Review rated by 7 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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The Brother HL-1050 is a fairly good laser printer. I've had mine for just over two years and in that time I've had no problems with it until recently.
It can be connected via either parallel port or USB, comes with 4MB of memory and has a claimed print speed of 10ppm with a maximum resolution of 1200x600dpi. It is fast and handles text superbly and graphics adaquately. Toner cartridges are twenty five quid a throw and last a couple of thousand pages (I think) depending on print density and stuff like that. The printer driver offers a useful little window that opens and tells you the status of the printer (if it's asleep, if the toner is low, if the paper is jammed, etc).
It is a quick printer, but it's not that small with a footprint of roughly 14.5" x 14.5" and a height of approximately 11". It's not quiet either. The paper goes in the top (vertically) and comes out the front (horizontally) so with the paper out tray pulled out it takes up an awful lot of space. When it prints it sounds like a jet engine.
As I said, mine is two and a half years old and for the last six months the print quality has deteriorated drastically with large pale streaks all over the page. I'm pretty sure this is down to the imaging drum going, but it really shouldn't have gone this quickly. I'm only on my third toner cartridge and I would expect the imaging drum to last at least ten cartridges. Since new imaging drums cost about £150, I'm going to get a new printer. I'm not sure whether to get another Brother printer or not. I was delighted with it, until the print quality dropped so drastically.
UPDATE. I bought a Lexmark Colour inkjet printer to replace the Brother and contacted Brother to ask them about my printer. The result of my dealings with Brother has told me that the imaging drum is only expected to last 8,000 pages and that mine is at the end of it's life (having printed 7,800 pages). This means my Brother printer gave two years of acceptable printouts. However, the cost of a new imaging drum is almost twice that that I paid for my new inkjet printer.
Will I buy another Brother printer? Probably not. They don't seem to last very long. Modern inkjet printers are so cheap to buy that they are almost disposable. Okay, the ink cartridges are more expensive and in the long run they may be more expensive to run, but lasers don't seem to last long enough to take advantage of their lower cost per page.
by (100%):
20.03.2001 16:57
Isn't it ridiculous that parts like drums and toner cartridges are more expensive than the actual printers?