Printer Reviews


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Buyer reviews for "Printer" sorted by average review score:

Epson Stylus Photo 870 Inkjet Printer
Made by Epson
  • 1,440 x 720 dpi quality
  • Ideal for digital imaging and photo applications
  • Parallel or USB interface for PC or Macintosh
  • 100-sheet, 10-envelope feeder tray
  • 1-year warranty with Epson's Exchange Program
Amazon base price: $
List price: $199.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Used price: $159.85
Average review score:

expensive cartridges and a menace to the environment
Forget about it. My husband and I bought this printer a while ago, and all I can say is that it hurts my stomach every time I use it. The cartridges are overly expensive, and once any of the four colors of the color cartridge runs out, it refuses to print, even if you are not using that specific color. Then the cartridges are absolutely unrecyclable. Nobody accepts it, and when I called customer service which is located in Canada, they told me that they are saving the ones they use, just in case they become recyclable at some point. We feel terrible about junking this bundle of polluting plastic, so we use it when needed, but if we could go back, we would NEVER, EVER buy this printer. If you think the price is nice, make your calculations with the expense of cartridges. Laser printers are going down in price and are as good as this, the prints will last longer, and they are not as environmentally unconscious.

Epson Photo 870 went beyond expectations and the HP970.
Photolab quality prints. Thats it. Premium glossy photo paper that is 4 inches wide and 26 feet long. (The sample in the media pack was 9 feet). The roll holder attachment was included. Epson has engineered a remarkable product. You may keep seeing the word PHOTOLAB often when others refer to this printer. Epson also included some 8 by 11 matte, 8 by 11 premium glossy and 4 by 6 photo paper in the sample media kit.

We also had the Hewlett Packard 970 here at home. My wife brought one home from work. Sorry HP, you're very good, but Epson is a shining star.

Some things we noticed when comparing prints were the beautifully accurate skin tones from the Epson. Also, the Epson 870 completed printing in much less time. Ink costs about 33% less. When printing you get a graph showing how much ink is left in both the color and black cartridges.

There were tiny dots and slightly jagged lines visible with the Hewlett Packard 970(you have to look very closely). Not so, with the Epson Photo 870.Black and white printing was fast and laser sharp.

As a helpfull hint to users of any make of printer: Download and install the latest drivers from the website given in the manuals. Use papers and inks only recommended by the manufacturer. The people who engineer these devices use fine tolerances to deliver the best performance and longevity of the printer. Pay attention to the paper type selected, or use auto settings. The higher the quality of the source,(use a 2 megapixel or better digital camera or high quality scanner) the better the output of your printer will be.

Oh yea, did I say Photolab?

HAVE FUN Tom P.

REAL photo-quality printouts!
I really wanted a color printer after only having a black and white laser printer from many, many years. I am a student of Multimedia and often dealing with graphic design and such. After getting a new computer this year, I had to get a good scanner and a good printer. I bought the scanner (the Epson Perfection 1200U), and it was the time to get a color printer. I did a lot of research before making my decision to get the Epson Stylus Photo 870 Inkjet Printer. And during my personal research this is what I found out:
The color printouts you get using Epson's photo paper (and it has different kinds) are to die for. Many different reviews agreed on this.
The black and white text printouts aren't as good as with the laser printers (but oh, well, I wanted a COLOR printer to print pictures).
The number of years of print display before noticeable fading occurs is 24-26 years on the Epson Matte paper!!!
It comes with Epson Software Film Factory, and Adobe PhotoDeluxe.
You can use roll paper to pring banners, panoramas and signs.
During my research I also found that the 870, 875DC, and 1270 models were being affected by a color-shift problem. Aah! I had found the printer I wanted and it has a problem? So I did more research. I learned that it affects one of its papers: The Premium Glossy Photo Paper and this color shifts is caused by high ozone levels. So a small percentage of people living in such areas would be effected. But by covering the printout, it would be okay. I've also learned that Epson stopped circulating that paper and it's working on a new one due this month. You can learn more about this in Byte's website. Look for Davi's Em article "Epson Ink Fades Too Fast On Some Paper." So, I took my chances and I bought the printer. After seeing the kind of printouts it makes, I couldn't be happier with my decision. After all, if one wants to really keep these printouts for a long time, use the Matter paper which isn't affected. If you insist on using the other glossy type paper they have, cover it with glass or another kind of photo cover. But remember, even regular photos don't live forever.
The decision is yours, of course. For me, I gladly share with you my two cents. Hopefully, it will help you make the best decision. Do your homework, read all you can, and if you go for it, I hope you are as satisfied as I am with your purchase. :)


