Purchased today, March 20, 2024, for 130€.
-- Choosing the right printer is a very difficult and time-consuming process of searching and researching before the purchase; the models that are worth it are rare and in few pieces, and you need to be careful not to end up paying more for the consumables than 0.10€ per page at a copy shop, plus wasting time and gas going back and forth, so it's reasonable to get frustrated and break it or give it away... :)
-- Looking for a relatively small laser printer that fits in a library, for black and white printing on A4 paper, with criteria for economical consumables (the genuine Brother TN-1090 toner costs around 20 to 25€ for 1500 pages, and there are also cheap compatible ones on the market, even with guides on YouTube for refilling with direct graphite powder in the old cartridge, but I DO NOT recommend it except in cases where you are handy and the printer is quite old and there are no toner spare parts or the imitation toners are not recognized).
-- Oh, the most important thing is that its toner does not have a chip, so using compatible toner will be very easy.
-- The installation process was super easy if, of course, you are familiar with computers; I am a programmer/IT technician, all the instructions are in English and other languages, not at all in Greek.
-- With my own USB cable on a laptop with Windows 10 that I tested, it worked immediately, even without installing drivers; of course, for better support, I installed the drivers from Brother's website as it comes with a CD-ROM and many current computers do not have a CD drive.
-- Wirelessly connected with my mobile and the classic Cosmote router as follows: download the corresponding Brother apps from the App/Play Store, and once you press the WPS button on the router and, of course, your mobile is on the same network as the router and open in the Brother app, and you also press the WiFi button on the printer, then it will connect wirelessly to your network and will print a WLAN report Connection OK page.
-- It does not support automatic double-sided printing; you will have to flip the sheets to do double-sided printing.
Laser printers are the best category for fast high-resolution prints for black and white printing, rarely used but also for continuous use of many pages together and with lower printing costs, which is why almost all photocopy machines rely on laser technology.
-- Things get complicated with color printing where the cost for laser is significantly higher, and also inkjet printers have better quality in color prints/photos. Of course, for most, including me, I rarely need color printing.
Home/amateur use is just right.
Inkjet printers that have a replacement cartridge may initially be cheaper, but their inks dry out, break easily, produce few pages, are expensive, etc., and are not worth it in any case; I have an HP multifunction device from 2009, almost in the box (it was given as a gift at the then Multirama), but with inkjet, and I now use it as a scanner because no matter how much mobile cameras evolve, they cannot match the quality of a physical scanner.
-- For everyday printing with low cost and the advantage of inkjet in color printing, a good choice is the Eco Tank or Ink tank printers, where with the factory bottles you can get thousands of prints, but for rare use you are committed to making a color print every 3 to 4 days to prevent the heads from drying out.
-- It came with an adapter from UK plug to European, but the adapter was not needed as the non-detachable power cable is European. Be very careful not to connect it to a UPS as laser printers draw quite a bit of instantaneous power during printing, as well as for the fuser that melts the toner onto the paper. I placed it on a bookshelf with a socket extension to the power strip, and it hardly takes up any space.
-- I have printed about 380 well-written A4 pages so far, first as odd page numbers and then with page flipping as even numbers, very easily without any confusion. I also set it to HQ 1200DPI resolution, and it really prints black perfectly; the resolution is excellent, like a photocopy machine (1500 €). Of course, the toner still has graphite, but like all toners, they promise 1500 pages but with only 5% full page. If you want, set it to Eco Mode and lower the DPI to 600 or 300 for toner savings.
-- Satisfied with the purchase; of course, prices have skyrocketed like everything else; it could be 90 - 100 € and readily available. There are Brother laser printers at the same price as this one that support automatic duplex printing and higher printing speed, but on the other hand, they have very expensive and hard-to-find toners. According to the logic of the serial number, it was manufactured in 2022.