Tech Review

Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking

I thought I'd alert my readers to this deal at Staples. It's a wireless inkjet stand alone fax/scanner/printer/copier for $149.00 minus a $30.00 rebate making it $119.00 if you're not lazy (Sorry, it was a $50.00 rebate on Monday when I bought it.). Luckily, Fry's let me return the MFC-240C I bought the day earlier for $99.00.

Brother MFC-240C Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Fax

First, let me say that as much as I dislike rebates, Staples makes it as easy as possible with an all-online system called "easy rebates" that actually lives up to its name.

Second, this is a great printer.:

The cartridges go into a little door in the front. Not only does this make loading cartridges very easy, but I can see that little compartment being the difference between life and death when the C.I.A comes to your house looking for library records.

The printer has separate color ink tanks (cyan, magenta, and yellow) unlike the Lexmark and HP offerings in the same price range. Individual tanks mean that you won't throw away a color cartridge after printing out a few ocean scenes. Best of all, the Brother cartridges are ink-only. HP and Lexmark have the print heads on the cartridges which makes them more expensive and their generic replacements not much cheaper. Canon is all-ink. Epson used to be the cheapest ink, but they got wise and started putting chips in their cartridges "for our protection."

Brother ink compartment.

Resolution for both the printer and the scanner is high at 6000 x 1200 dpi and 600 x 2400 dpi respectively. Output is quick (27 ppm black, 22 ppm color) and beautiful.

The fax is fully capable of broadcast, manual and automatic receive, and color. You get a phone hand set, an answering machine(!), and a time-saving feed tray, although the tray only holds ten sheets.

My brand new baby.

MFC 665CW is low-profile and compact. It feels solid and the paper is kept underneath the output tray- a much better design as the paper stays flat and out of the way. The paper-handling style also allows the printer to go closer to the wall. The feed tray has a separate place for photo paper.

The LCD is helpful. Card readers aren't as big a deal as they used to be, but they're still nice to have.**

The best part is that the wireless works. Setup was only fairly difficult (hint: connect the phone receiver). I don't have an easyconnect router so the procedure was more complicated. It involved IP addresses and other nerd arcana. Those of you who have been on dates may want to buy your geeky neighbor a six pack of Pepsi in exchange for his expertise. Heck, he may even do it if you listen to him recount his W of Warcraft adventure.

You need to download drivers for Vista.

Follow up:

**My wife's friend takes her camera cards to Walmart. My wife shocked her when she downloaded the pictures into the computer. My wife's BFF didn't know you can do that.