Rating: 
Summary: Printing quality not as good as I expected
Review: I read a lot of reviews about how great this printer's printing quality was, so I decided to purchase it. Although the quality is OK for text, anything other than text is below average. I also own the more expensive ... and its printing quality is far better. I guess you get what you pay for...
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good so far
Review: I grew tired of feeding expensive ink to my epson ink jet printer and thought I would save money with a laser printer (most of my print needs are b&w anyway). The Brother HL-1440 fit the bill from a price perspective. There is an HP in this price range also, but does not get good reviews.Text quality is excellent, to my naked eye. It's as good as the HP's at my office. Graphics are not as good, but if I want to print graphics I'll just use the ink jet instead. Adding additional memory is easy and [affordable]. I added another 32MB for less than twenty bucks. I've had the printer for about 2 months, with moderate use. I've had none of the line problems that some others had. A few jams, but nothing out of the ordinary. I had no problems with installation. I have it connected to an XP computer and also use it on a WMe computer via the network. The installation disk is idiot proof - there are little videos that show you everything you need to do. The only fault is the power requirement. I don't know if this is true of all lasers (I know they all use a lot of power). This printer pulls nearly 8 amps when the fuser heats up. The fuser heats during warm-up or when it prints a page. Unfortunately this causes temporary power drain, making all lights on the circuit dim or flicker. I solved it by running another circuit into the room, but that wasn't an expense I planned for when I bought this inexpensive printer. So ... if you've got a 15 amp circuit doing heavy duty, you may want to consider a different,lower amp printer, even if it costs more, unless you don't mind the occasional light flicker. I should note that the printer powers down quickly when not in use, and there is no flicker while it's in sleep mode.
Rating:
Summary: The ratings are all true
Review: I am no expert with these things, but I am really impressed with the quality and price of this machine. I was upgrading from my color inkjet, which ate up ink about every 30 or 40 pages. I'm a student, so I don't print out a lot, but I have lots of homework and papers to write. I was sick of replacing cartidges, which were [spendy] and unreliable. It always seemed to run out, just when you need it the most, ie. when a huge paper was due (the inkjet usually ran out after I printed out a number of revisions). So my friend recommended that I get a laser printer like hers, because she said that she didn't have to replace a toner for about three years. I am so happy that I have printed out 600 pages so far and I have not had to touch the toner compartment! If it was on my inkjet, I would have probably had to get about ten ink cartridges by now. (The toner is supposed to print out about 3000 pages!)
I was also happy to find out that this printer has both parallel port and USB for those of us with older computers. I almost bought the HP 1000, solely based on it's name, but lucky for me, the HP only had USB and was a lot more [expensive]. I had to look for alternatives, and Brother was rated so highly by everyone that I thought I'd give it a try. I couldn't believe that the price was almost the same as an inkjet, so that was definitely a huge plus.
The ratings were all true. The output is very crisp, clean, and fast for regular word documents. I like the traditional boxy style with a sturdy paper tray that slides shut rather than the one the HP 1000 has. I saw a sample HP at a store, which was almost falling apart from people handling it, a sign that it doesn't last very long. The only complaints are:
1. the automatic paper tray sticks out in the back. (but you dont notice it very much since its in the back)
2. the manual sheet feeder in the front only holds one sheet at time and tends not to take the paper in evenly, so that the paper is slightly slanted, giving an uneven printout. I've gotten used to having to reinsert the paper in several times or re-print something several times to get it straight. There is no problem with the automatic paper tray feeding, of course.
3. the manual is only on cd. I guess it saves paper, but come on! (however, this has nothing to do with the quality of the printer itself)
4. it is kind of slow sometimes, printing PDF files. I guess that has to do with the memory and perhaps my relatively old computer.
Its not perfect, but its definitely a great deal for a laser printer of this quality. I consider the quirks to be pretty minor.
Rating:
Summary: Great value...
Review: Of course there are faster, meaner printers out there; but, for the money, this is a pretty decent piece of equipment. It is very easy to hook up (especially if you are replacing an existing printer and already have a cable -- not included with printer). The driver practically installs itself. I was up and running in about 5 minutes. I did not purchase additional memory and find I could live without it. The printer is still much faster than my old inkjet, and the print quality is much better than I expected.
Rating:
Summary: Initially Great, Print Quality problems after 8 months
Review: Like many other, I felt the HL-1440 offered a great combination of price, capabilities and features. We bought it to save money over using our Epson photo printer for every print job coming off three PC's, reserving the Epson for prints requiring color output.
Print quality and paper handling were superb for about 6 months. We then had a grey speckled haze start on every page, which has gotten progressively worse. The toner cartridge is still about 1/3 full. Based on the comments I've see here and from folks at work who have other Brother products, I've given up trying to clean the corona wire and have ordered a replacement cartridge for it in the hope that this will fix the problem.
Update - the new cartridge did the trick and the printer has functioned like a champ for the last nine months.
