Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-490CW Inkjet Multifunction w/Wireless Networking

5 star:		(118)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(54)

 

 

I was skeptical of Brother printers, but after having a miserable experience with HP trying to get a 6380 to work (two broken units delivered; two units returned; 4 hours on phone with tech support), I broadened my search and found consistently good reviews of this printer. I live in a mixed household (Windows and Mac), which also eliminated many competitors. Finding it on sale tipped the scales.

Out of the box, the printer is compact, has a low profile, and is a bit sleeker looking than the competitors. Overall workmanship is solid.

Only exception is the paper tray which feels a bit flimsy, but nothing that would deter me. There is also no easy way to feed envelopes or letterhead without pulling out the papertray -- and to run envelopes, you need to remove regular paper since the bypass tray is only for photo paper.

Fax machine is a nice feature to have and, thankfully, it does not come with a phone handset attachment which would just take up space for no reason.

Per the manual, the printer can NOT handle both wireless and wired USB/network connection at the same time. Not a problem for me at all as the unit will only be used via wireless.

It is energy star rated and defaults to putting itself to sleep after a period of non-use. Startup out of sleep is very fast when you send a wireless document. I tend to unplug my power strip when I won't be using the computer for a while and was afraid that the settings would wipe, but when I plugged it back in the printer sprang back to life with all wireless configurations intact.

Set up was pretty simple. Following the quick start instructions went fine. Found my wireless router, connected, printed test page, no problem. Installed drivers/software on Windows XP, and it looks to be a lot less heavy than HP's full software. Only wrinkle in installation is that it asked me several times to connect/verify the wireless connection (each piece of software plus the hardware basically asked me the same thing a few times... I probably didn't need to enter it so many times, but it wasn't difficult so I decided to be safe). No problems with Mac install either. Very simple.

Overall, the set up was easy and quick. Brother could learn a bit from HP in terms of integrating the documentation and the printer set up a little bit better, but that's a minor issue. It was easy and the thing worked right away.

Automatic document feeder on top of the machine is a great feature to have in a printer at this level, and it works well.

The wireless integration is well done. I was able to print wirelessly immediately, and, quite a pleasant surprise to find that the "scan" feature actually worked as advertised.

Scanning was as simple as dropping a document into the feeder, hitting scan, selecting which of my two wireless PCs I wanted to receive the doc, and then hitting start. Seamlessly scanned and dropped the PDF onto my hard drive.

Ditto for requesting an OCR of the paper document. OCR quality is pretty amazing. I haven't had experience with desktop/consumer OCR in a few years, so maybe they are all of similar quality now, but I was pleasantly surprised. No formatting came over, but I was able to take a memo sitting on my desk and scan/OCR it in a few seconds. The text dropped into a plain text file and had no errors in text recognition or punctuation.

Print speed appears to be slower than the box claims. I haven't tested it, but it feels slower than a lower quality HP deskjet it replaced. Could be a function of the wireless throughput. I'm not terribly concerned since this is for a low-volume home setup. Print quality is good, not fantastic (I will play with settings and see if I can't improve that). Photo prints onto plain paper are not as clear as HP.

I am also very happy with the low noise level. The printer is quiet (much more so than my prior HP inkjet) and it doesn't rattle and shake and rumble like my prior HP inkjet.

If you're having trouble getting the photo paper bypass to work, I had to resort to the manual. You need to physically move the bypass tray forward and lock it into place -- there is no software setting or configuration switch in the print properties. (You can select paper type and all the normal options there, but not the bypass.) Then when done, you pull the paper tray out and physically move the bypass tray back into standby position. At first I was annoyed, but given the frequency of printing via the bypass, I don't care. And I figure not having two paper paths probably means less chance of paper jams.

The model higher than this one is essentially the exact same unit but with a phone handset and a built in digital answering machine. I didn't think that was worth an extra $50, but if you need an answering machine it might be worth it to save footprint.

So far so good. I highly recommend this printer. For the price, features, ease of set up, size, and quiet, it is a very good deal.

I had tried the HP 6380 which had (to me) slightly better print quality, but lacked the automatic document feeder fax and the very well integrated wireless software. I also was unable to get multiple of them to work -- fatal errors on hardware, plus bad customer support, so I gave up and went to this unit... glad I did. I saved money and got a printer better suited for me.

