• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Brother HL-1440 laser printer $209.99 at Staples.com (thru 8/17/02)

docinthebox

Golden Member
Update 8/12/02:

Officemax has this printer for $249.99 in store (but not on their website). They have a $50 off $250 online coupon. So if you can get them to PM to their in-store price, you can get it for $249.99 - $50 = $199.99.

Edit: Staples.com also has this printer for $249.99 but it's in the form of a $50 coupon code applied. So that probably means you cannot use any other coupon (eg. $40 off $200 coupon) with it.
 
I waited and waited to get this printer at ~$200.

Nice, quite, fast.
I do wish it included more than 2MB standard (it is expandable to 32MB).


*** WARNING ***
Much to my dismay, I attached it to a WinXP system that is using peer to peer networking w/Win98 machines.
Turns out this is a known problem / issue.
Some sorta' bug causes trouble for the Win98 machines when printing "fancy" stuff, over the net.
Simple / plain usually works.
But "fancy" will hang, or worse, spew through the whole paper tray with a few characters at the top of the pages.
Printing same stuff *not* over the network - no fuss, no muss.

No update, *yet*, from Brother.
 
I was planning to go to Costco today and pickup the Samsung ML-1210 posted in another thread . Now I have to rethink my decision.
 
I can't say anything about the samsung, but I have the brother. I will be buying another one on this deal. You can't beat it with a stick for the performance. The only thing, as mentioned, you need to upgrade the memory. I would recommend a purchase of 16mb or 32 megs of memory to add to it.
 
the samsung ~$119 at costco. (after mir)

Is it really that much better? The price on the samsung is quite attractive. how much does ram cost for the brother? what type of ram does it take?
 
The brother is a superior printer, hands down. It has 1200x600 (1200x1200 with a memory upgrade) resoultion compared to the Samsung's 600x600. Look at the toner prices, drum prices, too. The brother is one of CNET's best reviewed lasers in the 200-500 zone, the Samsung is a 200 and lower printer. We have 4 of these brothers at work and love them. I just picked up the Lexmark (Samsung) e210 last week and I'll be returning it for this deal.

Thanks!

BTW, the brother takes standard SIMM memory, so use up all those old Simms! 🙂
 
Comparing the Samsung ML-1210 and Brother HL-1440:

1. Speed: 12ppm vs. 15ppm max. (with memory upgrade)
2. Resolution: 600x600dpi vs. 1200x600dpi max. (with memory upgrade)
3. Standard memory: 8MB vs. 2MB
4. Manual duplex: Not sure vs. Supported
5. Tray size: 150 sheets input / 100 sheets output vs. 250 sheets input / 150 sheets output

6. Printing cost:

For Samsung ML-1210:
2500-page yield toner+drum (ML-1210D3) for $54.54 at buy.com
Cost per page = $54.54 / 2500 = 2.18 cents

For Brother HL-1440:
6000-page yield toner (TN460) for $54.30 at buy.com
20,000-page yield drum (DR400) for $101.95 at buy.com
Cost per page = ($54.30 / 6000) + ($101.95 / 20000) = 1.41 cent
(This is assuming that the drum lasts for 20,000 pages, which is the life span of the drum according to spec. Some people have encountered much shorter life span for the drum.)

7. Linux support: Official support (drivers downloadable from vendor's site) vs. Public domain support (drivers included with Ghostscript 6.10 and above)
8. And of course, price: $119 @Costco after MIR vs. $199.99 @OM this week + cost for memory upgrade

For memory upgrade, the HL-1440 uses 72-pin SIMM, either EDO or FPM. From time to time, you can find these listed on Fry's Sunday flyer really cheap (like $9.99). Otherwise, if you have to buy a 16MB or 32MB stick from Crucial, currently it costs $20.50 and $40.50 respectively.

I still like my Brother HL-1440 better, but frankly, the Samsung ML-1210 is a very good choice as well, esp. given its current price. If I don't have the HL-1440, the ML-1210 will be my next choice.
 
thanks docinthebox for the info....I did a cost analysis with Brother HL1440 and Samsung ML1210. Here's the tab delimited version of the Excel sheet. I included the printer cost into the TC. It's still not a bad deal considering Samsung comes with 8mb buffer standard. The main drawback of Samsung is the lack of 1200x600dpi mode. it all depends if you want to pay now or pay later.



