Like the MFC-685cw, the MFC-5890CN just can't get a handle on output quality. All of our test subjects, including pages of text, graphics, photos and presentations, appeared fuzzy and hard to read, even after several print-head adjustments and troubleshooting attempts. All of the characters, especially those in smaller font sizes, suffered from jagged and distorted edges, as if the nozzle wasn't properly aligning with the paper.
Coloured graphic prints looked even worse, with heavy line weights and blotchy colour blends that transition so abruptly you can see white blocks between them. We also tried to print graphics and photos with the driver's 'vivid colour' and True2Life settings, but neither offered a significant improvement. Finally, we also noticed a pale white haze blanketing all the prints in our test.
Conclusion
We expected to see much better output quality from the Brother MFC-5890CN, given its price. We advise that you avoid this model and check out the Canon Pixma MX330 instead.
Additional editing by Charles Kloet
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User reviews4
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Leah Alwyn Ruff 9 March 2013
Good: Nothing
Bad: Everything!
Comment: I've had this printer for the past year now and had nothing but trouble, When it wants to print, Which is rare, it only ever prints with lines throughout the document. And due to the continuous cleaning of the heads i have to do because of the lack of printing quality it just eats ink, which i have just cost me £50. I bought this printer in order to save myself high printing costs at university but ive actually spent more on inks than i would have paid to get it professionally printed!
Safe to say this thing is getting smashed up in the next hour if it doesn't do what i ask!!
Malcolm Lytton 29 September 2012
Good: Low Print Costs, quiet and reliable. Automatic scan to PDF
Bad: No A3 scanner. No automatic duplex printing
Comment: This is an excellent printer. After one year and 18,000 prints it is still very reliable with only a very rare paper jam. Since buying it I have only used compatable ink cartridges which, buying in bulk works out at £1.69 each and the colour cartridges cost the same as the black, although the black cartridges are slightly wider giving them a larger capacity. With black and three colour cartridges it is better value than using tri-colour cartridges as you only replace individual colours when they run out.
It does have a large footprint but then it prints A3. As it only has one paper tray changing from A4 to A3 is a bit time consuming, but I mainly print A4 so that isn't much of an issue. It has a pull out paper colllector which is necessary to ensure the prints do shoot out of the printer and fall to the ground!, whilst it means the printer needs a bit more space it makes it easy to pick up prints. Colour prints are good, no complaints at all. I print colour on 80g photocopier paper and A6 generic photo paper. I particuarly like the ADF (automatic document feeder) which can either be used to copy a pile of papers or, I use it to scan multiple pages into a PDF file, which is an option in the Brothers Control Centre software.
On the down side it does not have automatic duplex printing. You can print duplex manually using the print to odd / even and forward / reverse printing options but you need to read the help section and practice a little.
Although it is not a wireless printer it does have both USB and ethernet connections. I connected it with an ethernet cable to a broadband wireless router, which enables it to be a wireless network printer for three computers in the house.
In summary, it is a quiet dependable office work horse that is cheap to run. Well worth buying.
George Ginger Hewitt 26 March 2011
Good: nothing
Bad: everything
Comment: this has got to be one of the worst printers i have ever had the misfortune to own, this is the second one of these printers because the first lasted about 2 weeks. Now all i get is problems wont print, inks not coming through its not even 6 months old, piece of crap.
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