Fast printing
Cheap running costs and quality documents
Large paper tray
Fast start up
Useful software features
Noisy
The output tray sometimes jams or doesn't stack up the paper effectively
I purchased this unit when my previous laser died. That one was also a laser and was a Brother one to boot. I found that the previous one did its job, printing alot of my university and CA stuff quite quickly. I tend to print alot of notes at the same time (generally when I have exams and I'm cramming like a mofo) and I needed a printer that gave me my notes fast, cheap and effectively. So I had a hard choice picking either this one or the Samsung which was only $129 as opposed to the Brother HL 5240 which was $249. I purchased this online by the way and I think now you can source it for around $200 fairly easily.
The only reason why I purchased this one was running cost. Per page it saves me a fair bit of money over a long period of time and the quality described in PC Authority was nothing short of stunning so the Brother it was.
First of all, the paper tray is fairly deep and stores a fair amount of paper. Its situated at the bottom of the unit which is a bit of a bother if you want to set it up like on a lower shelf on your desk. Please note I'm purely using it as a home printer and not a home office. I've found that its easier to set this printer up level with your monitor as it gives you easy access to the paper tray and the output of the actual printer.
The paper tray at the top is fairly decent for a printer of this size and a nice touch is the neat stopper that you can pull out of the printer to stop paper falling off the printer itself. One problem I have noted with this printer is that if you print alot of pages at the same time (i.e. 40-80 pages) it will not feed through properly in the out put tray and stack up. Maybe I've spoiled at work with all the printers and MFCs there but I expect at least 40-80 pages to stack up properly. With the Brother no such things happen with the first 20-30 pages stacking up fairly well and the rest just piling on in an odd fashion sometimes warped in a U shape. If you leave a large large document )100+ pages, your looking at some crowded activity in the output tray and a jam of some shorts. So its probably better, and annoying, to remove some of the documents out if your printing a very very long one.
Quality wise there is nothing to complain, it prints high quality black and whites. I rarely print pictures but when I have they have been acceptable. I wouldn't expect a mono laser to print graphics anyway. The standard word document has always come out great.
The printer is a bit noisy to be honest, and if you don't like hearing it, well too bad your going to have to hack it. There isn't any fancy duplex trays or anything like that. Its just standard paper tray and out put tray on top. Its got a fairly easy number of signals to understand with a light for toner, drum and paper. The printer will blink yellow if its in progress, warming up or printing, green when its ready and red when there is an error.
Print speed is something to write home about, I mentioned I had a previous brother laser the HL-2340 and this one destroys it. I don't have any fancy figures to back this up but based on waiting I think a 30-40 page document usually takes around 1 minute give or take 30 seconds. The running cost are also out of this world, the supplied toner is a half toner but still lasted a fair while ( 6 months) before I had to change it. The new toner I've had for around 6 months at the moment and shows no sign of stopping. I haven't worked out any costs but based on life its alot better then the previous laser I have, that one needed a toner change every 6 months or so.
Setting it up the printer is a breeze and the drivers are fairly well up to date with Vista. I haven't run across any of the fancy features mentioned above because I set it up from a USB port on my router but the driver installation took no time. The printer options you use the advanced tabs are fairly simple to use and understand so I credit Brother for making a decent attempt at printer software.
Overall I'm very happy I chose this laser printer off the A-List as it seems to be a quality laser that prints fast, clearly and cheaply. All you really need from a laser printer really. For people baulking at the cost price of the actual printer itself, you'll be kicking yourself later, the running cost will save you over the long run. If anyone just needs a quick and simple laser printer for home or a small office this one will do the trick. I especially recommend it for Uni students or young workers doing post graduate courses. You will love this printer for your uni lectures notes, past papers and additional material.