Brother HL-L3210CW Digital Color Printer With Wireless

This printer is truly plug and play. It took me less than a 1/2 hr to print a photo from my phone (which I’ve never done before).

Installation and setup: this printer is heavy. The hardest part was getting the thing out of the box. It only had the printer itself and the power cord. If you are planning on connecting it directly to your computer, you will need to buy the cable separately. You have to take off all the blue tape and the orange protective bits, put the cartridges back in, plug it in, load paper, and then connect it to your network. It was a little tedious to use the up and down arrows to key in the network key, but it’s a one-time thing.

I’ve previously only had inkjet printers, so I don’t know how it compares to other laser printers, but I’m very happy with the quality of the images. To really put it through its paces, I ran some different types of paper through it and the printing was spot on for almost all of them. I ran some labels through and it had some issues feeding some of the pages, but it did way better than any other personal printer that I’ve had. I kind of anticipated issues because the printer didn’t have a label option for paper type.

All in all, I’m exceptionally pleased with this and am super grateful to have quick, reliable, quality printing.

Initial thoughts:
-setup: very easy. Had to pull out each toner cartridge to break off some tabs that helds things still for shipping, and pull out some plastic; took about 5 mins without needing to look at instructions. I did look at them later and it was straightforward.
-size/weight: a lot heavier than I expected, but its the same size at it looks.
-add to wifi: you can run a setup and connect to the printer from your PC or phone and use that to change the wifi on your printer, or you can add it manually via the small one line LCD screen. I did it this way; it will definitely be painful for anyone with crazy long passwords with extra symbols like me. It was easy, just a lot of hitting the down-arrow icon looking for next character. But it added immediately, and was available immediately for search from my PC.
-printing: it prints fast and its very quiet, Enough so that when I print to it (its directly behind my wife’s desk) she doesn’t notice. You can definitely hear it, but its quiet enough to blend in to background noise.
-print quality: documents look sharp, icons etc look good both in color and black and white
-print quality, photos: used some laserjet photo paper and printed out a picture: I’ll put it in the ‘good enough for a postcard or to send your mom her annual family pic to frame’. Definitely not the color sharpness/brightness you’d get from CVS, but not expecting that, either. We will likely use it for our next party invite instead of going to UPS store to print.
-mobile printing; TBD, haven’t tried
-duplex printing: TBD, haven’t tried
-toner life: we probably won’t need new toner for 6+ months and I’ll try to update then.
Overall, it does everything I expect it to at the level I expected.
If you need a general/workhorse printer capable of printing anything at a reasonably decent level- this is likely the printer for you.
If you are looking to print pictures to frame; get a color inkjet. Or just keep printing @ CVS which is likely cheaper anyway.

After owning this for almost 3 years, here’s the verdict: Brother make a good piece of hardware it prints well. But they have mastered fleecing their customers, spreading each new surprise expense out so you get deeper in financially.

The printer was great. The toner cartridges it came with weren’t massive, but bigger than the “trial” ink cartridges a lot of inkjets come with. Print quality was wonderful. It just worked.

But slowly, they ran out. First black, then each color in turn. A couple months apart, so I forget about the pain of buying the last one. I sprung for the high capacity genuine cartridges.

First, the genuine, high-capacity magenta started leaving ghost smears. It was getting clumps of toner on the transfer roller in the cartridge. I lived with it.

I finally changed all 4 cartridges. I thought I was in the clear. NOPE! Replace the waste toner box now! It costs as much as a toner cartridge from Brother, and unlike the toners, it’s not as easily available on Amazon.

I finally decided to risk third-party. It’s not TONER, it’s just the receptacle for the toner that doesn’t end up on the paper. It won’t affect print quality, right?

Ordered a well-reviewed third-party cartridge on here. Finally got around to putting it in the printer. It printed a test page. Cool. I finally diagnosed the magenta cartridge and cleaned the roller of its clumps.

Print another test page? NO! Replace the waste toner cartridge! This printer gave me ONE page before rejecting the third party part. It’s not even producing the stuff the printer uses!

I did some network analysis with my hardware firewall. This printer calls home at LEAST once per day to get updates. It doesn’t inform you of this when you hook it up to your wi-fi. It just helps itself to the internet when you’re not using it.

After some research, it appears that third party stuff works for a while, then stops working. I presume most of the updates to this printer are to disable your ability to use non-genuine consumables.

If I replace this waste toner box, it’s probably gonna complain about the drums in another month. I’m done. No more caring about the cost I’ve sunk into this. I don’t care that I’ve got 4 expensive toner cartridges with >75% remaining. Not another dime. I’m deeper into consumables than I spent for the printer. I don’t have that many pages through it, even (a few hundred in 3 years).

Brother, if you’re reading this: get over yourselves. If I ruin my prints with third-party consumables, that’s my choice. I regret every dime I spent on your products. I’m done. Your behavior is anti-consumer, and I’m sick of it.

I’ll go research a printer brand that doesn’t combat me to force more of my money into their pockets.

Valeu pelo custo benefício!