Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-465CN Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Networking

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I can't be happier about finally being able to take a sledge hammer to the festering pile of... err... that is, the HP PSC 1410 All-in-One Printer (Q7290A#ABA) I've been chained to for the past two years. This new Brother MFC-465CN is *everything* that the HP PSC 1410 is not -- it's quiet, it's fast, it's insanely easy to use, and (the single most important feature of all, in my opinion) it doesn't install hundreds of megabytes of useless bloat-ware and a dozen memory- and cycle-pig services on your computer when you install the printer driver.

I've got the MFC-465CN plugged into my LinkSys WRT54G wireless router, with wireless NIC's on five Windows boxes. It took me less than a minute per machine to install the driver, and (*gasp!*) it didn't add any services! Or tool tray garbage! Or auto-run garbage in the registry! My prayers had been answered! I wept for joy!

Regarding the other reviewer comment about slow printing, I have the feeling that your mileage may vary depending on how things are connected together. I just dumped this here page (lots of color, graphics, images, and whatnot) to the MFC-465CN and it took just a hair over 30 seconds from start to finish. Much, *much* faster than my old FrankenPrinter. And the print quality is *superb*, for both text and images. No idea how photos will look, but my bet is that it'll do an excellent job of it.

Also no clue about how long I'll be able to go before I have to replace the ink cartridges, but ANYTHING has to be better than the FrankenPrinter, which ate a black cartridge every three or four weeks... even though I rarely print more than a page every other day (!!!).

Just the mere thought of being able to nuke all of that HP bloat-ware on my computers and disembowel that PSC 1410 gives me great pleasure. And I think I'll jump up and down on its carcass a couple of times, and sprinkle some salt on it, just to make sure it doesn't rise from the dead.

UPDATED, 16JAN08: I've been working this printer like a plow-horse for the past month, churning out all sorts of stuff (maps, photos, mailing labels, etc.) and I *still* love the bejabbers outta it. I've dumped at least a dozen full-color Google maps, a dozen or so photos, around a hundred B&W pages and lots (and lots!) of mailing labels, and as far as I can tell it's NOT EVEN CLOSE to running out of ink -- black or otherwise.

Very happy camper. Loving this printer, and thinking about buying another one and putting it up in the attic, just in case they stop making 'em.

This replaced a Brother MFC210 and Canon MP160 at home. Things I like:
Cheap--Consumer Reports rated this as one of the cheapest (i.e., ink) to use.
Compact--note the picture--no external paper feed or trough sticking out. It's all inside! I LIKE my desk space.
Ethernet hookup--I no longer have to keep a computer on so others can print.
Display--I didn't care too much about this until I noticed the caller ID displayed. The display gives a status of your phone line. Nice.
Easy to set up--no problems having wired and wireless computers detect the printer during setup. No IP address to setup.
Print quality is good. Photos print great--no lines. Card reader works fine. Cartridges are very easy to change--no need to open the printer because the access is on the front.
Copier reduces the image on the fly.
CONS: won't print or fax if one cartridge is empty. I ran out of cyan and c/n fax or print a black doc.

I'm keeping this review short because there's only one thing that really, really bothers me which others should know about. We all know ink is expensive for printers. It's one of the major factors one should consider when buying a printer.

I am extremely annoyed with this printer because often times, the cartridges are half-full still and the printer insists the cartridge needs to be changed. When I need to reseat the cartridges, often times, the printer will say there is no cartridge there. I am no printer novice. I've had ink jet printers since they were first invented. My first inkjet lasted 10 years with no problems until the problem which ended it's working life. I definitely know how to clean printers and do any necessary maintenance to increase longevity.

Overall, I cannot rate the product very high because of this. You'd think manufactures would be able to improve all aspects of products over time instead of making them more annoying.

Updating on 3/12/2008. I've now owned this printer for a couple years. It has performed well. I now use bargain ink which I get for about $1 a cartridge. The network capability on the printer was never very good. I put up with it for quite awhile though. The scan to computer function isn't reliable, however using software like paint.net to scan initiating from the computer has always been reliable for me. Copying has been excellent. Printing pictures never was very good, but that's not what it was ever intended for. Overall, I'm happy with the printer. I like Brother printers because they don't try to screw you over on ink prices.

It did take awhile for Brother to come out with a Vista driver.

I was going to increase the rating to a 3, but Amazon isn't letting me right now.

July 16, 2010: I have now scrapped the printer. It had numerous errors at the end of it's life. Communication to network, scanning, and ink sensing were all screwed up. Copying in black and white still worked. Some of the parts of the printer now have a new home in a cabinet for my network equipment. Those parts are working well. I am disappointed with the lifespan of the printer.

I've used Brother products mostly at work and found them to be functional no-nonsense products with the right features for SOHO (small office / home office) users. Although the feeder of our workplace Brother MFC device is busted... but these things never last too long, not more than a few (5K-10K) 1000 pages due to dust and wear/tear.

My main reasons for buying this multi-function center (MFC) device:

* Multi-page scan and fax (now I can scan in multiple documents, one by one from the feeder instead of being forced to use the flat bed, which is also an option for scanning larger or original/certificate-style documents that should not be put in a feeder). There are few/none low end products with this capability. You either get flat bed or heavy duty feeder machines that cost over $250.

