Review by Peter Beddow for Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer
Rating:
I had considered purchasing a laser printer in the past, but my little inkjet seemed more cost-efficient. Now that I’m into my dissertation and need to print 20+-page articles every few days – sometimes 9 or 10 at a time – the inkjet is no longer useful for my purposes. I saw this printer for very cheap at Staples and decided to go for it.

I am unsure about real-life cost-effectiveness, since I’ve only had the printer for a few days. I am still using the starter toner that came with the printer. It has lasted through about 250 pages of full text so far. I ordered the high-yield (2,500-page) toner from Staples for $61 including tax. Drum replacement looks to be about $100 every 12,000 pages (every 4 toner cartridges). That says it will cost about $350 every 12,000 pages or so, if the printer lasts that long.

This printer is small and light, and very simple. When it runs out of paper, it gives the red error message. You add paper, press the single button, and it works again. Startup-to-print time is very quick – less than 10 seconds after flipping the power switch. I was stunned at how fast pages came out of this little thing (quicker even than the HP 2300 I have in my office). And yes, the lights in my apartment dim when it prints.

I use this with a Macbook Pro over Airport Extreme (it worked! first try!)

I am confident in my purchase. (But not so confident that I waived the $15 warranty option when I purchased from Staples for $69 after rebates!)

2 caveats: this printer does not come with a USB cable (but my $3 USB 2.0 cable worked just fine.) As I said, it only comes with a starter toner, which is supposed to last only 250 pages (mine has lasted exactly that, and no fading yet).

Review by steve_oakland for Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer
Rating:
The HL-2140 printer is a good value. It is fast and fairly quiet while producing high quality prints. I have an HP LaserJet 1022 as well, and this printer seems to make prints of comparable quality. The HL-2140 is fairly space efficient, so it fits on a medium-sized desk without taking up too much space.

On the downside, I have had some problems printing some PDF files. The HL-2140 will occasionally print only the first page and the print queue will stop. It is either a problem with the printer driver or Mac OS X 10.5, as I can resolve the issue by restarting my computer. It’s disappointing, but I’m confident I’ll get the issue resolved either by another driver or Mac OS update. And for the little that I paid for this printer, it isn’t a big issue for now.

Also on the downside, the HL-2140 doesn’t have a very robust manual input tray. It cannot hold a stack of paper — you literally need feed one sheet in at a time as it prints. I have tried to print on 4×6 notecards, and the HL-2140 simply gave an error message. I haven’t yet tried printing on envelopes, but I’m somewhat suspicious it will work well. I’ve had little trouble printing on different sized media with HP printers in the past — if this Brother printer can do it, it isn’t quite as obvious or intuitive.

Overall, this is good for occasional use on standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper. If you need to print on various media or use the manual input tray often, this isn’t the right printer for you.

******UPDATE 11/21/08*******

The issue of printing PDF files using Mac OS X 10.5 has resolved itself. I have no idea how the problem was fixed as there have been multiple updates of printer drivers, Mac OS X, and Adobe Reader that have occurred in the meantime.

I’d like add a point about the manual input tray in response to a post here. In contrast to the HL-2140, my HP LaserJet 1022 is capable of handling several pieces of paper at once in the manual input tray. That is, if I’m printing on a different paper stock than what is in the standard input tray, I can load several sheets and have them securely sit in the manual input tray (though not more than 6-7). The HP printer will print on one sheet from this tray at a time until the tray is empty. This Brother HL-2140 is incapable of doing that — you do have to manually feed one sheet in at a time and stand by the printer to do it.

Review by R. Gale for Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer
Rating:
I needed a second laser printer for my office after my 1994 HP model finally died. I chose this one because it was inexpensive and because I’ve had a Brother 1440 laser printer at home which has been very good. The only downside to the 1440 is that it causes the pages to curl — a problem that many older Brother Laser Printers have. I’m happy to report that there is no page curl with the 2140. I’ve only had this about a week, but so far it’s great. Very simple to set up, and EXTREMELY fast. Note that this machine requires a USB cable which is not supplied, and the supplied cartridge is only rated for 250 pages, so you’ll be spending a bit more money than just the cost of the printer.

Review by Snail for Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer
Rating:
This printer works pretty well, the only problem I’ve had has been a few paper jams. If the rating was based on the printer only, I’d give it 4 stars.

But unfortunately the printer will stop working when the toner is supposedly low. Of course, Brother had to make the printer stop working because otherwise you’d see that there was still toner. My printer stopped working after about a week with the “toner is out” message, which was ridiculous. Fortunately there is an easy way out of this scam, simply put some opaque tape on the transparent window area by the gear on the toner. My printer has printed hundreds of pages since the printer stopped working due to low toner….

Review by Gregory Bascom for Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer
Rating:
After a month using this printer, I’m delighted. Compared to my ink printer, the brother prints at lightning speed. And every time I print something, I smile at the money I’m saving.

I am a writer but I often prints color photographs too, so I was using color photo printers for years. But in the midst of printing black on white manuscripts, a window would pop up to tell me I had better change the magenta cartridge or risk damaging the machine. I thought the machine might use a touch of magenta when printing black, but when the photo cyan cartridge gave out, I suspected something devious.

I calculated what I’d spent of ink cartridges for the past year and realized I could buy the brother HL-2140 plus enough toner to print 26 manuscripts of 400 pages each for the same amount. So I did.

The installation instructions that came in the box are clear, simple and precise. In ten minutes, I had the HL-2140 printing. But I had two problems.

Printing the same page on both printers, I noticed that the brother does not get the letters as black as the color printer does. Although the sheet printed on the brother is fine, no quibbling, I tried to get a darker print. In “print properties, advanced” I changed the resolution from 600 dpi to 1200, but noticed no difference between the two. I tried using “graphics” instead of “general.” That didn’t help either.

Reluctantly I accepted that when all else fails I have to read the instructions. The user guide did not come in my box, but I quickly found it on the brother website and downloaded the Acrobat file. I found the solution is the density adjustment slider, which is not easy to find. Go to Printer/Properties/Advanced/Device Options and select “Density Adjustment” for the list to activate the slider. This option does not work if 1200 dpi is selected or with Macintosh computers. But with Windows at 600 dpi, I could replicate the results with my ink printer.

My other problem was the brother printed last page first, forcing me manually restack the document. After reading the manual twice, I couldn’t figure how to solve it. (Please stop laughing.) Finally, I discovered I had the “Reverse Print Order” box checked in the Windows printer options dialogue. Windows, not the print driver controls this option.

But reading the manual served me well. I learned the brother HL-2140 has an impressive array of duplex print options and other features. This machine is a super good value.