Samsung ML-1210 Brother HL-1440
------------------------------------------------
Retail $169.99 $199.99
Tax $14.45 $17.00
Rebate $50.00 $0.00
Total $134.44 $216.99
------------------------------------------------
Toner $54.00 $54.00
Capacity 3000 6000
Drum $0.00 $101.00
Capacity 3000 18000
------------------------------------------------
Toner for 3000 $54.00 $27.00
Drum for 3000 $0.00 $16.83
Total for 3000 $54.00 $43.83
Total Cost $188.44 $260.82
Cost Per Page $0.0628 $0.0869
------------------------------------------------
Toner for 6000 $108.00 $54.00
Drum for 6000 $0.00 $33.67
Total for 6000 $108.00 $87.67
Total Cost $242.44 $304.66
Cost Per Page $0.0404 $0.0508
------------------------------------------------
Toner for 12000 $216.00 $108.00
Drum for 12000 $0.00 $67.33
Total for 12000 $216.00 $175.33
Total Cost $350.44 $392.32
Cost Per Page $0.0292 $0.0327
------------------------------------------------
Toner for 18000 $324.00 $162.00
Drum for 18000 $0.00 $101.00
Total for 18000 $324.00 $263.00
Total Cost $458.44 $479.99
Cost Per Page $0.0255 $0.0267
------------------------------------------------
Toner for 24000 $432.00 $216.00
Drum for 24000 $0.00 $134.67
Total for 24000 $432.00 $350.67
Total Cost $566.44 $567.66
Cost Per Page $0.0236 $0.0237

 
The Brother HL-1440 is definitely the better laser printer, I should know I've used both.

If you can find the Samsung ML-1210 for $119 after MIR at your local CostCo B&M then that's a hard deal to pass up.
 
Originally posted by: studlee
the samsung ~$119 at costco. (after mir)


which costco is this from? what can i get the mir?

I don't know all the details but here's a thread you should read if you haven't already.
 
Thanks RossMan. The "regular" costco near me doesn't have the Samsung, even though it's on their webpage. I went to a Costco Business Center (in Lynnwood, WA) and found it. Just call the Costco around you to see if they have it.
 
Hey Rossman! I've used both also. I bought the 1440 for my sister from OM for 200 with a 50 GC a few months back. It's a little slow with the 2 MB memory. I installed 16 MB of EDO ram I had lying around and the speed is much better. I printed at 1200 and 600 DPI and even though the 1200 looks a little better it's not enough to knock your socks off. The extra memory for speed is essential becuase it can't keep up with the Samsung otherwise, which has 8 MB standard. I bought the 1210 at Fry's a month ago when they had 'em for 99.99.

The quality is the same as far as I can see at 600 DPI mode. The only thing that concerns me is the drum life on the Brother. My sister had a 1250 (I think that was the model number), and the drum took a dump at less than 10000 pages. They wanted around 150 to replace the drum so I found her a brand new one for around the same price. She does like the Brother by the way so that's the reason she wanted another. She tried this cheap Minolta (1100?) before this last Brother and for the life of me, I could not get this to work on her computer. Minolta actually acknowledged this problem on a piece of paper in the box. We took it back to Fry's and I picked up the Brother 1440 for her and she's happy.

You can't go wrong with either printer. GundamF91 made a nice little comparison for approximate costs. I run my 1210 at toner saver setting so I am supposed to be able to get 3500 pages per toner/drum so the price/page will go down a little.
 
WHen I got the Samsung, I was desperate for a Laser, since my ink jet had run out of ink. But now with this Brother deal....I'm considering both options. I can always return Samsung to the Costco w/o hassel. But after the cost analysis, I'm not so sure anymore. The Costco rebate's been excellent, so it's a $120 deal for sure. But the high toner, or rather, a lack of hi cap toner option makes it less attrractive. I also wanted 1200x600 if possible......but from experience, 2mb buffer is definitely not good enough.

Here's a questions for esquared....how much does Drum affect print quality? If you get a new toner and drum everytime you buy Samsung combo, it should be better than using old drum for 20000 pages on the Brother. Decisions decisions decisions.
 
If you want 1200 DPI you need the Brother, except you need to put at least 10 MB of EDO or FP memory. It needs 10 MB or more to print 1200 DPI. Add 10-20 for the memory to the printer cost. In answer to you question, yes the Samsung has a new drum every time you replace the toner which is a plus. From what I've seen on a drum going out on a Brother printer (and my experience is only with the one I talked about above), the print quality appears a little poor and then it gets a little worse as the drum deteriorates. Finally, it looks crappy enough to start looking at a replacement drum or a new printer. This is what happened to my sister's printer. I will admit that at the end of the drum (around 10K pages) it was a terrible copy.

I don't want to bad-mouth Brother printers (because I would buy one myself), but others seem to have not received the 20K expectancy on the drum. Maybe this was model related on the 1250 and the 1440 is more apt to go the full 20K pages per drum. Maybe someone with higher duty cycle experience with the 1440 can answer about it's drum life.
 
The brother is now listed on OM's site at $249.98. Using the coupon, I got it for $217.xx after tax and adding a box of $0.29 paperclips.