Canon S300 Color Bubble Jet Printer
Made by Canon
  • High-quality color printing on many types of paper
  • Up to 2,400 x 1,200 dpi color resolution, 600 x 600 dpi black
  • Up to 11 ppm black, 7.5 ppm color
  • Convenient USB interface; PC and Mac compatible
  • PhotoRecord software for edge-to-edge 4-by-6-inch photos
Amazon base price: $
List price: $99.00 (that's NaN% off!)
Average review score:

It's ..., it's fast, and it works!
OK, it's not a top-quality color laser printer - just get that out of your head if you're looking in this price range. However, it printed all 40 of my christmas cards with photos on cardstock PERFECTLY without EVER getting confused and printing gobbledygook. The photo quality isn't too bad, but graphics and text are beautiful. It has a slightly noisy warming-up period before each use, but other than that runs fairly quietly and quickly. The one drawback I see is that there is only 1 color ink tank, so if you print a lot of blue, you have no choice but to replace all 3 colors - and it does whip through ink cartridges if you're printing a lot of solid-color graphics.

Good luck!

A great printer, a great price.
I can't praise this printer enough. I haven't owned an inkjet printer, so maybe I'm easily impressed. But from the moment I brought it home, this printer has exceeded my expectations.

The S300 is quite small, so it fit easily into my (somewhat cramped) office. It was very easy to hook up to my computer and install the drivers on Windows. The written instructions were clear, and the driver installation program guided me through the head calibration task in no time.

After that, everything just worked. I printed out a few color images and web pages just for fun, and have since used it quite often to print out verious tax-related documents and letters. The print quality is impressive, even on plain paper. The printing speed is fine for most documents. And the little extras like automatic power on/off make the printer a joy to use.

I expected to have to pay twice what I did to get a printer I was happy with. At around $100, this printer is astoundingly good.

A word of warning: the ink cartridges for this printer are quite small, so if you're looking for a home office printer, you should probably get something more industrial-stength. However, if you only need to print a few pages every now and then, but still want reasonable print quality, then the S300 is ideal for you.

Low Price, Good Mileage with Ink, Great Results
The Consumer's Reports review detailed how sparing with ink the S300 is. That same rating gave this printer high marks for print quality, both photo and text. I have run off probably 1000 pages so far, mostly MS Publisher, text and photo combined. I say the ratings are true.

Don't worry about the noises some people report. Sure, it does click and clack when hybernating and waking up, but you'll quickly get used to it.

The S300's output on regular paper seems to benefit from generations of technology beyond the HP 697C (about 5 years old, I guess) that it replaced in my home.

Plug and play with my XP operating system was simple and fast. By the way, I do order replacement cartridges online, 3 or 4 B&W and 1 or 2 color at a time. Ink costs are very reasonable if you shop around.

All my experiences have been positive with this printer, I highly recommend it, for photos or text.

Update: January 2004. Color will no longer print. Tried cleaning heads, reinstalling drivers, NEW INK CART, etc. It just half died, still prints nice B&W. It had hard use, but only lasted a little over one year...


