Perhaps the biggest news about Brother’s MFC-6490CW multifunction printer (MFP) is its ability to print, scan, copy and fax on tabloid sized A3 paper (11 x 17 inches) for the price of a traditional A4 MFP.
There are numerous MFPs in the market but few manufacturers venture into the A3 arena because tabloid-size ready models cost a lot more. Priced around $309 to $389.99, depending on selected features, the MFC-6490CW offers a range of handy features for most small home offices and even enterprise users who might need a backup printer when their main machine is backed up or being serviced.
The unit comes with USB, Ethernet and 802.11g WiFi connectivity, making it easy to set up with a variety of office systems. Due to network security constraints, I was only able to test the USB connection to my PC. That connection worked very well. I ran my tests using Windows XP, but the printer also comes with drivers for Windows 2000, Vista, Vista 64, XP 64 and Mac OS 10.24 or later.
Atop the printer is a scanner unit that can handled A3 stock and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder for the copier.
Many might say that faxes are hardly used these days. However, the fax feature on the MFC-6490CW makes it a very flexible office machine, especially when you need to transmit signed documents. The machine can also print from a PictBridge camera, a USB stick or other types of memory cards.
Apart from printing everyday office text documents and e-mails, I was also able to get reasonably clear and vivid photo prints on Brother’s 4×6 inch and 8 ½ by 11 Innobella photo paper stock and scanned scan photo and text combination documents to produce clean but somewhat dull reproductions on a tabloid size colour copy paper.
It may not be the smallest MFP on the market, but at 12.7 x 21.3 x 19.2 inches and weighing in around 34.4 lbs, the unit could be a lightweight among A3-capable printers and can easily be moved around by a single person.
The printer’s size, however, is put into good use. There’s little need to fiddle with a single button front to access various functions. The front plate has ample room for a control panel which separates various functions. A 2x 3 ½ -inch- widescreen colour LCD display is big enough to show photo thumbnails and printing options or effects.
The menu hierarchy and some of the controls take a bit of getting used to though. For example, we found initial set-up to be fairly easy but got bogged down when we were loading the two paper trays. Both trays can handle A3 and A4 paper. The bottom tray takes up to 250 sheets while the top tray holds 150 sheets and can be adjusted to take standard photo blanks sized 4 x 6 inch.
I ran into trouble when I decided to change the stock from the normal A4 multi-purpose printing stock to the 4×6 photo paper. For all its bells and whistles, the MFC-6490CW does not have auto paper size detection. I kept getting a wrong paper size message. Users have to be aware of the size and type of paper in each tray and need to specify this on the printer set-up menu.
Printing speed is tolerable but a bit slower than most MFPs in the market.I got around 4 pages per minute on black and white A4 draft prints and around 3 ppm for colour printing. Colour prints took an average 3 ½ minutes for 4 x 6 prints and 8 minutes for 8 x 10 prints. The print quality is very good across the board and suitable for most business needs. Text came out clear and well-formed.
The photo prints were equal in quality to those from most commercial digital processing kiosks. The printer would be ideal for reproducing snapshots or photos for an album.
For the A3 test, I scanned the front cover of the tabloid-sized Computerworld Canada magazine which featured a large coloured text banner, masthead and a dark and bright red half-page photo. Printing took over 7 minutes, but the output was accurate and clear although colours came out on the dull side. It might be good for proofing or draft purposes but you would need better quality for top drawer posters or desktop publishing jobs.
I think the MFC-6490CW is an excellent option for a home office MFP, or even a desk or backup unit for small office for that those moments when someone is printing a 100-page document on the default printer and you have to print that 10 page report right away.
Most organizations, such as art departments, might have some need for a cheap printer that can spit out tabloid-sized colour printouts for draft or proofing purposes.There are other MFP inkjets in the market that offer better print quality at a faster rate of printout, but if you need a machine that can handle both A3 and A4 stock, Brother’s MFC-6490CW is an excellent low-cost choice.