With a Brother MFC 5490 CN – You Get What You Pay For

When you are looking for a printer/copier, first figure out exactly what you need that machine to do for you. Ask yourself how often you would use the special features they have, how much volume you will run, etc. and that knowledge combined with the size of area you have to fit one in; these questions will help you pick the perfect machine for you. The inkjet ones are cheaper and come in color, but they are slower than the lasers, which cost quite a bit more in color.

The all-in-ones that have faxes are usually bigger than just printers are, but if you send many faxes, you may want to get the one with a modem, so you can fax directly. In addition, if you want to print directly from your camera, you will want a big LCD preview screen and memory card slots and/or PictBridge capability. Even what you are using the finished items for, just personal notes that do not need such good quality, or whether time is of the essence in getting it printed? All this will have a bearing on how well the printer will fit you.

The Brother MFC 5490 cn is an all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine that can produce different types of charts, reports and presentations, as well as other business material. It can print 35PPM in black and 28PPM in colors, with a resolution of 6000 x 1200, which is standard. It comes with an input tray that can hold 150 sheets and a 50 sheet automatic document feeder. It copies at the rate of 23PPM in black and 20PPM in color, which is above average, and can reduce and enlarge from 25% to 400%. It can scan as high as 2400 x 1200 dpi with a 38 bit color depth.

There have been a few minor complaints about this one, which is probably keeping the cost of it down. It will not send a fax without scanning it first and there are constant pop ups telling you the ink is low when it is not. It will not print; however, if the ink is too low, so maybe that is actually a good thing. The last complaint is that when it starts to automatically clean itself, it takes several minutes to complete the job. The customer approval rating is fifty-seven percent, which is low for Brother, but high for some other brands. It is also not very good for very high volume, which is pretty usual for these home or small business machines.

You will need to check and make sure your digital camera is compatible with the printer to be able to use the PictBridge. It is capable of Ethernet, and will print out sheets up to 8” x 14”. Overall, it is a good machine for the money, and Brother is a name that you know.