Brother laser printer advice?

[abb]

i'm looking to purchase a not too expensive black and white laser printer with automatic duplexing capability to accompany my t42 23739xu. can anybody comment on the build quality/reputation/performance of Brother laser printers? I have never owned any of their product but I found one of their models fitting my needs for $227 shipping included on the internet: Brother HL-5150D


http://www.brother.com/usa/printer/info ... d_ove.html


I did a search on the forum for laser printers and it seems as if many of users have HP laser printers. It looks like a comprabale HP model to this black and white Brother laser with duplexing would be the HP 1320. With rebates, it looks like the HP 1320 could be as low $270 but I read some reviews on the net that this printer has had some paper jam problems and comments that the build quality was not so good versus other/past HP printers because of its cheap, flimsy plastic parts. The reviews said that this quality was lower than HP's higher series of laser printers.


Any comments, advice, suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

[admsteiner]

I have the Brother 5150DLT. The LT stands for the extra tray that goes on the bottom:

I like the printer, its not too big, it has automatic duplexing (took me a while to figure out, but when I saw it suck the paper back in and print on the backside I was very impressed)
The manual feed tray is good too, it can take a number of envelopes at a time (which is always good for that resume printing and mailing)

There are a couple of cons:
1) When you reload paper you need to be a bit careful not to slam the cartridge in too hard. If you do so then the piece at the back of the cartridge (that pushes up against the paper) moves back and all the paper slides to the back of the tray. Then when the printer tries printing it won't be able to pick up the paper. This is a minor issue and shouldn't really be a problem.
2) Duplexing: I haven't checked if there is an updated driver or other program, but in order to do the duplexing you have to open the print window (which opens anyway when you print), click properties, duplexing and check the button. There should be a way to set it up to duplex by default, but I have yet to find it.

You should look around though. I saw a different model (I think it might be a 5170?), the same exact model but it prints a bit faster and includes a network card, so you can set it up as a network printer on your network, as opposed to just plugging it into your laptop (would also keep that USB port freed up for you). The price was about the same too. Check OfficeMax, I believe that's where I saw it.

The 5150 is a good machine. I've printed hundreds of pages at a time without a problem. Just buy an extra toner cartridge (it warns you way ahead of time) but the one that ships is the typical half filled one.

--Adam

[daeojkim]

I got LExmark E232 for under $100 after rebate at staples.
I had good luck with Lexmark laser printers so far.

it works great!! Fast and clean print.

The color matches perfectly with my TPs