Google’s LLM got one critical fact wrong, of course. If you only need occasional color printing, an inkjet is still the wrong answer. The right answer is probably just to have Staples or your local print shop print for you, honestly. The ink dries out in disused inkjet machines and that’ll cause you no end of headaches. Or force you to buy a set of expensive cartridges just to print one damn page, because the last thing you printed was three months ago.
Color laser printers aren’t even that expensive anymore. Sure, a set of color toner cartridges may cost well north of what a set of inkjet cartridges would run you, but the difference is that the laser toner will probably last many home users a lifetime.
It’s also worth checking your local library which might offer some basic printing services. Could work out cheaper
Yup, ours is $0.10 for B&W, and $0.25 for color. Computers are free (if you have a library card, which is free), and the staff is available to help you with whatever you need. I’m guessing they’d let you print for free if you really couldn’t afford it.
So your typical school essay would be $1 or so.
Also, nothing the Google llm said was in any way specific to brother. I’m wondering if that’s by design and they made it brand-agnostic to appease advertisers.
I’ve never needed photos urgently, so I’m glad to just have a professional printing company print the photos for me using high quality photo paper and printing equipment. It’s going to beat the quality of a regular consumer inkjet any day of the week.
If you only want 6x4 photos a dye sub printer like a canon selphy isn’t a bad option, it’s what I use. Kinda expensive per print but quick and the ribbons don’t dry out.
At this point, 4x6 prints at my nearest Walgreens are like fifteen cents a pop with a random coupon code and are ready within the hour. I imagine a dozen other chains are comparable.
Apparently, Costco stopped offering photo services, so Walgreens is probably your best option.
I’ll take it one step further: if you don’t print much at all, you should use a print service.
Yes, I bought a Brother because of convenience. Just realize that you’re going to spend a lot more money for that convenience.
They came up with a “solution” for the drying problem. You need to keep the printer on forever so it doesn’t let it dry.
I wish that would work. My Epson was always on and the ink kept drying. After it clogged the print head once too many times and I could not fix that in less than 10min, I just gave up on the piece of crap. I now go to a print shop to print what I need which, admittedly, nowadays is just a couple of times a year.
Hey, I own that printer! It’s a good printer.
Remember kids, always buy laser, never inkjet.
Yup, I’ve had a previous model (HL-2170W) since like 2006. The nic is dying now, but the printer works fine.
Brother printers are the only brand anyone should buy.
Same, and the only maintenance I’ve ever needed for mine is putting paper in it
Hey, I had to change the toner in mine!.. once… after like a decade.
Bought one used several years ago for $75 and it’s still on the used starter toner.
The wired Nic on mine is dead, WiFi only now. one time modeled and 3d printed a part to fix the feeder. I will keep this fucker running forever.
Yeah, to be fair I need to print something like once a year. But every time I’m amazed that it just works.
I’d agree with the exception of artists who sell their printed work (ex: photographers, graphic designers). They’re not only making money from their prints but also printing in color frequently enough that the cartridge doesn’t dry out.
All the photographers I know have a deal with a local professional printing service. It’s not just the higher printing quality, the service can also do bound albums, hard covers and other stuff that’s impossible on a home printer.
We have three of them at my office. I am certain we exceed the duty cycle they were designed for by several times. The one at the front desk has been bitching about needing an imaging drum replacement for I think three years at this point, and it still prints just fine. I’ll put a new drum in it when the existing one stops working.
Anyone have a recommendation for a small color laser printer? Like shoebox size.
My place is pretty small, and I don’t have much desk or shelf space. It doesn’t make sense for me to waste desk space on something that I use 1-3 times a year.
I’ve been using one of these tiny HPs. The ink is a fucking racket, and I’d love a laser alternative. This size is great. I can fold the trays and throw it in a drawer. It’s only 16 x 5.5 x 7in.