I will update this review in a few weeks if I have any issues with reliability.

I've only had this for about 2 weeks but so far I love it.
I cannot say how durable or reliable it will be but here's what I can say:
1) it worked great right out of the box and was not difficult to hook up
2) it prints much faster than my Canon Pixma
3) the scanning software is easier to use than my Canon Pixma
4) it has a fax which - again - worked the first time, very easy
5) it SEEMS to use less ink than the Canon or the Epson I had before that (you do have to buy 4 ink cartridges not just one, but you can buy only the one you need, you don't have to buy all at once)
6) You can turn it off and when you call for it by clicking PRINT on a document or photo, it turns itself on - very nice! (and it comes on quickly)

This may or may not be a downside: the manual is very thick and there are lots of options. I haven't even felt like going through them all and I figure I may never do so unless I need something to work a certain way that does not, as it is, out of the box. I did have to set a few things on the menu, like turning off the ringer of the fax, but that was easy.

My ONE complaint is that the scan screen is smaller than the pixma, so if you have a document or picture larger than about 11x14 (not sure the exact size - see the specs) then it won't work for you. The Pixma had a larger screen.

All in all, if this thing gives me 2 years of good service I will be satisfied.

So far, I would give it a hearty recommendation.

Just bought the Brother MFC-490cw to replace my dead Lexmark X83. Simply stated, this is an awesome all-in-one printer! Setup was quick and easy. The printer found my wireless router in seconds. Loaded the proper drivers in the various laptops and BAM! we were printing without wires!

The print quality for both text and color images is very good. the 3.3" color screen is a very nice feature. Having true CMYK print cartridges (meaning 4 different cartridges) means you only have to replace the color that is empty. It also has slots for memory cards and flash drives so that you can fax/scan straight to those when you don't have a PC handy. All things considered, I couldn't be happier with this printer. At $79.99 it was a steal of a deal!! Wi-Fi printing, the only way to print!!!!

Update: We've used this printer quite a bit since we purchased it, both for my daughter's many high school homework, reports, photos, etc., and for my writing and editing work. This printer is AMAZING. It takes every wireless job with ease and speed. It prints edge to edge if needed, and it's use of the CMYK print cartridges is excellent. I really can't believe I was able to get such a great all-in-one machine for under 80 bucks!! If you haven't looked closely at this printer, you should. I've seen $200+ printers that weren't nearly this good. IT ROCKS!!!

I liked many things about this unit, but unfortunately, I can only give it two stars (I would give it 2.5 if possible).

Pros:
- Small footprint
- Electrical cord built into printer; no annoying separate transformer
- Easy setup
- Good features

Cons:
- Washed out print
- Inaccurate color
- Paper loading tray is a bit awkward
- The manual says you must use up an ink cartridge within 6 months of installation

The printer has nice features and is easy to set up. If you want an inexpensive wireless multifunction, it is a great device. But if you are wanting a high quality print, it's probably not the printer for you. The print looks washed-out and the color is inaccurate. I did notice that if you set the quality to "Fine", the text is more pleasing; however, I suspect that much more ink is used. In short, its features are comparable to or better than the competitors, but the print quality relatively poor.

