Brother HL-3070CW Compact Digital Color Printer

• Prints up to 17ppm in color and black
• Built-in wireless 802.11b/g and Ethernet network interfaces
• High-quality output at up to 600 x 2400 dpi resolution using Brother''s Digital LED technology
• Adjustable 250-sheet capacity paper tray for letter or legal size paper
• USB Direct Interface

Read the other reviews for details about this printer.

My problem is that I printed a few hundred pages and then the printer reported IT WAS OUT OF TONER. WTF? The "starter" toner was supposed to be at least a few thousand pages.

I made the mistake of buying a new black toner cartridge. Then after it printed a few pages, it said the magenta cartridge was out of toner! I was trying to print black! This printer has a serious problem of not knowing when or if the toner cartidges is either out of, or completely full of toner.

After I found this trick, I got another 1,000 pages out of that "empty" toner cartridge.

Here''s how to fix the problem (quoted from someone else but it really works... you can Google this problem and it will say to put electical tape on the sensor, but that does NOT NOT NOT work with this printer. Only this will work):

1)'' Turn the printer off and then on again.

2) Open cover.

3) Press Cancel and Secure Print buttons at the same time.

4) Press the + button and scroll through the colors that need to be reset. (reset both STR and STD when prompted. I just reset them all.

5) Press OK (twice, once for STR and STD)

6) You''re done. You don''t even need to take the cartridges out and the printer thinks you just installed four new toner cartridges.

Reset menu for the durable parts counters:

1. Open cover where you access toners

2. Press GO and + button at once, you''ll see menu come up displaying reset counters for drum, fuser, etc.

This unit has stopped printing four times, telling me that I''ve burned through three magenta toner cartridges. Each time I used this "secret" reset method and fixed it. I''m still on the original magenta cartridge. This "secret" reset method has saved me $200.

Oh, Brother... fix this problem and quit robbing people by making your printers tell them they are out of toner when they really are not. What you are doing is just plain weak. WEAK!

Buy Brother HL-3070CW Compact Digital Color Printer Now

In this day of laptops, netbooks, and sophisticated phones, a network printer can simplify things greatly. With a wireless network already running in the house, we could add a wireless printer and put it where it most convenient for us rather than where there was a network connection. Enter the Brother HL-3070CW.

First a bit about printing technologies: Inkjets are cheaper to purchase, but the cost of ink cartridges is staggering over time. The HL-3070CW comes with a set of "starter" toner cartridges, rated for 1,000 pages each. Compare that to an inkjet, where ratings of 150 200 pages from a full set of carts are common. (Our Epson CX5800F is lucky to get 75 pages out of a set of cartridges, given the amount of ink we waste on clogged print heads.) The Brother toner cartridges cost more to replace, but you''ll be replacing them much less often. The replacement black toner cartridge is rated for 2,200 pages, and the replacement color cartridges are rated at 1,400 pages each. The printer''s drum units are also user-replaceable, and are rated for 15,000 sheets. By my calculations, assuming that we get half of the rated pages from the toner cartridges, we''ll have made up the cost difference between these technologies in less than a year. The Brother will be significantly cheaper to run over time, without the frustration of clogged printheads.

I bought the Brother HL-3070CW shortly after it was released. This was a bit of a leap of faith, given that there were no reviews available at the time. It took about 20 minutes to unbox the printer, set it up, and connect it to our (WPA-PSK secured) wireless network. It was a painless process from start to finish. The toner cartridges slot into the top of the printer easily, and the paper tray (250 sheets) slides in the bottom.

The LCD screen on the printer is very basic, but it''s easy to read, it includes a back light, and it does its job well. The menu system is very simple (one item at a time, scroll with the up and down keys), but the choices are easy to understand and the menu works exactly as expected. I''ve never had to read the operating manual that came with the printer. (Installation documentation is supplied on paper, but the operating manual is a pdf file on the included disc.)

Print quality has been excellent from the start. Characters are well-formed and easy to read, and graphic quality is very high with solid, vivid colors. Although not true photo quality, images are perfectly suitable for business purposes (brochures, presentations, etc.).

I''ve used paper from 20 to 32 pounds without incident with this printer. I have not had any paper jams, and the printer always picks up just one sheet of paper. The output tray on the top is rated to hold 100 sheets, and it looks like it could do that easily. The printer will handle legal sized sheets, although so far all of my printing has been on letter sized paper. There''s a manual feed slot for thicker media and envelopes, but I''ve not had a reason to try it yet.

