Brother MFC-290C Color Inkjet Multifunction Center

by Brother

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 18.3 x 18.1 inches ; 20.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 21 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001GJ0ILK
• Item model number: MFC-290c
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 14, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Brother’s MFC-290C is an affordable color inkjet all-in-one that lets you print, copy, scan and fax with ease. An attractive design and compact footprint make it ideal for home and home office environments where space is at a premium. However, its compact size doesn’t mean sacrificing performance or features. It offers a variety of features designed to help enhance the way you work. These include a convenient automatic document feeder, built-in media card slots, a USB Direct / PictBridge interface for direct photo printing and 4 separate ink cartridge system.

The MFC-290C also comes with a range of other useful features, including: up to 30ppm black/25ppm color print speeds, a versatile flatbed design, up to 100 sheet paper capacity and up to 6000x1200▼dpi print resolution. Plus, the MFC-290C offers excellent fax and scanning capabilities.

Convenient auto document feeder lets you fax, copy or scan documents unattended. The auto document feeder accepts up to 15 sheets of letter or legal size paper.

Built-in media card slots and USB Direct / PictBridge interface for direct photo printing - This handy feature allows you to print JPEG photos directly from media cards, PictBridge enabled cameras or USB flash drives†. Print photos on demand, with or without a PC, from the convenience of your home or office.

Fast Printing
Improve productivity with fast print speeds - When getting things printed quickly is critical, the MFC-290C can print at up to 30ppm in black and 25ppm in color*.

Versatile flatbed design
The flatbed design allows you to scan and copy bound documents, non-standard paper sizes or anything too thick for the automatic document feeder.

Up to 100 sheet paper capacity
The larger the paper capacity, the less frequently you need to refill the paper tray.

High quality printing at up to 6000x1200 dpi▼
The MFC-290C delivers exceptional output at up to 6000 x 1200 dpi▼ resolution. Print professional, borderless photos with droplet size as small as 1.5 picoliter, using True2Life® technology. Smaller droplet size ensures your documents or photos have finer details and more realistic skin tones. Print professional quality photos in your home or office when you want.

The MFC-290C also offers high-resolution scanning up to 19,200 dpi interpolated. Faxes can be sent or received in either black and white or color using the built-in 14.4K bps fax modem. Also, the auto fax / telephone switch feature means you can use your fax and phone on the same line.

Easy to maintain, front loading 4 cartridge ink system - Unlike some competitive models in the market, you only need to change the color that needs to be replaced. Plus, the front loading ink compartment design makes it easy to access and replace cartridges.

Perfectly suited for your home/home office, the MFC-290C fax capabilities don’t require a separate phone line. Faxing, copying and direct printing from media cards, PictBridge-enabled cameras or a USB flash drive don’t even require that your PC be connected. All these features are available whether your computer is on or off, or even in the area. The MFC-290C PhotoCapture Center® is compatible with Compact Flash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC), xD Picture Card and xD Picture Card TypeM/Type H media cards†. Features available directly from the control panel include photo enhancement, red eye removal, trimming, monochrome / sepia selection, direct scan to media cards, slide shows and photo search by date. The MFC-290C has Energy Star certification and a one year express exchange warranty.

Features / Benefits

• Attractive, space-saving design, ideal for home or home office environments
• Provides print, scan, copy and fax functionality in one compact, low profile machine
• Auto document feeder up to 15 pages allows for unattended fax, copy or scanning
• Print photos on demand directly from media card slots or USB direct / PictBridge interface
• Front loading 4 cartridge ink system lets you change only the color that needs to be replaced. A front loading ink compartment makes it easier to replace ink cartridges.
• Improve productivity with fast 30ppm black / 25ppm color print speeds*
• Fax, copy and photo printing functions available even when your computer is turned off or in another location
• Rich, vibrant photo printing at resolutions of up to 6000 x 1200 dpi▼

What’s in the Box
MFC-290c, LC61BK Black Starter Ink Cartridge□, LC61C Cyan Starter Ink Cartridge□, LC61M Magenta Starter Ink Cartridge□, LC61Y Yellow Starter Ink Cartridge□, Quick Setup and User’s Guides, telephone line cord, CD-ROMs include all related drivers and software for Windows® and Mac OS®

▼ Resolution are listed vertical by horizontal dpi.
* PPM speed excludes time to complete first page and will vary depending on a variety of factors.
See www.brother-usa.com/printspeed for details.
† Additional purchase required.
□Actual yield of starter cartridge will be approx. 65% of replacement LC61 series, due to ink system initialization process.

