Recommendations for a color, full duplex, laser printer?
Another printer company (Brother) has fallen to the allure of “remote disable” if they object to you using your own device in a way they don’t like: trying to self-service, use third party inks, whatever. It’s at their discretion. Given printers are the sorts of devices to which you tend to want to have network access, preventing this is a lot of work.
I’ve been looking at color duplex laser printers, and Brother has been at the top of the list, until they recently announcement that they’d disable printers using third party inks.
BIFL to me implies that the company isn’t going to actively sabotage self-service, or restrict your usage of the thing, so I think this is an appropriate question for this c/.
Keep in mind that the “primary source” for the entire Brother printer thing is a single unverified 3 year old Reddit post.
I have a Brother MFC L8900CDW (color laser) on the latest firmware, and just tested some 3rd party toner. It worked without complaint.
As a bonus, printing and scanning both also worked flawlessly in Linux, right out of the box, without any special drivers or futzing, if you care about such things.
I’ve not read beyond the headline rants, but isn’t the Brother kerfuffle over third party toner? Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I couldn’t care less. Toner lasts FOREVER for the average home user. I bought this printer in 2018 and it is phenomenal: https://a.co/d/5Khc2Xn
So far I’ve only had to replace the starter toner it came with. It’s been telling me for over a year that some colors are low and so I have $400 of toner sitting in a closet: https://a.co/d/eYtMZma
My BIFL recommendation is for this Brother. It’s never given any sort of issue. I do let it automatically update its firmware, but that’s an option and not a requirement.
I don’t trust cheap toner and think buying OEM is worth the cost given how long it takes to use up. It’s not like inkjet crapola that dried up.
I admittedly have no idea; however, I also have never put my Brother printer on the network directly, I would use a serial USB B cable to connect it to a computer and share it through the computer.
Yeah, that’s one of the firewall options: dedicate a computer as a print server. Or, actually firewall off the device in the router. Both are often more work than just putting the device on the LAN. And then there are the firmware upgrades, which sometimes have actual benefit.
For years I used Jabra conference speakers. It was shocking just how often they needed firmware updates, and sometimes I’d discover I needed a firmware update because the speaker started acting funny. It’s a darned speaker; much less complex than a printer. I have trouble imagining what possible monetization Jabra could have been getting out of the upgrades.
AFAIK the judgment is still out. Brother denies the claims and is working with Rossman to remedy that. Wait a few days with your judgment and purchase would be my recommendation.
Yeah, the people having problems with Brother printers aren’t saying that they aren’t working, but rather that print quality is bad. With it appearing to happen to just a few people my guess is that a few poor quality cartridges went out from a third party factory. Give it a week or two if you can and we’ll find out for sure.
Ok, thank you. I’ve had a monochrome Brother laser before, years and years ago, which I destroyed by moving it poorly - toner everywhere. But I loved that printer, and would happily get another if they stay ethical.
My last couple have been used, off Craigslist. So slightly older models. That also means they are less likely to have the phone-home nonsense. And I refuse to ever own an inkjet again.
Currently running a 2013 HP consumer B/W, and a 2018 Canon Color laser. Neither care about internet.
Brother is saying they won’t “brick” your printer. Sounds like they’re only denying the most extreme description and not what they’re actually doing.
They are saying they are not reducing print quality intentionally if not using the wrong toner cartridge.
Why the hell does a printer need to “call home” for anything anyway?
Man that really grinds my gears. So now I need to isolate my printer in a VLAN and only open a port for my server to access it so it can be shared there, to keep it from accessing the internet.
I’ve found refurbed HP lasers (older ones, that have NICs but before this web crap) - they’re looking pretty attractive…
I’d keep an eye out for second hand Brother printers. I’ve got three and they’re all going great.
As far as I know there’s none.
I’m pretty sure Brother is the last hold out against the dark side.I’ve had good results with Canon printers. They accept 3rd party ink/toner just fine, will still print even if low, and the software interface looks like it hasn’t changed since the Windows 95 days. Which means no extra BS included cause it’s too outdated for that. Just everything you need to print and scan, and nothing more.
My only complaint is that the initial setup is a major pain in the ass, but once you get the printer to stop whining and finally connect to the network, it just works, and works flawlessly with any device. I can effortlessly print from any PC or phone in the house.
Tell me about the set up? The printer I’ve been looking at was, indeed, a Canon.
People are recommending waiting to see how the Brother controversy plays out, but I’m not opposed to Canon. I’ve always been happy with their products.
I second the Canon printer. Although I have no idea what people were talking about with the difficulty of the setup. I saw it repeated in reviews. I was expecting a huge time commitment. I think it took me longer to unpack. The setup was a breeze. Didn’t even need a computer. Still very new, but the printer is functioning well.
I checked the version on my Brother printer, and it’s something like 1.4; the reported issues start around 1.6 or something. I’ve made sure it doesn’t have access to the internet and that auto-updates are also disabled; hopefully the printer will continue working on it’s own. I’ve also downloaded the drivers and software for every o/s the printer works with, so that I’ll hopefully have a non-nerfed version of the computer software for whenever I end up having to upgrade my computer.
I have had my brother printers since ‘18 and have never updated them. They both have a notice about firmware updates. They connect to Dropbox to upload scans, and print via WiFi.
This doesn’t help you as it’s not colour, but a few days ago I found out that HP, of all people, make a toner tank printer that takes powdered toner https://www.hp.com/za-en/printers/laserjet-tank.html
My mono Brother took powdered toner. It still gets everywhere if you turn it upside down, which is what happened to mine. I’m just glad it all stayed in the box.
I was young, and we were moving across country for a job; not only was I ignorant about needing to prep the printer with special steps, but it would have been low on my priority list amongst all of the other chaos.
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Monochrome laser printers are a fairly well solved problem. Plenty of older ones are built like tanks and will work forever with 3rd party toner. Color might be harder.
I recently got a Xerox and don’t hate it yet (high praise for the printer industry).
