 Best printer. |
| Review Date: July 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Steven Weigand, Austin, TX United States |
This printer satisfies every gripe I have about printers. Usually there's some quality about one that makes you say, "It would have been perfect, but if only it didn't have this one problem." Each aspect of this printer is as good or better than pretty much all other printers out there at this time. And I'm a person who is relentless when it comes to researching products before buying them for myself.
Resolution: It goes up to 1200x1200, which is the highest out there currently. 1200x1200 is best for text. But it also does 2400x600, which is typically better for graphics. Most other laser printers only do up to 2400x600.
Toner: Cheap! You can pick up "compatible" cartridges for $30 now which will last 8000 pages. This is the cheapest of any printer I've seen. Other printers (such as HP) cost $70 for 2000-3000 pages even with a "compatible" cartridge.
Print quality: Excellent. I used a magnifying glass to try to detect any imperfections in text or graphics but didn't find much. No white raster lines, "jaggies", smudging, bleeding, noise or random dots printed anywhere. Large black rectangles are solid and consistent. Gray scale patterns didn't appear to have any defects.
Memory: 32MB. Most other laser printers only do up to 8MB currently. You need memory if you want to do full-page graphics. It lets you expand memory by adding an inexpensive ($30 new) 512MB memory card. Many printers don't even allow expansion, or they force you to buy their own special memory cards at a huge price.
Paper: Doesn't jam. Easy to load. Has a manual feeder also. Allows 2 extra paper feeders if you want. Most printers don't allow that.
Duplex mode: Fast, easy to use, saves paper. I'll never buy another printer without it.
Paper curl: You wouldn't notice it unless you were specifically looking for it. Barely detectable even with duplex mode printing and cheap paper. Even envelopes print with hardly any curl.
Rear output tray: Has it! Many printers don't. Its predecessor model didn't. This "straight out the back" mode allows you to print envelopes, cards, and special paper without ever bending it if you really want perfection.
On/Off switch: Has one! I mention this because many printers don't. Without one, a printer is left on all the time, which uses 10 watts of power (not much, but still) and reduces product lifetime somewhat.
Lifetime: The predecessor model (HL-5250DN) has great reviews. People said they're still using it 3 years later. The HL-5370DW has just about the same design, and I expect it will last a while. Not a cheap, throw-away printer like you often see.
Networking: Haven't tried it. But it has it, and it will become very useful when I get a wireless laptop to add to my existing desktop PC (both will need to share it).
Languages: It speaks both Postscript 3 and PCL. That guarantees it will be compatible with any OS out there, even older ones. And since it doesn't use "host based" language like cheaper printers do, it won't eat up your CPU and slow things down during printing.
In conclusion, this is a well-designed, high quality printer with low long-term operating costs, and I'm completely satisfied. I'll add an update to this review if I ever encounter problems with it.
- Steve
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Fast, fast, fast
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| Review Date: June 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Super T, Alexandria, VA United States |
Pros:
* super fast print speeds - this thing is crazy fast even on duplex
* fast warm up
* excellent print quality
* great variety of print options (duplex, booklet, scaling, header/footer print, watermark, multiple page [2 in 1, 4 in 1, 9 in 1, 16 in 1, 25 in 1 and the reverse 1 in 2x2, 1 in 3x3, 1 in 4x4 and 1 in 5x5] - it has some options about running macros, but I haven't read anything on it yet
* easy wireless setup, very easy
* sharp tech support - brother has NOT outsourced their tech support. I had someone on the phone in 1 minute who knew the product.
* wireless - I was actually going to hard wire it, but my cable wasn't long enough and it would have taken a circus act to get it hooked up
* from magazine reviews it's my understanding that the cost/page is cheap
* cheap - I bought it during a $70 off sale at the home depot of office products
* comes w/a standard toner cartridge instead of a starter toner cartridge
Cons:
* ever so slight paper curl w/one-sided printing
* slightly more pronounced paper curl when printing duplex automatically (it has a manual duplex feature too)
* the print options don't appear to allow you to save your common settings as favorites
The paper curl wasn't an issue for me, but I remember reading reviews on other printers where this was important to them.
I'll try and upload some pics so you can judge the curl for yourself.
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Great value for the money unless you print a lot
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| Review Date: July 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Doug Pardee, |
Fast, quality printing with double-sided capability, comes with a full standard 3000-page toner unit in the box, has wireless and wired and USB and parallel interfaces, all at an amazing price.
