Brother MFC-6890cdw All-in-One Printer

Brother has done it again, putting out a top-quality color inkjet printer that can handle just about any small-office tasks with skill and good results. Its slow print speeds across a wireless network make it less than optimal for lots of small print jobs, but overall its quality, networking, and versatility make it a good, but pricey, bet.

The Brother MFC-6890cdw color inkjet printer is big; but you get a lot in this big machine, too; in addition to the fax, copy, and print options, it's compatible with about any portable media you can imagine, works with PictBridge, can work on a wired or wireless network, and holds a huge amount of paper (up to 350 sheets in its two trays). It can handle paper up to 11x17.

Printing out a three-page colorful PowerPoint presentation took two minutes, with the first page out in about 50 seconds. Some of the colors, particularly the range of oranges, looked understated and slightly washed out, though certainly not bad looking; the range of blues, on the other hand, I thought were crisp and nuanced. Brother's Innobella inks work beautifully on cheap, plain paper, without leaving the final copy soggy or limp.

Printing a four-page Word document took 55 seconds, with the first page out in about 20 seconds; that averages about 14 seconds per page at a normal print quality. Not all that fast but certainly competitive with other all-in-one printers.

Despite being an all-in-one printer, the MFC-6890 really rose to the challenge of printing excellent quality photos. A colorful 4x6 photo took a long time--nearly two minutes, or almost twice the time of the Canon MX860--but it looked superb.

The printer's large, tiltable touchscreen is a big plus, as is the easily set up networking. Most printers force you to plug into your computer via a USB cable before you can make the wireless settings work; Brother doesn't force you to go through that step.

The printer's biggest weakness is its price; while it's not due to be released to retailers until 4/15, the suggested retail price is over $300, which makes it a lot more expensive than, say, the Canon Pixma MX860 which offers a very similar printer.