Brother HL-2070N Network Monochrome Laser Printer (Black)
by Brother Printer
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List Price: Our Price: $129.99 You Save: $170.00 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother HL-2070N Network Monochrome Laser Printer (Black)
Customer Review: Great little home network laser printer
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this printer for about 1 month now and have used it to print 500-600 pages of mostly text. Also, printed some manuals with pictures/illustrations. So, while I cannot speak to how it will hold up long-term, I can say that we have used it without ANY problems to this point. Seems to be well made compared to some of the flimsier printers I looked at.
The setup for our network was so simple. I read the PDF manual for about an hour looking for all the tips and tricks, but none are needed. Just do what the instructions say... put the CD in the computer, run the install and let the install program find your printer on the network and install the print driver. It worked perfectly! In 5 minutes per computer, even the kid's wireless computer. I could have saved all the reading and followed the simple instructions.
The print driver is pretty full featured, even walking you through "manual duplex" by printing one side first, then putting the paper back in, with a picture on the screen to show you how to orient, an printing the second side.
Extremely pleased with the purchase to avoid using up ink on our inkjet for the kids projects... now only use the inkjet when color is needed.
The printer does "curl" the paper a little, but that relaxes out after a few minutes... hasn't caused a problem yet, even when using the manual duplex feature. Also, the print output is "ok" at the 600 dpi setting, but looks really good at the 1200 dpi setting. I haven't used up the smaller toner cartridge that came with the printer yet, but my guess in the 1200 dpi uses more toner just by seeing how much darker the output is. Along the same lines, you replace the toner cartridge (rated 3500 pages), not a full developer cartridge (20,000 pages) so your per page price is lower compared to other printers that include the fuser with the toner.
Overall, great little laser printer that hooks up to your network and installs quickly. 250 page paper tray holds plenty of paper without having a plastic paper holder hanging out like some of the slightly smaller printers. Hardy recommendation!
Bill
UPDATE 1/7/2009: After using this printer for 2 years solid and thousands of printed pages, I still give it 5 stars, even more enthusiastically... not one bit of problem for this 6 person family.
Customer Review: The Brother HL-2070N is an outstanding laser printer
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using a Mac 8500 computer and an HP LJ 4MP laser printer for over a decade and loved both of them.
Last year, however, I decided it was time to join the 21st century and upgraded to an iMac. Of course, it didn't have the proper connectors for my old HP printer, so I started thinking it was time to get a new printer, too.
As I looked at all that is available, I could not make up my mind. There were too many printers to choose from. I was definitely leaning towards HP, because of the quality and longevity of my old printer, which still works great with some older computers.
Eventually, the Brother HL-2070N laser printer caught my attention. It offered all the things I wanted at a great price. Since I plan to add more computers to my network, it only made sense to get a network ready printer.
So, moving at the speed of a tortoise, I finally made up my mind and ordered the HL-2070N.
When it arrived, I was surprised at its light weight and that bothered me a bit. However, after using the printer, my doubts are gone.
I paid well over $1000 for my old printer and the idea of getting a network-ready printer for less than a tenth of that didn't seem reasonable.
Installation was fast and easy on my Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger system. Installing the driver was a matter of clicking on a button. It did require a restart, but gave me the option of canceling. I had several other programs running and various documents in progress, so I saved them and closed everything but the installation program. A few minutes later, with one restart, and the printer was ready.
I was surprised at both the quality of the print and the speed of printing. Both were very good.
After using it for several days, and printing a variety of documents from over a dozen programs, I know this is a keeper and is worth recommending it to you.
I have no experience with using it with a Windows computer, but it works flawlessly with my iMac.
It has additional features that I haven't explored, and may not. This printer does everything I need. Only time will tell if it lasts as well as the printer it just replaced.
John L. Dilbeck
Customer Review: Keeps on ticking for cheap (given you know how to extend toner life and use generics!)
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had the HL-2070N for several years now, and though it's not really sold anymore, I'm writing this review to help folks who may be wondering whether they should replace it or not (which is a tough decision, given I just saw ads at major retailers selling the HL-2140 for just under fifty bucks).
I was trying to be less wasteful, so instead of tossing out my HL-2070N, I decided to get new toner. (I had extended the life of the last toner cartridge for more than 8 months by using the toner life extending techniques well described in other reviews on-line--companies are practically giving away printers because they make soooo much money from people buying their own brand of toners). Now, it would clearly NOT be worth buying a Brother brand toner replacement if they're selling entire new printers for less than the cost of a Brother brand toner cartridge, right? But hey, if the printer you've got is working perfectly for you, just go to a reputable place like Supermediastore and get the non-OEM, Brother-compatible cartridge (mine was under thirty bucks with free shipping). I bought one, despite all the scary reviews (perhaps posted by Brother employees?), just put it in, and it works great. (The scary-looking generic packaging even contained instructions for how to clean the "corona wire" in the printer--thanks, China!)
