1 Comment
Post categories Laser Printers

Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer – laser printer

I’ve had this a few months now & certainly no complaints so far. Performing brilliantly and consistently. Possibly a little larger footprint than most common colour printers so take this into account with the space that you have. Absolutely no problem for me. Feeds well, not one jam or misfeed yet. Can also be used for mono but make sure you change the setting in properties to save your colour cartridges – but this is done very quickly and easily.

Great printer and you are not forced into using brother cartridges. Excellent value for money and slashed our printing costs.

It’s a pretty massive unit, but once it’s on the network (i make use of homeplugs to do so without awful wires) it’s really useful. For the price it’s fantastic, i assume because people would rather have wi-fi printers. But with a homeplug that keeps the plug useful, it makes no odds. I love being able to print from any room without having to go through any hassle.

  • Solid, fast printing, very expensive consumables
  • It arrived safely and it’s HEAVY
  • Bargain basement colour printing!

Spent ages looking for a laser printer to replace ink jet printer. Biggest part of decision to purchase this one were the good reviews, and the (relatively) low cost of replacement toner. At the time of purchase the replacement toners were cheaper than comparable manufacturers. On the down side i can’t get it to work wirelessly, but had a spare lead to connect to lap top so no drama. The printer is german of origin, so instructions were useless. Registration for warranty could not complete on line, and help team were not too helpful. On the plus side, it has connected and worked first time, the printer capacity and quality are brilliant for my needs (small business and kids homework).

Just could not load the printer drvers and brother and microsoft help lines were an absolute waste of time. In the end an it friend was able to delve into the software and after a few hours of sweat managed to get the drivers loaded. Now the printer is up and running it seems to be very good – however only time will tell as too how long the toners last.

Features of Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

  • Enter your model number
    to make sure this fits.
  • Space saving, reliable and fully featured colour printer
  • Fast mono and colour print speeds of 16ppm
  • Network ready
  • Large 250 sheet paper tray
  • Built-in LCD screen

Solid, fast printing, very expensive consumables. I bought this printer thinking that i was picking up a bargain and on the whole, i really like it – it’s fast, the print quality is good and for a shade under £[ you can’t complain. My experience has been marred, however, by a couple of issues, which is why i give it 3 stars, not 5. Firstly, i was led to believe that the printer shipped with toner cartridges that were 50% capacity, yet the black one ran out after about 700 pages. And these were pages printer with toner save active. I replaced it with a cartridge rated for 2,200 pages and after only a few hundred more pages (again on toner save) we’re down to just over 50%, this is very worrying when the cartridges cost about £[] all in to replace. Secondly, faults with the toner level reporting (the magenta and cyan cartridges demanded replacement despite showing 30% remaining). This is probably my inexperience with modern/colour laser printers, but i just didn’t expected it to shut down shop completely until the toner was replaced. My old lexmark just kept on trucking until the pages came out blank, which was fine by me. I can’t tell you how annoying it is at 8. ]

Fantastic colour laser printer at a very affordable price. I have previously owned brother colour laser printers and was always happy with them. This one is lighter and cheaper than my last one (hl-4040cn) and is highly recommended.Easy to network and maintain via browser access.

Related posts:

Brother HL-L2365DW A4 Mono Laser Printer : is a fantastic piece of kit took minutes to set up on

Some installation issues with windows 7. The printer itself is fine, especially in its quiet mode, but i did have some problems installing it therefore only 4…

Brother MFC-1810 Monochrome Laser Multifunction Printer – Good price, display panel is not back-lit and print

As always brother do themselves proud. Real good printer, very economical. Good item, working as described but usb cable to pc is not included in package –…

Brother HL3070CW Compact High Speed Wireless A4 Colour LED Printer – Good Printer, not Perfect

I had reservations about this printer as i had read a couple of negative reviews. . I think it’s a great printer. It did however encounter one…

One comment on “Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer – laser printer”

  1. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    Fantastic laser printer, very reliable. Very happy with this purchase.
      1. Very cost effective workhorse (so far). After almost a year, at 50-100 full colour a4 prints onto thick card every day, it has performed very well. There are issues with the toner percentage/depletion status indicator. I’m pretty sure it asks me to replace toner before the cartridge is truly spent, but this has probably saved me a lot of hassle not having to deal with bad quality prints. The only printer i’ve tried that can truly handle thick card without jamming, i may get another 3040cn as a backup.
  2. Very cost effective workhorse (so far). After almost a year, at 50-100 full colour a4 prints onto thick card every day, it has performed very well. There are issues with the toner percentage/depletion status indicator. I’m pretty sure it asks me to replace toner before the cartridge is truly spent, but this has probably saved me a lot of hassle not having to deal with bad quality prints. The only printer i’ve tried that can truly handle thick card without jamming, i may get another 3040cn as a backup.
    1. Excellent, excellent, excellent. This product is simply superb. For the money i paid, i received a printer worth a million pounds in my opinion. First off, the printer is quite big but not as big as the other laser printers out there. You also get starter toners. The print quality is satisfactory. It is not wireless so you have to connect a lan cable or type b usb to the computer.

  3. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    Excellent, excellent, excellent. This product is simply superb. For the money i paid, i received a printer worth a million pounds in my opinion. First off, the printer is quite big but not as big as the other laser printers out there. You also get starter toners. The print quality is satisfactory. It is not wireless so you have to connect a lan cable or type b usb to the computer.

