Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Printer, Wireless, Works with a Mac
Comment: After approximately a month of using this printer, I am very impressed! I bought this printer to complement the new Mac that I purchased and I was looking for a printer that would print wirelessly. This printer does EVERYTHING I need it to do.
For example, I am working on a graduate project for school on the mac and I just sent several pages of the project to the printer (which is located in the other room). When I was finished printing, I did some more web research, and then went into the other room where the printouts were waiting for me. I'm not tethered with wires or tied to the room where the printer is located in order to print.
Set-up was (mostly) easy. At first, setting up the wireless was a little intimidating, so I used a simple usb wire and hooked into Apple's Airport Extreme BaseStation. I was able to print wireless using that option. Then, as I got more comfortable with the Brother's menu system, I was able to figure out the printer's built-in wireless option and I got it to work. Like another reviewer said, it works perfectly. (Hint: make sure you know your Wireless network settings ahead of time. This will SAVE YOU A LOT OF TIME. I didn't really write down my settings when I created my network, but I was able to use a PS3 to display the network settings I was using and then I put those settings into the printer and TA-DA, my Brother Printer was operating wirelessly).
Printouts are great. I'm a grad. student as well as a published writer, and I need both good black text for my stories as well as color images for school. So far, the Brother has preformed perfectly. Colors are crisp and bright, and black text looks professional (which is what I'm looking for when I send out my stories). I'm not a demanding user per se (I haven't needed to use the Fax option yet), so I can't really comment on how well it would be for Small Business owners, but I can heartily say that this is the best printer that I've owned so far.
Any negatives? The only issue that I'm having at the moment is trying to figure out how to get the Mac's Printer driver to let me select different trays. The Brother gives you two (2) trays. You can fill one with regular paper and the other with glossy, envelopes( or even more regular paper if you really want to). At the moment, I can't figure out how to manually select between the two trays, but I'm sure that is more an issue with me (I'm a recent Mac convert from Windows) than it is with the Brother Printer/Mac.
All I can say is that I think that this is an excellent product. I'm glad that I read the earlier reviews and decided to purchase the Brother MFC-6490cw. If you own a Mac (esp. a laptop) or if you have multiple computers in a home office setting that you would like to print from wirelessly, this is a very strong contender. Also, I feel that I should add that this printer works with Windows, but since I just switched over to a Mac, I can't really comment on setup/drivers for Windows, although I have a feeling that so long as you know your wireless settings ahead of time, setup for Windows will probably be fairly smooth as well.
With the Brother MFC-6490cw and the Mac working together, I now feel like the "creative professional" that Apple is always portraying in its ads.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice idea but poor color saturation
Comment: In testing this printer I discovered that the sharpness greatly diminishes when enlarging past 130%. Color saturation in general copies is poor for reds (looks very faded) and yellow wasn't very bright. The paper tray capacity is great but the top piece is very flimsy. Wonderful printing in black and white at 100%. This would be an excellent printer for someone needing larger sized copies in black and white or with small amounts of color. Not very good as a photo printer. The wireless works fine too. If you need sharp enlargements and better color saturation (photos and copies) I would go with one of the HP printers with 9600 dpi.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works with a Mac - WIRELESSLY
Comment: I unboxed our new MFC-6490CW last night and set it up. Within 10 minutes I had it connected to our wireless network. Loaded the included software on my wife's new Macbook Pro and I could SCAN and PRINT wirelessly!
Have a stack of bills you want to store electronically? This thing will scan to your PC through it's auto document feeder directly to the mac or pc over the network.
Want to fax something from your desktop? From the Mac or PC it works.
Amazing device. It has email features that I have yet to read about, but from what I can see it can scan to email, and print/fax from an incoming email as well. I picked it up at OfficeMax for less than $200 shipped with a coupon. Killer deal on a very useful device. Size is a consideration as others have noted, but its no bigger than you would expect from a wide-format and wide-scanning device. And where else can you find a 11X17 scanner for $200? For $300? Nowhere.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Printer. Leaves HP in the dust.
Comment: I really needed a low cost printer with 11x17 capability and this printer is the perfect solution. Easy to set up. Works great. Very good print quality for an ink jet. The software is excellent. Only negative is I wish there was a manual feed option for instances when I need to print an envelope or a paper size not already in tray #1 or #2. But overall, this printer is much better than the HP all in one in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another gret feature San to PDF
Comment: I don't own this printer yet but I've been doing research on it and I went to my local Office Depot to try it out. After downloading the manual and reading a post online I wanted to try out the Scan to PDF feature.
You can place your USB flash drive (or some compatible memory card) into the front of the device and then place up to 50 documents in the ADF and have them scan into a multi-page PDF file. Super handy. You also could have it scanned and sent as an attachment in an email or sent to an FTP location.
I could imaging this being a great feature to stay organized with receipts. You could just place them on the glass surface and have the machine store your email address "myreceipts@gmail.com" and then just keep sending them there for safe keeping.
It won't OCR when it created a PDF meaning they text in them won't be searchable but on the Mac with quickview it works great as you can just scroll through previews of them and get to the one you want pretty quickly.
As a default the scanner is set to color and PDF as output as well as putting the date as the file name. All of this can be changed though pretty easily.
I think some people would buy it for this feature alone. I looked into software for other scanners to make a multi-page PDF and it cost $150 just for the software. You still need to get the scanner.
