Brother MFC-490CW Color Inkjet Wireless All-in-One Printer

I was skeptical of Brother printers, but after having a miserable experience with HP trying to get a 6380 to work (two broken units delivered; two units returned; 4 hours on phone with tech support), I broadened my search and found consistently good reviews of this printer. I live in a mixed household (Windows and Mac), which also eliminated many competitors. Finding it on sale tipped the scales.

Out of the box, the printer is compact, has a low profile, and is a bit sleeker looking than the competitors. Overall workmanship is solid.

Only exception is the paper tray which feels a bit flimsy, but nothing that would deter me. There is also no easy way to feed envelopes or letterhead without pulling out the papertray -- and to run envelopes, you need to remove regular paper since the bypass tray is only for photo paper.

Fax machine is a nice feature to have and, thankfully, it does not come with a phone handset attachment which would just take...Read more

I've only had this for about 2 weeks but so far I love it.
I cannot say how durable or reliable it will be but here's what I can say:
1) it worked great right out of the box and was not difficult to hook up
2) it prints much faster than my Canon Pixma
3) the scanning software is easier to use than my Canon Pixma
4) it has a fax which - again - worked the first time, very easy
5) it SEEMS to use less ink than the Canon or the Epson I had before that (you do have to buy 4 ink cartridges not just one, but you can buy only the one you need, you don't have to buy all at once)
6) You can turn it off and when you call for it by clicking PRINT on a document or photo, it turns itself on - very nice! (and it comes on quickly)

This may or may not be a downside: the manual is very thick and there are lots of options. I haven't even felt like going through them all and I figure I may never do so unless I need something to work a certain way...Read more

Just bought the Brother MFC-490cw to replace my dead Lexmark X83. Simply stated, this is an awesome all-in-one printer! Setup was quick and easy. The printer found my wireless router in seconds. Loaded the proper drivers in the various laptops and BAM! we were printing without wires!

The print quality for both text and color images is very good. the 3.3" color screen is a very nice feature. Having true CMYK print cartridges (meaning 4 different cartridges) means you only have to replace the color that is empty. It also has slots for memory cards and flash drives so that you can fax/scan straight to those when you don't have a PC handy. All things considered, I couldn't be happier with this printer. At $79.99 it was a steal of a deal!! Wi-Fi printing, the only way to print!!!!

Update: We've used this printer quite a bit since we purchased it, both for my daughter's many high school homework, reports, photos, etc., and for my writing and editing work. This...Read more