Brother MFC-990cw MFP

One of the utlimate goals of office productivity gurus was to put a printer on every desk in the work place. While that notion may be practical, it isn’t very cost effective. But if there is one unit out there that could fit that bill it’s the Brother MFC-990cw A4 all-in-one inkjet printer. This unit’s form factor is compact (468 x 375 x 180mm), stylish (two-tone piano black finish) and functional.

Setting up the printer was a snap. It took around 20 minutes and most of that was for the software install.

The handset clearly is the best part of the unit. Unlike others that I have tested, picking up the 5.8GHz digital cordless handset, which is upright, is fast. You can still use the dial pad on the main unit as well, but what makes this handset special is that a user does not have to get up out of his or her chair, stand over the all-in-one and punch in the fax number. Just by reaching over and grabbing the handset you can do the same task.

The other clear advantage of this MFP is its front loading paper tray and memory slot options for Compact Flash, SD Cards, Memory Stick and USB port for flash drives. Printing is pretty quick at around 27 pages per minute in colour. The other copy, scan and fax functions are fine. The machine can be used in a wired or wireless fashion through Ethernet, Wireless 802.11b/g, USB and Bluetooth.

The other thing I enjoyed using was the 4.2-inch touchscreen LCD, which gives you the time and date along with menu options such as network, Bluetooth, print reports and set up all at your finger tips.What I did not like at all was loading photo paper for printing. It was an enhausting experience in frustration. You have to slide the top of the tray to insert photo paper. It more than 10 tries and several paper jams before a 5 x 7 print was made. I don’t understand the design concept behind photo printing on the Brother MFC-990cw. It should just work the same as other printers. Users don’t want to mess around reconfiguring paper trays for the occasional photo. Brother must go back to the drawing board on this so-called feature.On the good side, the 15-sheet auto document feeder is a nice feature that enables users to fax or copy unattended.

The built-in digital answering machine is another unique feature of the all-in-one machine.

And, at $269, the unit is competitively priced for this market place. So it is not out of the realm of possibility that this can be single person MFP solution.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Paolo Del Nibletto
Paolo Del Nibletto
Former editor of Computer Dealer News, covering Canada's IT channel community.

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