Summary: Great Printer, Wireless, Works with a Mac
Comment: After approximately a month of using this printer, I am very impressed! I bought this printer to complement the new Mac that I purchased and I was looking for a printer that would print wirelessly. This printer does EVERYTHING I need it to do.
For example, I am working on a graduate project for school on the mac and I just sent several pages of the project to the printer (which is located in the other room). When I was finished printing, I did some more web research, and then went into the other room where the printouts were waiting for me. I'm not tethered with wires or tied to the room where the printer is located in order to print.
Set-up was (mostly) easy. At first, setting up the wireless was a little intimidating, so I used a simple usb wire and hooked into Apple's Airport Extreme BaseStation. I was able to print wireless using that option. Then, as I got more comfortable with the Brother's menu system, I was able to figure out the printer's built-in wireless option and I got it to work. Like another reviewer said, it works perfectly. (Hint: make sure you know your Wireless network settings ahead of time. This will SAVE YOU A LOT OF TIME. I didn't really write down my settings when I created my network, but I was able to use a PS3 to display the network settings I was using and then I put those settings into the printer and TA-DA, my Brother Printer was operating wirelessly).
Printouts are great. I'm a grad. student as well as a published writer, and I need both good black text for my stories as well as color images for school. So far, the Brother has preformed perfectly. Colors are crisp and bright, and black text looks professional (which is what I'm looking for when I send out my stories). I'm not a demanding user per se (I haven't needed to use the Fax option yet), so I can't really comment on how well it would be for Small Business owners, but I can heartily say that this is the best printer that I've owned so far.
Any negatives? The only issue that I'm having at the moment is trying to figure out how to get the Mac's Printer driver to let me select different trays. The Brother gives you two (2) trays. You can fill one with regular paper and the other with glossy, envelopes( or even more regular paper if you really want to). At the moment, I can't figure out how to manually select between the two trays, but I'm sure that is more an issue with me (I'm a recent Mac convert from Windows) than it is with the Brother Printer/Mac.
All I can say is that I think that this is an excellent product. I'm glad that I read the earlier reviews and decided to purchase the Brother MFC-6490cw. If you own a Mac (esp. a laptop) or if you have multiple computers in a home office setting that you would like to print from wirelessly, this is a very strong contender. Also, I feel that I should add that this printer works with Windows, but since I just switched over to a Mac, I can't really comment on setup/drivers for Windows, although I have a feeling that so long as you know your wireless settings ahead of time, setup for Windows will probably be fairly smooth as well.
With the Brother MFC-6490cw and the Mac working together, I now feel like the "creative professional" that Apple is always portraying in its ads.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice idea but poor color saturation
Comment: In testing this printer I discovered that the sharpness greatly diminishes when enlarging past 130%. Color saturation in general copies is poor for reds (looks very faded) and yellow wasn't very bright. The paper tray capacity is great but the top piece is very flimsy. Wonderful printing in black and white at 100%. This would be an excellent printer for someone needing larger sized copies in black and white or with small amounts of color. Not very good as a photo printer. The wireless works fine too. If you need sharp enlargements and better color saturation (photos and copies) I would go with one of the HP printers with 9600 dpi.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Works with a Mac - WIRELESSLY
Comment: I unboxed our new MFC-6490CW last night and set it up. Within 10 minutes I had it connected to our wireless network. Loaded the included software on my wife's new Macbook Pro and I could SCAN and PRINT wirelessly!
Have a stack of bills you want to store electronically? This thing will scan to your PC through it's auto document feeder directly to the mac or pc over the network.
Want to fax something from your desktop? From the Mac or PC it works.
Amazing device. It has email features that I have yet to read about, but from what I can see it can scan to email, and print/fax from an incoming email as well. I picked it up at OfficeMax for less than $200 shipped with a coupon. Killer deal on a very useful device. Size is a consideration as others have noted, but its no bigger than you would expect from a wide-format and wide-scanning device. And where else can you find a 11X17 scanner for $200? For $300? Nowhere.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Printer. Leaves HP in the dust.
Comment: I really needed a low cost printer with 11x17 capability and this printer is the perfect solution. Easy to set up. Works great. Very good print quality for an ink jet. The software is excellent. Only negative is I wish there was a manual feed option for instances when I need to print an envelope or a paper size not already in tray #1 or #2. But overall, this printer is much better than the HP all in one in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another gret feature San to PDF
Comment: I don't own this printer yet but I've been doing research on it and I went to my local Office Depot to try it out. After downloading the manual and reading a post online I wanted to try out the Scan to PDF feature.
You can place your USB flash drive (or some compatible memory card) into the front of the device and then place up to 50 documents in the ADF and have them scan into a multi-page PDF file. Super handy. You also could have it scanned and sent as an attachment in an email or sent to an FTP location.
I could imaging this being a great feature to stay organized with receipts. You could just place them on the glass surface and have the machine store your email address "myreceipts@gmail.com" and then just keep sending them there for safe keeping.
It won't OCR when it created a PDF meaning they text in them won't be searchable but on the Mac with quickview it works great as you can just scroll through previews of them and get to the one you want pretty quickly.
As a default the scanner is set to color and PDF as output as well as putting the date as the file name. All of this can be changed though pretty easily.
I think some people would buy it for this feature alone. I looked into software for other scanners to make a multi-page PDF and it cost $150 just for the software. You still need to get the scanner.
Brother MFC-6490cw Professional Series Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking Reviews: Page 2 of 4
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