Excellent Printer for Excellent Price
Written: Oct 15 '04 (Updated Oct 15 '04)
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Pros: Great reliability, quality, paper capacity, usability, printer parallel port
Cons: Integrated drum, no built in colour, no extra feeder available
The Bottom Line: Good reliability, good customer service, economical, cheap initial investment, great quality. I recommend it totally
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| jamiegor's Full Review: Brother HL 1230 Laser Printer |
The Brother laser printer line for personal/SOHO use is definately the way to go for people with small to medium duty cycle needs (1000->2000 sheets monthly per printer). The printers chassis seems to be a carry over from the past few years of Brothers well known laser printer line, so although it may not be the sleekest machine to be found, you can be confident that it has not advanced to the latest thinner lighter cheaper assembly that consumer items seem to follow (see HPs Latest inexpensive laser printers for examples)
This printer appealed to me for several reasons:
It is a common brand where parts could be easily obtained (toner, drum, other parts)
It is inexpensive
I have one already with no problems
Laser toner is much cheaper than inkjet printer
Pretty quick pages per minute operation (over 12 ppm tested)
PRINTER PORT (A rarity in this day and age) instead of USB
Pretty good paper holder that adjusts to many different paper sizes, including 8.5 X11, 8.5 X 17 and smaller sizes too
Can fit ~400 pages into loader
Quickish startup time
Separate paper loader for cover sheets/individual sheets
Printer prints at standard 600 DPI, prety sharp, toner fuses well. After 10,000 pages, paper jam may have happened twice. MY old HP 5L DOG at the end maybe printer ok once in 20 times at the end. After that HP lost me for SOHO Printers
The printer port is a throwback, however it allows for you to add a standard printer to network adapter, a printer networking attachment. I have set up my printer to be shared across my small network of 4 pcs, and it works flawlessly. I use the older Hawkins NETBEUI protocol print server that works ok. Newer tcp/IP ones allow for a web console that mine does not have.
Submitting 30-40+ page documents at printer does not faze it at all. job takes about 5 minutes to complete 80 pages. Make sure paper tray is full!
An interesting feature included with this printer is the Manual duplexing feature. If for example you are printing 100 pages, you can tell your program (MSWORD for example) to print even pages, then in print properties click on manual duplex option. Once printing is complete, simply reinsert pages into the loader and click ok on the screen, you now have a manual duplex. I have seen inexpensive printers offer this option, however wonder if this will increase their rate of paper jams.
I have changed toner once. Initial tone is a 1/2 cartridge that I believe is not sold in stores. Toner prices are on par with competitors. Toner can undoubtedly be filled by the brave or those experienced who do not mind toner all over the place.
This is my second of the same printer, and I highly recommend it for all users, beginners and advanced looking for a good reliable printer.
Based on my experience with different printers, this is probably the best buy under 400$, or wherever entry color lasers come into play. Prices are dropping for b/w lasers, so expect this model lineup to be an even greater bargain in the future.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 111
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
jamiegor
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Reviews written: 9
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