With great sadness, I retired my HP LaserJet 5p after 17 years of great service. It finally died. I had fun taking it apart, but that's another story. I was always happy with that printer, and the service I got from HP when I bought it was terrific. So my first choice was another HP Laser. I had a terrible Brother Laser printer prior to the HP. Plus, the HP never needs a drum replacement (the Brother's drum is slated to last only 12,000 pages.)
However, I had heard recently from multiple sources that in recent years, HP had gone downhill in quality and service. And the reviews I read (and I read hundreds of them) overall gave better scores to Brother Lasers, which usually cost less than HP. So after weeks of research, I bought the DCP-7065 for only $179. The price dropped to $129 3 weeks later - what a great deal! Now it is back to $156. Watch for sales!
Here is my review after owning this for almost a month.
Installation
- It's my first networked printer, and I was nervous. In about an hour, I unpacked it, set it up, followed the Quick Start instructions, and installed it on 1 desktop (vista) and 2 laptops (xp-pro). Success!
- The only problems I encountered were needing to install the scanner software twice on the desktop, and the scanner software not installing on the laptops. I didn't re-try when it failed on the laptops. Since I won't scan from the laptops (only my desktop), it was a non issue to me. If I ever need to, I will try again to install it on the laptops. Since it installed on the second try after a re-boot on my desktop, I assume the same will be true for the laptops.
- Now I can sit in bed on the first floor and print on the second floor. No more running out to the inkjet, connecting it to the laptop via USB, printing, disconnecting and returning to the living room or bedroom. Hooray.
- Another note - I have not downloaded the latest drivers and firmware yet (as other reviewers suggested), just used what was on the CD. I should, and will eventually, but so far it prints just fine.
Print Quality & Speed
- It's a Laser. Therefore, it has great print quality on the best setting. Eyeball test only - I didn't look with a magnifying glass or anything. With as cheap as toner is (even more so if you buy aftermarket toner cartridges), I am not going to use toner-save mode.
- I printed a photograph, and it was OK, nothing special. I mean, this printer is not for photographs, but it will render graphics in black & white docs decently, not great. It is NOT a photo printer. Print your photos at Wal-Mart or some place like that. They will look great and be cheaper than printing at home, anyway.)
- Speed? It is FAST! Love it!
Wireless connectivity
- I had no problems connecting this through my router following the Quick Start Instructions, and all of our laptops can now print from anywhere in the house. This is my favorite thing about this printer.
- I don't know why anyone would need wi-fi instead of Ethernet, UNLESS you can't physically place your printer near your router (it needs a CAT5 cable from the printer to the router). That is the only time that the Ethernet connection to a router would not suffice. Personally, I would not spend the extra money for 802.11 wi-fi (the MFC-7860 costs about $100 more than this printer ($180 vs. $280 at the time I purchased). Note - the HL-5370DW ($180) is wireless, but does NOT have a copier/scanner, and also has lower ratings. For comparison purposes, HP has a wireless all-in-one laser printer with decent ratings, m1217nfw, for about $225.)
Duplexing
- I don't know how often I will use it, but it was easy to use and very fast. Very cool. I like it. I have not tried booklet printing yet.
Noise
- Yes, it has a cooling fan that makes some noise. So what? All printers make noise. It didn't seem any louder to me than any other printer. I didn't even notice the fan was running until it cut off. It's not a big deal to me, anyway, as it is in my office, not my bedroom. My HP DeskJet 6940 at work is much louder while printing (but since there is no cooling fan it makes zero noise after finishing.
Energy
- Like some other reviewers said, it made my lights flicker when waking up from deep sleep mode. As long as it doesn't blow a fuse, that is a minor annoyance that does not bother me much. Most of the time I am not in the same room as the printer anyway, since 90% of my printing is done from my laptop wirelessly. I chose to not hook it up via the same surge protector the computer was on. Straight to the wall instead. My house is only 20 years old, so I don't have ancient wiring. This might be an issue for some people but not for me.
