Monday, April 8, 2013

Brother HL 1440



Printers are one of the few areas of technology where the price goes down as the quality goes up.  Brother is one of those companies who offer more to every evolution of their products, but charge either the same or less for them.

Take the HL-1440 monochrome printer for instance.  An improvement in almost every way to its predecessor the HL-1430 yet, retailing for the same price.  It much is quicker, more reliable, has less jams, and better drivers than the earlier model.

The upgrades include a faster 66Mhz processor, and faster electronics throughout.  The only disappointment is with the tiny 2mb memory.  Most printers offer at least 8mb to store documents for printing or scanning.  It does redeem itself slightly with an easily expandable memory slot via a standard DIMM.  The memory can then be expanded to 34Mb which is much more suitable to a busy environment.

The laser print quality is excellent.  Text appears clean and crisp at 600dpi, as do any embedded text or images.  Photographic reproduction is also beyond fault at 1200 x 600 dpi.  Details are sharp and the translations from color image to monochrome print is well done.  No lines, smears or banding could be seen when testing.

Setting the printer up is simple and straightforward.  Just plug it in and connect it to a computer via the USB or parallel port.  The driver CD is comprehensive and contains everything you need to get started.  The user manual is easy to follow, and offers clear instruction as well as basic troubleshooting tips if you encounter problems.

Maintenance of the HL-1440 once it’s up and running is pretty easy.  Blockages can be cleared with ease thanks to the movable paper loader and tray.  Toner can be quickly and easily be replaced once the included starter cartridge has been exhausted.  The ink is in powder form so won’t dry out like inkjet printers.  The HL-1440 is also frugal enough not to waste toner wherever necessary so owners will find their cartridges lasting surprisingly long.

Overall the HL-1440 is an excellent office printer.  It does everything well.  While not standing out by being amazing, it will still be churning out good quality copies and prints long after many, more expensive units have given up the ghost.

For businesses looking to invest in a good quality laser printer, without paying the laser printer premium, the HL-1440 is a very good investment.  It’s easy to install and configure, easy to use, the cartridges last a respectable time and are easy to obtain from the internet.  Places like quickshiptoner.com can have them to you the next day.
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