Fantastic!!

We went from a big bulky HP all in one printer to this wonderful printer. I waited two months before I wrote a review. I have printed, faxed, scanned, and used the photo capture feateutres. All work perfectly and so easy. I have also changed the color ink (with generic) once two weeks ago because I had to print a few 8x10 pictures. I love all the features. The wireless setup was a breeze. This is a great home printer. And for the price ($89) you couldn't beat it!

Great deal for the money.

I am very happy with this printer, as it replaced a very bad Epson. All the features work great. The machine is quiet and prints fast, but does take about 30 seconds to get started if you haven't printed in a while.

My only complaint is the paper tray. It is an odd design and feels a little flimsy. You have to shove it underneath and against a lot of resistance, I almost feel like I am going to break it. Once you get the feel of it, it is not so bad.

All in all it is a good purchase, especially for $79.

The great unknown

I'd never comsidered Brother before, always shopping the big three of HP, Canon and Epson, each providing some level of disappointment to me, poor construction, size or noise. I happened on Brother because of the small footprint and the more I looked, the more impressed I became. It's a quality, well thought out design with nice features, easy to use and does it's various jobs well. Scan and print quality are excellent, copies are quick and quiet. I haven't used the fax feature yet. If my own experience with this unit is any gauge, you'd do well to consider it. I wish I'd found it earlier.

Print Heads Are Shoddy

PRINT HEADS ARE CHEAP AND BREAK.

Mine stopped printing black. I replaced the ink cartridge and did 10 blank ink cleanings with no luck. I also upgraded the firmware as a last ditch attempt with no luck. If you search the internet, you'll see this model has recurring issues with the print heads breaking.

It's a shame as I've had it for less than a year. For the money, it would have been a great deal otherwise. I'm definitely going to go back to a printers that have the print heads built into the ink cartridges.

What a terrific All-in-one

The Brother MFC-490CW is fantastic. It has easy set up using the Set-up Wizard. The wizard found my router and asked for the password. The software installation disk didn't have Windows 7 64 bit software, so I was automatically directed to a Brother download page, where I downloaded the installation software. The Brother Control Center 3 application is excellent. I have two computers and 1 laptop hooked up to the MFC-490CW.
I can send and receive faxes from any computer, or send and receive faxes at the machine. I can send scanned images to any computer and I can print from any computer. I can make photo copies. and print at the machine or send the digital image to any computer.

This is exactly what I wanted. Total flexibility.

The print quality for letters is very good. The print quality for pictures is also very good. For pictures you need the right paper and then choose the "Best" setting. The Scanned images are crystal clear.

I like the large display on  more