Canon i9100 Photo Printer
Made by Canon Office Products
  • Up to 4,800 by 1,200 color and black-and-white dpi
  • Prints a 4-by-6-inch borderless color photo in about 37 seconds
  • Intelligent ink management and six individual ink tanks
  • Easy-PhotoPrint software automatically adjusts settings for optimum image
  • USB interface; PC and Mac compatible
Amazon base price: $
List price: $299.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Used price: $325.00
Average review score:

Almost Great
This is a great printer, but no one, including Canon carries 13"x19" card-stock paper. I bought this printer with idea that I'ld be able to print my own 13x19 colored signs (100 at a time) but alas, no paper is available.

This printer is like having a photo processing lab
I needed a good printer for my business to print brochures and photo postcards. I received it today and printed a couple of family pictures I took with my Canon Powershot S20 3.3 Megapixel digital camera on a piece of the Canon Photo Paper Pro 4"x6" (5 sheets are included with the printer) to test the quality. I can truly say that the picture quality using this combo was better than labwork. The colors were more vibrant without the slightest hint of pixels anywhere. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw this beautiful photo print in less than 30 seconds. This printer, I am convinced, is the best you can buy. It does borderless printing in all sizes... Even 13x19! Prints on other papers provided good results but not as stunning as the combo used above. I printed a borderless photo on a piece of regular 8 1/2x11 paper and it looked great!

This printer is truly a marvel and the speed is unmatched with the quality of the prints that rival and surpass professional photo labs. The Canon paper costs a few cents more but is well worth it. Make sure you get Canon Photo Paper Pro and not just the Photo Paper Plus. Ink use is minimal. I printed 5 4x6" photos, 3 5x7" photos and 3 8 1/2x11" photos and the ink level did not go down. I bought mock-up ink carts off of Ebay that cost $10.95 for all 6 carts! Truly, you cannot go wrong with this printer.

Great Photo Printer
I did some research and thought that for me the Canon i9100 was the best option of excellent printing quality, flexibility, and had pricing that was not out of this world. I have just printed my first few photos and I am amazed. Oh, that bit where they say it prints really fast...True. Setup was straight forward except for a paper feed problem, see below. Pictures are so clear I cannot believe that these photos came from an ink jet. Boy have things changed since my HP 500 B&W.

I have an older 2 mega-pixel Nikon Digital camera and the 4x6 images are sharp on this printer. I needed to decrease the resolution to around 250 pixels/inch to fill a 4x6 photo properly. This did not seem to impact the perceived quality much if at all. Time to get the Nikon D100!!! I know...I know, I got a Canon printer but I have a big investment in Nikon lenses already.

Drawbacks:
=========
I have not played with the included Canon Photo Software too much. The first picture or two that I printed with it had banding in the colors (like JPG artifacts). The canon software has photo batch options that are already set for 4x6 and other common paper sizes. This is a plus. The option to instantly print a borderless picture was neat but I will pass on this software until I can get the quality where I want it. Fiddling with the software or checking for updates may fix this problem.

Oh, one of the paper guides got misaligned. I think this might of happened when I was taking off the miles of shipping tape. I had quite of few sore words toward the printer until I finally saw the misalignment way down in the area where the paper is fed. I knew that the paper should not jam every other page.
========

Shhh, can let the wife know. Now I have my eye on the Canon 9900F scanner to complement this wonderful printer.

Well back to printing. I need to work a little bit on color correction but that is all part of the fun.


Brother HL-5040 Laser Printer
Made by Brother
  • 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution with HQ1200 technology
  • Up to 17 pages per minute print speed
  • 8 MB memory, upgradeable to 136 MB; 250-sheet universal paper cassette
  • Supports optional 10BaseT external Ethernet print server
  • USB 2.0 and parallel interfaces; PC and Mac compatible
Amazon base price: $
List price: $249.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Average review score:

Excellent printer for the money
I have this printer shared between Macs and Windows machines on my home network using a print server.

It's a sweet machine. Quick to warm up and fast to print. With 8 Megs of RAM, it has never given me a memory-problem. Comparable HP and QMS budget-printers that come with 2 Megs of RAM will need memory upgrades.

