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78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
lots of features, good value, convenient, so-so print quality, November 27, 2006
This review is from: Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking (Office Product)
Having gotten a new desktop replacement computer which lacked the parallel cable port for my old Xerox 490cx multifunction, I got this model because of its functions, wireless capability, and cost (one-fifty at office depot). It's also the first flatbed device I have gotten. Its relatively small footprint was also a selling point. My use is light home office and personal use - short work-related text documents, recipes for wife, color pictures the kids make, simple copying tasks, and for sending and receiving short faxes.
Set-up - a little bit involved as far as setting it up for wireless on my somewhat old netgear router. Still it found my network, and entering the security key was fairly straightforward. It would be nice if its mac address was more obvious. It might be hard for a total novice to hook this up to wireless unless s/he were running an open and unsecure network. While the box touts its wireless capability, the instructions time and time again recommend using usb or Cat5 connection for best results. Rather disturbing they would choose to discourage you from actually using a feature they tout so prominently on its packaging. I had to turn off the computer's firewall for it to find the printer on the network the first time. You have to use the install disk on every computer you want to enable to access this printer. But I got it working, and all connected computers can find it and print to it. Nice to cut down on a single wire (usb or LAN), but you still have a power cord and a phone-in and phone-out cord so you still have a heavily wired set-up.
Features - the LCD screen is a nice touch and it folds up so you can see it from different angles. It has card reader slots so you can print directly from flash memory cards. The print quality is just so-so. I easily could see the grain on text; on graphics the colors bleed a little. Even using photo paper the results are not satisfactory for printing photos. It has individual ink cartridges which is a plus, and they are very elegantly and easily accessed from the front of the machine. Can't comment on ink cartridge duration yet. I like to refill my own cartridges especially black, but don't know yet if these are amenable to after-market ink refilling. Print speed is a little slow for color, and adequate for text. You can load up to 100 sheets in the cartridge easily accessed at the front of the machine. As a scanner, the resolution certainly should be adequate for most home user tasks, but i found the colors of scanned photos lack vibrancy. This could perhaps be touched up using photo-editing software. After getting a question, i checked it out and you can indeed scan to PDF format - just set up a custom scan program.
Other - It has a built in phone handset and answering machine which are a nice touch if you also want to get rid of a separate phone/answering machine. In retrospect the phone is almost useless to me. You can set the machine to answer faxes only, or phone calls also. The PC fax is a great feature, and you can create a cover page in a snap - all you do is "Print" and select PC-fax from the drop-down menu. Unfortunately you can't preview your scanned fax before sending. I have not received a fax yet, but you are able to save these faxes directly as computer documents - not sure which format yet but another great saver of paper and time. I haven't tried the document feeder yet but if it works for a few pages without a jam, i'll be delighted.
I've not owned a brother brand printer before; I hope it lasts as long as previously owned canon and Xerox devices I've had. For its price, I'm satisfied but not blown away.
UPDATE:
It's Broken
I bought all this Brother ink and now it doesn't work.
Upon starting the machine there is a grating sound as if plastic gears are turning against resistance and then the "Paper Jam" message appears. But there is no paper stuck inside. Rebooting (which you can only do by unplugging) doesn't help. A plastic gear has broken off in the cartridge housing. It is out of warranty. This is after 7 months of very light household use, so you might want to refrain from buying this. And this after I bought alot of Brother LC51 ink.
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing multifunction for the price - amazing support, February 28, 2007
This review is from: Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking (Office Product)
While this printer may not match up to others in the specifications department, It is an excellent multifunction device for the price.
Setup
I was able to plug in this All-in-One, connect it to my wireless (WPA protected, 802.11 G) network, and download drivers to print and scan in no time. All of this can be configured using the controls on the unit. The wireless is a great feature because it allows you to place the unit anywhere in the house without having to worry about being near a computer or running wires.
Setting up the device was simple, but the thing that simply amazed me is the support for this device.
Sure, they have drivers for win 9x/NT/2000/XP and even Vista. No big surprise there, they even support 3 versions of Mac OS X.
What absolutely blew me away is the Linux support. They have RPM and DEB packages for printing, faxing, and scanning. I was able to print with CUPS and scan with XSane on my Ubuntu laptop over my wireless network with very little trouble. I didn't even have to compile anything!
I can now Print and scan from 6 computers in my house running 4 different Operating Systems (windows XP, Ubuntu 6.10, Ubuntu 6.06, and Mac OS X) and it only took one afternoon to set it all up!!!! This is unheard of. I will buy brother components from now on because of this alone.
Printing:
This is not the fastest printer in the world, but the speed is ok for light use. Pages come out clean and neat with decent quality.
I have printed a few pictures on high gloss paper. They turned out really well, again, you can probably do better, but the average users should be satisfied.
Scanning:
Scanning over the network is a snap (even in Linux), and I have had no problems with it. Again, there are faster scanners, and the document feeder only holds 10 pages at a time. This is targeted at home users. I think it holds its class very well.
Memory cards:
you can scan and print with memory cards using the on screen controls. This is a handy feature if you just need to make a quick soft copy of a document or print a snapshot off of your digital camera.
You can scan documents to JPEG or PDF, and you can print from JPEG. The device lets you choose resolution for scans and print sizes and layouts for photos. It will even print contact sheets for you.
Ink:
This unit uses permanent print heads. What this means is that you do not have to buy a new print head every time you buy new ink cartridges like you do with lexmark and HP. The advantage is that Ink cartridges cost less, the disadvantage is that the printer needs to clean the heads more often (it does this automatically) to keep them from drying out so you will use a little bit more ink. This is really only noticeable if you don't use the printer very much. You will see the ink slowly get used up.
This unit also has a fax and voice messaging (answering machine) built into it. I have voicemail and an online fax service so I have not been able to try these features.
I have had this printer for 3 months, and I have been sold on it from day 1. It is a very practical and well thought out printer with excellent software support.''
UPDATE: I have had this printer for a year and a half now and it is still going strong. No issues. It works flawlessly with every operating system I have thrown at it (Ubuntu all the way up to Hardy).
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Depends on your needs..., March 10, 2007
This review is from: Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking (Office Product)
I now have three printers in my home, this one, the only Printer I have that functions with the Microsoft Vista Platform, An Epson All-in-one and a HP all-in-one.
I really love the Brother MFC 665cw for sitting in another room, laptop on my lap and wirelessly printing. Unlike the other reviewer, I had no problems with the Scanner or the fax, and the print quality is great. I have not used the message center, so can't advise about that...
On the downside, the printer does not smoothly feed envelopes. I went to the Brother website to see if I was doing something wrong, and no, the envelopes were a standard size and weight, no gummy flaps or anything like that might mess up the printer, but every time I try to print envelopes they jam. I am extremely perseverant so have ruined more than 50 envelopes (really a pain with my Christmas Greetings!). Also, it goes through ink very quickly and the ink is more expensive than some of the other inks that I buy for the other printers.
I recently bought a new HP for the home office (so that I can print envelopes and it will work with Vista) and will give it a try and inform readers about that one once I have given it a shot. This one will go into the office and function as a fax machine, and hopefully give the message center a try.
If you are like me and are highly dependent upon mailmerge for your business correspondence, I would not recommend this printer until they work out the kinks with the envelope feed.
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