Edit: Found one. It the HP LaserJet Pro M15w
I don’t think you’ll find a color laser printer that size. They use pretty large drums to hold the toner. It’d be hard to even find a mono laser printer in that size.
Bummer. I really want to ditch this ink jet because of ink costs. I
If you only need it 1-3 times/year, why not just go to your local library? In my area, it’s $0.10 for B&W, $0.25 for color, and I can get some books to read at the same time (I go almost weekly).
Convenience. I can’t print when the library is closed, I need to travel over there, if need to print another revision, I need to travel back.
Ideally like the convenience, but I don’t want to deal with HPs shitty ink sponges that instantly dry out. I’d like something that lasts.
Well, I guess you need to decide what the convenience is worth. An ink cartridge dries out in 2-3 years and toner can last a decade or more (I honestly don’t know, ours finally ran out after 8-ish).
Laser printers aren’t that big, mine (B&W with scanner) is about a piece of paper and a half in all directions. I got it for $150 or so on a sale from Costco (currently listed for $250), and it like like the color version is a little taller but similar footprint (but also more expensive at just $390). Official dimensions of the Brother color laser printer (MFC-L3765CDW): 16.1 in. x 17.5 in. x 15.8 in.
I personally know need B&W, and if I needed color, I’d just go to the library since I go almost every week anyway.
Yup. I’m just wondering if something like the tiny ink jets exists for laser printing. I could get a slightly bigger printer, but if I can get a similar size or smaller, I would prefer that.
Looks like I just found one. The HP LaserJet Pro M15w is about the same form factor as my inkjet. Problem is that is BW only, and an HP.
HP commercial units are fine. It’s their consumer line to avoid.
I’ve had some commercial HP units. “Fine” is debatable. ;)
Although they were a fine source of revenue for maintenance techs.
I also have that printer. I have to read so many papers for school right now and that thing is a life saver. Is it weird to have feelings for a printer?
I don’t own a printer because it’s 2024 and the only good reason to own a printer is photo/art prints at a scale where outsourcing it isn’t economical.
I’m aware other reasons exist, but they’re bad reasons that mostly boil down to someone being bad at computers.
Nah, there are definitely cases where you need to print stuff on paper, and need said paper fast enough to warrant a printer. If I use my company credit card for expenses I need to account for that, and for legal reasons I need to send that to our accountant in printed form. I can’t legally mail it to him.
Now I could obviously take 30 minutes and print it at the library, but those 30 minutes would add up fairly fast, making a printer the more accessible and economical option.
Now I could obviously take 30 minutes and print it at the library, but those 30 minutes would add up fairly fast, making a printer the more accessible and economical option.
Privacy is also an issue. There might be reasons why you don’t want to have something printed out at the library/local print shop, like if it’s tax documents, and someone hitting “repeat job” could just have it spit out personal info.
Oh yeah that’s a fantastic point I’d failed to even consider. I don’t really care if my credit card bills end up cached somewhere at the library, like, what are they going to do with it? Pay it?
If I on the other hand dealt with personal identifiable data, that could be hugely problematic. I can see the need for e.g. a lawyer having to print case files and assemble documents physically. In such a scenario, printing it at a library, or at a third party company might not be a great idea.
If you for some reaosn also want your nudes (or I suppose, erotic artwork) in print, I can see how you might not want to have that done by a company. I don’t think I’d personally care, but maybe the person dealing with it at the company shouldn’t have to see that sort of thing.
I need to send that to our accountant in printed form. I can’t legally mail it to him.
This is exactly the sort of thing I meant by “someone being bad at computers”. That someone might be a government regulator in this case.
Are you going to pay for all the systems and processes that need to change to get away from the paper trail?
Ah, I see. It sounded more like “someone doesn’t know how to just mail something.”
I use it a lot for construction. Printed job specs are much easier / faster to deal with than a computer on a job site. You can staple them to a wall, quickly draw on them, use them when your hands are filthy, have multiple large copies floating around, etc. Paper is usually just a better solution for that environment.