I was hesitant to replace the toner because the print issue I started having didn't appear to be the toner running out: the print looked fine, but there was an overall grey "haze" with faint vertical stripes on each printout. I cleaned the drum cylinder with an old sock while manually rotating it, but this only helped the printouts a little bit. Drum units are NOT worth replacing in these machines, so I spoke with Brother reps (who were nice) but all they could say is to try replacing the toner first. I'm glad I did--it must have been the toner roller wearing out that resulted in the grey printouts and faint lines. The new generic toner solved the problem, so I'm looking forward to many more years of cheap and sharp printing!
Bottom line, stick with a printer you know works well, but extend toner life using the electrical tape trick and buy non-OEM toners!
Customer Review: You'll never go back to inkjet after using this - Easy setup (Mac or PC), speedy, good quality, compact, and networkable
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a little worried about the paper curling issue at first, but having used this printer for a while, it is not as bad as some people make it out to be. Yes, the paper is curled slightly when it first comes out, but if you set it aside on a flat surface and let it cool for a few seconds, the paper will flatten out by itself. I have seen other laser printers that do far worse curling.
Network setup is very easy, especially if you're using Mac OS X Tiger or Panther. I was able to connect both with Bonjour/Rendezvous wirelessly via Linksys 802.11g router after installing drivers downloaded off Brother's website. Also was able to connect a PC running Win XP, which required an extra step or two. After you're connected, if you need to change any default printer settings, it's all done through a web interface (both FireFox and Safari worked fine).
Overall print quality is noticeably better than any inkjet and as good, if not better than similar laser printers in this class. Even graphic printouts were much better than I had expected and is perfectly fine for non-photo quality jobs. There are settings for 300/600/1200 dpi, a toner saver feature, power saver timeout, print density, and paper type selector (someone mentioned that selecting "thin" paper type causes less curling). Various other advanced printer and networking settings, and emulation modes exist also.
Print speed is very good. It takes about 10 seconds from the time I click the Print button to when 1 page in 600dpi with a fair amount of of text is printed out, even having just awakened from sleep mode. No problems printing out MS Word, Excel, and Adobe Acrobat documents.
I've printed a couple hundred pages so far, and have not experienced any printer errors or paper jams. (The printer also keeps a tally on the number of jams and an error history of the last 10 errors.)
Firmware version on mine is 1.11.
Overall, I would highly recommend this printer for anyone looking to save money on inkjet cartridges and want a very good quality, speedy, easy-to-setup, compact, networkable B&W laser printer for their home or home office.
Customer Review: Brother Quality Continues to Impress
Summary: 5 Stars
This makes my third Brother laser printer that I have owned over the years. All three printers continue to be operational despite heavy workloads that I put on them in my small business. In fact, the only reason I bought the 2070N was because I wanted the convenience of the built-in networking capabilities. When it comes to quality, Brother shined above all the others and continues to do so.
The 2070N is a 20ppm monochrome (black and white) laser that can hook right up to your existing network. There is an optional wireless adapter you can purchase if you don't have a cabled network. One of the things that impressed me the most was how easy it was to get setup and running on the network. I had used HP printers years ago that were 'network ready' only to spend hours trying to figure out how to get the rest of the computers in the house to see it. With Brother, it was a matter of "plug and play". I took it out of the box, hooked it up and it automatically was assigned an IP address and the included software saw the printer and setup the necessary drivers. It doesn't get any easier than that!
There are a lot of features built into this printer that you wouldn't expect to find on a consumer model. For instance, the printer has a web interface that you can use to administer and check the status of the printer. There is also a built-in FTP server so you can literally FTP your large documents over to be printed. Errors and such can be setup to be e-mailed to you automatically so that, for example, when you are running low on toner you can get an email alert before you run totally dry.
The printer warms up faster and from sleep mode to print usually takes less than 10 seconds. Though some of the earlier 2070N models apparently had a problem with heat and curling paper, it appears that Brother has fixed this as I have never had my paper curl -- even during large print jobs.
Overall, you can't go wrong with the 2070N. It's a low-cost workhorse that will serve you well for your print jobs in both your home and small business environment.