I bought my MFC-490CW yesterday and in the 24 hours that I have owned it I have just one thing to say - WOW!
I like this printer so much - that I felt that I needed to review it right away and here is why: (my review is based on over 15 years of owning various printers, scanners and fax machines)
1. The Setup:
Setup was even easier than most wired printers that I have had:
The hardest part of the setup was unpacking and getting all the tap and locks of the printers. After that, I pretty much was able to get everything setup by not even having to take a look at the manual (I did use the quick setup manual).
Once the printer was setup and hooked to my wireless network, I installed the drivers that were on the CD on my computers and the setup did all the parts of finding the printer, installing it, that I was amazed that by the end of the installation I had a working printer setup.
I have one computer that is wired to the wireless router and 2 laptops that access the network using wireless connectivity. The printer accesses the network through wireless connectivity too.
2 machines on the network run Windows XP and installation was eventless on them. On my Vista laptop, the setup ran into some problem and just kept waiting for a long time. I just shutdown the installation process, restarted the computer and then restarted the installer - this time around - the installation went off successfully.
I am amazed at how hands off the installation from each computer is: Normally after the drivers are installed you need to find the printer, etc, etc.... With the MFC 490, you run the installer and you are done... You are ready to print/scan/fax right after that.
2. The features:
This is probably the most feature rich printer that I have seen in a $100 multi-function printer.
* You can scan from any computer on the network.
* You can scan from the printer and have it send the image to any computer you like.
* The automatic paper feeder works!
* You can not only send and receive faxes on the device, but also do it from any of the computers on the network.
* the Paper port software provided - does a great job of the OCR
* I love the integrated paper feeder for printing - no ugly stack of papers sticking out of the printer.
* It is fast - I was worried that being connected over the wireless network - printing and especially scanning would be slow.... but it felt just as fast as when I used to be connected to my old printers using a USB cable.
* With all these features - it is like having a separate printer connected directly to each computer on your network.
3: Print quality:
No complaints - it is a $100 printer - I am not expecting shop quality print outs, yet the quality of photos was good and I could not find anything to complain about.
Also - the ink is pretty cheap - $10 for color cartridges and $15 for the black ink. (I found after market cartridges for even cheaper - but wouldnt risk those).
4: Scan quality:
Scanning was easy and every computer accesses the scanner just as though it were directly connected to it. You can specify scan settings (resolution, quality, size and area to be scanned) from your computer.
Scan quality of photos was good.
Scan quality of documents was good and the OCR I did of a printer letter was good and had an accuracy of about 95%.
5: Looks:
The printer has a low form factor - so it blends nicely with the office. With no papers sticking out - it looks very aesthetically pleasing.

I would recommend this device to anybody who is looking to buy a new printer any time soon. It is a solid printer, with great features and best of all it is cheap. It certainly is worth $200 for what it gives you in features and ease of use. You can get it for $100 to $130 in most stores.

I love it! This is how printers should be made.

To get a great all-in-one printer without killing your wallet is one thing, but throw in wireless capabilities for the ease of printing from your portable device, is the icing on the cake.
From the moment I opened up the box, my printer was set up (including software for my laptop) in under 30 minutes. I was printing wirelessly in no time. Because I only use this printer wirelessly, I cannot rate the item on a wired setup.
This seems to be a huge upgraid from my Lexmark all-in-one, but without a hugh price difference. I really like that there is no attached phone for the fax portion. Now my two year old can no longer tie up the phone line due to a pointless attachment. So far all the documents I have printed have come out looking great. I have not used it for photos yet.
I highly recommend this product. An extremely affordable wireless all-in-one with a very simple and stress free setup process.

Ordinarily one of my least favorite things to do is to set up office equipment like printers or fax machines. I was prepared to hunker down for the evening and install this multi function printer on a wireless network with three PC's and two Mac's. Four of the computers are connected to Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router by ethernet and the other wireless. The set-up of the printer was a snap. It probably took about 40 minutes from taking the printer out of the box to printing a test picture on the last computer and most of that time was taking the plastic packing material off the printer and waiting while the software and drivers installed on the computers. It was painless. No foul words, no bad temper or snarling.

After plugging in the printer and connecting the phone line for the fax, I installed the ink cartridges and set up the fax info on the little LED screen. It was simple, just followed the directions in the quick start guide. (They even supplied pictures) Then I followed the prompts on that little LCD screen to connect to my wireless network. It saw it right away, asked for passwords, etc. and, POOF! the printer was connected to my network. Then I just put the CD that came with the printer into each of the computers, one at a time (They have installers for both the Mac and PC on the same CD) and POOF! again. They were all hooked up and I could print pictures. It was that easy. Now I can print from all of the computers and there's no wires running from the printer to any of the computers or to the router. It almost seems like magic!

I can remember times when connecting just one printer to a computer was a major "plug and pray" ordeal. This was completely painless and I'm not a computer geek by any stretch of the imagination.

The photos I've printed so far look great. I sent a fax to my office, but will have to wait til tomorrow to make sure it went through. It looks like it did. The scanner works just fine. Another little thing that's cool about this machine is the LCD window. I took a picture of it and posted it on this product page.

