Customer Reviews

Brother HL-4070CDW Color Laser Printer with Built-In Duplex Printing and Wireless Interface

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

I purchased the '4070' when I was getting tired of paying for the ink cartridges in my HP DeskJet 6840, especially for 'everyday' home printing (online order confirmations, homework, drawings, etc.) I was also looking for a printer to operate on a Mac network. This one is great! The wireless feature allows you to 'plop' this thing down wherever there's a power cord and setup is fairly easy. It's a single-pass unit (e.g. color and B&W printing are the same print speed) and has duplexing built in. Does a 'realistic' job with color photos (not overly saturated). I don't think it's too noisy as previous reviews have stated, but it's certainly not as quiet as an inkjet. The cartridges are neatly laid out in a removable 'drum' tray, making changeout that much easier. I particularly like the LCD display with 3 backdrop colors (green for 'everythings okeydokey', amber for 'I'm in maintenance mode, so don't bother me' and red for 'Help!'. This screen tilts out so you can read it more easily as you walk by it. There are some notes for those Mac (maybe windoze too???)folks that I'd like to bring up:
1) get the latest firmware update - especially for PDF files, the first version of firmware caused all sorts of problems where files didn't print at all. It may not be an issue, but as I got one of the first ones out I got the original firmware version.
2) memory - get more! Especially if you use the BR3 (Brother's PostScript3 emulator) you'll need at least another 64 MB just to make it work. There may be some confusion as to which memory it takes, but the notch in the connector indicates that it's an SDRAM. I pulled memory out of an old laptop I was parting out and works fine.
If you're looking for a cheaper, water-resistant printout, especially if you need duplex, this is your printer!
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UPDATE - almost 2 years later and still running strong. I'd recommend locating the 'TN-115' series of cartridges as the 'TN-110's don't last nearly as long. Unfortunately, many traditional brick-and-mortar stores only carry the 110's

I own a small business and I needed a printer to high volume jobs, including eye catching color, and a clean presentation. After a week of solid research on the internet (there aren't many reliable resources), I was down to the decision between the HP and Brother.

After speaking with a very informed salesperson at Office Max, I decided to go with the Brother. Well rated, quick output, and the consumables cost was also low. However, upon getting the unit home, I quickly noticed something annoying. (This ended up being a deal breaker for me; however, it may not bother some people.)

The final paper product comes out of the printer with curled edges. Literally, the top and bottom edge of the paper stock comes out curled. If I set the paper on a desk top, the curl is pretty significant - just under thumb height. I waited over four days on one batch of paper and it remained curled. I tried 20, 24, 28 and even 32 pound laser and color laser paper. No change. Now the paper path on the Brother machine is pretty acute, and combine that with the extreme heat and you have the result I discovered.

I went back to the store where I purchased the machine and found the same issue with the store display - I just didn't notice how extreme it was until I was handling the documents.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention another small glitch with this printer: the noise. If you plan on sitting this anywhere near a person (especially the right side of the printer), the fans are pretty loud, shattering typical office ambience.

Besides these two issues, the printer networked easily. The setup CD was quick, painless, and easy to install on both my Mac and PC. Quality is high, with a solid build and unremarkable colors (i.e., fits right in). Again, the curling paper doesn't work for me; you may find it otherwise.

We needed a printer to print a fairly large volume of B&W and color notes and slides for my wife, who is in vet school. My Canon iP6000D, which is a great photo printer by the way, just wasn't cutting it speed-wise, since she prints maybe 100 pages of color notes a week, usually all at once. Ink was killing us, too. So, I knew we needed a color laser printer with built-in duplex, which cuts down on the number of pages she has to pack around. It would also save us a bunch on ink, since laser toner goes a lot further.

Now I'm pretty picky when it comes to electronics purchases, so I did a lot of reading. After the positive reviews for this printer on Amazon I made the leap and got this one. I'm very glad I did.

SETUP

First of all, this thing is pretty heavy, something like 75 pounds in the box. The UPS man was glad to be rid of it. It's all assembled out of the box, just a bunch of tape to take off, etc. Directions are easy to follow. It just fits on top of cheapo two-drawer metal filing cabinet like you'd get at Wal-Mart. It hangs off the edge maybe a half-inch on either side.

Following the directions for the software setup is easy, too. I initially set it up and configured it to print via the built-in wireless, since that's how all my computers are networked. After the printer is setup on the first computer, you just install the drivers on the other computers with the same disk. Again, follow the instructions and it's pretty simple. It prints flawlessly from all my computers, both Mac and PC (Apple iMac Intel, Apple iBook G4, HP Pavilion TX1000Z Tablet). By the way, I'm running Mac OS X Leopard on my Macs and Windows Vista on the HP Tablet. It also prints great from Boot Camp on the iMac (with Vista), as well as through VMWare Fusion (using the Boot Camp Partition as the virtual machine).

PRINTER START-UP

First, let me state that I leave the printer on all the time. It comes preset to sleep after 5 minutes, which is about right. When it sleeps it is silent. After you click print, it only takes maybe 20-30 seconds (on average) for it to get warmed up and start printing. If you have printed recently it takes less time. If it isn't sleeping, it starts pretty much right away.

