After getting a bit weary of walking across my house to my networked printer every time I wanted to print something, and being frustrated that I couldn’t print from my Mac at all I took the leap and got myself a new Multi-Function machine.
Laser Multi-Function Copier with Auto Document Feeder
Specs:
- Print and copy at up to 23 ppm
- HQ1200 (Up to 2400 x 600 dpi) printing
- Stand alone copying – no PC required
- 35-page ADF capacity for multi-page documents
- Reduce or enlarge from 25% to 400%
I started by setting it up on the Mac. It was seamless and within minutes I was printing and scanning. The setup on the PC took longer and required a restart but I didn’t run into any problems there either. My usage results at the end of the first day are as follows:
- Manual Feed – I printed about 60 envelopes using the manual feed. They had to be fed one at a time and the printer needed to cool down for a minute or so a couple of times in the process and also had some false jam signals a couple of times. The envelopes fed through straight, though, and the jam/cool-down issues were pretty minor.
- Sheet feeder: I used the photo copy function with the sheet feeder and about 10 pages. The copies were not as crisp as the originals and the sheets fed in just slightly crooked.
- Scanner: I scanned a photograph to my PC and was not satisfied with the results. I will be testing this feature further, next time with a photo that is not wrinkled. The scan image that I got was much grainier than I expected. The high resolution scanner was a selling point for me so I hope to get better results in the future. I do love that it has a flat-bed scanner, my last multi-function was not flat-bed so it was difficult to copy/scan anything other than single sheets of paper.
- Basic printing from both the PC and the Mac were great.
The biggest inconvenience for me will be switching the USB between the two machines. I will be attempting to set up printer sharing but I have not had luck getting the Mac and the Vista machine talking to each other. Being able to copy, scan and print from my desk will be a huge time saver. I was able to get this printer on sale at a local store but even at the prices available online(around $200) I think the printer is very reasonably priced.
Toner for this printer comes in two flavors. The TN330 cartridge yields about 1500 pages and the TN350 High Yield cartridge will get you closer to 2500 pages. The replacement drum is not as expensive as some I’ve seen.:
Brother TN330 Black Toner Cartridge
Brother TN360 High Yield Black Toner Cartrdige
I have been buying Brother printers for years for their economical toner usage and I trust that this printer will live up to the job it’s predecessors handled so well.
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