Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.

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).

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.

We bought this printer because of the combination of low price and good feature set. There are relatively few printers under $200 that feature a built-in networking interface, let alone a wireless one. The wireless setup is easy and supports WEP and WPA/PSK. For scanning, you can either "push" (i.e. select the receiving computer on the printer's screen) or "pull" (i.e. start the scan with desktop software), which is very convienient. The quality of the desktop software has been good so far -- we have scanned and printed around 100 pages and have not seen any crashes or hangs. The user-interface on the device is easy and intuitive. On the negative side, the print quality is not quite as good as some of the higher-end printers from HP, but it is certainly adequate and is as good or better than our HP OfficeJet v40.

My last Brother machine was a Fax-175 thermal/answering machine that was so durable, it lasted perfectly for over 15 years. It sold easily on eBay. Why oh why I ever tried cranky Canon or hiccuping HP machines is beyond me.

This time, when the HP 5510's cheap construction started to fall apart and I was sick of software hangups and HP's bloatware, I looked at Brother again. What a pleasure.

My choices are somewhat limited by printer shelf space that's only 10" high...this unit is only an amazing 7". And it's solid, weighing more than the larger, klunky HP it replaced.

Features I particularly like:
* Keys are on the very front of the machine and angled towards the user
* Paper tray easily and smoothly stows out of the way when not in use,
* USB 2.0 (and, unlike some other reviews, I like the way it channels into the back under the scanner cover),
* Relatively easy menus on a flip-up 2" LCD,
* Seperate CMYK tanks easily accessable through a door on the right front corner of the machine, instead of being hidden deep in the machine's innards.

I suppose my only annoyance, if that, was an excess of stickers all over the machine. Big deal, huh?

I also considered the MFC-5460cn because of the 33.3 fax (the 665 is 14.4) and 1200x2400 scan (the 665 is 600x2400). Mine is a small graphics agency and we already use a high resolution Canon scanner. Our fax usage is only a necessary evil. We do, however, copy documents regularly.

What pushed me over the edge was the b/g wireless capability, lower profile than the 5460 and phone/ans machine/speakerphone/rec capability as a backup phone system (yes, we have limited UPS we save for the computers).

As I expected, the build is absolutely solid. I have no problem with the print quality whatsoever, for docs or drafts of adverts. It puts the old HP to shame...and for 150 bucks new!

I have a wireless network at home on which I have both Mac & Windows computers. It's always been an effort getting both the Mac & Windows machines to print to a printer on the network. Not anymore.

I'm in love with this printer! Connecting it to my network was easy and straightforward - I just followed the instructions in the Quick Setup Guide. Next, it was running the CD on each computer. And just like that I'm now able to print from both my Mac & Windows computers. It feels quite amazing being able to print from anywhere in the house to a printer that's just sitting there plugged into the wall with no other wires going anywhere.

I looked at Brother because my husband has an earlier all-in-one model that he uses in his workshop and he has been extremely happy with it. Well, I can say that this has been the perfect model for our home - the kids print to it all the time for their various homework needs & I use it for all my work needs. I'm really glad I found it.

One last point that I've also found handy - not only can you control the fax, copy and scan functions directly from the Brother, you can also control them from any of the computers.

I originally swore I'd never buy a Brother again after having multiple printheads fail on me with my previous Brother MFC unit. However the combination of features and price (OfficeMax was doing $30 any purchase over $150) made me want to give Brother another try. The machine is stylish and well made. It seems to have an incredible number of features. Setup was straightforward, including the wireless setup (although my case is simple because my wireless network is not encrypted). I'll know more about reliability in about a year or so I imagine.

I feel like I've discovered a hidden treasure. I haven't been this happy with a hardware purchase in a long time. This thing does everything but cook breakfast plus it's tiny and easy to use. It does ten times what our previous machine did, a thousand times better in half the space. I haven't even networked it yet and I already love it ! Just got through scanning an old photo to flash. We bought it for fax and copy which it does really-really well but it's also a good photo printer. I still can't get over how small and cool it looks. This company put some real good thought into a product. Kudos to Brother.
PS; I'd heard the model with cordless phone didn't fare as well, (low audio), so I purchased corded model instead. We already had cordless phones anyway.

I do have to mention that there are 4 ink cartrigaes required. If you do not have all of them with ink the entire machine will not print anything. Just one thing to be aware of. Most of HP models are the same way, although I heard one of there models may not be this way.

Othewise, the machine looked nice and sleek and appears from other reviews to do a nice job and be user friendly.

I've been using this printer for 2 months and have no complaints. It's a wonderful machine and a bargain for what it can do. In fact if I had known before buying it what the performance was like I would have gladly paid twice the asking price.

The set up was not exactly 5mins but more like 30mins. The bulk of this time was spent setting up the wireless security code as my home wireless router is security enabled. This is the only negative I have. Not much of a negative point I know as setting up a wireless security enabled device of whatever brand or type is a pain anyway.

The feature I like the most is that it's wireless and there are no frigging wires to get tangled up.

The other plus points are the ink cartridges are all separate, that is 3 separate color cartridges and one black. How many times have you run out of say magenta with the other 2 colors still 50% full? The only option is to buy a costly whole new color cartridge? Not with this baby you only buy the color cartridge you need.

The software that comes with is package is a joy to work with and hasn't caused any computer conflicts or headaches.

Having had Canon and HP printers before I can recommend the Brother MFC-665cw and for me it was worth the step into the unknown.