QMS printers in this price range have only USB ports. The Brother has both USB and parallel. It's very nice having the option available and I use both the USB and parallel ports simultaneously without a problem.

I love that Brother has made drivers for Mac OS 9 and OS X as well as Windows. It also emulates an HP printer. The emulation-mode was essential for me when I decided to share the printer using a 3rd party (cheap) print server. GIMP Print for OS X does not have Brother drivers, but it does have HP drivers that work very well.

This printer does jam occasionally. Jams are pretty easy to clear and it has a function to re-print the last page, so I seldom lose a print job.

I hate wasting paper, but it will almost always jam when I re-use paper in the paper tray. So I take my bad prints and drafts and re-use the paper in my inkjet instead.

The only reason that this printer got 4 stars instead of 5 is that the 1200 dpi print mode is only suitable for text. Graphics come out too dark at this resolution. It's odd because the 1200 dpi mode is supposed to be enhanced for such printing. The driver does not permit tweaking to make this work better.

Great for linux!
I've been struggling to keep my Apple Laserwriter 16/600 running with linux for several years. It's been fantastic. But after my last upgrade to SuSE 8.2, I ran into several problems getting the drivers installed and configured. So, I finally decided it was time to get a new printer. I chose this printer because it is well supported under linux, prints very fast at 17 pages per minute, has a fast first print time (under 10 seconds) and unlike the HL-1440 comes with 8MB of memory for printing larger files. It's also PCL6 compatible so it will work with just about any operating system. I had this printer out of the box, plugged in, configured and printing a PDF file in less then 20 minutes. It's also dead silent when not printing.

The only problems I've noticed is that fields of solid black appear to have nearly invisible faint gray lines, and text could be printed a bit darker. But this could be due to the newness of the printer, toner saver settings, etc.

If you're looking for a great laser printer for a home linux system seriously consider this one. ...

Can't beat it for the price!
This is a terrific printer. I needed to replace my NEC 1260, which was begining to jam all the time and the cartridges were becoming very hard to find. For less than the price of a new NEC toner cartridge, I bought this printer (another site had a short-term terrific price.)

I could not be more pleased. Easy to set up, superfast printing (my old laser was 12ppm), affordable replacement cartridges, small footprint.


HP No. 45 Black Inkjet Print Cartridge (51645A)
Made by Hewlett Packard
  • New stylish yellow box, same great black ink
  • Deep, dark-black advanced pigmented ink
  • Yields 833 pages at 5% coverage
  • Water resistant; fast dry time
  • No highlighter smear
Amazon base price: $oo Low To Display
List price: $35.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Used price: $3.98
Buy one from zShops for: $3.97
Average review score:

Gets the job done
Let's face it, how much can you really say about an ink cartridge? Using this on my HP970cxi produces very good print quality. The biggest problem I've had with the cartridges has been a tendency to dry up more quickly than they should. A couple of them have gone dry far too soon after purchase both in terms of time and the number of sheets printed. Fortunately, most of them hold up for a reasonable period of time. The bottom line is that you need ink cartridges to use your printer and this is a good cartridge even if it isn't perfect.

Great Cartridge. RECOMMENDED!
This Cartridge is great. I use it with my HP DeskJet 932C and it is awesome! It's NEVER smeared, it prints clear and the ink dries fast. The only problem is it runs out of ink a little too fast. Just keep an extra one around in case you run out. Otherwise it is great!

Hewlett Packard 45A Black Ink Cartridge
A great work horse! I've used 20-25 of these cartridges over the past few years, with consistently excellent results. The print is always clear, I seem to get over 500 text pages per cartrige, and unlike some earlier generation models it doesn't clog when the ink level runs low.


