Brother HL-2600CN

Reviewed by: cwbuckle

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Low cost per page, web interface, some unusual, but neat features like secure print.

Weaknesses: Poor paper handling, expensive optional attachments.

Overall Evaluation: This is a nice enough printer, and it comes with a 1 year on site warranty from Brother. It has great potential with regard to print quality, but I believe the weaknesses I mentioned above make this a bad choice for someone who has to manage more than one of them.The paper handling is pretty poor. The included paper tray will hold 250 sheets of letter paper, but the envelopes are restricted to less than 25 per tray. Even when using the envelopes specifically reccomended by Brother, I found there to be about a 95% paper jam rate with greater than 10 envelopes in the tray. With fewer than 10 envelopes, the paper jam rate would be about 80%. In addition to the paper jams, poor handling of the envelopes made for some interesting output. Several envelopes were printed crooked, streaked, or curved.The first test page I printed from the printer was of excellent quality. Each page afterwards has shown a ghost image of the last page. After several calls to the service center, I was finally directed to a workable solution. The standard support tech's are only familiar with traditional lasers, so be sure to ask for someone in the color laser support department.The optional attachments available are all over $200, even the legal paper tray. I wouldn't even *try* to use a duplexer attachment on a machine that already has difficulty not jamming up. I'd really like to reccomend this printer, as I'm sure it will be well worth my money, but buyer beware of a few extra hassles that you will get in return for a sub $700 color laser.