Brother MFC 495cw All-in-one with CISS

Networking and control

Like most modern devices brother mfc-495cw wireless inkjet all-in-one printer goes with a QuickSetup Guide just to help users with getting their printers up and running. Steps are taken here are as following: to load paper, to plug in printer, to install ink, to check print quality and/oralignment, to choose an approriate connection type and to install drivers.

We guess posibilty to set up the device over a wireless connection is its first advantage, but multifunction center can also be set up directly to a PC with a USB connection or on a wired network. Users need first to configure the settings for wireless mode on the printer before can load the CD-ROM. The whole process is very simple. The whole configuration proces takes roughly something like 3 minutes to execute. Comparing to BROTHER DCP-6690CW and other devices even of higher class, results of tested MFU cannot but imress.

Brother allows computer users to run the brother printer mfc-495cw from the common Control Center 3, which actually means scanning, copying, faxing, printing photos or controling device settings right from the control center.

Scanning is probably the most useful feature after a photo capture as it includes scan-to capabilities. You can save a scan as a file or directly attach it to an e-mail. The PC-Fax feature allows users to faxe, view faxes received through PaperPort, saves friquently used addresses, control fax settings just from your computer via Control Center 3.

Print speed

Brother manufacturer offers six different options to choose from. They are in order from the highest quality, which means the largest ink consumption, photo and fine, normal, fast normal and fast. As we tested all of them, brother printer mfc-495cw showed great diversity in speed and quality of ready print outs.

We would recommend using the highest print quality, 1200x6000 dpi, only on important photos you require or professional documents in color because you will face the most ink consumption.

Considering printing photo test, we may say that it takes 12 and a half minutes to print an 8,5x11 photo in highest print mode, it takes only five minutes to print exactly the same 8,5 x 11 photo but in photo print mode. As other printers of this class like BROTHER MFC-685CW, our device has a special photo tray only for printing smaller photos.

Different modes

Normal mode would not be the highest quality, but iof the high one, and most users will need exactly this one. Brother printers mfc-495cw produce dark and crisp text in this mode, but speeds sre relatively slow and about 4 ppm when printing B & W documents. As to color, it takes 3ppm with a first page in 25 seconds in normal mode.

In fast normal mode, a pickup in speed is observed. We recorded about 6 pages per minute in thisal mode with the first page out just in 15 seconds. But in the fast mode, as it is seen from the name, print speeds double.

Brother mfc-495cw printer keeps energy use low; as our test shows, it never uses over 25W while performing a job. When warming up, watts uses hovered only between 5W and 12W with the one peak at 22 W.

In a ready mode, the multifunctional device uses around 5W. When printing, no matter if it document or photo, it hoveres about 16W, peaked at 25W.

Energy consuming feature is its ability to slip in to sleep mode automatically after an extended non-use time, when LCD is dimmed. In the sleep mode, it uses around 2W of energy.