Reviewed by: huynh2 on 07-Dec-09 Rating:

Strengths:speed

Weaknesses:width of unit could be smaller

Summary:This is a nice home printing unit. I especially appreciate the fact that it has three printing resolution selections under the toner saving mode. It makes the toner last alot longer.

Reviewed by: RadianChalant on 21-Mar-09 Rating:

Strengths:Beautiful-Looking Machine, Easy To Use, Durable construction, Compact Design, Sharp detail, Reliable, Fast Print Time, Low toner consumption, Economical, Easy Setup

Weaknesses:None at all

Summary:The HL-2140 is intended for light-duty use, personal or home office. It is not intended for use in large offices, where hundreds of pages are printed everyday. This printer is a laser printer that uses toner (graphite-colored powder) that is burned into the paper; it is not made to do photos, especially on photo papers. This Brother printer prints extremely fast and is relatively quiet. You can control many of your user preferences from the printer\'s preferences. The print qualities at 600 dpi and 1200 dpi is simply outstanding. Read the directions. Also, download the newest drivers from the Brother website. To get every bit of toner powder out of the cartridge, first remove the toner unit from the drum assembly. Second, find the little circular window on the right-side of the toner cartridge. Third, place a piece of black electrical tape over the clear window, cannot be clear tape. Fourth, re-install the toner cartridge into the drum assembly. Last, put the complete unit back into your printer. This is a great little printer.

Reviewed by: juancamilord on 16-Jan-09 Rating:

Strengths:printer quality

Weaknesses:software

Summary:It was everything perfect with the printer until today. I was printing and the quality of the prints where excellent but then the PC showed me a message: \"toner life end\" it was not possible that such a thing happend the print outs are perfect. It seems they want me to Buy a new toner when mine still have life.... cheap at the beginning but they at brother will take your money later.

Reviewed by: clyderesendez on 17-Nov-08 Rating:

Strengths:Everything as advertised

Weaknesses:Need to replace the toner fairly soon

Summary:Got this printer to use outdoors during sporting events that I officiate. It performs great. The only drawback is the toner is comes with does not last very long.

Reviewed by: drgold2000 on 10-Nov-08 Rating:

Strengths:Price after rebate that ends at end of year -Quality of print is great - 600 dpi standard or 1200 dpi if select it - Enclosed 250 page paper holder2X as Fast as my old printer -- 23 pp per minute

Weaknesses:Noise from printing, cooling fan and clicks that it makes. Much more noise than my Minolta PagePro 1250W laser. -Toner Hi Yield is less than with most at only 2500 pages vs 6000 pages & drum less pp

Summary:Get this baby on sale now with the $20 off from Brother before 2008 ends ... too, a very fast rebate from Brother which was nice. --

Too, the tape trick found on the internet may make this even better on toner ... the printer has a laser system that measures toner and cuts the printer off and makes it unusable when the toner is getting low. So take the cartridge unit out of the printer and place on a newspaper - remove the toner cartridge from the drum - some toner will leak out so wash your hands if necessary. Place masking tape on each round window on each end. This trick may give you 25% more prints or more. --

Too if you get a drum message of it going bad then try resetting it per the instructions on the web in the user\'s guide. --

I put my Kill-A-Watt meter up to both my old and new printer and both use a lot of energy to print then go to a sleep mode. --

Kilowatt meter as measured 11-10-08:
Brother 2140:
Nothing happening: 3 watts
Fan on : 4 watts
450-925 W briefly while printing then back to 4 W with fan on
User Manual say: Brother Power Consumption: Printing: Average = 460 W & noise at 51 dB; Standby = Average 80 W 30 dB; Sleep = Average 5 W. Weight =12.8 lbs

Minolta PagePro1250W: --
Nothing happening: 5 watts
Fan on : 6 watts very briefly compared to Brother
420-722 W briefly while printing then back to 6 W with fan on
User Manual says: 840W or less; Noise Printing: 49 dB or less, Standby: 30 dB or less. --

So, both use a lot of energy to print as expected from a laser print but quickly go to a energy saving wattage. --

Oh, I almost forgot to say if you intend to refill the toner cartridge that comes with it and is good for 1000 pages, then you need to get a reset gear from EBay for it to work. Or, get a new toner cartridge and when it runs out use the reset gear ... some good instructions from some sellers on how to install it and how to position it. I think I will try a refill with a reset gear after my starter cartridge goes out while using the masking tape trick.

Good Luck,

John
San Antonio
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5-21-09 Update:

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Started printing many, many black spots on the paper after only 6 months of use. The very expensive drum roller had two rough spots on it and I cleaned as recommended with a Q-tip and it helped. But, I am disappointed in this mishap and will change rating from 5 to 2 Stars!!!!!

Reviewed by: gman246 on 22-Jun-08 Rating:

Strengths:Fast. Low per page cost. Toner save mode @ 300-dpi prints highly acceptable documents (to extend toner life)

Weaknesses:High electricity usage. Manual feed port doesn\'t have a tray to support the manual feed pages.

