This printer replaced a brother HL10 i've had for *years* and it's good. it's not brilliant, but it's good.
first of all this version of this printer is absolutely USB only which will put off some people. secondly the printer is absolutely windows/mac/linux only as it is a GDI based printer, if you use real UNIX or dos applications, forget it. (hint: there's new LPR and CUPS software for linux on the brother solutions website which makes linux installation easier)
windows install was easy, the wizard on the CD took care of all of it and it was printing from it's host machine in minutes.
depending on what you send to it it is fast, a plain text word document printed at it's stated speed, whilst one with graphics in printed at roughly half that.
the paper tray only holds 250 sheets as standard and we had to refill it to finish printing a long report, a 500 sheet tray would have been more useful (an add on is available, but it's not cheap!)
it makes a passable interpretation of colour graphics into greyscale but thats not what you buy this printer for!
the big positives about this printer are its purchase price (sub £80) and it's cheap consumables (£40-50 for toner!) it's small footprint and speed. It's a bit loud for something so small and it feels very plasticky and not that great quality but you haven't really paid for quality!
I think given hindsight in my particular situation i'd have been better spending a bit more cash and getting the 2070n networked version, but for a single person printer it's hard to find anything else cheaper.
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hey, what can i say, maybe i'm just spoiled. a 250 sheet feeder on a business printer seemed a bit stingy to me, especially considering the ancient pile it replaced had a 500 sheet tray...
ah well... :0)
china_wolf 06.07.2005 20:38
250 sheet feeder tray and you're moaning? My printer only does 100! I print loads for graphics experimentation so it is really annoying!
Advantages: Nice looking machine, but not flashy, good speed and quality, well-designed Disadvantages: In a small space, the noise can be a little annoying.
UKRushbrook 06.11.2006 (06.11.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Brother HL 2030
Advantages: Cheap and cheerful... does it's job quickly & relatively quietly Disadvantages: erm... thought it had network connectivity but not so sure now
stewtee 15.03.2006 (15.03.2006)
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Review of Brother HL 2030
Advantages: Nice looking machine, but not flashy, good speed and quality, well-designed Disadvantages: In a small space, the noise can be a little annoying.
UKRushbrook 06.11.2006 (06.11.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Brother HL 2030
Jul 6th, 2005
helpful by (89%):
somewhat helpful by (11%):
