Brother HL 3075CW Review

Overview

In an attempt to save money, individuals and businesses alike have turned to purchasing their own printing equipment instead of relying on expensive printing shops to do the work for them.  In the past, you might have expected to pay thousands of dollars for a printer able to produce quality color documents but now the price has gone down so much that you can get your own for an extremely reasonable price.  In fact, you can get one for around $200!  The Brother HL-3075CW LED color printer is a good example of a good quality printer at a very reasonable price. 

Pros

The Brother HL-3075CW LED color printer is very easy to set up and is compatible with Any Windows™, Mac OS™, or Linux machine.   With a printer this easy to set up, people with multiple devices running different operating systems will be saved from the trouble of figuring out how to install the printer on each one.  In addition to its easy setup, the HL3075 comes ready to communicate wirelessly.  What’s really nice about the 3075CW is that it comes straight out of the box with wireless network access capability.   One-push wireless configuration is also an option for routers that support the option.  Those wanting to physically connect the printer to their computer can also do so as the printer comes equipped with a 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet port.  You can even download an app for your mobile device that enables you to print documents from your phone.  In addition to its versatility, the HL3075 is pretty darn fast with a maximum printing speed of up to 19 pages per minute in both color and in black and white.  If you are in a hurry you can count on this printer to come through with flying colors. 

Cons

The Brother HL-3075CW color LED printer does have a few faults though.  First and foremost is the printer’s lackluster performance when printing photographs.  Photos come out looking grainy and colors appear darker than they should.  In addition to photo quality issues, the HL3075CW only ships with toner cartridges half-filled.  Maximizing profits is one thing but this is a pretty cheap thing to do for any company.  Users will find that they don’t save as much money after all when they end up having to replace toner cartridges sooner than expected.  Lastly, some users have complained of excessive warm up times, which can be frustrating for those needing to have their documents ready in a hurry.  

HP LaserJet P1005 self test configuration page

Unlike most LaserJets, you cant print a configuration page directly from the P1005 itself.  You have to do it through the print driver instead.  To print a self test/configuration page in Windows:

- Open the Printers app in the Control Panel.  (In Windows 7, you can click on Devices and Printers on the Start menu to get there.  In Windows Vista, you can type "printers" into the Search bar and select the app from the results.  In Windows XP, click on Control Panel from the Start menu and then open the Printers app.)
- Right click on the LaserJet P1005 icon, and select Printing Preferences.
- Click on the Services tab.
- Under the "Print Information Pages" heading, choose Config Page from the drop down menu.
- Click Print.

The P1005s configuration page lists the printers total page count, number of jams, amount of available memory, recent error codes, and other useful information (such as average job size).

Canon Copier ImageClass MF4690

The Canon Copier ImageClass MF4690 is another multifunction device from the office equipment giant. It is a full duplex monochrome printer, copier, scanner and fax all in one little package and offers great value for money. It’s perfect for a small or home office and performed well in every test we threw at it.

The MF4690 has every that make it suitable for a small office or workgroup including networking. It prints, copies, scans, and faxes, and you can even scan to e-mail or to a file server if you like. The automatic document feeder enables you to scan or copy documents with multiple pages. It also has a built-in duplexer for double-sided printing.

Printing is the MF4690s real strength. It can produce good quality prints up to 21 pages per minute. The print quality is sharp, with text showing as crisp, with clean edges and good fill. Images are clear, with the shading evenly spread without bleeding. The test document includes all the main fonts in different sizes, and all appeared well defined and clear, even down to 3 point.

The paper drawer holds up to 250 sheet of paper and feels solid. There is also a 35 sheet automatic document feeder. The overall build quality seems robust, which is a good sign.

The scanner and fax are both pretty standard. There are options to fax from the desktop, scan to PC over USB, but not over the network which is a little disappointing. You can also scan to a USB key, which is a nice touch but not wholly useful. It would have been nicer to be able to scan over the network.

Setting up is simple, with the basic configuration done through drivers. The MF4690 can work either standalone or as part of a network, through the built in network port. A quick driver install later and you’ll be up and running in no time at all. There is a built in web page based configuration tool where you can add and modify system settings which is simple and straightforward.

Overall the MF4690 is a good device, but not perfect. It has a mix of great attributes like good quality printing and copying, a fully featured fax and scanner but misses out on features like scan over network and other neat features that other devices offer.

