Customer Reviews

Brother HL-1450 Laser Printer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been providing computer consulting/installation and support services for about 15 years and have almost always recommended HP printers. They may not be the most advanced or full-featured but they tend to last for years. However, I've been disappointed by HP's low-end laser line and decided to look for alternatives (the build quality on the LaserJet 1200 is poor - particularly the paper tray).

After reading a lot of reviews, I decided to try the HL-1450. I was very skeptical that it would deliver all it promised: speed, output quality, standard USB and parallel interfaces, easy setup, and low operating cost all at a price that is half what the LaserJet 2200 costs.

I purchased 1 for a client and have since purchased 2 more. They have been using them for about a month and have been very happy with them. I wouldn't hesitate at recommending them to my other clients.

This is my second Brother Laser Printer,the last being the HL-1240, which I still use. The Brother HL-1450 is reliable, fast, easy to set-up.

Expanding memory is easy. I happened to have an old 16 meg simm laying around, so out went the four meg, and in went the 16 meg, for a total of 24 megs (4 megs are built in).

Actually there are two annoying things about this printer. As noted above, in order to add memory, you first must remove the pre-installed 4 meg chip. It would have been nice to have 2 slots, to avoid removing the factory-installed simm. Also, simms are cheap but nearly as cheap as SDRAM and faster forms of memory. The second item of annoyance is the optional additional paper tray. Only Brother makes it and apparently only they sell it. It goes for $200. Geez, I could almost buy a second printer for that!!!!

These two factors don't influence what this great printer does--print fast, high-quality documents! BTW graphics look especially sharp. Now only if Brother would introduced an affordable COLOR laser printer....

When my trusty 10-year old HP LaserJet IIIP suddenly gave up the ghost, I had to find a replacement for my small office quick. Although considering another HP laser, I did check out PC-World and Consumer Reports -- good thing! Both listed the Brother 1440 as tops; after checking out the specs, I settled on its slightly more versatile cousin with 8 MB RAM and duplex printing -- the model HL-1450. Turned out that, at Amazon's special price, the better performer cost less than the introductory printer.

I've now printed some 1000 pages on the 1450, and am tickled slap to death with it. Fast, quiet, low cost per page, reliable, numerous fancy print options; the single feeder is great for envelopes or check printing, and the paper tray holds 250 sheets. I added a 32 MB SIMM for graphics printing - DO NOT buy the [price] Brother SIMM, get it on line for [money]!

The setup sheet is excellent, as are the installation graphics on the CD. My one beef is that the 'manual' resides on the CD, so you have to have a functioning computer and printer to use it. The user manual's index stinks (try finding "sleep mode") but the contents and illustrations are excellent. All told, for under [price] I got a super laser printer for the office.

...

I am a busy guy so I will make it short. If you want a quality, printer which NEVER breaks down nor jams, print cartridges are VERY reasonable, and DOES print 15 ppm, buy this with a clear conscience.

To install with Windows XP, you have to download a driver from the Brother site. It is very difficult to install the printer, and it doesn't work very well. Support is weak.

If you're using Windows XP, don't install the driver from the CD provided in the HL-1450 box like I did - it installs without complaint but does not work right. Instead, download & install the XP native driver from the Brother web site. Before installing the downloaded driver, you must remove any previous driver. This requires 2 steps, only one of which is documented: 1. Printers & Faxes, select the printer, then File | Delete. 2. Again in Printers & Faxes, File | Server Properties; choose the printer and delete. Even with the new driver I initially had problems printing multi-page reports from Quicken 2002 (hung after first page). A call to the Brother help desk got this resolved as follows: Printers & Faxes, right click on printer name, Properties, Advanced tab, Print Processor button, then change from Br-Prt to WinPrt with default of "RAW" in the right listbox. The printer now seems to work fine. Very fast warm-up and printing. I maxed out the RAM to 36MB by buying one 32MB 60ns 72 pin EDO SIMM from a local shop for $25. The printer comes with 4MB on mother board & 4 MB SIMM, which I replaced easily. I never thought I'd buy any laser printer but HP, but the Brother made a believer out of me. Amazon delivered quickly and at an excellent price.

I was very happy with this printer for the first year of operation. After that on each printed sheet the paper was covered with a light gray tint (dusted with toner). I replaced both the toner and the drum. No solution to the problem. Given that others here have complained of the same problem, I think there is a quality problem with this printer.

After taking a really long look at the printers available in this price range, I bought the Brother HL-1450 and I must say I'm glad I did. It works exactly as advertised, and setup was both quick and easy. I've worked it pretty hard in the month I've had it, and haven't even had a paper jam. All in all, it's the best bang for the buck.

I have owned this printer for over a year and a half (bought new)and at first it printed clean and crisp pages but not anymore! Pages are dingy grey colored and warped. I have not even used all the original 3,000 page toner cartridge and now the drum unit is shot! Brother claims a new drum and toner will fix this problem but, others state differently. Besides, the cost of a drum ($179.99) and a 3,000 print toner ($56.00)is more than I paid for the entire printer! Too bad Brother, I'm going to Lexmark or HP for my next lazer printer.

I have been very pleased with the quality of this printer. It has not jammed once in a year of moderate use. I was concerned a little while back when the pages starting getting smeared with ink. However, in my case it was not a printer defect but rather that the toner had gone low without my noticing. I had printed about 4500 pages on a 3000 page toner cartridge. Apparently what happens is that when the toner gets low, rather than fading, the printer pumps out more energy to get the remaining ink on the page, and this causes smearing. I thought I had a defective product but when I changed the cartridge, everything was working beautifully again. I think this printer offers very good value for the money, since it costs only half as much as the HP printers and seems to deliver equal quality performance.