Brother HL-2130 Mono Laser Printer

Have had this printer for several weeks now and have been very impressed with it. The print quality is excellent and the speed is as impressive as the much more expensive models at work. As I only print infrequently this laser printer is the best option as there are no ink jets to dry up. It is a quality product at an incredible price offering exceptional value for money. The clarity of the printing is excellent and meets the standard for printing airline boarding passes and other travel documents which are now being regularly emailed by travel agents. It was also very easy to install the driver and set it up. I have no hesitation in recommending this printer which also now comes with a cable. Definitely merits it's 5 star rating.

After ten years sterling service, I reckoned it was about time to replace my old XT machine and my trusty Brother laser printer. I invested in an iMac and, to go with it, a new Brother HL-2130, which arrived yesterday, two days after I ordered it - great work Amazon and Hermes. The reason for this review is that I want to call out just how easy it was get the printer working with my Mac. As soon as I plugged in the USB and before I'd put the CD in the drive, the iMac scurried off to the Brother support site, grabbed the latest drivers (I'm running 10.9.3) and installed them. Job done. I was printing in less than two minutes. Now I know that a good deal of this is just down to how smart the Mac is but, that notwithstanding, I was really impressed. Print quality? Excellent, wouldn't expect anything less. Speed - a tad slow to the first print but quick after that. If you want a cheap, good quality printer for your Mac, I'd highly recommend this one.

This printer was bought to provide cheap, quick printout from a basic, home-use desktop where colour isn't necessary and does the job admirably. It has a compact form factor but is nonetheless bigger than most photo/deskjet printers in the same price bracket. It's the lightest-weight/duty and lowest-priced Brother printer I've used to date, but still feels reassuringly solid in terms of build quality.The printer measures roughly 14 inches wide/deep by 6 1/2inches tall. Set up (on my parents' Vista-based PC) was completely straightforward, the most time-consuming element being the software installation.The printer is quick - not the fastest of its type, but at 20ppm still speedy enough that you aren't hanging over it waiting for it to get through the last few lines before you can grab your document! The initial toner - as others have said - is a start-up cartridge and NOT a full/full-size version... but, assuming that you aren't printing highly ink-dense documents, still lasts well. Certainly better than ink jet technology.In terms of noise, this isn't the quietest of printers. Once it's awake, there is an internal fan that whirs for ages and the only way to stop it manually is to turn the printer off. The start button doesn't also serve as a simple go/pause button (as it has on other Brother printers I've owned), instead, if the printer is in 'idle' mode, a press of this button will result in the printout of a test page.There are 2 paper feeders: a 250 page (at 80gsm) tray at the bottom of the printer, but also a sheet loader on the front of the device for large envelopes and providing guidance for inserting sheets intended for manual duplexing. This is a really useful feature for lower volume users.PROS:- low cost purchase and potentially cheaper than inkjet to run- small size- fast printout- guidance for manual duplexingCONS- it's a basic model and not meant as a serious business machine- barebones printer with limitations on paper type

This has to have been my best printer purchase yet. Arrived on the saturday after good friday which was a nice supprise. +1 kudos to HDNL for that. The printer came with no USB lead which supprised me as it is a USB only printer (not networked). This wasnt a problem though as I had spare usb's lying around anyway. The starter toner works no problems and I can say after 100 pages its still printing fine. The paper tray seems like it should come all the way out especially after using other brother printers of which the tray was fixed in. The 250 sheet capactity is great. The seperate input tray for letters and blank pages accidently printed out.After working out costings including power consumption this printer costs only slightly more than my old inkjet to run. The laser is also faster and prints much deeper blacks and is superbly accurate with pictures.If this breaks I will probably consider getting a colour laser. 100% recommend!