Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As the title suggests, I cannot believe there aren't more reviews for this printer, good or bad. I've been drinking the HP coolaid for many many years now. I don't print much to be honest with you, but always thought that a color printer was something everybody should have in the home. I've owned about 4 HP multi-function printers over the years, and my last one was the worst in respect to ink. Not only were there 6 cartridges, but even printing in Black yielded a drop in the color inks! Due the infrequent usage of the printer, my inks would also "expire" so that I had to replace them. All this coupled with the fact that when I did buy new ink, most of the time the cartridges (which were small in the first place), only came half full! OK, so you didn't come here to read about my issues with HP, although I think most people can empathize! So, in looking for another printer, I looked for the following: - Scanner - Printer (Laser) - Networked (Wireless or Hardwired) - Reasonable Price (under $300) - Not an HP! What I got in the main, exceeded my expectations. Granted I only got this today, but from unpacking to printing the first page, was an absolute breeze. It's a lot smaller and lighter than I was expecting but quite a bit taller than my HP all-in-one. I have multiple Windows machines (no Mac or Linux to test with right now) on my network, and each one picked up the printer during driver install first time. I downloaded the drivers directly from Brother so I had the latest ones, and I also ensured that after everything was running, I updated the firmware of the printer too. All this was done with ease. The print quality is as you would expect from a laser printer, very clean and sharp. I especially like the duplex feature which allows printing on both sides. I even tried the multiple pages on one (4 to 1 in this instance with duplex), and it downsized the PDF file whilst keeping it still pretty readable. The warm up from sleep to print was pretty quick. I would say less than 10 seconds. The build quality is pretty good. It's not as solid as an Enterprise type laser printer, but what do you expect for $179!? I was a little worried about the scan cover only lifting 45 degrees (as mentioned in the first review), but it lifts way more than that (probably about 65 degrees), plus it has a vertical lift on the hinges so you can scan thick books etc. which is nice. I do agree with the other review, the spring loaded lid is brutal, so you need to be careful when lifting the lid, otherwise you could damage the hinges. However, with that said, the scanning feature is not quite as nice as the HP one. I need to play with it a bit more, but there doesn't appear to be a preview feature, and if you scan multiple pictures it doesn't allow you create multiple files (because there is no preview feature). All-in-all though, with the fact that you get a starter cartridge that will last quite a while (with no expiry!), this printer is an absolute bargain for $170. Given I would have had to replace my HP cartridges anyway, which would have been $70, you can understand why this is, in the long run, a very cost effective printer. With high yield toner cartridges that print about 2500 pages for $50, I can't see me ever going back to an Inkjet. In conclusion, don't be put off by the Brother brand and their relative obscurity compared to HP, they've been around for a long time. I'm dinging the product 1 star because of the lack of preview and multi-image in the scanning software, and the spring loaded lid. I'm hoping there is an alternative/remedy to this. But for that, it would be five stars. Pros - Great printer, especially with duplex, and n to 1 printing - Fast print speed and nice quality - Scan and copy multiple documents using the auto feeder - Long lasting, non expiring toner cartridge (700 pages from the free one!) - Enclosed paper tray with pretty good capacity (250 sheets) - No large output tray sitting on the side of printer, output is almost enclosed in the middle of the printer - Not an HP! :) Cons - Scanner software doesn't have preview or the ability produce multiple images at once (that I can tell) - Brutal spring loaded scan cover - Not color (but wasn't a requirement for me anyway) - No wireless (again not a big deal, but might be for some) UPDATE (08/07/2011): I've found the preview feature! As I'm a bit of a computer geek, I generally switch software to "Advanced Mode" to gain more control over it. It seems this mode doesn't show you previews which is a bit odd. However, by selecting "Home Mode", the preview is there. Granted the multi-image scan is still not there, but it's still an improvement. FYI, the mode can be found under Configuration > Mode Select. UPDATE (04/04/2012): So, just to let people know that I've had the printer for about 7 months, and just today, after printing 311 pages with the STARTER toner cartridge (with Toner Save OFF) that ships free with the unit, I got my first warning that the toner was low. Almost certainly if I had still had my HP printer, I would have gone through at least 2 or 3 of the colors, and the other ones would have probably expired and needed replacing, costing me about $10+ per cartridge. I am still incredibly happy with the print quality and the print options. It's still lacking the killer option of multiple separate photo scans in a single pass, but frankly I've not had a lot of photos to scan in recent months, so do not miss it currently! Lastly, with the price drop to $129 (which it had been down to recently), it's even more of a bargain than it was when I bought it.