BROTHER HL-L2445DW Mono Laser Printer | Single function |
BROTHER HL-L2445DW Mono Laser Printer | Single function | Automatic 2-sided print | A4|UK Plug
From the brand
All-in-Box printers
| Weight: | 7.1 kg |
| Dimensions: | 36 x 35.6 x 18.3 cm; 7.1 Kilograms |
| Brand: | BROTHER |
| Model: | HLL2445DWZU1 |
| Colour: | Dark Grey |
| Manufacture: | Brother |
| Dimensions: | 36 x 35.6 x 18.3 cm; 7.1 Kilograms |
I have had this in use for some while now and it works without any of the hassle I had with my previous ink printer. I now wonder why they still make ink printers.
Had a HP one before that which made me hate any form of HP printer with passion. Switched over to this, so simple and easy to use. Plug-in and print (think there is an app or something, but you do not need it daily). Whereas in HP you have to use their stupid bloatware, inks decide to run out magically after 3 weeks of not using them and you have to buy new inks constantly
Just buy this one if you do not need colour printing, so much happier.
It starts up, scans and prints quite quickly. Text quality is very good on normal paper. Images are not as good as they would be with an inkjet but very adequate nonetheless. They might be better on laser paper.
It’s a nice compact all in one that works well with Linux and is likely to be economical to run.
Having bought another brother laser printer and discovered its not supported by Chrome OS, I’m pleased to say this cheaper one is.
All working well
I notice that there are no 3rd party toner options out there for this printer.
Excellent A4 laser and toner printer. Works excellently with 1200DPI pdfs. Quick, simple setup with ethernet, worked first time for me following the install wizard. If you want WIFI get the “W” version of this printer. Comes with a very good scanner for A4 as described. I bought mine used but it was as new and I don’t regret it. Very good home printer which fits into ~40cm3
This seems to be a good printer, and has done well all I have asked of it so far. My one criticism is that the printed instructions that came with it didn’t indicate adquately just how to access where the laser cartridge and the paper should be inserted. All became clear once I had gone to the videos that they did refer to, which were fine. But the instructions should either have been clearer or have told you to visit the videos as part of the set-up, and not just suggest then as an optional extra..
It’s also super fast. Didn’t time it exactly but feels like all the claims in the spec are legit, as well as double-side printing (duplex). This is night and day comparing to inkjet.
After switching on, it falls into deep sleep in about half a minute, and it wakes up immediately if I need to print anything. This comes in a benefit of energy saving. When its switched on, its energy consumption shoots to over 900W for a fraction of a second, then down to below 100, and pulse to over 600W every few seconds, only for a fraction of a second only each time. Then it falls to Sleep in about 15 seconds staying at about 2.3W, in another 15 seconds into deep sleep staying at 0.3W. When printing, the power pattern is similar as switching on, while during printing it stays at 300-over 600W. Then the above sleep cycle start kicking in again. Pretty efficient for how fast it gets back to power saving.
The key feature catching my eye is its 1200×1200 dpi printing. To be fair, this is a document printer and we should never expect professional photo printing quality even on colour laser printers. I’m just doing the tests to see how its resolution look like, performance likely for some docs with some inline graphics.
Document printing in text is as crisp and contrasting as usual laser printer.
Included some test print samples and doesn’t seems any settings allow me to lower its dpi, or whether its just a matter of detail dithering only? I didn’t examine laser printers so I’m not sure how a normal 600dpi printing looks like or comparing. The hair printing sample is actually a snippet of a full A4 print of a photo taken by iPhone. We can see strips across the printing, however, it looks like the strips are more prominent in fine/best mode regardless of using the App or AirPrint. However as I mentioned, there doesn’t seem any difference in resolution no matter which mode using.
For your comparison, also include another printing sample, which is the 1st full res photo of this printer listing, which is at 1500×1048 pixels only. Printed on full page A4 and take some close up of the details that you may compare with your printers.
To use the app or AirPrint or other methods? The App only allows print from files or photo library. If you need to print directly from any other iOS apps, the only way is still via AirPrint. Not sure about Windows and Android, guess more users will share soon. One of the feature to use the app, maybe to check the toner levels. Not sure if it’s accurate or not. If the inbox toner is 700 pages capacity, it seems I’ve used up more than 10%, but I’ve definitely not yet printed more than 70 pages so far, maybe 30 only. Maybe those A4 graphic prints consumed a lot more than text prints. Will see how it goes in the long run.
Just a little tip, if you don’t wanna dust it very frequently and keeping it dust free, especially the rollers required to roll the paper back in for duplex printing, I stick a plastic file on top of it. It still works perfectly printing single and double sides, while keeping the printer output area dust-free.
My 10 year old HP laser died the death. This seems ok as have just tried basic printing and I did not have to look up how to install. It just worked once USB was added. It will take time to try copy/scan.
