Home > Consumer Reviews > Brother MFC-495CW Inkjet Color Multifunction Centre with Wireless Networking for the Small Office/Home Office

Just a quick note about my prior experience with all-in-ones -- I've had various HP all-in-ones over the past 6+ years; most recently I had a HP F380 & a Brother MFC-665CW all-in-ones. I would call myself an advanced user of computers & accessories.

Recently I got this all-in-one (Brother MFC-495CW) when it was on sale. It's now been 2 days since I've been using it. So far, I really like it.

PROs:
-> Includes Copier/Scanner/Printer/Fax, a color LCD and support for b/g wireless networking
-> Brother makes some of the more compact all-in-ones (including fax) on the market.
-> Setting up this all-in-one took about 15 mins & was easy. Everything came pre-assembled -- I just had to remove the plastic wrap, connect it to my PC & insert the cartridges. Some of the previous devices that I have used involved some assembly.
-> I have 3 machines (a desktop running Windows XP, one laptop running Windows Vista and another laptop running Windows 7). I connected the all-in-one to the desktop via a USB cable & to the two laptops via wireless. I had no problems installing on any of these 3 machines.
-> I chose to install only the driver (without installing Brother's software suite that comes on the accompanying CD); there were no problems doing so.
-> Printing & copying quality (in the "normal" model) seems good, so far
-> Scanning seems faster than the previous all-in-ones that I've had
-> Printing over the wireless network seemed faster than the Brother MFC-665CW
-> I have not yet tried the Fax capability
-> Navigating through the menu options are the LCD are pretty easy, once you get the hang of it. The relatively large color LCD helps in this regard.
-> Connecting the all-in-one to the wireless network was very easy.
-> Looks pretty nice. The colors are very pleasant
-> I got it when it was on sale. So, it was reasonably priced
-> I have read that replacement non-OEM ink cartridges for Brother all-in-ones are pretty cheap (one non-OEM cartridge set can be purchased for under $10 on Amazon). I have not yet tried these non-OEM cartridges. This specific all-in-one takes the Brother LC61 cartridge set

CONs:
-> I use different types of paper (eg: ordinary printer paper, letter-head, colored paper, paper with print on one side, etc) for my print-outs. Changing from one type to another type is somewhat inconvenient. Since the letter tray has to be opened each time I want to change the paper-type.
-> Since this is a new model, none of the three versions of Windows recognized this all-in-one till I installed the driver from the CD
-> Takes a little more space than the super-compact HP F380 all-in-one (note that this specific HP model doesn't have FAX capability)

UPDATE after about a month of using it: I still very much like this all-ine-one.
-> I was able to use the FAX functionality (have only sent faxes so far). It worked like a charm. Note that I use OOMA voip phone line & I had to pre-dial *99 before I could send the fax successfuly.
-> I was able to purchase a non-OEM cartridge set for less than $10 (for the complete set with all 4 cartridges). Haven't yet used it, though.

I've had this printer for a couple of days only(UPDATE: Now a couple of months, see 2-month impressions at bottom), so these are initial impressions, but if you're considering this printer there are things that I think you might want to know (at end of review). Note: All of my comments are based on both setting up and using this on a wired ethernet connection.

(Update: This review was written based on installation on an XP system, but I downloaded the Windows 7 64-bit software and it installed fine. I haven't yet seen any issues with it on Win 7. Two weeks into this, it's working fine on Win 7 and XP.)

Pros:

1) Physical impressions: This is an attractive unit, mostly shiny black and matte charcoal. The color LCD screen is pleasant, and the buttons (for general use, more on setup later) are straightforward.

2) Interface: Pretty, and fairly easy to follow. There are some needlessly obtuse icons which, given the space available, don't need to be that way, but all in all it's not hard to use. Fun thing: My unit wanted a firmware update, and while doing the update you get a bit of an audio and visual extravaganza, for what reason I don't know.

3) Print Quality: The printing is good quality. Text is very good for an ink-jet, even to Courier at 8 pts, which is small as the driver lets you go. Photos are about par for the course on regular ink-jet paper. Also, if allowed to dry completely, it was more resistant to smearing (with a wet finger) than most ink-jet inks.

4) Setup (Wired Ethernet): I found this very quick to do, but then I'm used to setting up network printers so knew exactly what I wanted to do. Suggestion: If you want to assign a static IP address to the printer, use the network menu on the printer itself to assign the numbers before starting the installation and to tell it that you want it to use a static IP address, as the install is a bit more straightforward.