That’s an environment I hadn’t really thought about. I concede the point.
Take a look at a Canon PIXMA TR150.
There are plenty of other brands that make this same style, this was just the first I found.
Now if only they had a small portable printer like that that did 11x17
Reading blueprints off 8x11 is damn near impossible unless you blow them up
That’s kind of cool. Unfortunately, it’s still ink jet tanks. I’d like a laser.
I bought two printers in the last 2 decades. One looked like the model in the article, which I gave to a family member. The other one is a Brother Laser printer with a scanner.
I’d rather get a 50 pack of markers and start coloring in my printouts than buy a crappy inkjet printer. Plus it’s bonding time with my nieces and nephews. I pay them in cookies.
Or you can just go to your local library or office supply store and print in color. My library is $0.25 for color prints, $0.10 for B&W. B&W is almost always good enough (we mostly print coloring pages, word searches, and stuff like that), and the quality of the prints are way better than any inkjet I’ve seen.
I also have a B&W Brother printer, and I finally needed to replace the toner after almost 10 years. I bought it when doing a ton of government paperwork, and then random printouts for a weekly community volunteer project. I got something like 3k prints. My new toner cartridge should do 25-30k prints, so I’ll probably never need to replace it. It’s a multi-function device, and I used the scanner a ton during COVID at-home schooling, and I’ve never really had an issue with it (I’ve printed from Windows, macOS, and Linux, all w/o issues).
We also have a small, portable photo printer that my wife can use from her phone, which is really handy for family get-togethers. We can go from “I’d like a print” to “here you go” in like 2 min, and it’s small enough to take in the car with us.
Glad to see the perfect Brother laser printer + Linux combo getting a well deserved press attention, again like in 2023 :)
Just get a 3d printer and put it in 2d print mode as needed so you aren’t gunking up your home and network with so many devices.
Is this actually a thing?
I’m buying my 3rd brother printer today, I got rid of my first when consolidating households even though it was working fine and only needed new toner once in 10 years. Recently I convinced my MIL to ditch HP but she insists we need a color printer so I’m picking up a second hand mfc-9340cdw to finally break free of instant ink. I look forward to not thinking about printers for another 10+ years.
All printers are bad and the Brother Printers are consistently the least bad.
What makes you say Brother printers are bad? I’ve had no complaints with them at all.
Maybe “bad” is the wrong term. But every printer - Brother included - has its own little set of firmware to maintain and special connection protocols to support. The interface between OS and printers, generally speaking, sucks. Wifi connections are unreliable. Its very easy to get into contention with multiple devices. And that’s for a simple little household printer.
Talk to my IT staff about how much of a pain in the ass commercial printers are. More machines, each machine has to connect to multiple printers, and the software to handle these cases generally sucks. Brother’s are the least-bad, but they’re still annoying to configure and periodically unreliable to access.
My Brother was giving a toner end of life message and refusing to print.
I took the toner end cap off via two screws and reset the gear toggle, and now it prints again.
Cool story.
There’s a menu setting to turn that off
I did it, but eventually it didn’t. So I gave in and replaced the toner.
I got nearly 3k prints from the starter cartridge, so not bad. My replacement should get like 25k. Given that I had the original for ~8 years, I don’t think I’ll ever need a B&W printer ever again.
Same here. You need to reset the gear under the toner end cover.
Pop the end cover via two or three screws, then rotate the white gear back to 12 o’clock
Ah. I’ll try to remember that when my toner goes out again in like 10 years.
Try it on the old toner if you can fish it out of the trash
Already sent it in to be recycled. Thanks though. :(
I still recommend Brother printers, but some MFC-* models do support/enforce OEM lock-in after firmware updates according to reports. All the info is 2 years old and I so want to be wrong on this. Have they reversed that decision? Firmware update disables 3rd party toner
I just advised a business on a tech proposal, including printers, and the bid quoted one of the lock-in models. Of course it’s a company so toner is a business expense and they arn’t pinching pennies, but the owner is with the us in not supporting this decision. Props to them.
