When it comes to multi function printers Brother have the widest choices as well as the best prices. Although this particular model is not their best, it’s still a good choice for small business and personal use.
The Brother MFC-490CW is a color inkjet printer with wireless capabilities. There is an Ethernet connection as well. The 490CW is an all-in-one. It has an automatic paper feed and the scanner type is a flatbed.
It can print, scan, copy and fax. It weighs nearly 18 lbs. and its dimensions are 14.8 x 15.4 x 7.1 inches. This isn’t the type of machine that can handle bulk printing or large office needs, nor is it a portable printer that can fit in small spaces.
It’s somewhere in-between and best suited for home or small office use making it decent value. Its listed price is $180, but it can be found for only just over $150 on Amazon. At the present time, they even have models selling new for $155.
If you want to buy used, there are models selling for around $50. These numbers can change by the day, so it’s always a good idea to stay up to date and monitor Amazon daily to find the best prices.
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Features
One of the best features for the Brother MFC-490CW is the 3.3-inch wide screen LCD display. This easy to use feature will allow you to enlarge, crop, or edit photos in any way you feel necessary. As far as speed goes, the Brother MFC 490cw can print up to 33 pages per minute black and 27 pages per minute color, which is above average.
The fax machine operates at G3 speed, which is the fastest possible. When it comes to quality, the 490cw can produce prints with resolution as high as 6000 x 1200 dots per inch. This is also above average. The memory is an impressive 400 pages compared to the earlier version which only had a 170 page memory.
The Brother MFC-490CW has a 15-page automatic document feeder. It also has a 4-ink system in which you only need to replace the ink that runs out. This can help save you a lot of time and money. There is a 100-sheet paper tray and a photo bypass tray, which can handle 4 x 6 glossy papers, but only up to 20 sheets.
Direct Photo Printing will allow you to print photos from PictBridge memory cards. It has no phone or answering device and the ink cartridges are somewhat small. It handles up to legal size.
Improved Upgrade
This model is a less expensive upgrade of the Brother MFC-5890CN. This model was often criticized and is more expensive at around $159, yet the Brother MFC-490CW seems to fair much better in reviews and is far better value for money.
General view
As you can see from the reviews on Amazon that it fairs very well with users and although satisfaction is not total, in all it’s fairly highly rated.
There are a few negatives for the Brother MFC-490CW. One is that some customers have complained that the print speed is not as fast as advertised. The most likely issue here is that these customers didn’t read the fine print.
The speed and quality stats for any printer are based on optimal settings. You can’t count on those numbers on a regular basis regardless of the model or brand name. Another negative, and one that is fact, is that the wireless set-up will seem complicated to a novice.
If you have experience setting up a wireless connection for a printer, this shouldn’t be an issue. A final negative is that only 59% of customers were more than satisfied with this product. While that’s a good number, it’s far from some of the 80% – 90% numbers I’ve seen in the past.
If you’re looking for a similar printer with a higher customer satisfaction rating, consider the Brother MFC-7840W but at around $350 it is an improvement at a price. Some online reviews criticize it for slow print head and claims that the photo quality could be better.
It gets a more favorable reaction for its appearance and size. Its praised more for its USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet LAN triple facility and is regarded as inexpensive as a multifunction printer of this range.
It takes a little stick for ink consumption and the small cartridges are inclined to be heavy on ink.
The Brother MFC-490CW is best suited for someone who does a lot of work at home or an office that isn’t too busy. It fits right into that gray area, which might have affected its popularity.
The Installation is quite simple where as you can easily plug the four ink cartridges in and install the software, from the CD provided. It has Nuance PaperPort 11SE, with input of scanned documents and photos, as well as OCR for extracting editable text.
Not the best from Brother but certainly more than adequate for a printer with this much function even if the print quality as not up to the standard of HP or canon but affordable.
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