Brother Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer, MFC-J491DW, Multi-function Color Printer, Duplex Printing, Mobile Printing,Amazon Dash Replenishment Enabled, Black, 8.5 (MFCJ491DW)

I needed a printer for large volumes of printing, but also wanted to have the ability to scan, copy, print double sided, etc. this was the printer that I selected simply because it offered the most options for what I wanted and the price is extremely reasonable. So far, my absolute favorite feature is the automatic double printing. I’ve saved so much paper simply because it can print double sided without me having to bother with trying to flip the paper over and figure out the right way to feed it in. This has been a life saver lol. Also, you can print directly from your phone without having to save a file to the cloud in order to access it on your computer and then print. That’s a lovely feature. As long as you have WiFi, you can basically print anything without any trouble. I haven’t tried out the scanning or copying just yet, but I’m sure I will as there are a few documents I need to keep copies of. I’ve printed about 150 pages with it so far and have not had any issues. Also, the printer comes with ink (which is great) and I’m still using the same ink cartridges that initially came with the printer, although I did order extras simply because I knew I’d be printing so much.The only downfall I’ve found so far is that it’s a little slow, but that’s to be expected because it’s an inkjet printer. Laser printers print as much quicker speeds, but for the price and features that this device included, I’m completely alright with the printing speed. It gets the job done and it saves me a lot of hassle I’ve experienced with other printers.

Only had this a few days, but I love it so far. It was ridiculously easy to set up. No driver needed for Mac or iPhone. Both print via AirPrint, right out of the box.Print quality is fantastic. I like how the ink is loaded from the small front panel. This is much better than my last printer. Replacement ink is available on Amazon and inexpensive.What more do you need?Update: I’ve had this printer for around 6 months now. The top review for this is very negative, saying something about the printer shutting down for ink?? I haven’t noticed anything like that. I print a normal household amount (not running a business with constant printing everyday), and I’ve replaced the black cartridge twice. I have not replaced a color cartridge yet. The generic inks work just fine. Can’t tell a color difference (maybe that depends on the ink though). The printer alerts you when it’s low on ink, but it’s still printing like any other printer. A really nice feature - to replace the ink there’s a little door on the front. Just open that and pop out/in the ink. Done. Much easier than the canon I had (life up the top, wait for the print head to center, blah blah blah). Also I haven’t noticed the printer doing any ink maintenance or whatever it says in the top review. I didn’t turn any setting off - not sure what the problem was that dude had.This printer just freakin works. Print from my phone - immediate, print from a laptop - immediate. All good quality prints. All fast. I love this thing.

Overall impression, this is a fine printer for the price. Print quality was great for color and normal black and white. Plenty fast for both color photo and black and white. Scanner works fine, copier function works fine, prints from cell phone fine. Haven't tried NFC as I added it to my phone on the LAN and haven't tried the fax machine function using cellphone yet. I don't have a land line to hook it up to either. Printer is very compact and sturdy. Does not feel like thin plastic and nothing sticks out of it when not using scanner to snag or break. A very thoughtful design, it does not look like a big clunky office machine but certainly works aw well. Perfect for an individual or a home office .Only because of the following setup caveats I gave it a four star rating. Overall device, print quality, speed, and other Brother software (scan) rate a five star review. But I can't do that and I do understand the frustration of lots of folks who can only follow instructions for this sort of thing - like me and any sort of plumbing, just not my thing.LAN Setup was super easy, but there was a catch. I didn't mess with supplied CD, just uploaded latest software from the Brother site, which I recommend to get the latest version. Big hint here for setup: It couldn't find the printer via the install software (no surprise, I've never found a new printer right off, and if you think about how security and networks REALLY work, you can't without doing something physical) so I had to do it manually on the printer itself (add SSID and password) and although that would work, there is a printer control panel option for WPS. Choose it, press the WPS button on your router, tell the printer to use it and your done. No finding the SSID, entering the password via the arrows and OK buttons, etc. Then you can complete the installation normally as it sees the printer on the LAN at that point. Other PCs on the LAN will see the printer and all goes fast. I added the printer to remaining four computers in under 30 minutes, and added it to my phone at the same time. Why the quick start doesn't talk about WPS, I have no idea. Alternatively, you can hook up via Ethernet cable to the LAN or hook up via USB once to configure printer for wireless access, but you don't have to at all. Compared to other wireless printers I have (a bit older so not as feature rich I suppose) this was a 10 out of 10 install because I did not have to hook up via USB or RJ45 connection initially. WARNING: USE WPS WITH CAUTION. ONCE YOU PRESS THAT BUTTON, YOU WIFI LAN IS OPEN FOR A BIT AND IF YOU'RE IN SOMETHING LIKE A COLLEGE DORM OR APARTMENT SETTING, YOUR LAN CAN BE ENTERED AT THAT POINT. IF YOU'RE WORRIED, USE USB OR HARDWIRE TO ROUTER TO ADD IT TO YOUR LAN SECURELY.Another LAN downside maybe - i have a slower 2.4 GHz and a fast 5GHz WiFi LAN and it doesn't see the 5GHz SSID, only the 2.4GHz one. All of my other printers only see the 2.4GHz SSID as well, so not unusual, but I'd have expected it to see the faster one.Physical setup was simple. Do what the quick start says to do, period. Put the ink in, put the paper in, took off all the transport tape strips on doors/access panels and it worked. Again, one caveat here - when it auto registered, it prints out a test page to show that everything is aligned - reminded me of the ancient HP500C. Anyhow, see attached photo. It is SUPPOSED to look like six solid blocks as the screen on the printer shows, not the dashed and angular print. But I noticed that the image on the bottom (innobella) was properly aligned black & White and color so I said it was ok, I could always fix it later. It was OK as is. I printed out a picture and it was flawless. So the alignment thing is bogus. Again, because of the way the cartridges are detached from the print head (they're just ink tanks it looks like) it HAS to be aligned. It's not like you can align the cartridges at all so not even sure of why this is tested and part of the install process. Other color ink jets don't.I read other reviews that gave Brother high marks because their printers will use generic cartridges with no problems. My HP (one I replaced with this one - my fault not the printer because I dropped it and it exploded into lots of plastic bits) would only use genuine HP high $$$ cartridges and that stunk. But actual Brother ink cartridges are cheap enough that I'm going to use them and not chance using knock offs. Knock offs are not that much cheaper that it's worth it to chance clogging the printer with inferior ink.I haven't had the printer long enough to comment on ink life or sturdiness of the unit. It does appear to be more solid and feels sturdier than the one I replaced, certainly smaller for sure but not much lighter- one third the size of the monster HP 8710 I dropped.I don't know about the reviews that say it "eats ink". But, I have to say that unless you are a low volume user (like < 10 pages printed a week) and mostly use for scanning, I wouldn't use this as my primary printer - this or any inkjet for that matter - the cost per page is too high and changing cartridges is a pain. if you do print a lot, get a laser and have at it. Make sure it uses knock off cartridges (both my Samsung's, a B&W one and a color one, do just fine with them) and print away. If you have kids who print a lot, definitely get a color laser for the cheapest cost per page.