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"Excellent Features, But ink gets used up too fast" on by Anton_Sion
Pros: Very good interface, design, connectivity and simple software
Cons: Ink gets used up tooooooo fast; i always have to get new cartridges :(
Summary: Excellent features, only drawback is the ink consumption.
Printing Quality is do-able, not the best, but okay. :) -
"Decent for the price" on by MardynK
Pros: Happy with print speed, color photo quality, fax with only 1 phone line, setup for ethernet/LAN connection, touch screen menus, PC scan software.
Never a jam.Cons: Mechanicals are terrible.
Scan feeder which commonly tilts/skews it, also misses sheets.
Printer feeder for commonly grabs sheets poorly.
Handset gives weird feedback sometimes.
Confusing answer machine.
Sometimes blurry print - could be cheap ink.Summary: I decided to write a long review after sponging off of so many others for so long. This is my first review of ANYTHING!
We use this printer as a light duty home office printer/scanner/fax and as our main phone. The scanner has been heavily used as I keep almost no paper anymore with my shredder. Have used it for over 3 years.
Hookup:
I didn't try the USB since it has its own print server inside the machine. So I just use the ethernet connection which is great. I might say PERFECT, but I never give perfect marks. When I first bought it, I had a hard time getting the wireless to work with Windows XP and gave up. It could have been the (ISP provided) wireless router. At the time, there was still shaky support for SPA2 encryption, so many things didn't work well. I think I tried again last year with a different (Verizon provided) router, Windows 7 (Pro, Starter...) and I think wireless may have worked, but print speed was slow so I just went to tried and true ethernet. The extra foot of cable needed to snake it into the internal cable jack is not a big deal for usually long ethernet cables, but I could see it as a problem for USB cables which need to be kept short (for signal integrity). Snaking the cable was easy for me, but not sure about my wife who is less mechanically inclined. I've got it running through a $15 ethernet splitter at my cluttered desk.
As a printer:
We aren't hampered by print speed or time to first page printed. For the most part, we only print a few pages at a time. Usually 2-3 pages of Google map directions as we run out the door. So it's obviously fast enough for common use. And the black & white print quality is good even with knockoff ink. We've been using cheap ink for 2 years and counting. Occassionally it gets blurry and I am concerned about barcodes for flight boarding passes, etc, but usually a cleaning, calibration or just changing print quality to fine (very slow ppm) fixes it. The poor print quality could be from the cheap ink. Color glossy prints (my wife does many) are surprisingly good with cheap ink and cheap (Costco) glossy paper. We have many on our walls. Unfortunately, the "mechanicals" of this printer stink. My wife is physically incapable of switching the printer between regular 8.5x11 and glossy photo paper. You need to pull out the tray, hold a trigger squeezed while sliding another plastic part... It's just easier if I do it for her. I don't have a problem getting it to work but do find it annoying and flimsy. As well, when printing 8.5x11 normal paper, it sometimes grabs multiple sheets at a time. In the best case, you get a blank sheet in the middle of a printout of 20 sheets. At worst, it prints the first line on one sheet, next line on a second sheet and the rest on a third sheet. It's because the feeder gives 1/2 inch of one sheet then grabs the second for 1/2 inch then finally gets the third without prematurely grabbing the fourth. This is worst at the end of the tray (<15 sheets in the feeder) or if it is very humid (and the pages stick together).
As a scanner:
It has a single sided scanner, and with the number of bills, etc that are printed on both sides, I wish I had bought something different. It's just more time consuming. I will sometimes copy the even numbered pages, collate them with the odd from the original document so that I can have the entire document in one pdf. I might be able to do the same with software, but don't want to spend for Adobe pro, and don't know freeware that can collate two pdfs. I am happy with scan quality, and can make very good quality scans of legal documents for my lawyer (who says they need top quality for the government) by adjusting settings, but the speed is slow enough that I always try to give him normal scans first. The mechanicals for the scan feeder are also pretty poor - pages might stick together so you miss pages when using the feeder (I end up feeding by hand 1 at a time, or slightly crumpling the leading edges to separate pages). Many times they go in slightly crooked despite best efforts so the scans are tilted. Seems to be a common issue with a lot of scanners. Also, there are 2 ways to scan. You can use the Brother (CCB) Software from the windows system tray, or press buttons on the 990. If you have Brother software installed on several computers, the 990 will ask you which computer you want to push the scan to. I don't use this because it seems more awkward although should be equivalent. Instead I load the paper in feeder or on the glass, open the software and click which (fast key) scan I want. The software has 4 fast keys to scan - I really only use 2: Photo and File. You can set file type (pdf vs jpeg vs bmp vs ..), paper sizes, color, resolution, contrast, etc etc for each through the configuration menus. I'm used to it now, but not sure if I want to teach my wife how to use the config menu. It's not that hard, but I'm constantly tweaking size, etc based on the job, so I'm used to the menus. I usually just set hers up for "Photo" to be color jpeg and "File" to be black and white pdf. As well, the settings remain for each user of the software, so I can set mine differently than my wife's. You can also set the defaults for the touch screen buttons on the printer, but as I said I tend to drive all scan jobs from the PC not the 990. One last thing, the Paperport software that is bundled gives some text reading software so you can take a statement and scan as text (to a .txt file). I tried it, it's not bad, but I don't have a use for it so only used it once. Might work to convert mom's handwritten recipes.
