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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 19 November 2018
A bit of a gamble when you buy Amazon Warehouse deals. This one was misdescribed as only a cosmetic mark and a damaged box when it had actually been used to print over 200 sheets and the toners were depleted by 20-30%. The compensation given by Amazon means I'm still out of pocket on the value of the toner but too much hassle to return. Not a happy Prime member at present.
But this review is about the product itself. All the toners had been installed when it arrived (which triggered alarm bells). However, it connected to my WiFi router with no problems. Setting up the drivers on the PC generated an error message which told me to restart the PC and re-run the installation. But I didn't and it was all set up correctly anyway. Connected first time. There are some weird Brother offers to bypass on the way to registration. Instructions are not always accurate so needs a little guesswork. Actually relatively straightforward compared to some nightmare printer installations.
Then to printing. I printed a very detailed full page wildlife photo as an ultimate test. Absolutely stunning print quality given I was using particularly cheap supermarket paper and the Normal rather than Best print setting. If you use compatible toners then the price per sheet can be less than half a pence which is incredible value, a fraction of the price of other printers. If you buy genuine Brother toners a full set will cost you twice the price of the printer. The drums don't have the longest lifetime but long enough - I'll never get near the 15,000 or so prints they last but if you're in a big office and a heavy paper producer then you need to factor that in. A full set of compatibles is around £60 but genuine Brother ones will set you back twice the cost of the printer again.
I've given maximum marks for durability but this is based on what appears to be good solid build quality; no real evidence other than I've had a mono Brother laser for about 18 months and it's as good as new.
Overall I'd recommend this printer highly, but caution against the Amazon Warehouse deals if they are only marginally below the price new.
But this review is about the product itself. All the toners had been installed when it arrived (which triggered alarm bells). However, it connected to my WiFi router with no problems. Setting up the drivers on the PC generated an error message which told me to restart the PC and re-run the installation. But I didn't and it was all set up correctly anyway. Connected first time. There are some weird Brother offers to bypass on the way to registration. Instructions are not always accurate so needs a little guesswork. Actually relatively straightforward compared to some nightmare printer installations.
Then to printing. I printed a very detailed full page wildlife photo as an ultimate test. Absolutely stunning print quality given I was using particularly cheap supermarket paper and the Normal rather than Best print setting. If you use compatible toners then the price per sheet can be less than half a pence which is incredible value, a fraction of the price of other printers. If you buy genuine Brother toners a full set will cost you twice the price of the printer. The drums don't have the longest lifetime but long enough - I'll never get near the 15,000 or so prints they last but if you're in a big office and a heavy paper producer then you need to factor that in. A full set of compatibles is around £60 but genuine Brother ones will set you back twice the cost of the printer again.
I've given maximum marks for durability but this is based on what appears to be good solid build quality; no real evidence other than I've had a mono Brother laser for about 18 months and it's as good as new.
Overall I'd recommend this printer highly, but caution against the Amazon Warehouse deals if they are only marginally below the price new.