Had to buy the USB lead unfortunately so had to wait a few days to try the printe
Just got my 2510D today, plugged it into my PC, installed the drivers and good lord what a difference. It prints fast, the letter quality is immaculate, it prints both sides at the same time, it scans with no hassle, and the toner cartridge can give 3000 pages for 30 (this is of course for normal pages, I imagine more complex pages will lead to less overall but that’s just logical).
Yes it’s only black and white but I’m an author and screen writer, I don’t want or need colour pages. It’s a little noisy but if that’s the worst of it then hallelujah. This printer does what no home printer has done before – I press print, and it just prints. Could not be happier. 10/10.
However to get this to work requires a wired connection – obviously possible since we had the previous printer working. However for various reasons it would be very helpful to operate this printer in a new location further from the computer, possibly in a different room. This can be achieved either by using a long cable [untidy-difficult to install] or by using powerline adapters, which we already use, or by using a usb-wifi print server – to enable this to run wirelessly.
Looking at the options it seems that the DCP-L2530DW model is very similar, but also supports a wifi connection. It may be more convenient to return this printer, and order a DCP-L2530DW instead. The extra cost is less than the price of the cheapest usb-wifi print server, and it could be easier to configure.
It could be a lot less hassle to do the replacement, rather than trying to make sure that a print server works.
Even though the printer this would be intended to replace has faults, it has served well for several years, and has been very good for bulk printing, and works with our Apple computers – now running Ventura – but it has worked with the previous Macos versions from Catalina on. I think it should also work with earlier versions, such as El Capitan, though I can’t be absolutely sure. It is great for two sided copying.
It should also work well for scanning, though presumably only in monochrome. I’ve not used that feature for some time, and we have a colour printer scanner which is used for scanning.
There are obviously costs associated with the toner cartridges, but over all we have found these to be reasonable, and there are cheap choices for cartridges available. For monochrome printing this printer type is much cheaper than an equivalent ink jet printer with separate colour cartridges, and note that many ink jet colour printers will often not print if there is an issue with any of the colour cartridges – not even in black and white. The speed of printing and the ability to use double sided printing make this printer much more convenient than using ink-jet printers.
When the toner “runs out” the cartridge can/should be replaced, though it is often possible to extend the life of a cartridge by removing it, shaking it, and then replacing it back into the printer. This is slightly messy, and perhaps should be done in a location where any toner “dust” won’t matter – maybe outside. Besides being more economical to use the cartridges in this way, it also helps if the cartridge seems to run out over a weekend, and a print run is needed. There is little warning that the cartridges are about to run out, so it is a good idea to keep a supply in, once one has estimated how long they will last. Usually a couple of cartridges will last a year or two.
As I haven’t even opened the box yet I can only base my evaluation of performance and ease of installation on the unit we want to replace. As that has given good service I have given a star rating based on that.
I have only given this 2 stars for technical support. The reason for this is that the faults which have developed are perhaps fixable, but the cost of repair would be more than the cost of a new unit. There are charges for transport, then charges for evaluation of the problem, and finally a charge for remedy. Taken altogether, it is cheaper to buy a new unit than try to get a printer/scanner with a fault repaired.
This only applies to faults which are largely mechanical in nature. The support for software issues seems to be good, and software updates have generally been easy to apply with no major problems.
Check the configuration and connection options for any similar printer before ordering. Some are still available with Fax options – though Fax is largely not used nowadays. Copying is possible with some units – and that is usually effective – though monochrome only. Probably the minimum to be useful now for most people will be a wireless printer with additionally a wired connection. Also, where a scanner is included in the unit, check that it is possible to scan and return a file back to the host computer via a network. Some printer scanners may not work so well on networks with several different computers attached, so it is necessary to check the detailed specs.
Additional comments. Getting the scanner to work with MacOS seems to require the download of the ICA driver – which may take some searching of the Brother site. However, it does work, and will work with Preview – and somewhat surprisingly, the scans are in colour.
Having considered the option of returning this one and replacing it with a wireless compatible model, I now have it working and in a convenient location, so it will stay. If there are any constraints on size and location, then consider one of the other models with more connectivity, such as wireless or network connections, but if wired connections are feasible, then this is a good printer to have. I would rate this as 5 stars if wired connections are an option. If more flexibility is required, or wired connections are not possible, then think again.
The print quality is ok, I would recommend using the highest DPI setting or graphics can come out a little low resolution, you don’t buy a laser printer for print quality though. I quite like the manual feed option as it allows me to easily feed in sticky labels without placing them in the paper tray. Printing is reasonably fast and quiet and the printer doesn’t sit there for ages performing a cleaning cycle as you get with inkjets. 3rd party toner cartridges seem to be pretty cheap although I have not used one yet.
The only downsides is that it’ll occasionally detect a paper jam when there isn’t one but can be fixed by powering it on and off. Also the USB cable wasn’t included which is pretty inexcusable as it uses USB type B which is a rarity nowadays and considering the cost of the printer and the insignificant cost of a USB cable. They do however go to the effort to include the driver disc which isn’t required (for Windows 10 at least), can be downloaded from their website and will most likely be outdated anyway.