Summary:If you want a low cost per page, fast laser printer for basic printing needs, this fits the bill perfectly. The only drawback is the higher than average electricity usage. Given my 3 monitors, computer, and various other items in my home office, my battery backup cycles every time I turn the printer on and at various times during printer standby mode. It is rated around 4 amps average during print mode. The supply on the back states a max draw of 8.6 amps although I don\'t think it would ever hit that mark.

Other than that, the cost per page is fairly low if you go with the high yield toner TN360 (I think it\'s around 1.8 cents per page up to 12000 pages when you need to buy a new drum which also isn\'t too expensive). But still an arm & leg cheaper than running any typical inkjet printer. Overall, I am highly satisfied but docked it 1 star because of the high electric usage.

Reviewed by: zhengshan on 18-Apr-08 Rating:

Strengths:fast

Weaknesses:no

Summary:I like the printer and it quiet and fast, I have been using it for about 5 weeks and I am happy with it and I am highly recommend this printer.

Reviewed by: undertowpull on 09-Mar-08 Rating:

Strengths:Lightning fast printer, high resolution vs similarly priced models, reasonable toner. Works PERFECTLY with a low-end D-Link print server, where many others did not. Power consumption is minimal.

Weaknesses:Significant \"page curl\" during printing, some configuration options cannot be set from the printer itself, and must be set from the driver (worked for me even thru a wireless print server).

Summary:This is a fantastic printer, and can be bought many places for less than $50. PPM speed is phenomenal, resolution is higher than any similarly priced printers, and it works with off-brand wireless print servers, putting it in a very small group.
Power consumption in \"sleep mode\" (as measured by a \"kill-o-watt\" meter), is negligible -- I have clocks that use more power! When I need to print something, it wakes right up, spits out the page, and goes back to sleep.
The driver support is also fantastic, you have control of almost every facet of the printer configuration -- the only drawback is it doesn\'t seem you have similar control from the panel.
Power-on was enough drain to trip my UPS unit temporarily -- apparently this is common amongst laser printers, however, and not unique to this unit.

Reviewed by: sofeisty on 02-Mar-08 Rating:

Strengths:Fast and even when on the economy/toner saver it looks better than most inkjet printers. It is small and very simple to set up. I highly recommend it. I wish I had bought two with rebates.

Weaknesses:I can\'t get the thing to network. It\'s probably my error but it\'s just not working. And the unit is rather loud but other than that it\'s great.

Summary:We just printed a big job of flyers for my son\'s band. We used neon colored paper and they looked great even on the economy setting. I hope the OEM cartridges are available and inexpensive for this because I really have enjoyed having this little gem. I\'ll be buying another one if it\'s available for $30 again.

Reviewed by: johnfasc on 20-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Easy to set up,Fast on the draw,Economical to use

Weaknesses:None that I know of

Summary:This being my second Brother Laser (also have the HL-2040 which I love)I purchased this for my home. Too many times you need just black print and using an ink jet was not cost effective. The laser is much faster also. The price point on this is what put me over the top. $49.99 less a mfg. rebate of $20 and $10 store incentive coupon made it way cheaper than buying a new toner. It is easy to set up and works great just as the 2040. I highly recommend this printer just for text as it will save you plenty in refills. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. I have only had this for a day but the 2040 for months and there have been no issues yet.

Reviewed by: tnswong on 20-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Warms up fast, affordable, reliable.

Weaknesses:None at this moment.

Summary:I just bought this printer from office max yesterday and had it setup in 10 minutes. It warms up fast and the first page comes out pretty quickly. This printer is reliable and good for its price. I will definitely recommend it!

Reviewed by: vinnyslady on 20-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Fast, clean prints, internal paper tray

Weaknesses:reliability is a little iffy.

Summary:The first one of these I bought I had to return to the store and exchange, it printed 2 and a half pages and died halfway throught the third and would not turn on again.
That said, I returned and rebought and am very satisfied with the speed and clear quality of image from this printer. The install was simple, love the internal paper tray as I have little ones, who like to \"steal\" computer paper.
Despite my initial experience this printer seems to have a nice sturdy build quality and doesn\'t leave a big footprint.
I\'m satisfied, but recommend an extended warranty just in case.

Reviewed by: fchang777 on 20-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Fast Printer, Compact Size

Weaknesses:None so Far

Summary:I set this up with my Vista laptop and it works just fine. The speed of the printing is excellent and the quality is great. I have had no problems using this after a couple days of heavy use. I really like the compact design.

Reviewed by: bwambolt on 18-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Print quality and speed

Weaknesses:Replacement toner cost

Summary:This printer performs well and gives excellent print quality. Setup was easy. It has a small footprint and will fit on most desktops. The printer includes a starter toner cartridge that is rated at 1000 pages. Replacement toner can be expensive however.

Reviewed by: ty001 on 18-Feb-08 Rating:

Strengths:Cheap compare to other laser printers, fast printing, small form factor.

Weaknesses:Toner is kind of new and expense.

Summary:My 5 year printer just died, I need a printer for printer paper and report, no need for color printing. This one was on sale, and fit what I needed. It prints very fast compared to my old printer, and at a great price. The toner is kind of new, and is expense, but not by much. This is my first laser printer and I love it!!