Comments on: Brother MFC490CW Color Inkjet Wireless AllinOne Printer

By: John Davidson

John Davidson — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:09:20 +0000

Very Simple and useful printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I've tried Canon, Epson, and HP printers, but in my experience the Wireless Brother Printers are the best and easiest to use. We recently gave my mother her first macbook and programmed it to use voice commands to scan in photos. It's very simple for her to use, and the printer is on her wireless G network, which means she can put it anywhere in her house.

For Snow Leopard users, please keep in mind that to scan you have to use preview or Image Capture to scan pictures. It won't work simply pushing the button on the printer. That may change in a driver update at some point. The bright side is, if you put 5 pictures on the scanner, Snow Leopard will automatically separate the 5 pictures into different files.

This is the 3rd scanner/printer combo I've bought from brother. It's simple and the ink loads easily in the front, no taking apart of the printer will be in your future.

By: MaxD72

MaxD72 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:58:04 +0000

All this for $80? Can’t go wrong.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
There may be faster machines out there. Some may offer better quality prints. But if you are looking for a wireless printer that can also scan, fax (a feature I haven’t used yet) and copy, then you can’t go wrong with the Brother unit. The print quality is good and it is fast enough for my needs. After a month of use, I’m fully satisfied.

By: Bryan Mccormick

Bryan Mccormick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:24:30 +0000

Horrible printer with horrible support
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
For this price point, i thought this printer was too good to be true. It was. I think it has worked thrice during the course of the year i have had it. First, the installation software is junk. I couldn’t even get it to work on Vista (which was supported – supposedly). Then I tried windows 7 (not supported) and it worked – for a while. Then the printer mysteriously goes offline and I cannot print or scan to PDF (which I need to be able to do). Don’t try to go to the website to get the most up-to-date installation media; they are not on the website; only bits and pieces that will NOT give you the full installation. Furthermore it starts up numerous unnecessary programs during startup for no reason. It is time cosuming to remove/reinstall (which is all tech support knows to tell you to do). After I finish this review, I am going on Amazon and looking for another printer because bottom line: THIS PRINTER IS NOT WORTH THE LESS.

By: Michael P. Palya Sr.

Michael P. Palya Sr. — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:26:28 +0000

Great features for the money.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have several inkjet and laser printers. This one , by far is the cheapest for the buck (at the time I purchased it) and it has great features that are available in the much more expensive models. I do not have much experience with Brother printers so I am hoping the quality holds up. If it does, this is close to a five star printer.

The printer was fairly easy to set up using the automated CD install but some may find it a little challenging, due to the complexity of all the features. The more features, the more to set up and configure and tweak.

The software (full feature) tends to be a large package and may add a little time to Windows startup on your PC since it does things like loading a printer monitor which watches ink levels and connectivity. Setting up this printer VIA cable is much easier than choosing the wireless setup which requires some technical knowlege about wireless networking.

The print speed seems to be fairly quick in normal mode. I wouldn’t exactly call this a “photo” printer but it has a neat tray that allows you to store both photo size paper and normal paper at same time. A slide of the tray converts from photos to paper printing.

The printer itself seems to be of good quality but the tray seems a bit on the flimsy side but I have seen $800 printers with flimsy trays as well. Ink usage seems to be good and I was able to buy “refurbished” refills on Amazon for an excellent price, so if they work, it will be 5 stars as far as operating costs. Some printers issue warnings or refuse to print or read ink levels when using refurbished cartridges so I have yet to test them. Normal print quality was fast and very good but photo printing with the included ink cartridges was slower and fair at best. All considered, lots of function and features for a low price. Typical free shipping from Amazon was fast as usual.

By: Tor Cli

Tor Cli — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:28:46 +0000

My review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a pretty awesome printer I received it really fast. It was a great bargain buy for the price I paid $79.99. It works really good. I am not really familiar on how to set up faxes so that part was kind of complicated for me so, I probably want get the full usage out of the fax. All the other basic functions were pretty much procedural. For the picture quality it was great, better than what I had expected and it printed pretty fast. But I have to admit setting up the printer to print pictures was kind of involving at first but, after trail and error and rereading the directions I got the hang of it. Overall I really like the printer and I loved the price.

By: KS

KS — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:34:17 +0000

Great buy
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have two MFC-490CW’s in my home. These are great quality printers and the price is hard to beat. My favorite feature is the separate ink cartridges. It allows me to replace only the colors I use most. I am very satisfied with Brother printers.

By: Heather Lee

Heather Lee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:31:37 +0000

Nice printer
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This printer works fine and is great for the price we paid. The colors are a little pale, but overall we are happy with it.

By: A. M. Gacutan

A. M. Gacutan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:16:04 +0000

Great wireless printing & scanning with a Mac OS X!
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Setup, wireless printing & scanning with my mac is easy and smooth. Ink use is great and the cartridges are not that expensive. Sleeps when not in use. I never have that need to turn it off. Printing speed is not so impressive. I’ve seen photo printers make faster prints than this one. Photo printing is embarrassing. Text and graphics are OK. One thing about this is that it JAMS. It jams close to 60% of the time. Take note that I print on different mediums, from inkjet paper stickers and shipping labels.

By: V. Leung

V. Leung — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:53:03 +0000

A very cost effective wireless printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The printer was delivered on time. It is easy to set up. The installation documentation provides all the details. I have one desktop computer connecting to the cable router and two other wireless notebooks. All of them can print to this wireless printer. It is hard to beat the price at this quality and performance.

By: Binish Mathew

Binish Mathew — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:25:40 +0000

Excellent one… Out of the box… plugged it in… started working
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Excellent one… Out of the box… plugged it in… started working…. This is the second printer I owned. The first one, a Dell printer stopped working after i upgraded my OS to Vista Ultimate….

This one is too easy to install (divers), plugin and start using…