As a fax:
No problems. I'm serious. I love it. I receive fax to be printed (not saved to a file - can't remember if it has the option). I also have it set to listen mode so I only have 1 line for both voice and fax. Works great, as long as I know a fax is coming. Usually if I answer and it's a fax machine, I hang up and the machine on the other end tries again. I also screen a lot of unrecognized calls to the answering machine, so it's usually not a problem. Even though it's a small and common feature, I love how it picks up whether it is a fax or a voice call. It just works.
As a phone:
LOVED the handset for the first couple of years. But lately getting some weird feedback interference. We're in a new apartment, and I can see a ton of wireless networks etc being put in lately so it might be a noisy environment. Usually if I call back immediately, or switch to a different handset (also wireless) the noise goes away. I am constantly using the speaker phone on the handset as the 990 is a bit too far away. It's great. The answering machine is basic but leaves some to be desired. It has a minimum OGM of 10 seconds or something. It might be dictated by having enough time for the fax listener to intercept. In any case, there's a lot of dead air in my OGM. I stay quiet for about 5 second, then say a short message, and the beep comes on. Also, the buttons are confusing for my wife. To turn the answering machine function on, there's a big round button that glows blue when on. When there's a message, it flashes. However she would always hit that flashing button (makes sense, can't blame her) to play the message, and so turn off the machine (light goes off now). The play button is below. So I've resorted to partially covering the lit blue round button with ducttape to remind her not to press it, but PLAY instead. I would like to also have partial rewind/fast forward. You can only skip ahead or back messages which can be a pain for long winded callers.
Overall, we have definitely gotten our money's worth. There are many pains, but on sale it is a bargain. My life loves it, and can use it for what she needs, which makes me happy. -
"Terrible Print Quality" on by tzahala
Pros: Lots of features
Cons: Unacceptable print quality. So basically useless
Summary: Fro as a printerm the first, black is grey and colours are washed out. All Brother could say is that I should try some other paper. I am at maximum vivid setting but it makes little difference. The paper is a good quality one that I have used with other printers with no problems. Basically, this printer, notwithstanding all its features, is useless
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"good printer for the money... Tons of features" on by cnetpete2011
Pros: This printer has ALMOST everything you need
Cons: Phone does not have MUTE button...
Printing images can be slow.Summary: The cordless phone works GREAT, very good idea EXCEPT it doesn't have MUTE button!! Can believe in this day and age they left this out!! Big oversight.
Would be good if phone has Bluetooth capability. BT is only used for printing... (big whoopie... that doesn't thrill me)...waste of having a BT receiver on printer. -
"a fantastic product to use once set up" on by sue1767
Pros: i like that it has wireless printing,scanning and is all a home or office needs
Cons: set up is too difficult to do and have spent days trying to restore my wireless options and can not find the help i need and i cant find out on the cd-rom or the booklet how to use it with a wired connection so i have to pay someone to come fix it
Summary: i love the wireless printing and scanning from my laptop but find using the phone attached a problem as i often do not get to the phone fast enough and there is no option to extend the amount of rings before the machine kicks in.
I dont like how difficult it is to set up the wireless options and i had to pay someone to do it and now i have changed internet providers i have to repay someone to redo it as i can not get any answers about "check connection " for scanning to change even when i have done the network connection correctly and the fact i need to look any questions about printing or scanning up on the cd rom instead of the book annoying and not given any answers what so ever for my problem. also i can not even look up what cord to use to connect via a wired connection
Brother MFC-990CW user reviews
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