Product Description

Print, copy, scan or fax with ease! Unattended fax, copy and scan with 15-page auto document feeder. Direct photo printing from media card slots or USB direct/PictBridge Interface. 4-ink cartridge system ¿ replace only the cartridge that needs to be replaced. Fast print speeds at up to 30ppm black and 25ppm color. Print vibrant, borderless photos on demand at up to 6000 x 1200 dpi resolution. No PC required to print photos, fax or copy. Use the fax and phone on one line with the Auto Fax / Telephone switching feature. Up to 100 sheets in the paper tray.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for average home/office prints, February 25, 2009

By 

viceversa (Newport Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brother MFC-290C Color Inkjet Multifunction Center (Office Product)

So far so good. Absolutely no paper jams for the past year of use. Very good quality for black prints. Color printing on the other hand, is very dull. Even the black comes out looking gray.

Positive:
* Quick and easy setup. Software included does quick and simple scanning.
* Print time is decent for both color and black
* Very sturdy construction
* 4 separate print cartridges
* Printer cleans itself
* Auto feeder for copying multiple pages. (very useful while filing tax documents and making copies of it.)
* Also, has an open door option for manual feed scanning.

Negative:
* Black prints comes out looking dark gray. Not as rich as it should be.
* No USB cable provided (Like selling a car with no steering wheel)
* Printer uses INK to clean itself. 2-3 times a month. Even when the printer is OFF. ???
* Color photo prints on regular paper comes out dull. Very dull. haven't tried printing on photo paper yet.
* No envelope feed option on the paper tray. Very confusing at first, but after 2 attempts, I eventually figured it out.
* No WIFI connection

I still gave it a 4 because the majority of prints I do are black and white prints. (resumes, school work, labels, etc"). For Less than $100, you can't complain. Replacement cartrdiges are also very affordable.

For Photo printing, LOOK ELSEWHERE!

----------------
UPDATE:
After using the inks until they were near empty, the colors seem to be more brighter for some reason and the blacks now looks black. I guess it needs some breaking in time?

Also, Printer will warn you that the cartridge are empty and must be replaced, even though there is a good amount of ink left. Enough for 30-50 more normal prints I would say. You can trick the printer into using it again just by removing the cartridge and reinserting them.

Looks like the printer is set to a certain amount of prints for each cartridge and just tells you to replace a cartridge after a certain amount of prints. It doesn't actually know when the cartridges are empty. There is a small window on the cartridges to let you see how much ink is left.

UPDATE 7/27/10
After updating the firmware from the Brothers site, you can now continue to print in (black only) if a color cartridge is empty. Before the update, if any of the color cartridges were empty, the printer would demand that you replace the color cartridge and would not allow you to print at all. Not even in black.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great printer for average use, February 1, 2009

By 

Endre B. Gastony (Venice, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother MFC-290C Color Inkjet Multifunction Center (Office Product)

Fairly large in size, solidly built, and well designed printer. The set-up with a CD was a breeze and the written instructions were easy to follow. The four "starter" ink cartridges were no problem to install and the paper loading and discharge system is neat and efficient. An enclosed manual explains most details well. The buttons are not bad to figure out, although the LCD window providing instructions is too small and has NO backlighting -- you are better off going up by one model for much larger and better display.

The quality of the bw text is fine, and the bw and color photos look good. For me, a very desirable feature is that it is a QUIET printer, without all the clang-bang of every other inkjet printer I have listened to at Office Depot. I do not need FAX, but the scanner and photo capture devices work well and the speed is fast enough. Use a good quality USB cable to avoid any hassle.

Hey, brother, for about $100 or less, the avergae home-office user could hardly go wrong buying this printer. I recommend it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cheaply made, buggy, too much trouble, July 9, 2009

By 

L. Manstrom (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother MFC-290C Color Inkjet Multifunction Center (Office Product)

I purchased this unit when it was on sale for $39, and I would not recommend it even at that price. The all-plastic construction is flimsy and I'm constantly afraid I'll break off a critical piece in the paper tray or elsewhere. The paper jams ALL. THE. TIME. Once it goes into sleep mode, it will not wake up for an incoming fax. I usually end up having to turn it all the way off and on again to get the fax function to work again, while fielding numerous calls from contractors who can't send me a fax. When sending a fax, I often can not get it to grab the sheets to send. It also doesn't properly print many of the fonts I use regularly - they all end up looking like a slight variation of Times Roman. The USB port is oh-so-conveniently located in the middle of the inside of the machine, under the scanner glass. No, I'm not kidding. After plugging it in, you're required to snake the cable through a series of tabs for it to come out the back of the machine. Not only does this eat up almost a foot of your cable, I ended up breaking off one of the flimsy tabs in the process. That was at 10 minutes out of the box, so I knew I was in for a bumpy ride. It is absolutely the worst machine I have ever had to rely on and it will be replaced. Problem is, I don't know what to do with this piece of junk - my conscience won't even allow me to GIVE it away.