Two thumbs up for this printer!

I typically don't give anything five stars but felt this product warranted it. I saw this printer on sale for $79 at Office Depot. When I went to buy it, an employee at Office Depot talked me into the $179 HP C6280 Photosmart printer. I took the Photosmart printer home but before opening read some mediocre reviews here on Amazon and took it back and got the Brother.

This printer delivers well on what I was looking for such as a wireless connection, scanning, copying and photo printing. The only setup issue was when I was configuring the wireless connection, initially I couldn't print from my computer. However, I rebooted my computer and then it worked fine (not sure why).

The Office Depot guy who initially talked me out of the Brother printer was adamant that Brother ink quality was "terrible". However, I printed a few pictures on the sample Brother photo paper and they came out terrific. I'm sure someone with a more keen eye could nitpik the accuracy of the colors on the photos but to my untrained eye the colors look very good.

In summary I'm pleasantly surprised how well this printer works, especially for the reasonable cost.

I read many of the Amazon reviews here and everyone seems to like this Brothers WiFi Network Printer pretty well, so I went looking for a place to buy one. I saw in one of the reviews that someone got one for $79, but I searched both online & off and couldn't find one anywhere for less than $100. I then got a sales flier from Best Buy in the mail and went and bought their last one in stock for $99.

I brought it home, opened it, pulled off all the packing crap, plugged in the power, connect the cat5 cable to my router, and it said install the ink, so I did. Next I popped in the cdrom and installed just the printer driver... that's it. Then I went to my desktop and opened a browser and selected print preview in the browsers menu and then told it to print to the Brothers printer and BAM!! within seconds.. 2 colored pages were printed.

Next I went to my WiFi Laptop, installed the driver from the cdrom, and opened a browser and BAM!! same results.. I got wifi printing without any hassles... this is great.

I read in someones review here, that this wasn't possible, getting both cat5 wired and WiFi printing out of this machine... but it works for me. I never connected a USB cable to it at all..

I run 1 desktop cable connected computer (cat5 to the router) & 1 laptop wifi connected computer (to my wifi router - same router in both cases). Both are winXP pro O/S..

I was currently using an Epson CX8400 and it's a great printer for its time. But since I now have a wifi laptop I wanted wifi, and well... the epson just got disconnected and put on ebay to regain some of the cost I just paid for this one.

Also I've been hating how massively huge many peripheral makers... addon software.. has been getting. They are huge and sometimes they literally take hours to install. Then they bog down the performance of your machine and are slow to open up. HP is terrible at this, probably the worst (they used to be the best) but I will not buy an HP product anymore! Epson has always been pretty good, quick to install & very reliable, and they were my choice over the past 5 years. This is my 3rd Brothers product, but the other 2 were fax machines.

This Brothers All-in-One machine was a breeze to install and get results from. Not only that the refill ink is very reasonibly priced AND... there are NO smart (electronic) chips on the ink cartridges. So you can refill them or buy cheaper 3rd party ink... HURRAY!

I love that I can just leave the machine turned on 27/7 and that it will go into a sleeper energy power savings mode. If you left a USB printer plugged in, and did a restart or new start-up on your computer, it wouldn't start unless you turned the power off 1st (just another hassle).

I really haven't fully checked the print quality for photos & it may not be quite as good as a REAL (high priced) photo printer.... For the price of this machine you really cannot complain with it's hassle free operations!

anyways I'm a very happy camper with this product, and I've only started with the printer option, I still have the scanner, fax, copier, and more, to play with... :)

I LOVE this machine!
I recently moved to a Mac and my existing Canon Multifunction Machine did not offer drivers for Mac.
So, I began my search for a replacement.
I was immediately impressed with the large number of positive reviews as well as the price point.

Sure, Apple will send you a free Canon machine when you purchase a new Mac, but they are junk! Tried one and couldn't even get it working.

This Brother is a breath of fresh air!
Extremely easy to set up - I have it set up wirelessly which is out of this world!!
I can print from anywhere in my house!
I have successfully used printing, scanning, copying and faxing.
I did not purchase it with the intention of printing out photos.

So far, I have it a month and I am extremely please with the purchase.
I purchased one for my mother as well!!!

Excellent product!