Rating: 
Summary: If you are printing in volume-this is the way to go
Review: Laser printing is a lot faster than most of the inkjets that we use. When I first installed it and printed the test page, out came a piece of paper so fast, I thought it was a printing mistake. You know the speed of an inkjet, when it is rejecting the print, or only printing the top line, then the paper exits out real fast. Well this printer prints a whole page that fast. The sheet under it is just settling down, when the one over it arrives. For high volume printing needs that is the only way to fly.
This model HL-1440 was Consumer Reports number one rated laser printer. It had the best print speed, and the lowest per page cost of all the units tested.
Since this allows you to hook it up with a USB cable (or with a standard paralell cable), it enables you to keep your existing printer hooked up. Then when you go to print, you can choose either printer.
The one thing I noticed is that the fullness of the text is not as great as the HP 950 series inkjet. It does have 1200 dpi as an option. It normally runs at 600 as the default.
Something worth mentioning. Some comment that they have had problems with the pages getting junk on the page after using it for awhile. The cartridge that comes with the machine, which is rather substantial, loudly states on the cover in bold print, that when moving the machine, the cartridge must be removed, and stored in the bag, or serious damage may result. Those who are having problems, may have moved the machine around, and didn't treat it too gently. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I would set it up where you plan on using it, and not moving it. If I did move it, I would do so carefully.
One thing that sets this one apart, is the loading tray for the paper. It is removable, and sits in the bottom of the unit. That is reminiscent of quality copying machines.
The big advantage of laser is that the print material is dry powder, so unlike inkjets, can never dry out. I have a friend who bought an NEC laser in 1985, and is still using the original cartridge. (He is frugal, and doesn't print a lot, but it is a good example of how long a cartridge will last)
At first I considered getting the HL 1470N so I could hook it up to the wireless network. It has the print server and ethernet built in. Then I realized, since it was twice the price, it would be a better idea to get two 1440s. If I ever have any problems, I have a backup on the other machine.
One last thing, is that I like the way the Brother looks. It gives a more substantial and quality feel, than the competition in the entry level machines.
With more money you get different models with higher dpi, Post Script Level 2 or 3, more memory etc.
So far, so good, easy install, in only a few minutes. It installed in an XP machine, and a Windows ME machine without a glitch.
For this kind of money, to get laser speed, and quality, and economy, makes this unit a must have.
Rating:
Summary: Why buy any other brand?
Review: This printer is clearly the best value in its class. It comes standard with twice as much memory as the more expensive HP LaserJet 1000 and unlike the HP can be upgraded. Other comprably priced units simply don't offer the same features and upgradability. Although it's hard to be sure of its performance over the long term, I bought this printer to replace an eight year old Brother HL-600. Eight years is of trouble-free service is pretty remarkable for a computer product these days. In fact, I am only replacing my old printer because the drum unit was just now starting to go. My only complaints about this model are that a.) it doesn't come with a printed instruction manual; b.) 2 MB of standard memory is pretty stingy, particularly considering how cheap memory is now; and c.) the paper tray sticks out the back a few inches, leaving it exposed to dust and light (but the good side is that this allows printing of legal size sheets). The first two complaints are pretty standard with most computer products, though, so it's hard to hold them against Brother specifically (especially considering the HP 1000). I am also glad that printer manufactures moved away from expensive proprietary memory chips in favor of standard SIMMs. I would recommend just going ahead and maxing out the memory at 34 MB if you ever plan on printing anything other than text.
Rating:
Summary: Great Printer for the price
Review: I've had this printer for a month and it works great!. Installation for this printer was straight forward and simple. Totally flawless and for the price you cannot go wrong. I admit it does take a little while to warm-up once the printer is turned on, but the sleep mode operates very nicely. I could not find any local computer store that sold the memory upgrade ~ so I had to order it through the internet.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Print Quality After Six Weeks
Review: The first month was great. After six weeks of daily use (about 20 pages per day) a black haze started to cover every page, progressively getting worse. I cleaned the printer with the special cleaning pads and this did not help. I then cleaned the drum and wire. This also did not fix the problem. Next I replaced the toner cartage, and this also did not fix the problem. Finally I replaced the drum and it worked great! The drum did not last the life of one toner cartage. The fix was over [$] for a [$] printer! NOT HAPPY! The printer is also slow to warm up on the first page.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of toner cartridge!
Review: I own a HL-1240 which is the predecessor of HL-1440. [Both almost have the same specifications and use the same toner cartridge]. I enjoyed the superb print quality for a few months (I print less than 20 pages a week) then problem emerged. A vertical line appeared on every page I printed (about half-inch away from the right edge). The problem remained even I cleaned the drum unit and wire (many times). Replaced the toner cartridge with a brand new one, problem gone. I surfed the net for solutions (don't bother with tech support, they will tell you to clean the drum unit), I found this toner problem was not unique to me. Also, because the problem emerges months after purchase, it doesn't get reflected in customer reviews and feedbacks. While the printer is features-rich and well priced, I think consumers should be aware of the quality of the toner.
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