Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-790CW Color Inkjet All-in-One with Wide 4.2-Inch Touchscreen LCD Display and Wireless Interface

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

After looking through reviews and googling 'best all in one', I rarely saw Brother mentioned. It was either Canon, HP or Epson. So I first purchased the Epson Aristan 800. The first unit was defective with an error loop, so I replaced it with another. It's a nice printer overall with the added bonus of touchscreen, but the fax functions were poor, the paper tray was flimsy and it was a bit too large for where I wanted to put it.

So I returned it, walked around the printer isles for an hour and came upon the Brother MFC-790cw. It had wifi, touchscreen, a phone, a real dial pad, a smaller footprint and a much cheaper price.

So after using it for a week, i'm really happy with the purchase. The wifi software was very easy to setup, and I had no problem installing it in Windows beta 7 unlike the Epson Artisan 800. Receiving and sending faxes is easy as pie. Normal and glossy photo print qualities are very good. And the unit overall looks solidly built.

The only two drawbacks I found was the above normal noise and the below normal print speed. But i'm not running a business with the need to print volumes of documents in a short time, so it's not really much of a concern.

This is an excellent AIO for personal use at a great price.

Never before have a come across a printer like this, at such a low price. Brother has done it again, with their phenomenal line of office products. After witnessing the failure of not one, but three HP printers we decided to go with another brand. This unit features a great touch screen, easy to use fax machine, scanner (which lets you choose one of many places that the scanned image can be sent to). The other great feature that sold us on this printer was the fact that it features a built-in wireless care for printer sharing. No more USB cords or other unnecessary cords are needed. The setup for the wireless was a bit tricky at first, even for someone with college education in computer hardware. But we called Brother and they guided us over the phone and it was done!

Please consider this printer! You won't be sorry!

Just received the item and it appears to do what's promised, though I haven't done any photo printing yet, I think the photo print quality will be just fine, being that they included some small photo paper in the box. In my opinion, wi-fi is the only way to go for printers. USB is just another cable. I also needed a fax for the few times I get faxes every couple months and I chose this model because I didn't want the cordless phone on the higher model to get a dead battery or anything on me. I figured that this corded phone would be dead simple.

The software included helps interface with the printer including sending pc faxes out through to the printer. I'm excited to hook my other computers to it to share everything. I somewhat regret not getting the fancier cordless phone model, but it's not a big deal. To me, this unit having an answering machine is an extra bonus. I would have bought it without the answering machine, but I'm happy using it. Also has a speakerphone button. It has EVERYTHING!

Comes with a set of 4 inks. CMYK. I had a little fumbling with the paper tray, as it has several slider mechanisms in it to get it ready, but once I figured it out, it seems pretty simple. Just the diagram isn't much help and I was a little 'gun shy' of breaking sliders that were a little stuck. I love the touch screen and despite a couple menu items not quite in the spot i'd expect (I would have put answering machine and outgoing message recording in better menu hierarchy) it's just fine and probably won't need much changing.

I just have a regular single phone line and it works as a fax.

I saw this item while searching for wireless all in one, apparently it was a featured item on the home shopping network at one point, but despite those shows being often cheesy gagetry, this seems like a winner.

The look of it is not super cool, but appealing enough. I feel bad replacing a perfectly excellent canon 610 scanner / printer with this, but I needed the fax and I was tired of being tethered to the computer. Plus, several of the canon printers say wireless, but only are for bluetooth camera phones. This Brother printer is true wifi, and can handle WEP, WPA and I think one other security protocols I didn't recognize. You type in the codes right on the touch screen to connect to your network.

You might be wondering, where is the cat5 network and usb printer port? YES it does have them. You can't see it in the images, but in case you do need them, you can flip up part of the unit under the scanner lid and both a USB and network port are there, from there the cable can plug in and feed out of a hole in the side. I haven't done it, but I saw the ports.

You must set up the printer inks and the tray / test page printing before the phone will work. You'll get a dial tone right away, but you gotta run the intial setup before you get the button functionality.

I'll probably not revisit this review, but again I haven't printed out photo quality stuff yet. I doubt this printer will surpass a canon or epson photo printer, but I do think it's gonna be fine. Hopefully others will post their reviews about the printing quality here soon.

If you found one or two of the epson wireless all-in-ones on here, they were more expensive at the time and didn't have a phone line. The epson wi-fi model, one of them had color correction.

Please post another review so we know somebody's printing experiences with this....

I have now had this machine for a week and I'm generally satisfied with its performance. I can only give it a two star because its message center is very poorly designed. There is a 5 second delay before the outgoing message comes on. Complete silence..............

Waiting for 5 seconds with no sound (not even beeps) is extremely annoying because you don't know if the answering machine is working or not. Some of my callers ended up hanging up before the message came on.

I have confirmed this quirk with customer service and was told that this delay is by design and is required for situations where there is an incoming fax so the two machines can negotiate a connection. There is no fix for it. In fact, I also found this issue being reported as far back as 2007 in other Brother multi-function machines.

Can't they even add a beep counter or something to at least indicate that the message is coming??

After some bad luck with a high end Epson, I decided to switch gears and try an under-dog. I also wanted to add wireless printing and not be too expensive.
The fax feature on this machine was not a reason for purchasing, but I've used it once or twice.

