every opening on the site is normalized in the throat space chart.

A design count that is stated once

258 built-in designs. The NQ1600E page contradicted itself - 138 in the specification table against 198 in the description - which is the kind of thing this site exists to log. The NQ1700E gives one number.

A far larger screen

4.85 in, color, touch. That is the largest display on any single-needle machine on this site, against 4.2 x 2.4 in on the NQ1600E and 3.7 in on the SE2000. On a machine where you position and edit a large design before committing it to an expensive garment, screen size is not a vanity specification.

Where it falls short

No published speed, as above. On a machine at this price that is a genuine gap, and it is the single biggest mark against it.

It does not sew. Obvious for the category, but worth weighing: if this would be your only machine, it cannot hem or piece anything and you are buying a second machine immediately.

Single needle. A six-color design is five manual re-threads at roughly two minutes each. If the same multi-color design repeats across an order, the constraint is needle count and no amount of field fixes it - single needle vs multi needle draws that line.

Premium pricing for a specification sheet with a hole in it. You are paying near the top of the single-needle range and getting less published information than the previous model offered.

How it compares with the machines either side of it

NQ1700E or NQ3550W?

Same 6 x 10 in field, same 258 designs, and neither publishes an embroidery speed. The NQ3550W adds 291 sewing stitches; the NQ1700E adds a considerably larger screen.

If you already own a sewing machine you like, the NQ1700E is the better buy - you are not paying for a second sewing head, and the screen is the one you will use every time you place a large design. If this has to be your only machine, the NQ3550W is the only one of the two that can hem a garment, and it is ranked on the combination machine roundup.

Is it worth stepping up from the PE900?

Only if you need the long axis. The PE900 publishes 5 x 7 in and - importantly - a 650 spm speed figure, so on the published record it is the more completely documented machine of the two.

The honest test is the one on the shirt roundup: has a customer or a project ever asked you for something across a back? If yes, 35 square inches will keep forcing splits and the step up pays for itself. If no, you would be buying 25 extra square inches you never fill, and giving up a published speed to do it.

Who should buy it

Buy it if you already own a sewing machine you are happy with, if your designs genuinely need a 10 in long axis, and if you want a current 6 x 10 in Brother that is actually in stock rather than a discontinued one.

Do not buy it if this would be your only machine - it cannot sew. Do not buy it if 5 x 7 in covers your work, because the PE900 is cheaper and publishes more. And do not buy it if you are running repeat multi-color orders, where needle count rather than field is the thing limiting you - the multi-needle roundup covers that tier.