Brother has rolled out the first of its “Professional Series” line of color inkjet all-in-one units, and these printers aren’t shackled by the traditional wired setup since it boasts wireless networking capabilities. Targeting small office home office setups as well as traditional business functions, the MFC-6490CW offers innovative tools which cannot be found on other brands, including the all-in-one features such as printing, copying, scanning and faxing up to the ledger 11″ x 17″ size. With such capabilities, you might pick up your jaw from the floor after hearing that it costs just $299.99 to bring home one of these babies.

What I find most interesting is the ability to produce 11″ x 17″ ledger-size printing and copying, endowing users with the ability to create the following :-

• Professional-looking, color business proposals
• High impact business proposals that stand out from competitors’ standard-sized documents
• Eye-catching 11-by-17-inch signage and flyers in-house, rather than having to pay a printer
• Large, complex spreadsheets on one page, with easy-to-read details
• Scanning, copying and faxing capabilities at up to 11″ x 17″ size (e.g., books, signs) via a ledger-size document glass and auto-document feeder

Other features of the MFC-6490CW include up to 50 sheet automatic document feeder, dual paper trays with up to 400 sheet total capacity, up to 35/28 ppm black/color print speed, Super G3 33.6K bps fax modem, and four separate ink cartridges (designed so the user only needs to replace the color that is empty). Each purchase comes with a two-year limited warranty, and that alone is well worth the entry price IMHO. After all, $299.99 can’t really get you that much these days, with the dollar free falling faster than a stuntman with a failed parachute. I just hope that it is up to par when it comes to performance and reliability, and hopefully the ink management system is prudent in its printing, since ink cartridges aren’t exactly the cheapest things to buy in the world.

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