5) Faxing: works fine (haven't tried color faxing, don't have a unit that will handle that on the other end) from both PC and printer itself and is pretty quick. (Important as the 'little brother' to this machine has a much slower fax modem.)

Cons:

1) Physical Impressions: This unit feels very delicate to me, and the plastics feel very very flimsy. When removing all of the green tabs and such I felt as though I could very easily break things, and I've never felt that before. When using it I continued to feel as though I could break things, for instance: When opening the lid to place something on the platen, the right hinge seems to want to come off; the paper tray is a bit 'complex' as it has to handle different types/sizes of paper, and it is very flimsy. (Note that I have owned 3 other Brother printers and have never felt this way.)

2) Interface: The menus to setup things are about the same level of complexity as most of these units or as a digital camera. That's fine except that sometimes going back a level just can't be done and you have to exit the menu system and come back in. Annoying, but once you've got things set up who really cares. Another amusing thing: You can select between about 4 'wallpapers' for the LCD, and while they are pleasant enough, they are very multi-colored and make it harder to actually see the information. Oh, and there are a couple of things that just don't work: For instance, the option for how many seconds the backlight should stay on has 4 options: 10, 20, 30 seconds and 'off'. One expects that the 'off' setting would mean just to leave the backlight on, but that doesn't seem to work.

3) Scanning: While easy enough to do from the PC (even over the network, which is sometimes difficult with products in this class) the scanning software is pretty basic, and lacks things I always had on even inexpensive dedicated scanners like de-screening mode. Not a big deal, but you'll need to do more of the work in a graphics program than you would otherwise.

4) Setup (Wired Network): At first, though all seemed fine, the software on the PC kept thinking that the printer was off-line, though the printer didn't think so. Eventually just cycling through the printer booting a couple of times fixed things.

5) Copier: WARNING: I would never buy this if you intend to use it as a stand-alone copier, even if only lightly. Why? I put a page of B&W double-spaced text and it took it between 1.5 and 2 minutes to copy. I honestly thought that that device had gotten 'stuck' and was going to power it off. But eventually the copy came out. What's strange is that if you do the copy from the PC it works much better. In that case, it seems clear that the Brother software is scanning the image to the PC, then sending it out as a print, and it happens in about half the time. And this is with the copy set to Normal and B&W. (UPDATE: I'm leaving this here in case it happens to someone else, but I need to say that after the first couple of copies, things changed and this problem disappeared. It's still not a really fast copier, but 30 seconds for a typical B&W page is workable.)

6)Flash drive support: This printer supports capture of photos from flash cards such as CF, SD, etc. This works, but in a very cumbersome manner: Other printers I've had that allowed one to read from flash cards (CF, SD, etc) mounted the card with a drive letter, so that one could access it using a standard Windows Explorer interface. Instead, you must start the Brother Control Center, which treats is in an 'ftp-like' manner. Does it work? Yes it does, but it feels a little crude and awkward compared to the competition.


WOULD I BUY THIS? NO. While it's cute and friendly, and functionally it's OK, I just don't think that it'll hold up. If you use it occasionally, and are very careful with it, and aren't bothered by its idiosyncrasies, then it may work fine for you. But for an amazon price of about $130 as I write this, I think one can do better. (UPDATE: The day after I wrote this the price dropped to about $90. While this doesn't change my observations about this printer, I think it's more competitive at this price, and I might consider buying it for $90, where I wouldn't have at $130.)

UPDATE 2 and Conclusions: Given that the slow stand-alone copying problem has fixed itself, for $90 this unit is worth it, if you are careful with it physically (I'm always very very careful with the paper tray).

TWO MONTHS: My plan was to use my little B&W Brother laser for all B&W printing (or when I didn't care about the color) and use this for photos, faxing, etc. However, while the warm-up time on the laser isn't bad, I find myself using this when I don't feel like waiting for that, and it's OK.

Something I have noticed is that it cleans itself (or rather, I assume that's what it's doing) before almost every print and every once and a while, out of the clear, it will do a 5/10 second clean. I leave it on all of the time since it's power draw is so low, and it's connected only through the network, so I don't know why these random cleanings happen. I'm just aware of them because my previous ink jet was an HP and it never seemed to clean itself.

One nice thing about the cleaning is that unlike ink jets of old, the cleaning is very quick.