HP DeskJet 5150 Color Printer
Made by Hewlett Packard
  • High speed color inkjet printer
  • Up to 4800 dpi color printing, 1200 dpi black printing
  • 8 MB built-in memory; imaging software bundle included
  • USB interface; optional networking and wireless adaptors available
  • PC and Mac compatible
Amazon base price: $
List price: $122.00 (that's NaN% off!)
Average review score:

Buggy product for me
I've had good experiences with HP printers in the past, but the 5150 was a big disappointment for me. Here are my pros and cons for this product:

Pros:

1) Inexpensive
2) Fairly small and light
3) Setup map is easy to understand
4) Good print quality

Cons:

1) Black ink cartridge generated error message every time I tried to print something. Contacted HP, and after checking a few things, they determined my printer had a hardware defect.
2) Power cord is very big, and also too short.
3) Printer frame seems cheap and flimsy. I have a five-year old HP 712C printer, and it is much more solidly built.
4) HP setup CD-ROM installs a BUNCH of programs without asking you first. After installation was complete, I checked MSCONFIG's startup list, and about 5 new programs were added. These may slow down older computers.

Anyway, after this frustrating experience, I returned the HP 5150 and purchased the Canon i860 printer. Once again, the power cord was a bit shorter than I would have liked, but otherwise the Canon printer works fine. No error messages, no new programs added to MSCONFIG, and it has a solid, well-built frame. The Canon i860 also uses five ink cartrides as compared to HP 5150's two.

Great basic printer for the money
I bought the HP 5150 as a replacement for a 7+-year old, broken HP ink jet, and I'm very happy with it. I use it to print a lot of envelopes and haven't had any problems with the alignment getting messed up like I did with my old printer. The guides adjust smoothly (unlike my old printer) and it prints quickly enough for my own personal use - faster than my old printer since the 5150 uses a USB cable (I saved $15 on that and bought it at Target). It was really simple to set up, too, and I only have a basic knowledge of computers.

I don't plan on using it to print photos, but I understand the cartridges switch out and you can print quality color photos. The cartridges were a bit tricky to snap in.

I am comfortable with HP quality, so I didn't consider any other brands. The price seemed reasonable.

Overall, I'm very happy with this printer.

Terrific Low Cost Printer
I just replaced an HP 820cse used in a home based business with the HP 5150. This is a super low cost printer. It has excellent print quality and good speed. Easy to install and use.

The downside is that you'll go through ink, but that's typical of all these color printers. The money is made in ink sales. This printer's ink consumption is average -- but you'll be tempted to use it more often based on the quality.

Just terrific for home or light business use.


HP PhotoSmart 245 Compact Photo Printer
Made by Hewlett Packard
  • Prints directly from your digital camera's memory card
  • Up to 4,800 optimized dpi printing for vivid color and crisp detail
  • Prints 4-by-6-inch photo in about 90 seconds
  • 1.8-inch LCD for previewing and editing
  • USB interface, 4 memory card slots; PC and Mac compatible
Amazon base price: $
List price: $249.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Used price: $150.00
Buy one from zShops for: $179.00
Average review score:

A portable gem
It is as big as a 2 slice toaster and weighs less than 3 pounds. It prints great pictures with very little setup. I never connected it to my computer as it has enough optional adjustments in it. My first one had a defect, the LCD read "print cartridge door is open" every time I used it, even though the door was not open. Second one is trouble free so far.

