A Student's Lifesaver: Consistent and Versatile
Written: Jul 10 '01
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Pros: Long-lasting, efficient, ultra-fast, small footprint, flat paper path.
Cons: Smallish paper tray; unit facade tends to attract toner dust and dirt
The Bottom Line: Perfect for those of us who demand laser quality but don't have a workgroup budget. Performance is better than many competing lasers. Highly recommended for personal, student, or SOHO use.
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| theladyophelia's Full Review: Brother HL 1040 Laser Printer |
I’ve owned my Brother HL-1040 since the summer of 1998. I’ve been using laser printers for a long time, but I was immediately impressed by the printer’s performance on test prints. When the first sheet was printed, it was completed so quickly that I mistakenly thought the printer was form-feeding. I was astonished to see that the page had been printed perfectly in those brief seconds.
Once the printer was placed in a real-use setting, it continued to shine as a versatile personal printer. The straight paper path and excellent print quality allowed me to print large batches of resumés on heavy-duty resumé stock with no paper curling or jamming. This saved me a great deal of money, and allowed me the convenience of proofing these all-important documents on-the-fly in my room rather than at a print shop.
I primarily use this printer as a printer for reports, computer code, resumés and other text-based documents. However, I have also used it on occasion for photo printing for my design classes, printing of vector-based art, and printing of poster and theatre program proofs to take to Kinko’s. The printer performs well in the graphics department, but photorealistic images often turn out a bit dark or over-saturated. If you’re buying this for black and white graphics output as its primary use, keep this in mind - it might mean lots of Photoshop tweaks. However, if your primary printing tasks are text or vector graphics, you’ll find this printer to be a reliable and consistent partner.
Maintenance of the printer proved to be much simpler than with the older laser printers and workgroup printers I have dealt with through the years. The HP lasers I’ve worked with tend to jam fairly frequently - but this Brother printer has only jammed when I cancelled print jobs midway through printing. (I will concede that the 1040 doesn’t handle this particular situation well - if a print job is cancelled or interrupted, it will render the printer quite confused, and the only way to flush the memory is usually to turn the printer off.) In over three years of normal use, however, I’ve never experienced a jam outside of said circumstances.
Replacing the toner cartridge is a fairly simple task. Cartridges aren’t too expensive - around $30-40 dollars apiece - and I’ve only had to replace it 2 times in three years. (Keep in mind that the first toner cartridge included with the unit has half the normal cartridge capacity.) The cartridges are cylindrical, light, and easy to deal with (unlike many bulky HP cartridges). If you’re looking for a place to procure the cartridges, try Staples.com - I’ve had very good experiences with them, and they usually have the part in stock.
Fortunately, I’ve never had to replace the drum unit (unlike one of my fellow reviewers) so I can’t relate any such experiences. However, it speaks to the durability and usability of the product that I’ve never had the need to replace any other parts or to contact Customer Service. I’m so happy with this printer that I’m planning to buy one for my campus drama troupe - I feel confident it can handle the workload.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
theladyophelia
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
Computer Scientist, Interaction Designer, Actress, Artist and Former Teenage Muppet
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