HL-1210W

Small unit. Easy to ser up either wireless or with cable or both. Easy to use. Printer cartridges fairly inexpensive. Fast paper feed and print compared to laserjet printers. Ideal for monochrome documents.

Points to notePROS1. Good Print Quality - even the smallest fonts are well defined; no banding or streaking.2. Small footprintCONS1. No option for a cream colour. Still, it hides the toner dirt!2. No instruction, only an outdated CD (no Win 10 drivers in 2021, really?) . Only an A3 on how to connect USB or wireless using the WPS button on your router. The path of least resistance as anything more complicated, like SSID and password, will require typing it on the printers 3 buttons of up/down and OK buttons. Painful and hopefully a one-time exercise.3. Expensive when the build quality, injection moulding is compared to previous Brother printers. Feel like it should have been £50 less. But I guess they make a loss on them to claw back in toner.4. Noisy (ok, this might be personal preference, but I mean when compared to previous Brother printers and other consumer laser printers I've used). It will probably make someone ask "What's it doing?" as it implies its struggling or about to blow up. Its noise you might associate with a milling machine. No brushless motors here. My washing machine is quieter on medium spin. I could probably sand the chair legs on its motor.5. No high-capacity paper tray. 100 pages exposed to the air (like an inkjet style of paper loading). Make sure you recess printer 5" from the edge of a table, otherwise you may accidentally catch the tray with your body as you walk past.6. Toner cartridges are then smaller TN1050's so won't last as long as you may have previously been used to, but shouldn't break the bank either.7. The hardware scan-to-print has been replaced on this model with a 'SCAN to PC' which means the need for the PC to be on. But as neither the SCAN button nor the Brother Control Centre was able to work the scanner without windows 10 errors, I was not able to use it.I can't say anything about speed, it takes 12 seconds from the microswitch click to seeing the first page and feels about as fast as others in this group.My overall impression is I could live with it, but it doesn't seem to have the build quality, looks and quietness of previous brother models and I miss the paper being inside a drawer that can't be seen. But in terms of Quality, the output is good, though I suspect the smaller cartridges won't last long. Shame I couldn't get the scanning to work. I'll play around with MS 2006 drivers instead of the Brother Sept 2019 ones and see if I can get W10 to talk to it, before it turns into W11!

Needed a printer for very occasional use, but remember the bad experience of my previous inkjet printers..Cartridges drying out inbetween uses, ink running out at vast expense after no time at all really put me off getting another.. until I heard of laser printers...Having a nose on Amazon, expecting to pay well for losing these inkjet hassles, I came across two Brother laser printers at under £70. This included the first toner laser cartridge (basically ink, but in dry powder form that doesnt dry out or clog) which work for up to 1000 full page prints with the starter cartridge, but offer 5000 with cartridge replacements!Supplied inkjet starter cartridges running out after a week or so, then being presented with a cost greater than the actual printer to replace them, also seems to make laser a no brainer for those wishing to print only black and white and on a budget.There were two models at the sub £70 mark, and I chose this cheapest HL-1212w one at £64. The downside was that it will not automatically print on both sides of the paper (at the £70 one does), plus for me (more critically) this one is smaller and fit perfectly my small office needs.You can manually reload on this model to print both sides if you wish, although I recycle paper anyway (plus finished documents look much nicer one sided anyway).Setup was easy.The Vine reviewer here (who was given the version with the 5 cartridges and 3 year guarantee for free in order to review it) surely must have been reviewing a different printer?Far from being flimsy & cheaply made (when compared to his more expensive and older Brother machine), I find it the opposite despite actually paying for mine. Yes, it may not be as sturdy as older and more expensive printers, and basing a review upon that might seem unfair.Just because a cheap Sekonda watch isnt a Rolex watch doesnt make it any less functional at telling the time..From a budgetary perspective, it does what it says it does, is ridiculously cheap in doing so, looks good and completes prints quickly.Replacement cartridges (originals) cost around 30 quid. Non originals cost as little as £7.The drum (which encapsulates the toner (ink) cartridge needs replacing around every 2 years.. Also £30 for an original and as little as £7 non original...I may risk non original, as most of the reviews state no problem in doing so and similar reviews to the originals.All being well, that's ongoing printing for no money whatsoever...Setting up on pc is easy with the included disc, and despite no included usb cable, none is needed down to the wifi feature.My pc recognised and connected with it immediately. I at first wondered where the Brother printing app interface on the pc was, but printing on the pc is easy and basically down to just clicking "print" in windows whilst actually viewing the document or item you require printing. A small Brother window then opens with simplistic options, with all needing doing then pressing "print".I rarely turn my pc on these days, but forget the faff of having to do that with this printer..Simply download the Brother printing app to your phone, and you can simply print documents that you receive via email even in another room in the house. Given that a smartphone is in fact these days what a PC is anyway, you can do everything from your phone anyway.Given the ridiculous low price, lack of problems setting up, reliability I have found already, robustness, simplicity, cheap and reliable toner (ink) and consumables on offer with this laser printer, I'm giving it five stars.I will come back to my review if there are any issues or downsides in the meantime, so you can view the date my review was published and feel confident that my printer is still going strong.I'm hoping it goes on for years, and actually suspect it will.Extremely pleased :)

I cannot think of anything good to say! Avoid this awful printer.Wifi? Only if you only have 2.4GHz, and only if you have one access point. Got 5Ghz switched on? You will have to switch it off before the printer will connect to 2.4GHz. Got a Wifi extender or a 2nd access point? You have to turn all of them off too before the printer can connect. Once connected switch any of those back on and the printer will disconnect. So either reconfigured your wirless network everytime you want to print or buy a usb cable.The paper sticks out of the front gathering dust and catching the clothing of passers by. Printed output falls on the floor unless you extend the flimsy bit of plastic that is stored under the top cover. Opening the top cover and closing it again usually renders the printer needing a restart “top cover open!” before you can print. Slamming the lid down as hard as you can might work after three or more tries.Click print and go and make a cup of tea or sit there wondering why nothing is happening.If I want a quick photo copy I walk to postoffice, quicker and less hassel!