Brother HL-5040 Laser Printer (Brother-HL5040)

Brother HL-5040

HL-5040 Laser Printer (Brother-HL5040) Review, by Dan Littman April 25, 2003

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• Reviewed by: itsmedave1

  Strengths: Looks Good. Fast. Great for an office.

  Weaknesses: Drains too much electrical power. UPSs click. Lights dim in house.

  Overall: If you put this in your home it will cause power problems. I am in the same boat as the guy above where the UPSs will click even though the printer is not plugged in to it. It also makes my lamps dim. This abviously is not good on my computer equipment either. I DO NOT RECOMMEND FOR HOME USE!

• Reviewed by: jd12

  Strengths: Super fast and clear and crisp word documents

  Weaknesses: gray scale is not a strength

  Overall: This is an outstanding heavy duty and inexpensive laser writer. It's hard to believe that a $200 printer can be labeled heavy duty. I print upwards to 100 pages per day. A 6000 page ink cartridge is $63. This printer knocks the socks off any inkjet that I've used including $300 + HP's or Epsons'.Fry's is selling them for $129. Go buy one now!

• Reviewed by: Cobra99

  Strengths: Ease of set up. Good features / performance for the money. The memory is upgradeable, which is a good thing if printing large documents. Inexpensive toner cartridge.

  Weaknesses: I find the printer somewhat noisy when it prints.

  Overall: This is my second Brother printer. Prior to this printer, I had a Brother 1240 for residential use. Unfortunately, it lasted less than three years before it needed a drum replacement. The cost of the drum replacement drove me to buy this printer which was on sale, for an extra 80.00 dollars. Thus far, I'm very please with it. It has very crisp text and is fast.Update: 03/10/04I just finished installing 128 MB of ram on the printer. I have used the printer for very large documents. Although capable, It needed more ummph. The installation was simple, inexpensive ($53.00) for the amount of RAM, and the documentation on the disk for the installation was concise. I recommend this printer.For the money, this is a great little printing press.

• Reviewed by: haroldm2

  Strengths: This is a nice looking printer, but I stop there.

  Weaknesses: The design and support Brother offers SUCK! My printer keeps tripping my computer's UPS. The UPS keeps cycling on and off when the printer is plugged in. The printer is not plugged into the UPS!

  Overall: The only tech support solution offered by Brother was to move the printer to a different circuit from the UPS. The last time I looked quality printer cables were only 6' long. Some solution! I recommend that if you want a good printer keep looking, this one is not designed for residential use!

• Reviewed by: hotmomma3

  Strengths: Ready to print quickly, easy to set up, good print quality for the $$

  Weaknesses: Haven't found any yet

  Overall: I've been shopping for an affordable laser printer for a few months now & this one caught my eye early on. It had many features I was looking for: up to 17 ppm print speed, good toner life, reasonable price, expandability and good print quality. I compared HP, Minolta, Samsung and other Brother models of laser printers & this one stacked up in print quality, speed and price. It has the ability to add memory and additional paper trays (which some of the others didn't offer). I also liked the Brother 5050LT, but the price was a bit much for my budget. Brother has made an affordable, quality printer. Some of the lower-end HP models looked & felt flimsy in the quality of the printer itself, but the Brother 5040 seems to be a well-built printer. I recommend this printer for anyone on a budget that wants a quality laser printer.