  4. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    Excellant delivery, excellant product had it working minutes after getting it out of box. Quality of print is 100% better than that of very expensive ink jet printers.
    1. Excellant delivery, excellant product had it working minutes after getting it out of box. Quality of print is 100% better than that of very expensive ink jet printers.
      1. Brilliant low-cost led printer. Got this for under £100 via an amazon seller. It comes with a set of starter cartridges, but you can get either a refill kit for about £40 on-line to top these up to full capacity when they become empty, or for £65 you can get a compatible set of the 4 toners including drums. No chips to reprogram or silly hacks to do this, at this price point it is a complete bargain. Print quality i would rate as ‘good’, this is aimed as an office printer and not for photographs so more than good enough, even for graphics and the odd photographic image which may be embedded in documents, and i don’t really notice much of a difference even in ‘toner save’ mode.

  5. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    Brilliant low-cost led printer. Got this for under £100 via an amazon seller. It comes with a set of starter cartridges, but you can get either a refill kit for about £40 on-line to top these up to full capacity when they become empty, or for £65 you can get a compatible set of the 4 toners including drums. No chips to reprogram or silly hacks to do this, at this price point it is a complete bargain. Print quality i would rate as ‘good’, this is aimed as an office printer and not for photographs so more than good enough, even for graphics and the odd photographic image which may be embedded in documents, and i don’t really notice much of a difference even in ‘toner save’ mode.

  6. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    It’s quite pretty, it’s very quick to print (in my opinion) it does not smell of toner (does a bit if you print off 100 pages at once). It’s a bit noisy on start up but them prints away at normal printer noise level. With regards to ink consumption we are still on our first set and i’m only witting this as i’ve come online to buy more cartridges a year and a half later because it’s been reading low toner for weeks. Prints very well for a printer under £100, (we paid £115 i think)never had to print clean it. Been printing off maybe 50 sheets a week here and there, recon the cartridge has done at least 500 sheet and now the black has completely run out. Very happy overall, might amened this if the £150 worth of ink i’m about to buy does not last as long as the starter lot. Lolno failures or refusals to print or errors yet.

  7. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    It’s quite pretty, it’s very quick to print (in my opinion) it does not smell of toner (does a bit if you print off 100 pages at once). It’s a bit noisy on start up but them prints away at normal printer noise level. With regards to ink consumption we are still on our first set and i’m only witting this as i’ve come online to buy more cartridges a year and a half later because it’s been reading low toner for weeks. Prints very well for a printer under £100, (we paid £115 i think)never had to print clean it. Been printing off maybe 50 sheets a week here and there, recon the cartridge has done at least 500 sheet and now the black has completely run out. Very happy overall, might amened this if the £150 worth of ink i’m about to buy does not last as long as the starter lot. Lolno failures or refusals to print or errors yet.
    1. The governing factor in the choice of printers was quite simply ‘cost’. The main consideration was the ease or otherwise of refilling the toner cartridges, the replacements of course being one of the biggest money black holes with any printer, and i don’t do ‘original maker’ packs. I always felt it was better to buy a new printer than spend out on a set of cartridges which cost more than the original device. It seems this one is quite easy to keep refilling. I wanted it for a specific purpose, printing on sticky back a4 sheets to assemble cardboard model railway buildings. This did produce a small problem in that the toner tended to rub off when the sheet was bent over during the model assembly. An email to brother eventually produced a response which has improved it somewhat. I still prefer the overall colour and texture of my xerox 6010, retired only because i tried water slide transfer printing, and some stuck to the fuser roller :-(all in all, and bearing in mind the actual cost of the device i would have to say not too bad, (although it does tend to curl paper a lot).

  8. This review is from : Brother HL3040CN Compact High Speed Network Colour LED Printer

    The governing factor in the choice of printers was quite simply ‘cost’. The main consideration was the ease or otherwise of refilling the toner cartridges, the replacements of course being one of the biggest money black holes with any printer, and i don’t do ‘original maker’ packs. I always felt it was better to buy a new printer than spend out on a set of cartridges which cost more than the original device. It seems this one is quite easy to keep refilling. I wanted it for a specific purpose, printing on sticky back a4 sheets to assemble cardboard model railway buildings. This did produce a small problem in that the toner tended to rub off when the sheet was bent over during the model assembly. An email to brother eventually produced a response which has improved it somewhat. I still prefer the overall colour and texture of my xerox 6010, retired only because i tried water slide transfer printing, and some stuck to the fuser roller :-(all in all, and bearing in mind the actual cost of the device i would have to say not too bad, (although it does tend to curl paper a lot).
    1. I have been using this printer for 2 months now and it has been good. The speed is good for both b&w and colour. Good colour quality and not paper jams. I was a bit disappointed with how fast the supplied tonners run out given that i have not used it frequently. I now need buy 4 tonners which are very expensive.
      1. I have been using this printer for 2 months now and it has been good. The speed is good for both b&w and colour. Good colour quality and not paper jams. I was a bit disappointed with how fast the supplied tonners run out given that i have not used it frequently. I now need buy 4 tonners which are very expensive.
  9. Good printer, shame it died. I had mine for less than 2 years when it suddenly decided that the toner had run out, no matter how many times i changed the cartridges for new ones. And since it won’t print if it thinks toner is low, that’s it, dead. However, that said i have bought a second because its a pretty good printer fits on the desk, does the envelopes, labels etc, and i had more value of toner left over than the cost of a new printer so i got another. I previously had a different brand of similar printer, went through 2 of those in 4 years before i gave up, so maybe its just me.
    1. Good printer, shame it died. I had mine for less than 2 years when it suddenly decided that the toner had run out, no matter how many times i changed the cartridges for new ones. And since it won’t print if it thinks toner is low, that’s it, dead. However, that said i have bought a second because its a pretty good printer fits on the desk, does the envelopes, labels etc, and i had more value of toner left over than the cost of a new printer so i got another. I previously had a different brand of similar printer, went through 2 of those in 4 years before i gave up, so maybe its just me.

Comments are closed.