On the other hand, toner costs seem to be quite high. The standard 3000-page TN-620 is currently about $57 here on Amazon, while the oversized 8000-page TN-650 is $91. That's way above the price of similar HP toner cartridges. The "toner save" setting (or whatever it's called) produces nice results, at least for text... I wonder how much toner it actually saves?
The paper curl is mildly annoying on single-sided print and quite prominent on double-sided. Take a printed page and set it on the table, and the top and bottom edges are sticking up. Sticking WAY up for a double-sided print. That paper must really get run around some tight rollers. On the paper that I'm using, the curl does relax fairly quickly.
I didn't see where it said anything on the packaging, but setting it up for wireless setup will probably require initially setting the printer up wired. Once you've got the printer configured, you can lose the cord. I imagine that most of us wireless users still have at least one network cable lying around, but it'd be nice if you had some warning.
The printer drivers installed fine on a 64-bit Vista system, an XP tower, and an XP netbook (the latter required copying the installation CD onto a thumb drive). I'd configured the printer with a static IP address, and there was no problem at all getting all three systems talking to the printer. Considering the amount of grief that I usually get from drivers and configuration (especially on Vista-64), I was astounded. Everything went like it was supposed to.
When you go to actually print a document, the "properties" panels aren't as well organized as I'd like but they're not really bad.
As has become standard practice these days, there is no paper manual except for a quick-start. The manual is on the CD. Someday I'll have to look at it and see what all the buttons and features are for.
In summary, there are certainly better printers to be had, but it'd be pretty hard to find a better one at this price. |
Great speed, resolution, and price. Perfect "back-to-school" computer for the modern networked household
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| Review Date: September 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Karyn, The Woodlands, TX USA |
| Ordered the printer with Amazon's free "Super Saver" shipping and it arrived at the house (in Texas) 2 days later (which made me glad that I didn't pay extra for expedited shipping). Excellent printing speed, excellent print quality, and an amazingly reasonable price for this very capable unit. Initial wired set-up was a snap, and the kids were printing study guides and assignments like crazy. For wireless networking you're generally going to need a spare ethernet cable to connect the printer to your wireless router (so you can configure the printer to communicate with your wireless network). A potential problem here is that the instructions that come with the printer might not use precisely the same language/words as your router/networking software so it might take you a bit of trial-and-error to discover if your "Authentication method" really runs as an "open system" (as opposed to a "shared key", etc.), or whether or not you're really running data encryption (both "authentication" and "encryption" can be distinct from running a standard "secure" network using, for example, a WEP code). If you're not sure and incorrectly enter your "Authentication method" as a "shared key" (because you use a network key to access your wireless network), you'll discover that the wireless link status "Failed to associate." No problemo, but while re-running the wireless networking program you might find that your network stops recognizing your printer as a potential "wireless device". If this happens, the recently entered (incorrect) printer settings might be the culprit so reset your printer to its "factory default" settings as described in the manual (page 43 on my version). After the printer is reset, you can then rerun the wireless networking protocol and give it another go (while changing the wireless settings). For my standard home network, the proper settings turned out to be "Authentication method" = "Open System" and "Encryption mode" = "none" (even though the later print-out showed the "Encryption Mode" as "WEP"). After entering the standard WEP code (as the "Network Key") the wireless link fired right up and the various wired and wireless computers in the house had no problem printing (after loading the drivers). The above process took about 45 minutes to trouble shoot with the longest period spent reading through the manual so I could learn how to reset the factory defaults on the printer. All-in-all, about average for a "Windows" install where you're stuck with somewhat ambiguous semantic compatibility issues muddled by imprecise directions. As always, it's all good after the problem is solved. Hopefully, these remarks might help you get to the good part a little sooner. Good luck! |
Brother HL-5730DW Laser Printer
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| Review Date: May 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: K L Howe, Pacific, WA USA |
| I had this fabulous laser printer up and running on my wireless network in about 30 minutes after coming out of the box. The installation instructions were spot on. Secure setup was a snap. The output quality is excellent and having the printer available on our wireless network is so useful, whether it be to print from our wireless laptop connections or our multiple desktop machines. I highly recommend this versatile printer, and it prints in duplex mode, too, saving paper. Brother HL-5370DW Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex |
Best buy for " Brother HL-5370DW Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex ", Lowest Price Brother HL-5370DW Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex + Free shipping. Get Brother HL-5370DW Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex Now! |
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