Thanks for the heads up, my Lexmark is going back to Staples! 😉

 
Originally posted by: nekote
I waited and waited to get this printer at ~$200.

Nice, quite, fast.
I do wish it included more than 2MB standard (it is expandable to 32MB).


*** WARNING ***
Much to my dismay, I attached it to a WinXP system that is using peer to peer networking w/Win98 machines.
Turns out this is a known problem / issue.
Some sorta' bug causes trouble for the Win98 machines when printing "fancy" stuff, over the net.
Simple / plain usually works.
But "fancy" will hang, or worse, spew through the whole paper tray with a few characters at the top of the pages.
Printing same stuff *not* over the network - no fuss, no muss.

No update, *yet*, from Brother.

Are you by any chance connecting the printer with USB to a motherboard with a Via chipset? I had the same exact problem with my Brother HL-1250...it would lock up whenever someone on the network tried printing anything more than plain text. It took a lot of troubleshooting, but I finally figured it out it was something with USB and Via chipsets...which wasn't surprising considering all the other problems they've had. If you are using USB with Via, try moving it to parallel and see if that takes care of it.
 
Originally posted by: esquared

I don't want to bad-mouth Brother printers (because I would buy one myself), but others seem to have not received the 20K expectancy on the drum. Maybe this was model related on the 1250 and the 1440 is more apt to go the full 20K pages per drum. Maybe someone with higher duty cycle experience with the 1440 can answer about it's drum life.


Hmmmm...in trying to decide which printer to keep....i went to CNET for some user opinions. Seems the problem with drum is more than a freak occurence. I read about 2 of these in about 20 reviews....here's an excerpt of one. I'll have to think about this some more. :/

"No Value"
We purchased 30 of these for our classrooms at an elementary school. The driver for the Mac is not very useful compared to printer drivers we've had for other printers (seems like a bad PC translation). It's interesting to read the PC users who are unhappy with the drivers -- I figured Brother would at least get that one right). Support is weak, but the thing I'm most concerned with is the drum unit. It costs half as much as the entire printer, and we just had our first one go out, even before the original toner cartridge was empty. Now we're talking $450 for the printer. I'm glad I bought my Epson EPL-5700 for home use. It was $399, but a MUCH better machine!

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/...&lb=0&ob=0&tag=st.co.2375165.bottom.6234358-2
 
Here's my 2 cents regarding the drum life-span issue:

As I mentioned in my previous post, the toner+drum for the Samsung ML-1210 costs $54.54 at buy.com for 2500 page yield. Cost per page = $54.54/2500 = 2.18 cents/page.

Now the high-yield toner for the HL-1440 costs $54.30 at buy.com for 6000 page yield.
Toner cost per page = $54.30/6000 = 0.905 cent/page.

The drum for the HL-1440 costs $101.95 at buy.com
So, here are your printing costs as a function of drum life-span:

If the drum lasts 20,000 pages, your total cost per page = $101.95/20000 + 0.905 cent = 1.41 cent/page

If the drum lasts 10,000 pages, your total cost per page = $101.95/10000 + 0.905 cent = 1.92 cent/page

If the drum lasts 5,000 pages, your total cost per page = $101.95/5000 + 0.905 cent = 2.94 cents/page

Say, if you assume on the average, about 1/3 of the users are "lucky" and get 20,000 pages out of their drum, about 1/3 are "average luck" and get 10,000 pages, and about 1/3 are "out of luck" and get only 5,000 pages, then the expected cost/page is the average of the three costs = 2.09 cents/page, which is still lower than the Samsung ML-1210.

I'd say since the toner cost for the HL-1440 is so low ($54.30 for 6,000 pages) compared to other laser printers, this kind of offsets the uncertain life span of the drum.

Also, don't forget, your first drum comes with the printer. So regardless of the life-span of your first drum, you're getting 0.905 cents/page for as many pages as your first drum can print. Only from your second drum onwards do you have to count the drum cost into the cost per page.

Well, that's my 2 cents.
 
I picked up the Brother a couple months ago at Amazon for $200. I've been very happy with it... it's quiet and it has a nice sleep mode that wakes it up whenever you print. I know it's a little more than the Samsung but the 1200dpi is nice and it's expandable to 34megs of RAM with stand 72 pin SIMMS. Everyone can find those laying around or in the FS/FT forum for nearly nothing.
 
This is abit unsettling. I just read the user's guide on my Samsung ML1210....the "starter" toner that came with is only good for 1000pg. I would like to know from Brother HL1440 users what's the capacity of the toner that came with HL1440. If it comes with a full 3000pg toner, the printing cost of Brother would be quite abit lower.
 
Back
Top