It was reasonably priced for a laser printer but didn’t have wireless connection and strangely didn’t come with a cable either. This wasn’t a problem for me as I used the cable from the old printer, however, if this was a first printer for someone then they wouldn’t have been able to use it until they’d gone and bought a cable!
Windows recognised the printer and it worked out of the box for basic printing but required a download and installation process from the Brother web site to get all the features, such as scanning, to work.
Very pleased with it so far and, best of all, it just feeds the paper through and prints without any fuss!
Once I found some drivers online and installed the printer like any other of the thousands of printers I’ve installed on Macs over the years, everything works fine. I can even share the printer on my WiFi network and print wirelessly from my laptop.
So, in summary,
Product: lovely
Product support and software: dreadful
Wanted basic mono Brother printer – like searching for gold dust – all sold out with no info about new delivery dates. Managed to get one that arrived well packaged. However sticker on back said this was a brother refurbished machine. Also said it might not contain full toner cartridge/drum may have had some use. (Given the price paid – nearly double RRP – supplier /retailer certainly got on the bandwagon profiteering at customers expense). That said the machine was in pristine condition and very easy to set up. Duplex print is the default – although it does print single pages. Clear sharp mono printing and it’s a very speedy little machine delivering 30 pages per minute.
A bit ‘plasticky’ in construction and doesn’t feel like the sort of machine that would take to regular daily office use. But for occasional home uses it seems ideal – only time will tell how robust it is.
Problems: the online driver and installer pack I downloaded from the Brother web site ran OK up to the point of the download but refused to install anything that way. I used the disc supplied with the printer instead. It worked perfectly and then I updated everything online from the printer’s GUI – no trouble with the downloading and install of that.
No idea what the problem was with downloaded installer package – possibly my anti-virus was blocking it. But I thought it worth mentioning in case others have a similar trouble. Who says discs aren’t needed any more? Wrong!
Only issue I’ve had so far with the actual printer is that the manual feed system for one off jobs like envelopes is not good. To start with you have to disable auto feed from the paper drawer by opening the back of the printer and clicking down two awkwardly positioned levers.
They have to be returned to their original position afterwards.
Who the hell designed in that sort of nonsense? Surely an external lever or electrical solution could have been incorporated.
You must then close the back and open the front to feed in the envelope to the point the roller is activated and partially draws the envelope in which is all it seems to do. You can then go ahead and print but occasionally the envelope is not drawn in fully and you have to give it some encouragement.
It is also a bit rough with some envelope types I’ve tried. I bought some C5 ones with a pull off protected glue strip so that side of the envelope is distinctly thicker. It feeds through and prints OK but I’ve had several where the transport system has creased the envelope, probably, because of that.
I should also mention that the C5 envelopes I used can not be fed into the printer in landscape format. They’re about 10mm wider than an ‘A4’ envelope width so you have to feed them in lengthwise. That means whatever word processing software you’re using needs to be able to rotate the address 90. So MS Wordpad can’t be used, at least not as easily as a full feature word processing/printing program.
In short: apart from these relatively minor criticisms I’m happy with my choice of printer so far.
I downloaded the drivers from the Brother website (my first review was disallowed for providing the link because reasons – hopefully you can find needed drivers easily. I found the link on the product page in a review or comment of some kind but I can’t provide it to you here) and followed the set up screens to install the drivers….easy.
The actual printer is easy to set up: power cable, USB cable from my old printer (I’m guessing it is a standard printer to USB cable – it is not included so beware), the toner cartridge needs sliding into place and you need paper (obviously). The only set up required on the very clear and easy to read little screen was to select the language….then we were good to go.
USB into the Mac, Command+P and off it went printing double sided like a trooper.
The print is black (not a dark grey), crisp/sharp and looks professional. I use a 100gsm paper and it worked very well – no curling on printing double sided, can’t see shadows coming through from the other side or anything.
I’ve only just got this printer so can’t speak to its longevity but my initial impression is that it is an excellent piece of kit and even a technophobe can set it up and get it working.
I am very pleased with it so far and have found it prints, copies and scans with ease. The software is comprehensive and functional, though I suggest you download the latest versions from Brother’s website rather than using the supplied software disc if you’re on the internet. If you’re not on the internet, how are you reading this?
I am particularly fond of the 2-sided printing which is still rather fast and allows me to conserve paper. The toner supplied with the printer is not a full toner, which is standard, but I am impressed by how long it has lasted. We’ve managed to get through lots of frivolous printing like bits of my wife’s PhD as well as some important stuff like the character sheets for my barbarian and my friend’s druid for our Dungeons and Dragons sessions (these are especially good double sided).
The printer has also survived contact with our two border collies, which is more than be said for nearly every vacuum cleaner we buy. My only regret is that I didn’t pay a little more and get the MFC-L2710DW model with the document feed for the scanner, as scanning a large document without a feed can be a little boring.
I can’t comment on the wireless connectivity as I’m happy with a USB cable; I don’t want the Russians to intercept my printing.