As expected for a laser printer, it uses a fair amount of power, as my lights flicker slightly when it starts up. But I haven't blown the breaker yet, and I have quite a bit of stuff hooked up on that circuit.

SPEED

I haven't timed it exactly, but I would say that the stated 21 ppm is about right for single-sided pages. In duplex, it's less than half that, probably 8-10 per minute. This still suits me just fine, as my Canon iP6000D printed about 1 page every 3 minutes in duplex mode.

QUALITY

The print quality is very good. It is what you would expect from a good color laser printer. I have not printed photos with it, but I have no need to. It isn't a photo printer and I don't expect it to print them like they came from the lab. My Canon does, but it's a photo printer. That said, it prints pictures of animal anatomy, etc. in my wife's lecture slides very well. Definitely with enough detail to make everything out, even in small pictures.

It does curl the pages somewhat, but not bad. They flatten back out over time. This hasn't been an issue for me, and it was something I was concerned about before I ordered it.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, this is an excellent printer. I've had it for a month and a half now, with no complaints. I've printed over 500 pages, mostly mixed B&W and color, and all four toner cartridges still register as full. If I run into any problems I will edit this post, but I don't foresee any. Excellent color printer with built-in duplex for the price. Of course, this printer isn't for everybody, but if your needs are similar to mine, then this is the printer for you.

Hope this helps. I tried to include everything I was wondering about before I bought it. If I think of something else later, I'll edit this review.

UPDATE 5/11/08: I've ran through the initial set of toner cartridges. The color ones gave out first (all at the same time). One thing I forgot to mention in my initial review is that through the printer control panel on your computer, you can access a printer info page on your local network. It is really cool because it tells you how many total pages you've printed, how many of those pages used which color, etc. That lets me see just how many pages I'm getting out of each toner cartridge. Anyway, the color cartridges that come with the printer are rated to put out 1500 pages at 5% cover. I got about 2000 color pages, while printing way more than 5% cover on my wife's slide printouts! The black finally gave out today at 3295 total pages, and it's rated at 2500. So I am not unhappy with that. I have replaced all the cartridges with the high-yield types, even though they are more expensive. They should last me quite a while. After about 4 months, this printer is still 5 out of 5 stars!

I know this review is going to be buried, but I hope that you see it. What nobody tells you about this printer is that the three color toner cartridges ALWAYS all go empty at the same time, no matter what you've actually used. So expect a sudden three hundred plus dollar expense every once in a while. And it's apparently by some page count or something rather than actual usage, because you can't get it to accept the ones that you know aren't empty. I barely use any color at all, but they're constantly empty and this printer ends up being extremely expensive because of it - a real rip off by Brother.

I was looking for a cheap color laser printer with a built-in duplexer. The Brother 4070CDW delivers that, with good text quality. The color quality is a little weak, but overall it still seems like extremely good value.

First the good:
* Black-and-white text quality is excellent: crisp and clear.
* Setup was very straightforward, with clear and simple instructions.
* It is silent when in sleep mode, and wakes up in around 15 seconds.

Minor weaknesses:
* Colors tend to be somewhat subdued. (For the price and the media, this is what I was expecting.) As is common with color laser printers, it seems fine for printing out web pages or powerpoint but not for any application requiring very bold or very accurate colors.
* Pages tend to get slightly curled.
* Double sided printing is significantly slower than single-sided. The documentation says around 20 sides per minute for single-sided, but only 7 sides per minute double-sided.

Overall, the 4070CDW more than meets my expectations. For $500 (less now!) I'm very happy with both the functionality and the print quality, especially for text.

Of the 4 printers that we now have on our network, this new Brother Color Laser is the favorite of all users. Setup, installation, and connection via ethernet was very simple and smooth. We have XP Pro, Vista (32bit), and Apple OS (X.5 Leopard) computers all on the same network (wired & wireless), and we had no problems with any connection and/or installation. The installation CD included in the box contained drivers for all of the above systems. Printing speed (color and B&W) is consistent with advertising, and color output is excellent. This printer prints on the front and back of pages automatically (full auto duplex). It handles envelopes via the front bypass like a breeze. I would recommend this printer over any of the other brands (selling for $500 and under). Also, Brother included full toner cartridges in the box, not just sample cartridges that run out of toner after 100 pages... Best of all, Amazon shipped the printer immediately, and we rec'd it in 1 day (as advertised). Perfect fulfillment.

I just got my HL-4070CDW today & I'm in love with it already. The reason I'm writing is that I almost did NOT buy this printer because of the reviews that claim the colors are not adequate. I'm glad I made the purchase !!! Although I did not purchase this printer for color photos (my application is home business letters with color letterhead), I just HAD to test the colors when I received this printer.

I'm not trying to get into a debate with anyone who has felt they experienced less vivid colors - but I wonder if they used the advanced settings that are available. The first thing I did when I was up and running was to explore the ADVANCED settings for the VIVID COLOR option. These settings are GREAT !!! I was able to set the Contrast, Brightness, Red, Green, Blue, and Color Saturation for my print job. Each of these settings provides an adjustment of PLUS (+) or MINUS (-) 20%, along with a color preview window so you can see the effect of your settings. I carefully set-up one of my favorite photos, using quality laser photo paper, and the result was an outstanding match with a professional print that I had for the same photo.


