I purchased my Brother HL-1440 laser printer on sale for $150 exactly a year ago and is still preferred over a newer model that we have.

I chose this printer because it was inexpensive compared to other laser printers and is compatible with Linux. We were surprised that the price of this laser printer was comparable to ink jet printers. We went through many ink jet printers and many replacement cartridges and felt that this would be worth trying. The ink worked out to being a lot less expensive than an inkjet in the long run. The printer also came with a generous amount of starter toner which lasted me about 8 months which will of course differ depending on how often you print. I went a very long time with a low toner light and never did really run out. My newer Brother printer that I recently purchased came with half as much starter toner.

I don’t believe that this comes with a printer cable, they cost less than $10.

This holds a whole ream or 250 sheets of paper. I use 20 or 25 pound paper without problem in it and have never once had a paper jam. The paper drawer can be completely removed but is sturdy and slides open and closed easily. I have used labels and envelopes successfully in here. Laser transparencies can also be used. The paper tray can also hold legal size paper.

The manual paper feeder works really well and doesn’t squeak. The paper aligns itself it seem like because it always comes out correctly. Only one page can be fed into the feeder at a time. Sometimes I do a double sided sheet and feed it the second time through the feeder without problem.

I thought this was a pretty speedy printer until I started using a newer model which went a lot faster. When I transitioned back to this printer I felt impatient. It prints 15 pages per minute but what the major complaint is, is that it takes it about as long to wake up from sleep mode as I take! It is an energy star product.

The printer itself is kind of big and heavy. The printer measures 14.2 inches wide by 16.9 inches deep by 9.3 inches in height and weighs 20 pounds. We have it sitting on a printer stand which suits it. We tried it on a desk with a monitor and although it fit it took up too much room and felt crowded.

It has 2MB of memory which was fine if you don't print graphics or high resolution. We needed to upgrade it to 18 MB. It can be upgraded up to 34MB.

The laser printer is deemed compatible with Windows or Mac (and unofficially Linux too). It has parallel and USB ports.

This prints a nice page with 1,200 x 600 dpi being the best but the normal default is less to save ink and I really don’t notice a difference. I compared the print to my new printer and couldn’t tell a different in print when comparing side-by-side.

My replacement toner, TN-430, which prints approximately 3,000 pages runs around $50 and can be found at any office supply store and online shops. There’s also a high-yield cartridge, TN-460, which runs around $70 and prints approximately 6,000 pages.

A replacement drum is around $150 which typically should not need to be replaced however that does not seem to be the case with this model. My printer started printing 3 black spots on the paper which I assumed was the toner so I replaced it. Sadly, the problem still occurred so we took a close look at the drum and found that the marks were caused by a nick in the drum. I’m not sure how this could have possibly happened but it did and makes a very unprofessional print. I figured I would just replace the drum, DR-400, until I found that it cost at least $150. There are much cheaper drums online but if you read the fine print they are refilled drums. A drum refill kit is only $20. After researching for a new drum I found that a lot of people were having problems with their drums as well so we chose to buy another printer.

I like the final product that comes out of the HL-1440. The ink is dry, does not smear and prints evenly. There’s no toner smell on the paper. I also like how it comes out and piles up nicely without falling on the floor. There is a piece of plastic that can fold out to catch the paper as it piles up but I’ve never needed to use it.

Overall
I am happy with the every day performance of my printer. The price of the printer was reasonable and the price of printing is maybe a penny a page. The print looks a lot better than an ink jet printer and fine for home use. The printer has lasted me a year and now that the drum is damaged I needed to get a new printer. I really expected my printer to last more than a year. Still, I was happy with it while it worked considering how little it cost in comparison to other home office laser printers. This is actually better than the new model I replaced it with.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 150/sale
Operating System: Linux