Brother VS Canon 3-In-1 Home Laser Printers

[jparker402]

Window shopping for a printer to replace my HP Photosmart ink jet; tired of old ink problems. Exploring Brother and Canon B&W lasers printers. Only need printing, copying and scanning functions. Two-sided printing might be nice. Good scan quality for color and B&W photos necessary. Will do color photo printing via Walgreen's. Noticed that Brother seems to cater to Windows operating systems while Canon does cater to Apple systems, at least in advertisement. Am not very tech savvy so telephone/chat help necessary. Currently looking at Brother HL2395DW and Canon Image Class MF216N. Anyone have comments/opinions?

 

[Fishrrman]

My vote goes to Brother.

 

[chabig]

My vote goes to Brother.

Me too. Though I don't have experience with Canon, I have never had a problem with my Brother printer. It prints over AirPrint too, so no driver problems.

 

[cthompson94]

I haven't used Brother, so I am not sure if my opinion is valid. I do enjoy my Canon Pixma printer with Airprint. Set up was easy since it connects to the Wifi so I imagine the Canon Image Class would be just the same or better since it looks much more updated than mine (which if a few years old that I got for like $50 on a Black Friday deal).

 

[NoBoMac]

Been using Brother lasers for 10+ years now and love them. Don't print often, so cartridges last forever.

Current/newish Brother is just a printer, as the scanner bit on the old model was no longer working with MacOS changes 5-6 years ago. Been using phone with Notes, Dropbox, and other apps for scanning as only scanning documents to not keep collections of paper cluttering up things.

 

[jparker402]

Thanks all! My interest in the scanning part of the equation is that I scan old photographs, including color ones, over into Photos. My copying and printing needs are small, maybe five sheets a month.

 

[NoBoMac]

Which brings up the old "how about a separate printer and separate scanner" debate. Get a < $100 printer and put the remaining money that would have gone to a 3-in-1 toward a quality scanner, particularly one that has the bells and whistles for photo scanning (eg. slide & negative holders/capability, better over all scanner)?

 

[jparker402]

Hmmm! Afraid the $100 printer would be inkjet and I am very tired of replacing gummed-up cartridges due to using it only four or five times a month. Photo scanner is a thought, though I have no negatives left. Slides I have and color prints I have.

 

[NoBoMac]

Ha! Shows how long ago I looked at printers. Got my current one 3.5 years ago for about $80 (Brother) from Amazon.

But can get in at $110 at Best Buy. Brother - HL-L2320D Black-and-White Laser Printer - Gray

 

[jparker402]

What?!? I had no idea one could get a laser printer for that! I will definitely start looking at that as a option! Thanks for updating me on what things cost now!

 

[jz0309]

I recently replaced my Canon 3-in1 with the Brother mentioned above but the wireless version, works extremely well.

As for scanning, I chime in with the above recommendation for a dedicated photo scanner, but, but ...
how many photos/slides do you have to scan? I would consider a service to do that vs doing yourself.
I scanned my old photos/slides like 15 or so years ago with a dedicated photscanner, a Canon, don't remember the model. esp the slides take a long time, if you care for quality ...

 

[satcomer]

If you have an old scanner that no longer makes drivers for your current Mac don't fret, try VueScan a try to see if it works for you!