I next decided to try printing black & white photos which are an important part of my home decor. Using the Fine setting under the advanced options I was truly amazed - at what I could do with this printer. Each result was absolutely suitable for framing!!! Although my application is business correspondence, this printer will quickly pay for itself when I compare the cost of professional photo finishing for my black & whites to the cost of a high yield black toner cartridge. I often pay the cost of a high yield cartridge just to get a group of 5x7 and 8x10 black & white photos printed to add to my decor.


I LOVE IT !!! I'm only a digital photo hobbyist and would have been happy continuing to pay for professional processing of my black & whites (or even my color photos), but I am very happy with this printer. The ONLY REASON I'm writing this review is that I ALMOST DID NOT purchase this printer because of the reviews about the "less than vivid" colors. I am very happy to have the perfect printer for my home business application PLUS the added extra bonus of saving money on photo processing - I will be adding to my home gallery (my walls) and will be changing out photos regularly in my home decor.


One final note: I am NOT a computer expert - I'm probably an average user at best. I ran into a tiny snag (lack of user understanding) when doing the WiFi set-up. (I wanted this so I could do all my work on my laptop sitting in my "easy chair" and to be able to print to the printer from anywhere in my home or on my patio using WiFi.) Anyway, the snag was my lack of knowledge with setings so I called Brother right away within 15 minutes after getting this out of the box. They were FANSTASTIC !!!!! I cannot believe how much time they spent walking me through the wireless settings (me - a non-techie), they were patient, easy to understand, pleasant to talk to and extremely helpful. So this is another reason I just HAD to write this review - to tell everyone, if they are non-technical like me and want to set this up wirelessly - and need help - Brother is there for you - that's a great feeling that I have someone I can call for help - at no cost - and receive outstanding service with a smile !!!!


I highly recommend this printer if you consider your application. It's possible some of the negative reviews I read may have been someone who did not properly match their application to the specs for this printer & someone who possibly may not have tried the advanced color settings.

This was our first purchase of a laser printer. We were spending between $120-$200 every few months on ink for our all-in-one machine by a different company. It was time for a change.

We chose this model of laser printer based on the fair price and the majority of favorable reviews we saw online. The only other experience we've had with a Brother product was with a cheapo traditional fax machine. We were a little wary to stray from HP, our preferred brand. Now, I can't say that we've been disappointed. Actually, we've been pretty delighted with the HL-4070cdw.

My favorite features so far? I love the duplex printing. It takes a little longer, but it saves paper over what I was doing before. I love the built in wireless. Once you set this beast down, you're not going to want to move it somewhere else. But it was nice having some flexibility in choosing where to put it in the first place.

The printer is quick to start up. It's a little noisy while it's going, but it's nice and silent in sleep mode. And when not in duplex it prints quicker and in better quality than our old inkjet did. The network setup process seemed easier than I expected it to be, but I'm probably a more advanced computer user (at least as advanced as a Windows user can be without being a programmer or network admin).

I'd say the unit is suitable for a small or home office. If you have students in your household that do a lot of printing that might justify the purchase, as well.

The only complaint I have so far is that the printed pages can come out a little wavy after running through the machine. Honestly, that's a minor point. We haven't had to replace a toner cartridge yet, but I suspect this will be much cheaper in the long run than it was using our old inkjet printer.

I may not be as effusive with my praise as you might expect for a 5-star review. That's because I have a hard time getting excited or prosaic about a piece of office equipment. Still, we're happy with our Brother HL-4070cdw and we hope to have it for years. Plus, the Amazon price was at least $100 less than what we saw at our local big box retailers, which sweetened the deal. There weren't as many reviews available as I usually like to see before purchasing, so I thought I'd do you a favor and add my own. This really seems like a solid and reliable machine and our household's early impressions are very good.

I purchased this printer for my office. We immediately put it to the test with over 1000 color prints. I am very impressed with the speed and quality of the prints. It accuratley prints 19-22 pages per minute in bold color. After 1000 prints, the ink cartridges are still showing "Full". I priced/shopped around for the best printer with the cheapest Refill ink cartridges available, and this is the machine! It works great, replacement ink cartridges are avail online for over $30 less per cartridge than other printers.
Very pleased so far!

The printer freezes if any of the 4 toner cartridges are either empty or beyond their rated life (even if with toner). Free tech support (LONG hold, then not much help, and hoops to jump through to leave comments for consideration) says nothing can be done. I print almost all B&W, but on Mac OS X I couldn't easily set a default B&W so some were printing as colour. The cost and hassle isn't worth it. There is no way of continuing to print (power off/on will lose some print jobs, and will allow a true B&W or two to come out), no easy way to reset the toner flags by hand (I tried the tape over the windows trick from the web, tech support suggested nothing though), and no joy. If you are doing a LOT of colour printing, or have a large budget, this may be for you. I suspect it will be a false economy though.