Review: Brother MFC-5890cn and Lexmark X6650 Multi Function Printers

More people are working from home, students are doing more complex class assignments and families in general like the idea of consolidating their home office equipment. Nobody wants their den or spare bedroom to look like an Office Depot setup. These two multi-function printers combine all the essential tasks your need into simple compact units. These are not entry-level systems, but they do offer a good value for the price. Both include print, scan, copy, fax and network functions.

Brother MFC-5890cn

$199

www.brother-usa.com

My first college typewriter was a Brother, so it’s nice to see the brand keep up with the times. The MFC-5890cn looks like a small office device, and mostly works with the straight-forward dependability of heavy-duty office equipment. Setup was a breeze, and thankfully this model doesn’t load up my PC with a ton of unnecessary software—just a simple driver, plus network setup if you use it. In fact, the productivity suite included is 100-percent Web-based for the Brother. That’s a plus if you prefer to use MS Office or some similar suite for creating all your project templates. Photo cards, calendars and other print crafts can be designed using Brother’s online tools.

A front tilting color LCD screen gives you access to menu functions and doubles as a view screen for photos when you insert a USB thumb drive or camera card. This is convenient you’re in a hurry to print some pictures and don’t want to start up the computer. When printing photos from the camera card you can select size, quality, and even do a little editing, though judging image improvements on the small, low-resolution screen is taking a risk.

Another plus for the Brother is its use of five ink cartridges (one for each color plus black). That can save you a lot of money by replacing only the color that is empty rather than waste a whole tri-color cartridge.

I also like the 150-sheet paper tray, as it makes the unit more compact, and hides the paper. I found the paper tray prone to occasional feed errors though. The 50-sheet document feeder on top worked well when I placed a stack of papers in and set it to copy—no jams there. It also accepts ledger-size (11” x 17”) sheets, which you rarely find in home printers.

Printing was a bit on the slow side, but that’s not unexpected in an under-$200 model. Full-color, full-page photos took about four minutes at best quality. Text was much faster, though still not lightning fast.