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All Reviews > Hardware > Printers > Inkjet printers

October 6, 2009

Brother MFC-6490CW review

Product Code: MFC6490CWZU1

Brother's colour inkjet multifunction printer (MFP), the Brother MFC-6490CW, adds wide-format printing capability to an already long list of functions. Unfortunately, extremely slow performance is the tradeoff.

For £299 (it's cheaper if you shop around) the Brother MFC-6490CW gives you features galore. The integrated scanner takes wide-format media, as do the two input trays, which together take a generous 400 sheets of plain paper.

The trays feel a bit flimsy, and their lids can be tricky. You also get a 50-sheet output tray and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) with the Brother MFC-6490CW.

Automatic duplexing is not available, but its cousin, the Brother MFC-6490CW, offers it for a slightly higher purchase price. Connectivity includes USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi. The first two ports are hidden within the machine, under the scanner unit, which is odd. Media slots take CF, MS, SD, SM, and xD cards. There is also a USB/PictBridge port.

The control panel is mostly easy to understand. A 3.3-inch, colour LCD shows menu items, photo images, and other info; the Brother MFC-6490CW also divides fax buttons on the left from major-function and navigation buttons on the right - all labeled clearly. Our one quibble: it's sometimes unclear which button you use to back out of a menu.

Ink costs are very fair. Brother ships the Brother MFC-6490CW with high-yield cartridges to compensate for the ink typically lost during the initialization process. Standard-size ink costs are average. One oddity: None of the ink cartridges are keyed; you can put them in the wrong slot. The unit performs normally anyway, but we're surprised at this oversight.

The Brother MFC-6490CW's subpar performance overshadows its many nice attributes. In our tests, it did everything slowly: plain text exited at a snail's pace of 5.7 pages per minute (ppm), while the best graphics speed was just 2.4 ppm. Even its scanning and copying speeds were far slower than average. Wide-format output would take even longer. On plain paper, text looked fuzzy and charcoal-like instead of black, while photos looked dull and grainy. Brother's own photo papers improved photo quality considerably.

The Brother MFC-6490CW is hobbled by its lacklustre speed and variable print quality. If you really need wide-format printing, check out options such as HP's OfficeJet 7000 (a stand-alone inkjet), which is faster and has better print quality.

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User reviews from Reevoo.com

Brother MFC-6490CW scores 8.5 out of 10 based on 143 reviews

Reevoo reviews are by people who definitely bought the product

The 2 most helpful reviews:

06 Jul 2009 Neil, Walsall

Good Points

Excellent Value For Money Two Paper trays - each can be set for A4 or A3 paper - once set in configuration paper selection is automatic Wireless Connectivity was easy to setup and works flawlessly

Bad Points

None

19 Jul 2009 mark, norfolk

Good Points

so easy to set up, put network code in, done! can take compatible inks, does everything! set up wireless on 3 computers and 2 laptops in a couple of minutes! sooooooo easy. i was put off these wireless ones for a long time as a friend bought a HP one and it keeps dropping connection, eventually he just uses the wired connection now, but this is rock solid, no problem at all, i can't say enough good things about it! oh, and A3 too! just wow.