A MUST HAVE!!
I LOVE this printer! Within 2 minutes of opening the box, I was printing beautiful photos from my Sony Memory Stick. I have had a digital camera for over a year and have sent many photos via E-mail to family and friends, but it would always take me "forever" to go get prints made. I absolutely loved being able to hand my neighbor friend pictures of our kids together in their trick-or-treat outfits instantly. It has been a true joy to print out hundreds of photos practically non-stop. SO,WHY IS THIS A MUST HAVE? It is extremely easy to use and comes with a "no brainer" setup guide. What you see on the LCD screen is EXACTLY how the photo will look when you print it. You can enhance the photo (ie: brightness control etc.) right from the printer. All you do is plug it into the wall, and start printing. You don't ever have to connect it to a computer, though you can easily if you want to. It can be used with several memory cards including: CompactFlash Type I and II; Sony Memory Sticks; Lexar Media Sticks; Secure Digital; MultiMedia Card; and xD-Picture Cards. (Wanted to mention this as I was told at a local electronics store that I would need to buy Sony's Photo Printer because the Sony Media Stick wouldn't work with any others). I especially love being able to tell it to print 5 copies of a single photo and go off to do something else and return to find gorgeous photos ready for myself, Grandma and Grandpa, Nana, and Aunts and Uncles to boot...all from the comfort of my own home where it is much easier to entertain my kids than it is at a stores printing center. Give it a try, I am certain you will be impressed!! Sorry I can't comment on the software that came with it as I haven't even opened it yet...no need to my photos are AWESOME already!! THANKS HP!!

I'm in love....
This is a GREAT little printer and totally worth the $$$ - YOU WILL LOVE IT TOO! I opened the box and within 5 min had a picture in my hand that was as clear and as good a quality as any online photo shop. It is fast, cheap and EASY and the best part - it's INSTANT. I have already printed out over 100 4x6 photos and the ink cart. is still going strong! A huge plus is not having to turn on your computer and log on everytime you want to print out a picture. I have two small children and I take dozens of pictures of them a week. Its nice to now be able to pick just the right shots and print them INSTANTLY. You literally take the picture, put your memory card into the printer, edit the picture if you want and then print. The WHOLE PROCESS takes less than 2 min. - I am not kidding!!
It is so intuitive, you don't even need to read the instruction manual. Trust me, I didn't believe that I would be impressed, but I was. If you love pictures, this is totally for you!!


DYMO LabelWriter 330 Label Printer
Made by DYMO
  • Prints high-quality 300 dpi labels
  • Direct thermal technology eliminates ink, ribbon, and toner
  • Resizes text on labels for a perfect fit
  • Built-in database saves labels for instant recall
  • Includes more than 40 built-in label templates
Amazon base price: $94.99
List price: $149.99 (that's 37% off!)
Used price: $90.00
Average review score:

New Mac OS X software works well
This is a revision of the review below. Dymo is now shipping a revised application and drivers for OS X, and they are _much_ better than the old application. The software stopped working when I upgraded to Panther, but then another revision took care of that a few weeks later. My only remaining complaint is that Dymo is not good about communicating to users about what software is available and forthcoming (their web site is really a disaster), but the device itself and current software is quite nice.

=====
I loved my old costar labelwriter (used with serial connection on a mac running OS 9) and bought the newer dymo labelwriter 330 in addition to go with a newer Mac with USB connection. At first the software was just klunky with OS X, running in classic mode only, and frequently working only after reboot. Then, when I upgraded to OS X 10.2.3, the labelwriter stopped working entirely. The drivers for third-party applications under OS X also don't seem to work at all (I can eject a blank label, but that's it). Dymo has been promising new OS X software for months, but meanwhile I've got a boat anchor.

I really want to like this gadget ... I had grown to depend on it ... but Mac users should not buy it unless and until there is a good, native OS X application for label printing.

Mac OSX 10.3.4: Pretty good, could be better
I am generally pleased with my Dymo Labelwriter. It worked out of the box over USB with my Powermac G5 running Mac OSX 10.3.4. Labels come out sharp and clear. It's a quick printer as well.

The included label making software is only adequate. It's not very easy to make several labels at once, for instance. The software integrates with the Mac Address Book, but it could be a whole lot more seamless. The GUI is a little clunky and certainly not polished looking; a feature that isn't acceptable in the well-polished, not-so-clunky Mac environment.

Overall, however, I am pleased with the product's performance. The labels look great, print quickly, and the software can only get better with time.