The printer uses 10 watts while asleep, and wakes from sleep very quickly. It takes less than 20 seconds for the first page to print if the printer''s asleep when the document is sent. I''ve set my printer to go to sleep quickly, and have experienced no problems at all with it waking when documents are sent to it. The printer has also recovered gracefully from a power outage, including reconnecting to our wireless network automatically. It makes some noise when it feeds paper, but the noise level isn''t objectionable.

One other interesting feature: The printer includes a USB port that can be used with PictBridge cameras, or that can be used to print some document types (e.g., pdf, jpeg) directly from a thumb drive.

The Brother HL-3070CW is easy to set up, it uses little energy in standby mode, it feeds paper reliably, its consumable costs are reasonable, and it produces excellent quality output. I''m not sure what else one could ask for from a printer. I''m very happy with this unit, and have recommended it to others who have also had good experiences with it.

Read Best Reviews of Brother HL-3070CW Compact Digital Color Printer Here

Very easy to configure, at least with my Mac, and using the plug-in Ethernet connection. Great color, and very crisp printouts, nearly laser quality output (it''s actually an LED printer, which uses a less-costly print technology than laser, but has the same basic laser-type toner cartridges). Even from an inch away the fonts look very crisp.

Toner cartridges are about $60 each. The starter cartridges are supposed to last 1000 pages but I''ve only had it a month so we''ll see how that goes. You get (essentially) laser quality output but for $350, color, USB, Ethernet and wireless interfaces built in so it''s hard to beat. No problems at all to date, but as I say it''s still new.

Colors are very good, but if you''re looking to print photos it''s not going to look as good as a photo printer. Great for color images and charts/graphs in documents, though, and better color quality than my $99 Epson ink jet (non photo printer).

Setup on the USB and plug-in Ethernet network connection is quite easy, there''s a built in web interface in the printer that you login to. Had to download a driver from the Brother website but that was easy to do. Setting up the wireless interface looks like it would take 30 minutes or so, but the plug-in Ethernet setup only took ten minutes plus another ten to download the driver for my computer. Hardware setup (unpacking really, and inserting the four toner cartridges) was about 15 minutes.

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After following all the instructions for installation both for wireless and wired mode (separately), at the last step where the Brother software indicated that everything was finished (including intermediate steps when a page was printed correctly), my computer came up with the message that the driver is not compatible with my system, Windows Vista, because it is kernel-mode driver. I downloaded the driver again from the web, same problem. The customer service person told me over the phone that Brother does not provide support for this printer over the weekend. This is printer for use at home. During the week I am at work and their evening hours are limited.

The printer clearly received a wireless command from my computer and printed a page during the installation, but the installation could not be completed for the driver.

I don''t blame the printer; I blame the company for lack of information and help on their website and over the phone in connection with this type of problem.

Update 9-27-10

I contacted the Brother Customer service several times now. The last time I insisted to talk to a supervisor. All he could say is that the problem is with my operating system and to contact Microsoft! He could not offer any help nor could he verify whether the print driver is kernel-mode print driver, which is apparently incompatible with my operating system.

I have been looking to replace my HP Photosmart inkjet printer for a couple years now. Although I enjoyed the photo capabilities of the inkjet, it just didn''t do it when I needed important black & white copies or color copies of my excel financial workbooks. I wanted a color laser printer but not at the expensive business prices plus it had to be wireless, network ready, & both Mac & PC friendly. Until I saw this Brother printer, no home color laser met all those requirements.

I was a bit apprehensive with this purchase since I had always owned HP printers & respect their reliability. But I have been using the Brother printer for over a month. It has far exceeded my expectations! Once I got rid of the cheap inkjet paper & replaced it with higher quality laser paper, the print jobs really shined. It is both a joy to print out my work financial statements in color and print jobs for every day use. I recently printed out my tax returns & enjoyed the laser black & white capabilities sorely missed with the inkjet.

This is the perfect printer for a home office. It is built like a small tank too (nothing cheap about the quality). Although I was a bit put off having to buy four print cartridges (at $40-$50 each), after shopping online I found some good buys. Plus, the output is more than double from anything you get from inkjet cartridges. The only thing it can''t do are photos. But, I kept my HP inkjet for those jobs. I highly recommend this color laser printer (btw, Brother calls it digital color LED print technology).