Customer Reviews

Brother HL-1240 Laser Printer (PC/Mac)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have owned the 1240 for a little over a week, so far it's fed 2000 plus pages without a single jam. The Xerox P8 it replaces required a constant babysitter and was a complete nightmare to feed paper that had already been through it.

Setup out of the box is straight forward, driver install likewise. Noise level low, speed through parallel port almost as advertised. Print quality is excellent for text. Graphics I've not really used it for. It may even last more than 6 months :-) If you are thinking of a P8 for anything other than light home use (or need to print both sides of the paper) please try and get the extra $100 together for either this one or an NEC870, it will save you money in anger management classes later.

I recently purchased the HL-1240 after looking for a low cost laser printer. So far the purchase was a great idea.

The printer works as advertised, fast, quiet and easy to setup. I have it connected through the USB, followed on quick setup procedures and I am printing. Automatic shutdown works perfect.

I am very impressed with the robustness of the printer driver. Able to print multipul pages on a single sheet, duplex and other handy features.

Brother even has an 800 number for support. I emailed them a question, and got a response 24 hours latter. Perfect.

If you are looking for a low cost laser printer without sacricing quality, then this is your printer.

The Brother HL-1240 is one of a kind in that it is easy to set up, easy to install drivers and easy to operate. I took it right out of the box, installed the toner and drum easily, hooked it up to my USB port, followed the easy to understand instructions on installing drivers, and then started printing. I also use a Canon Multifunction printer for color and other applications which is connected to a parallel port. So, in effect, I have two printers operating with my HP computer without any special accessories or switches. I just select the printer I want every time I print and I am good to go. The print quality is excellent and the toner cartridges are reasonably priced. Cartridges that can print 6,000 copies are less than $80 and are highly recommended over the alternate less than $50 cartridge that only prints 3,000 copies. I use this printer for a 24-page newsletter that I print on a quarterly basis and found it excellent in clarity and print quality for my required masters. The best part of this printer is the price. If I was the editor of one of those consumer or computer magazines, I would declare the Brother HL-1240 a "best buy."

I initially connected this printer to the USB-interface of my computer. The printer worked but the powersave mode of the PC did not (couldn't bring it up anymore). Then I tried the parallel port and everything worked fine. I measured the elapsed time for the printout of 8 consecutive pages during a larger print job. The speed was 12.24 ppm (for plain text) and 10.7 ppm (for a document with multiple fonts, bar charts, etc.). The manufacturer's rating (12 ppm) seems to be quite correct. How could the reviewer of amazon.com measure the ppm speed if he used only one (or few) page(s)? He most likely did not subtract the initial latency. Once the machine's pipeline is full the printer is fast. The HL1240 makes a robust impression. Print quality is excellent.

This is a very fine printer! I spent several months researching printers in my price range/feature list, and this printer constantly came out on top.

I actually own the HL-1250, which is identical but has a little bit more RAM.

The printer is easy to set up - from box to printing was about 15 minutes. Of course, after that I went back to read the documentation :)

The printer is fast.

It has a nice power-save mode. With everything being power-aware, I can turn my whole system on with one keyboard button. I did not measure time from sleep to print, but it was reasonable, under a minute.

The reviews other owners have submitted greatly helped in the decision to purchase this laser printer over the Xerox P8. I have been using it the past week, and it is every bit as good as the HP 2100 which costs approx. $700.

Monkey proof instillation procedures...highly recommend purchasing this printer.

I thought I would fall in love with this printer when I first set it up: low price, compact, solid, fast, efficient, very nice auxiliary paper feed, etc. But over three months of using it have encountered a collection of annoyances. First, it creaks intermittently (and loudly) as the paper runs through. I talked with another owner who has the same problem. Second, it prints too light, similar to some other printers in "draft" mode. This is nice in that it saves toner, but there is no way to darken the print beyond a minimal level for important documents. Third, the toner fumes when it prints seem stronger than my previous HP-2P that I had in the same location. Some might not be bothered by this, but for me it is a problem. Finally, there is a feature where an alarm light starts flashing when your toner gets low. This could be a nice feature, but it starts when there is still plenty of toner left and then you end up having to watch this flashing alarm for weeks until the toner finally runs out. So, buyer beware -- if you can live with all of this, it's a great little workhorse. But for me, my initial excitement has faded and I am now shopping for another printer

Within this dollar range, I had a choice between a black and white Laser machine, and a color Jet Ink machine. I'm glad I selected the Brother HL-1240.

Set-up was simple. Plug in the power cord and the USB line, install the software, and I was up and running. With only two lines running from the back of the machine, the overall appearance is uncluttered. Also, there is no awkward AC-DC converter box.

Grayscale printing quality on inexpensive bond paper is excellent.

While printing, the noise level is very low. In the energy-saver mode, the Brother HL-1240 is inaudible.

Minor annoyances: The on/off button is located on the back of the printer - impossible to reach while sitting at the keyboard. The paper tray accepts legal size paper, but protrudes approximately 3-inches from the rear of the machine.

For Macintosh users: I've configured the printing software several different ways, but still, I have no "desktop" printer icon allowing drag-and-drop printing.

Overall, the Brother HL-1240 is an excellent bargain. Very pleased.

I've been very pleased with this printer at work and my older HL-1040 at home. But recently I started getting white streaks on the paper and after trying all the possible remedies, the prognosis is to get a new drum unit. On the Brother personal lasers, the drum unit is separate from the toner cartridges which makes the toner very reasonable. But the drums are quite expensive! Over half the price of the printer in fact. Other sources have agreed you might consider an HP as an alternative due to the maintenance issues.

This is a good, inexpensive printer with a lot of features (legal/letter cartridge, and honest 12 ppm speed) normally found only in more expensive models. It handles plain text just fine, although the resolution is a bit less crisp than other lasers I have owned.

The big problem is the manual feed slot. It's virtually impossible to get an envelope or pre-printed letterhead perfectly straight in it, and it flat-out balks at laser labels. (Yesterday, I spent an hour picking out bits of label that jammed.) It also, inexplicably, lacks an insertion tray that could make insertion easier and require less "baby-sitting."

You'll enjoy this printer for light-to-moderate home or office use so long as you don't demand too much from it. But my next printer will be a Lexmark or an HP.