To get a networkable, multi-function, Wi-Fi capable printer for less than a $100 that uses separate color ink cartridges is a terrific deal, especially since it works with Macs. I set this up for my wife who appreciates its reasonably small size and (comparatively) light weight. Does lightweight mean not durable? Only time will tell, but since it sits in one place where it won't get banged I'm not worried about the thin case.

I've run this off Mac Leopard and Windows XP with the included drivers. Not the most current operating systems but I wait to upgrade until an OS has been out at least 6 months (forget Vista). No problems with either system. Following the instructions, setup was straight forward. As a network capable printer it should work with most any computer, though you may need some knowledge to set it up for less common or newer systems.

I was pleasantly surprised with the print speed. I had an older Brother printer that was slooooow. I set it to print a dozen pages, walked into the other room to grab something and came back to find the job done. Copying speed, on the other hand, well..., it takes a while. It's okay for occasional copies but I wouldn't consider this an office machine. But at this price, that's to be expected. I haven't used fax in a couple of years so can't comment on that.

Prints are clean. Text is good quality, and mixed graphics and text are better than average on inkjet paper. Photos are decent. I'm quite happy with snapshots on 4x6 paper. Printing an 8x10 on Costco (Fuji) glossy photo paper was equivalent to a supermarket print, usable, but not spectacular. To be fair, Brother doesn't call this a photo printer. Scanning is straightforward and crisp.

The lcd panel is large enough to read easily and ease of operation is about average. Menus walk you through steps, so you shouldn't need to keep a manual by the thing.

Conclusion: It's a good wireless network printer at a great price that does nice scans and is useful for an occasional copy. There's fax capability, too.

This was an easy printer to set up wirelessly once I had the correct passcode for my UVerse router. Of course that took 3 hours to figure out but once I had setup was a breeze!

I've printed pages out from the computer and it is quick, quiet, and easy. I haven't done pictures yet- I may keep using my wired Canon for that. I didn't want to go with a wireless Canon because of the chip in the ink cartridge. These cartridges do not have the "chip" so buying aftermarket replacements will be easy and cheap. It is also great that you replace only the color you run out of- its not a tri color ink tank.

This was definitely worth the money!

I have been using the Brother MFC-495CW for about two weeks now. I have to say Borther did a great job packaging a lot of features into a reasonably priced product. I prefer all-in-one devices as desk space and access to electricity are often considerations when setting up a home office/work space.

Right off the bat, I like this product because it is simple to set up. Although I am in the IT field, this printer is easy enough to set up so that moist people should be able to get through it fairly quickly. You should be set up in 15-20 minutes or so.

My primary reason for choosing it is it is wireless. Although I have another all-in-one, the Brother is wireless so I was able to install it in a convenient location without having to consider a wired connection to my PC or router.

I also like that the ink cartridges are individual. As a parent of four, I go through a lot of printer ink, and if your kid is, shall we say, partial to one color, you find yourself replacing a tri-color cartridge frequently, even though "the other two colors" may not be low, let alone empty. The Brother cartridges are not expensive, which is another plus.
As for the functionality of the device...

The Copier works well. It is not particularly fast, nor horribly slow. It yields a good quality copy. I like the option to feed the paper into the device, whereas my other all-in-one is a flatbed type so I must lift the cover every time I want to copy or scan something.

Scanning is a breeze with the Brother, and their interface is robust. My HP device seems to take a long time to load its interface software. With the Brother, the scan seems quicker, which I confirmed by scanning the same document/photo on each device. The Brother was a good 30 seconds faster than my HP 2410 (a few years old!).

Printing is good quality; photos print nicely. Please keep in mind the 35 pages per minute advertised, as with all printers, is optimal. "Your gas mileage may vary"....color printing is rated at 28ppm, and photos are slower than text, and so on. That is the nature of the beast. This printer performs quickly and nicely, especially considering its price range.

Faxing worked well. The interface is pretty easy to use. The device had no trouble distinguishing fax calls from incoming telephone calls when set on FAX/TEL, which is always nice if you are using your land-line for both (unless you like picking up the phone and hearing the high-pitched wail of a fax machine training in your ear.

The LCD interface is easy to use, decent size and not too complicated.

Another nice feature is the PhotCapture Center, which will print photos right from removable storage such as USB drive or SD card. The included photo edting interface is typical of what you find included with cameras, scanners, etc.

Overall, this is an excellent all-in-one printer and I would not hesitate to buy it!