My most-used printer at home
I have a Dymo printer and you'd think that one would use it less than say, a regular inkjet, but no. I use this most of all. The Dymo takes several sizes of thermal label rolls, from large shipping labels, to name tags, to thinner file folder tabs or general purpose labels. The software allows you to input the brand of label, the format, and set up your own shipping label or return address, or whatever. You can even add graphics. The software, which gets updated from time to time on the Dymo website, handles input from database software so you can print out many addresses. You can save frequently-used labels (addresses for bills, friends.) If you do a lot of shipping or mailing, this is a very useful thing to own, and I really love mine. It works flawlessly.


Brother HL-1240 Laser Printer (PC/Mac)
Made by Brother
  • Up to 12 ppm; true 600 x 600 dpi resolution
  • 2 MB standard memory
  • Parallel and USB interfaces
  • Universal 250-sheet adjustable paper cassette
  • 1-year Express Exchange warranty
Amazon base price: $
List price: $399.99 (that's NaN% off!)
Average review score:

So far the little printer that can, and one that couldn't
I have owned the 1240 for a little over a week, so far it's fed 2000 plus pages without a single jam. The Xerox P8 it replaces required a constant babysitter and was a complete nightmare to feed paper that had already been through it.

Setup out of the box is straight forward, driver install likewise. Noise level low, speed through parallel port almost as advertised. Print quality is excellent for text. Graphics I've not really used it for. It may even last more than 6 months :-) If you are thinking of a P8 for anything other than light home use (or need to print both sides of the paper) please try and get the extra $100 together for either this one or an NEC870, it will save you money in anger management classes later.

Outstanding & Easy To Operate Laser Printer
The Brother HL-1240 is one of a kind in that it is easy to set up, easy to install drivers and easy to operate. I took it right out of the box, installed the toner and drum easily, hooked it up to my USB port, followed the easy to understand instructions on installing drivers, and then started printing. I also use a Canon Multifunction printer for color and other applications which is connected to a parallel port. So, in effect, I have two printers operating with my HP computer without any special accessories or switches. I just select the printer I want every time I print and I am good to go. The print quality is excellent and the toner cartridges are reasonably priced. Cartridges that can print 6,000 copies are less than $80 and are highly recommended over the alternate less than $50 cartridge that only prints 3,000 copies. I use this printer for a 24-page newsletter that I print on a quarterly basis and found it excellent in clarity and print quality for my required masters. The best part of this printer is the price. If I was the editor of one of those consumer or computer magazines, I would declare the Brother HL-1240 a "best buy."

Very pleased owner
I have been using my Brother laser printer for about two and a half years, and I am very very pleased with its performance. I currently have three different printers on my desk (yes, a large desk with no space left), and the HL-1240 is the work-horse of the bunch. Almost all printed material gets sent to the HL-1240 because of its speed, quality print, and economy.

Speed - Surprisingly, the printer is advertised at 12 pages per minute, and it actually does print 12 full pages every minute. Unlike many bubble jet printers whose rated speed is rarely what they actually pump-out, this laser printer never slows down.

Quality print - No lines across graphics like with bubble jets, no smudges of ink, just nice crisp print every time, always.

Economy - Aside from the purchase price being very reasonable, I have yet to change the toner! I have no idea how many sheets it has printed, but compared to the costs of bubble jet cartridges, the printer has already paid for itself in ink savings alone.

Design - Having the paper tray on the bottom has two big and important advantages. First, the footprint size is smaller (for those of us with crowded desks), and secondly, it keeps the heat of the machine away from your desk top. In the past I had a laser with a top-side paper tray, and when the day arrived to move the printer to a new location, I found that the heat from the printer had totally ruined the wood's surface directly under where the printer had been sitting. Bottom paper trays are an important feature to look for.

Dependability - I did have a piece of paper jam once, but it was my fault for feeding it in wrong. Removing jammed paper is fast and easy with the back and front of the printer having covers which pop open for access.

No bad points! All good!