Weird thumbnail. Why is the printer pixelated, but the logo is super crisp?
Because the article itself says at some point, maybe multiple times: “whichever Brother printer you want”
For whatever reason, it’s intentional (the text says “A blurry photo of a Brother laser printer.”) Maybe just saying any Brother is fine as long as it’s a Brother?
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“Also this strikes me as a very lazy reviewer. Which makes him profoundly qualified to review printers”
😂
From the title and picture, I thought this was some weird diss on the depicted Brother laser printer and stopped by to defend it. Fortunately it is, instead, tauting the superiority of Brother laser printers.
I own the depicted printer, or one very close to it, and it is a workhorse. Brother laser printers are the way.
Mine is 9 years old, I’ve bought toner for it once, and it shows no signs of age. It also looks pretty identical to the picture, and with its layer of dust, even a little blurry too.
I actually think the Google LLM produced a really good summary of trade-offs. I didn’t choose a laser printer because it’s more expensive and larger and I don’t print very often. I got the Canon TS702, which has AirPrint and cheap knock-off ink available on Amazon. The older Verge article mentioned seeing Brother printers in the background of video calls. You won’t see a printer in my background, it fits in a cabinet. Why would I want a huge appliance that I use once or twice a month sitting on a table top in the background of my video calls?
If you can find an inkjet that removes the ink-racket of the business model, it’s a really good value. The company making the printer maybe even loses money on it. That’s a win in my book.
Infrequent printing is actually a reason to choose laser though. Toner cartridges are already dry but I have had to refill ink enough times due to dried out that the money could have bought three laser printers. That is only partially affected by the “no black print until you replace cyan ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)” thing.
Yeah IDK what they’re talking about, I’ve got a 8yo cartridge in a 19yo printer. When’s the last time you saw an inkjet last that long?
Last July I replaced a 1996 Lexmark BW Laser. Though I think I can fix it.
Current printer is a 2012 HP BW wireless that I “inherited”.
Yeah, but the ink is very inexpensive.
After being an idiot for 15 years, and repurchasing inkjet printers with their insanely expensive inks and guaranteed to dry out, gunk up, and quit working, I went ahead and bought a Pantum laser from Amazon, it came with a full cartridge good for 1600 B&W prints, and there was a special on for another 1600 B&W cartridge for free, the whole thing printer, two cartridges $99 bucks out the door. Steal. Works like a charm. I have, and have had, no real reason to print in color, I’m not handing out presentations, and mostly the only things I actually print are Amazon return labels sometimes, but whenever I’ve needed to print I no longer worry about the print head clogging up, and it’s like freedom from bondage.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It’s been over a year since I last told you to just buy a Brother laser printer, and that article has fallen down the list of Google search results because I haven’t spent my time loading it up with fake updates every so often to gain the attention of the Google search robot.
Pointing out that incentive structure and the culture that’s developed around it seems to make a lot of people mad, which is also interesting!
Both of them have reliably printed return labels and random forms and pictures for my kid to color for years now, and I have never purchased replacement toner for either one.
Neither has fallen off the WiFi or insisted I sign up for an ink-related hostage situation or required me to consider the ongoing schemes of HP executives who seem determined to make people hate a legendary brand with straightforward cash grabs and weird DRM ideas.
Don’t feel compelled to do it; my only ask is that you make this article go viral by sharing it in faux-outrage that the EIC of The Verge has published an article partially generated by AI, because after the buttons I am going to include a bunch of AI-generated copy from Google’s Gemini in order to pad this thing out.
Brother laser printers are strong contenders, especially for black and white printing needs, but weigh the pros and cons against other options like inkjets before deciding.
The original article contains 428 words, the summary contains 239 words. Saved 44%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I might be in the mood to buy a new printer. I have a Brother HL-2070N. And I’ve long since forgotten the admin password.