==> The main value of this feature & my primary reason for buying this device is to scan all my important documents in to PDF for long term preservation. This is to reduce the number of copies of original I have to keep and anywhere access of digital documents. Not sure how well their OCR software will read the text in the documents. If it does read most of the stuff and that content is searchable via Spotlight/Google Desktop/Vista - whoohoo!

* Good software (PaperPort LE for Windows (XP & Vista) and PageManager for Mac OS X (including Leopard) for converting docs to PDF
* Network connectivity using Ethernet - connect it to a network hub/router and share it! And ofcourse it also supports USB.

* Decent price for refill cartridges (slightly higher than Epson & Cannon but not mind bending prices like Lexmark). I don't care much for the inkjet color printing since I don't need it and have a cheap & efficient Samsung (ML1040) black & white laser printer. For photo printing I'd rather go to retail stores since I don't print too many photos.

* Light-weight driver installation. I agree with the other reviewer that HP needs to take a good look at their software and reduce the bloat. Even Epson has some heavy duty stuff. Running their (HP, Epson & others) software at startup slows down the computer and the tray icons are just too distracting. Can't stress this point enough!

* A minor factor: Silver black finish, the flat top of this product makes it easier to pack and move if you lose the original box.

* And the rest, the usual: multi-function fax/scan/copy/print, multiple-memory card support, USB support (2 ports, not sure why).

Will update this review once I have direct experience on this particular machine.

I replaced a Lexmarck 1150 that was part of the deal I got on ShopNBC. The brother is the "No Contest" winner here. The Brother gives sharp clear prints. The copy function works without turning on the computer.
the FAX works on your regular phone line, no dedicated line needed. I feel this was a great choice for quality and value. I don't know how many miles you get on the four ink cartridges as yet, but I have discovered that EFORCITY sells ink for this and other printers for a mere 3.99 a cartridge and they are not refils, but are new and compatable.
With Free shipping from Amazon this printer is a best buy.

There may be faster machines that may have more features but I'd be hard pressed to find one in this price range! It's been great! I purchased it for a home network along with a wireless router because our kids received their own laptops for Christmas with wireless networking and I already had 2 computers, a PC and a Mac that existed on the network and this was a fairly straight foward process when following the easy to read instructions.

We love it here. It prints fast (compared to others we've owned in the past) it faxes and scans quickly and is a snap to do a quick print from the camera memory card!

Get one, you're gonna love it!

i've had an mfc-465cn for about 6 months. it's network attached to 5 different computers (1 windows server and 4 xp professional) with no hassles. i've used printing, scanning, fax send and receive, and a few copied. resolution is good on both printing and scans. i've only used the feeder a couple times but it worked ok. the software is (imho) excellent! i haven't worked with network-attached scanning that was as simple to set up and use.

my only down-side comment is about ink monitoring. with most inkjets i've used, when they start reporting low-ink you can give the cartridges a gentle shake and they're good for a while longer. try the same thing with the brother and it shows the ink to be empty and won't print. basically once you have the cartridge in you'd better leave it alone - pulling it out messes with their ink-level sensing.

this is a great multifunction unit for the money!

I love it! Unbelievably easy to set up, and I would have had it set up in minutes if they had included the USB and/or Ethernet cords, they cheaped out on that. So, I had to stop, go out and purchase a cord, and then went back to setting it up. It was so easy, I thought I'd missed something. I had it connected to one desktop and two laptops in less than 10 minutes. It was such fun to sit in the living room on my laptop and print wirelessly to my office for the first time! I also like the fax function. It feeds all the pages into the memory first and then calls the other fax. Such an improvement over my HP which I would have to feed one sheet at a time although it was supposed to feed. It would either feed multiple pages at once or not grab the next page, and most of the time if I had numerous pages, it would disconnect and I would have to call back multiple times to get all the pages through, and when it fed the pages though, the tray the pages were returned to was fashioned in such a way that it would mangle my original documents. I also like the feature where you can set the Brother to manual for faxing, and use only one line for voice, voicemail and fax. When someone calls with a fax, I can pick up the phone, hear the fax tone and hit *51 and it starts receiving the fax. I always know when I am getting a fax so this is a great feature for me. The Brother is attractive, quiet, and I find the print quality quite acceptable. I couldn't be happier! Especially for the price!

W O W....I just set up my Brother MFC-465CN All-In-One printer and it was a snap. The Quick Setup Guide must have been written by someone that has gone through the nightmare of setting up computers, TV's, stereo components, answering machines and all other electrical gadgets that come with truly non user friendly manuals. If you can read you can set this machine up without pulling out a single hair. For the price the quality is Ok though I was disappointed that it comes without a USB cable.

Bought this printer this weekend without much research, for $80 - figured you can't go too wrong for the price, so bought it. The unit is very well built and attractive. Set-up was very simple and quick, had it unboxed and working with 3 computers on my network in around 30 minutes. I've never had that easy of an install - kudos to Brother. Haven't done much printing yet, but the few photos and docs I printed turned out very nice with decent speed. Also scanned a few photos to different computers on the wireless network. It would have been nice if they had included a USB cable and/or ethernet cable, but I had those around the house so no big deal. I am very pleased with this printer, especially for the price.