Brother MFC-9700 Flatbed Laser Multifunction
Made by Brother
  • Monochrome laser printing, copying, and plain-paper and PC faxing; color scanning
  • Compatible with Mac and Windows systems
  • USB and parallel connectivity, parallel cable included
  • Provides 15 pages per minute laser printing and digital copying
  • Optional Print/Fax Server board gives 10/100Mbit Ethernet connectivity
Amazon base price: $332.49
List price: $629.99 (that's 47% off!)
Used price: $285.00
Buy one from zShops for: $299.99
Average review score:

Poor document, support and software
I got the system two days ago and have not got it fully working yet. First, the Setup Guide does not match the software came with the machine, not even close! Since their customer service hour is 9-5, so if you buy the machine for home use, and you work at daytime, you can only write email to Tech. Support since they want you to work on the machine with them together, although I can tell them all the error messages.
There are some major bugs in the firmware. Factory default I got would not work out the box. It took me 2 hours to get it work for printer, copier and fax function. Brother's hardware tech. Support is real useless. I found the solution myself even it is not documented.
I still couldn't get PC software, Brother Pro Suite to work since it crashes the Window as soon as I try to run the Remote Setup. Still working with them by emailing. Software Tech Support did not read my whole email and just give me some related information to fix half of the problem.
By the way, I am an engineer experienced in both software and hardware development. I have had a Brother MFC 4550 Plus for 5 years and this is a replacement. I am not a first time to use Brother's software and setup. With my background, I have problem to setup this one. Can not image if I am not an engineer!
I am using it with Window Me.

Good product with minor deficiencies
Good design, performs as expected, but:

1. Do not plan on using it through a parallel port. After you restart your computer, the first print job comes out as a bunch of unintelligible characters on top of each page, and the pages just keep coming out until you pull out the paper tray and disconnect the printer. It appears that you can go through an entire paper ream if you send a job to the printer and go to get a cup of tea. You need to reset the printer after each computer restart. After I connected the machine though a USB port, the problem disappeared.

2. The machine is a power hog. Lights dim when it starts printing. Does Brother use all this power to provide fast printing? Apparently not -- the machine takes about 15 seconds to start the printing process. In comparison, my five-year-old Xerox P8 starts printing in about half the time, and without dimming the lights.

3. According to an email I received from Brother, you cannot have more than one Brother MFC connected to the same computer. But I was able to get the MFC 9700 and my old MFC 3100 (inkjet but with color capability) to work from the same PC, just not at the same time.

4. Brother phone support takes forever, occasionally disconnecting you after the longest time on the phone. Email response took 2 business days.

5. Otherwise, a great, fast printer, and a good scanner, copier, and fax. Also, printing is inexpensive, with the high-yield toner cartridge costing less than the cartridge for my Xerox, while providing more toner.

better than expected - great for the money
I needed to replace my HP OfficeJet 710 that was loud and aging. I didn't plan on spending quite this much, but the features that you get with the Brother MFC 9700 makes it a bargain. Yes, the laser printer is quiet and fast. The sheetfeeder operation is smooth. No jams anywhere so far. The flatbed cover hinges raise over 1 inch for book scanning. Stand-alone fax is fast and sends very legible docs. Copier is one-touch and output looks great.

It's little bonuses that please me too like the caller-id display, print driver options for manual two-sided printing and watermarks, fast warm-up time and one-touch fax receive mode selection.

I miss color printing, but I wouldn't return to InkJet for it. Laser is sharper than InkJet, more professional looking and doesn't ever smear. Another bonus: though the laser is b&w, the scanner is 24bit color up to 9600x9600 - also has grayscale and b&w scan settings. Color scanning from photos is accurate to my eye.

My laptop connects to work over VPN from my home office, so there is no way to setup network printing that lets my laptop print after VPN disconnects it from my home LAN. The big bonus for me is that I can have my home Win98 system print to the MFC 9700 over USB at the same time as my WinNT laptop prints using its Parallel Port. Perfect solution.


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