- Some people like that the printer has an on/off switch. But since it goes into deep sleep mode when not in use, you will probably never turn the printer off (except for vacations). If you did turn it off, and you are printing wirelessly, you would need to go to the printer and turn it on before printing wirelessly - defeating the purpose of a wireless printer!
Copying
- I really like using the auto-feeder to make copies of multiple pages; what a time saver. Our all-in-one inkjet is just a flatbed, so you have to do one page at a time.
- I wish there was a 1-button copy function. You have to hit a few buttons to get a photo-copy. It is a minor annoyance. Also, the settings are not easy to navigate, so you can end up wasting time and paper because a copy comes out too dark or too light. I'm not crazy about it as a copier, except for the ADF.
- Is there a difference in copy quality between the flatbed and ADF? I can't tell.
Scanning
- As other Brother reviewers have mentioned, the scanner cover's springs are tight, and if you are not careful, the cover will snap down hard, possibly breaking it sooner rather than later. I recommend using both hands to insure it closes gently.
- Scanning photos - I have not tried this yet (will update later)
OCR
- This is a mixed bag. On the one hand, scanning in a 5 page document through the auto-feeder and having the OCR software scan it was fast and easy. A process that would have taken me more than 5 minutes on our Canon inkjet all-in-one took maybe 30 seconds on the Brother 7065.
- Unfortunately, I HATE the included OCR software itself. It is really bad. It rendered almost every capital "I" as the number "1" and had many other errors as well. It does not give you the option to correct anything on the fly like OmniPage does. So the time saved on scanning was lost on manually finding and correcting errors. I will try installing OmniPage Pro 10, which I already own, and see if that works with this scanner. I do a lot of OCR scanning, so this is a real inconvenience for me. I am really hating this aspect so far.
Auto-document feeder.
- Wonderful. Fast. So much better than a flatbed scanner. I like that the lid of the ADF can be closed when not in use, so it looks neater and doesn't collect dust inside the feeder.
Toner & Drum Costs
- I have not replaced the toner yet. I plan on buying compatible toner, which (almost always) worked fine with my HP. If I encounter any issues, I will come back and update this review. Even buying Brother brand toner, it will be cheaper than HP brand toner. But since there are plenty of generic toner sellers for both brands, I think this should be a wash. A genuine TN450 cartridge is about $42, and generic toner cartridges are between $15-20 on Amazon via many vendors.
- If you plan on printing lots of pages (say, over 500 pages per month), consider buying an HP. The drum for the Brother needs to be replaced at 12,000 pages. The Brother brand drum is about $100, but the off-brand is about $30. I expect to go for several years before I need to replace the drum.
- This printer comes with a TN420 cartridge (supposed to print 1200 pages). But alas, it is not filled all the way. It is a starter cartridge, and I got "toner low" messages after fewer than 500 pages.
- It will give a "replace toner" message and stop printing, even though there is still toner in the cartridge. Apparently, all Brother Laser printers do this. See reviews of other printers - they all have a convoluted work-around, but it is not easy to find it. See page 30 of the "Basic User's Guide" to find out how to defeat the message and enable you to keep on printing until the toner is really gone. I could not find these instructions anywhere online at Brother's web site, and since this is a newer printer, couldn't find it via Google either. Brother's web site simply says you should buy a new toner cartridge, and it has to be a genuine Brother cartridge.
- UPDATE ON TONER (12/14/2011) - I bought 2 generic replacement toner cartridges for about $13 each online via Amazon. The first leaked toner everywhere - a complete mess. I got my money back from Amazon. The second one works fine. They are way cheaper than the Brother toner (which of course, is more reliable, if you want to spend the money.)
- Update #2 on toner (8/6/2012)
I bought generic replacement toner from a different vendor, and this time it worked just fine. If you need to print something really nice, buy Brother toner. Otherwise, generic should be fine.
Build & other miscellaneous stuff
- I like that the paper is enclosed in a drawer. I always hated the "paper stands up in the back of the printer" style that Canon and other companies use. Also, many HPs have the paper on the bottom in an open tray. I like the closed tray.
- It comes with 32MB of RAM.
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