Review on 🖨️ Brother MFC-J491DW Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer – Color Duplex Mobile Printing by Jason Unruh

Overall impression, this is a great printer for the price. Print quality was excellent for color and regular black and white. Fast enough for color photos and black and white photos. The scanner works fine, the copier works fine, it prints fine from the phone. I haven't tried NFC as I've added it to my phone on the LAN and haven't tried the cell phone's fax function yet. I also don't have a landline to connect to. The printer is very compact and durable. Doesn't feel like flimsy plastic and nothing sticks out unless you use the scanner to snag or break. A very thoughtful design, it doesn't look like a big clunky office machine but it certainly works very well. Ideal for private individuals or the home office. I'm only giving it four stars because of the following setup limitations. The overall device, print quality, speed and other Brother software (scanning) are rated five stars. But I can't, and I understand the frustration of a lot of people who can only follow instructions on things like this - like me and any plumbing, that's just not my thing. The LAN setup was very easy, but there was a catch. I didn't play around with the CD that came with it, I just downloaded the latest software from the Brother website and I recommend getting the latest. Big setup tip: It couldn't find the printer using the setup software (no wonder I never found a new printer right away, and when you think about how security and networks REALLY work, you can't do without something physical ) , so I had to do it manually on the printer itself (add SSID and password), and while that would work, there is a printer control panel option for WPS. Select it, press the WPS button on your router, tell the printer to use it, and you're done. No more searching for the SSID, entering the password with the arrows and OK buttons, etc. You can then complete the installation normally as the printer will appear on the local network at this point. Other computers on the local network will see the printer and everything will go quickly. I added the printer to the remaining four computers in less than 30 minutes and added it to my phone at the same time. Why the quick launch doesn't mention WPS I have no idea. Alternatively, you can connect to your local network with an Ethernet cable or make a one-time connection via USB to set up the printer for wireless access, but you don't have to. Compared to other wireless printers I have (a bit older so not as feature rich I think) this was a 10 out of 10 setup as I didn't have to connect via a USB or RJ45 connection to begin with. WARNING: USE WPS WITH CAUTION. AFTER PRESSING THIS BUTTON, YOUR WIFI NETWORK WILL OPEN FOR A TIME, AND IF YOU ARE IN A COLLEGE DORM OR APARTMENT, YOUR LAN MAY BE ACCESSABLE AT THAT MOMENT. IF YOU'RE CONCERNED, USE A USB OR WIRED ROUTER TO SECURELY ADD IT TO YOUR LAN. Perhaps there is another disadvantage of LAN - I have a slower 2.4GHz and a faster 5GHz WiFi LAN and it doesn't see the 5GHz SSID, only 2.4. GHz one. All my other printers only see the 2.4GHz SSID as well, which isn't uncommon, but I expected them to see the faster one. The physical setup was simple. Do what quickstart says, period. Loaded ink, loaded paper, removed all transfer tape from doors/access panels, and it worked. There's a caveat here too - auto-registration prints a test page to show everything is aligned - reminded me of the old HP500C. Anyway, see attached photo. SHOULD appear as six solid blocks as shown on printer screen and not dotted and squared print. But I noticed that the image below (Innobella) was black and white and color aligned correctly, so I said it's ok, I can always fix that later. It was ok the way it is. I printed the picture and it was fine. So alignment is nonsense. Due to the way the cartridges detach from the printhead (it looks like they're just ink tanks), they NEED to be aligned. They can't align cartridges at all, so you don't even know why this is checked and is part of the installation process. Other color inkjet printers do not. I've read in other reviews that Brother gave high marks because their printers use regular cartridges with no problems. My HP (the one I replaced with this one is my fault not the printer because I dropped it and it blew up into lots of plastic pieces) would only use high quality genuine HP cartridges and it stank. But genuine Brother ink cartridges are cheap enough that I will use them instead of using fake ones. Fakes aren't cheap enough to risk clogging the printer with inferior ink. I haven't had a printer long enough to comment on ink life or device reliability. It feels stronger and more durable than the one I replaced, certainly smaller but not much lighter - three times the size of the HP 8710 monster I dropped. I don't know of any reviews that say it "eats". Ink ". But I have to say, unless you're a user with a small print volume (e.g. < 10 pages printed per week) and use it primarily for scanning, I wouldn't use it as your main printer - this or anyone else Inkjet printers - cost per page is too high and replacing cartridges is a hassle. If you print a lot, buy a laser and give it a try. Make sure it uses fake cartridges (both my Samsung, black and white and color are great at it) and print If you have kids who type a lot, be sure to get a color laser for the lowest price per page.