Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

. This is my first color laser printer. I don't have much experience or comparison data. There's no issue with inks drying out or heads getting clogged due to infrequent use (vs inkjet printers). I like that. It's not a photo-quality printer. There's an option to print on glossy paper, but no presets for photo paper, 4" x 6", 5" x 7" or any of that. I agree with reviewers who say it prints beautiful "magazine quality" photos on good quality plain paper. I had a couple of glitches on one test document. Not sure if it's easily fixed (see Note 3). Check around for reports on comparative print quality. I am not up to speed on that aspect. - - - Supplies Cost Per Page - - - ►Summary: $330 for this printer is nothing, compared to what you might spend on toner. At under $ .09 per page for genuine Brother supplies, this printer could save you a bundle. Color laser alternatives are 12.4 ¢ to 17 ¢ per page, or higher. If you keep this printer for 25,000 pages, that's $850 to $2,000 saved. (See Note 1 for calculations.) ►Some Details: "Pages" refers to business type pages that have a mixture of text, color charts, etc., per ISO 19798. Full-page photos could be about 7-8 times the ink density and cost of business pages (see Note 2). This printer wants 4 types of toner, drum replacements, and more. Its TN-336 cartridge format is new as of July 2014. They could get cheaper or more expensive. The $ .09 I calculated is for genuine Brother supplies on Amazon as of July 7, 2014. Third parties already sell knock-off toners. Those are about 4.2 ¢ per page (cartridges) and 2.4 ¢ per page (toner powder in bottles). Third party toners have almost no reviews yet, so that's also guesswork. PROs: * Generally nice features. Duplex. Ethernet, USB, or WiFi. Provision for thick papers, etc. - 3rd party toners are widely available. Brother looks the other way. - AirPrint works fine (print from Apple iOS devices) OKs: - Setup was reasonably easy. Not troublesome or oppressive. - Comes with "Standard" toner cartridges (2500 pgs black, 1500 pages color); Not High Yield cartridges. - Mac drivers lack some of the advanced features (see page 31 of User Guide) CONs: - Some output from my test document was a little off. Not sure if it's easily fixed (see Note 3). - - - Alternatives - - - - Brother HL3170CDW (about 12.4 ¢ per page) - Canon imageCLASS LBP7660Cdn (about 14.5 ¢ per page) - Hewlett Packard M251NW (about 17 ¢ per page) - Samsung Xpress C460W (about 30 ¢ per page) Third party toners are available for many of these. - - - Pricing - - - Price swings between $300 and $360. You can set email alerts on CamelCamelCamel. - - - More Info - - - For your detailed questions, the 216-page User Guide is available at the Brother site. - - - Notes - - - Note 1: Cost of Supplies Cents Per Page . . Item ------ . . ----------------------------- 1.33 . . Black Toner (TN-336BK @ $53.34 /4,000 pages) 2.35 . . Cyan Toner (TN-336C @ $82.24 /3,500 pages) 2.35 . . Magenta Toner (TN-336M @ $82.24 /3,500 pages) 2.35 . . Yellow Toner (TN-336Y @ $82.24 /3,500 pages) 0.54 . . Drum Unit (DR-331CL @ 134.20 / 25,000 pages) ----- 8.92 cents - Total cost of consumables per page There are 7 additional replacement items (See page 165 & 209 of User Guide) but they really don't apply because it's cheaper to buy a new printer at 50,000 copies. A new printer includes $269 worth of Toner + Drum, and it comes with a new $109 Belt Unit (needed at 50,000 copies) and other stuff. So, think of your total printing cost as: 8.92 . . Toner and Drum unit, per page 0.12 . . Cost of printer per page ($ 330 - $269 / 50,000 pages) ------ 9.04 cents - Cost of Printer and consumables per page $4,520 . . Total cost of printing 50,000 pages ($330 for printer, $134 for 1 drum, $4,056 toner after 1st 1,600 pages) $2,291 . . Total cost if discarded after 25,000 pages ($330 printer, $ 1,961 toner) (9.1 ¢) $1,243 . . Total cost if discarded after 12,500 pages ($330 printer, $ 913 toner) (9.9 ¢) $630 . . Total cost if discarded after 5,100 pages ($330 printer, $ 300 toner) (12.4 ¢) Note 2: Photo printing density - There's some excellent (but dated) analysis at QulaityLogic's site. According to their studies, printing a 4x6 photo takes about 2.13 times the ink of a standard color business page. Therefore, a 8" x 10.5" photo takes about 7.5 times as much ink as a standard business page. Note 3: Printing glitches - One of my test documents has an map with wide streets colored light gray. For no apparent reason it colored the streets blue-gray when printing as a Mixed Document and a somewhat too dark charcoal gray when printing as a Standard Document. Also, a colored text box border was more ragged than it should be at 2400 dpi. ~~~ Comments & questions welcome ~~~