My favorite features are by far the wireless and the print options. I am a 'laptopper' so being able to print from the couch rather than going upstairs and plugging stuff in was a big deal. It was also VERY east to set up.
This model also has a bunch of print quality options letting you decide just how much ink (and where) you want to use in each print job. A+ on both features.

It is a big printer (so be prepared), but not too much bigger than its peers with the same features. It does have a much larger (and great looking) touch screen, and a phone sticking out the side, so I am willing to look past the size.

The reason I am coming back and writting this review is that it just broke on me...

I bought it in March & it worked fine until a few weeks ago, when it stopped printing black. I was on the ORIGINAL ink, but it was starting to get low at that point (according to the printer) so I thought maybe it just mis-gauged the level, and I bought some new ink.
After putting the new ink in (genuine Brother ink) it still wouldn't print out any black. I followed the troubleshooting in the manual (and cleaned the print heads 5 times (per the manual!)) and still had no luck.

I called Brother Tech Support (WHO ARE STILL IN THE USA!!!) pretty late at night expecting them to be closed, and they are actually there until 8pm! I was shocked!

The guy who helped me apologized, said I'm still in warranty (1 year) and is sending a new (not refurb) machine out to me, with pre-paid shipping to return my dud. They are doing a $50 CC hold (certainly reasonable) and once they get it back its removed. It even comes with new ink.

Overall I have to say that I was very happy with my printer until it broke, and now that Brother is taking care of it I am still very happy with my purchase. I will certainly be looking at Brother products in the future because there attitude/cust service has been miles better than Epsons!

I purchased the Brother MFC-790CW approximately 2 weeks ago as a replacement for a Dell Printer.The setup was easy and it was possible to add it to my wireless network in less than 15 minutes. The printer is quiet and it prints relatively fast with nice colors. I have also sent and received several faxes with no problem.

My only complaint about the machine would be the touch screen interface. The interface isn't as intuitive as other menu systems, so be prepared to be confused the first few times you use it. However, once you use it a few times it becomes second nature. Overall, I would consider the Brother Printer to be a recommended buy for its price range. You won't find any other all-in-one printers with so many features and quality printing for such a low price.

For an all-in-one printer, with a telephone AND answering machine to boot (now THAT'S dang-near all-in-one), for under $200 I have absolutely no complaints! I actually got mine for $99.00 at a local warehouse club, but that doesn't make this printer any less capable. I've used every feature thus far except the answering machine (already had one at the house), and it has performed all duties flawlessly. The DPI isn't stellar for picture printing, but I didn't buy an $100 printer to print "Gorgeous Pictures", I bought a $100 all-in-one to take up less desk space and do a competent job of printing, faxing, scanning, and copying documents and pictures, with the added bonus of being able to even remove the phone from my desk since there's one built into this unit.

I've read in a few reviews that this printer's wireless was difficult to set up, and that couldn't be further from the truth. The directions furnished with the unit were sufficient to have me up and printing, in no time flat, on my wireless network from 3 different computers. I keep a usb cable plugged into the unit and curled up behind it in case I ever need to hard-wire to it, but the cable sits collecting dust so far.

Another nice feature of this unit is the 4 separate ink cartridges. If I run out of red, I replace the red. Not all three colors. Also, ink is very cheap for this model if you search around for it. Don't buy from the usual chain stores and you'll save a bundle.

In all, for under $200 this unit delivers quality at a discount. Just don't expect perfect picture printing from such an inexpensive unit - read the DPI specs and compare if you're looking to print pictures with your all-in-one. Canon makes a decent all-in-one, without the phone and answering machine, but with better than double the DPI.

I wasn't looking for a multi-function printer with a fax. But for the price, I purchased it. I got the machine in Jan. 09. And I couldn't be happier with this decision. Easy to use, I've had no problem with the wireless connection for my laptop. Picture printing was great. (Not even set at higher quality). I am no expert on multi-printers. If you need a machine that will print twenty copies, of a fifty page report real fast. Then no, you need to spend a lot more money! But for a small business, or personal use. It's a great machine. I have a home phone line, and have been able to send and receive faxes, while also having the normal phone calls. By the time I finish writing this, the machine will be obsolete. But for the price, it's worth the money! No complaints so far!

Good looking All in One unit. Hard to set up. I still cannot figure out the wireless part and gave up, pass the cable please. Print quality is good. Print speed is painfully slow! Scan is decent. Easy to use touch screen is a nice addition. Ink cost is decent. Complicated interface but a good looking addition to any home office.

I bought this fax/copier/scanner/printer to replace 2 HP printers and a flatbed scanner. My main reason for picking the Brother machice was the individual ink cartriges.

What I like: network functionality, print quality, size.

What I don't like:
1. This machine can not be used as an auto-answer fax if there are other telephones on the line (typical home use). It must be set up for manual answer.
2. When another telephone in the house is in use, the front panel controls are inoperable -- you can not initiate a copy or a scan from them at that time. You can still use it as a printer, but you better not run out of paper until the phone call is over. This is a MAJOR shortcoming of this machine.
3. When printing on anything other than standard letter size paper (such as envelopes or photos), the machine insists that the paper in the machine exactly matches the size specified from your printing software.
4. While there is a HOLD button for the telephone, it will not release the call to another phone in the house (at least I have not found a way to do that except unplugging the phone line).

Had I know all this before I bought it, I would have bought something else.