HP OfficeJet G85

The HP OfficeJet G85 all in one printer is a perfect solution for all your business needs when you are looking for a machine that does everything for you in a timely manner. The HP OfficeJet G85 has the ability to print, scan, fax and copy taking care of quality and the precious time of the user. It can be used in a home office or in a commercial setting where it utilized by more than one user.

It is manufactured with built-in multitasking technology that enables the user to print while they are scanning images or sending faxes. They can also copy while sending print jobs or scan when copying documents. The copier has the speed to copy about 12 copies per minute in black and 9 copies per minute in color with the help of automatic collation. The copies can be reduced or enlarged from 25% to 400% and the printer has the speed of printing 12 pages per minute in black and 10 pages per minute in color. The printer outputs high quality prints with as many as 600 dpi when printing in black and 2400 x 1200 in color.

The input tray can hold up to 150 sheets which can take care of papers made for inkjet, plain paper, transparencies, labels, glossy and even matter photo paper as well as iron on transfers and much more. The fax modem in this machine is able to receive messages at up to 10 pages per minute sending at a speed of 6 seconds per page. It can save up to 125 speed dials and store 125 pages in its memory.

It has an automatic document feeder and users can fax directly from their computer. There are USB ports as well as parallel port connectivity available and CD ROM installation software, color ink cartridges, a user’s guide and a bidirectional (IEEE 1284) cable are included in the box. It is also compatible with Jetdirect (external) print servers.

This product has many good customer reviews due to its many features and multitasking techniques. It has both good speed and high printing quality which is essential when operating a business. Users can fax and copy without saving files on their computers and it is able to print the part of the page that is has previously scanned even before it finished scanning the complete page. This makes it both faster and smart. It weighs about 40 pounds and though it does look big but it is perfect for office or home use.

Ricoh Aficio 3035 3045 page count

On the 3035 and 3045 copiers, you can see the total page count on the copiers screen by pressing User Tools/Counter and then touching the Counter option on the screen.  To get a printout of this information that also includes the date, time, and machines serial number, touch Print and then press Start.

HP LaserJet 9000 configuration page

You can get the page count for a LaserJet 9000 (as well as other useful information) by printing out a configuration page.  To print the config page:

- Press the printers down arrow button to bring up the menu.
- Keep pressing the down arrow button until "INFORMATION" is the active choice on the screen.
- Press the Select button (the green button with the check mark on it).
- Press the down arrow button until "PRINT CONFIGURATION" is the active choice.
- Press Select.

HP LaserJet M1522nf

The HP LaserJet M1522nf was just what we needed in a multifunction. My wife and I both work from home as freelancers, and we needed something to primarily print, but copy and fax occasionally. We didnt really need a copier, but we werent going to complain if there was one included.

Apart from the driver installation, the M1522nf was simple to install and get up and running. It was just a matter of unpacking it, inserting the toner cartridges and connecting it up. We added it to our home network with the built-in wired ethernet and the router found it straight away.

Driver installation was a little more problematic though, and needed a download from the HP website to get it working. The helpdesk people were very helpful though and had us up and running in no time.

Print quality is very good once everything is set up correctly and was worth the wait. Mono laser can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to quality, especially those attached to multifunctions but there were no such problems with the M1522nf.

Text was printed sharply and precisely, even at the lower points. Exotic fonts also appeared just as we like them, exactly as they appear on screen. Images and photographs arent something we print a lot, but we had to test the capabilities of the machine when we got it so we printed a few. Photos were detailed, shading was good, even on darker areas, and we saw no artifacts or banding like we did on the M1522nfs predecessor.

Copy, scan and fax we dont use so much. All seem to work fine, although it took a while for us to get the fax working properly, but after downloading new drivers, it seems to work fine. It can send a letter sized page in about 3 seconds, and keep doing it until you run out of paper.

Scanning and copying we tested, but havent used since. We try to keep copies of everything digitally rather than waste paper printing everything out. The copier obviously uses the same print engine as the printer so seems to work well. The document feeder seems to cope well and gave us no problems. The scanner seems a little low on detail but is good enough for record keeping.

The M1522nf is more than enough for our needs, it could cope with a lot more Im sure. Its reasonably quick, hassle free and prints well. We dont need anything else from it.