I have an M1 iMac, will upgrade when there is a M5 iMac. I have an old HP 1012 that my iMac and iphone can find most of the time although it requires turning the printer on and off every few days. I had tried a Brother about 18 months ago and hated it. It did not work out of the box as promised. It jammed... It made me upset. I returned it, and took the HP back from the garage into the house. I want a printer that does work out of the box without my putting in strings of numbers via the computer. (remember when Apple made laser printers and I was young?) and can be found by any apple device in my house. Is there such a printer. I print 200-300 pages a year. It would be great if it could do 2-sided printing. Thank you for your patience with an old lady who gets frustrated and cranky when things do not work.
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Considering a new B&W Laser Printer
- Thread starter reeney
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That is unfortunate that you're soured towards the Brother brand. It would be my first recommendation, they're considered workhorse printers that will last for years, along with the fact they allow you to use non-genuine toner replacement cartridges.
Maybe give another a try, and consider watching an unboxing video on YouTube (search your model#) showing first-time setup. They can be very informative.
My new MacBook Pro saw my Brother MFC-L3780CDW on the network instantly and has never lost its connection. Probably 1,500 pages printed so far and not a single jam. Using paper weights from 20lb to 28lb for duplex flyers, it hasn't skipped a beat.
Maybe give another a try, and consider watching an unboxing video on YouTube (search your model#) showing first-time setup. They can be very informative.
My new MacBook Pro saw my Brother MFC-L3780CDW on the network instantly and has never lost its connection. Probably 1,500 pages printed so far and not a single jam. Using paper weights from 20lb to 28lb for duplex flyers, it hasn't skipped a beat.
The printer you returned may have been defective and you didn’t know it. I have had a Brother laser printer for years and I have never had to install any software for it. All I did was remove it from the box, turn it on, and MacOS recognized it immediately and set it up for me. It has been running perfect. As @Boppi mentioned, consider giving Brother another shot.
We use the Samsung Xpress M2020w for B&W printing and the Samsung Xpress C430w for color.
Both printers are WiFi capable, but have ethernet ports as well. You can print to them using your iPhone or Android phone and both have been reliable and consistent for us. All I've ever had to do was keep feeding them paper and buy new toner cartridges. Those are usually pretty inexpensive.
I know for certain that they have been online and idling (waiting for print jobs) for the last seven years, because that's when we moved into our current house. I'm just unsure how many years before that they were doing the same. But I think I got the M2020w in 2016 and the color one after that.
Both printers are WiFi capable, but have ethernet ports as well. You can print to them using your iPhone or Android phone and both have been reliable and consistent for us. All I've ever had to do was keep feeding them paper and buy new toner cartridges. Those are usually pretty inexpensive.
I know for certain that they have been online and idling (waiting for print jobs) for the last seven years, because that's when we moved into our current house. I'm just unsure how many years before that they were doing the same. But I think I got the M2020w in 2016 and the color one after that.
well, sorry for your experience with the Brother printer.
I'm joining the Brother crowd, I got this one: Brother HL-L2370DW series, connected to wifi and been running reliably for 4+ years now, printing from both my Mac and my wife's Windows machines, never jammed, easy setup ...
Another happy Brother user. Bought in August 2018, almost 1500 pages printed, no jams or other problems. Seen by and working with all Apple gizmos in the house (phones, iPads, multiple Macs of different vintages). And working well with a 3rd party cartridge (~800 pages, 70% toner left).
Another Brother user here. I got a cheap HL-L1230W a little while ago and while it did jam on its second-ever page, that ended up being operator error. It hasn't jammed since.
I, too, like Brother.
Perhaps you ought to consider giving them another chance...
Perhaps you ought to consider giving them another chance...
My Brother printer is a flawless workhorse. I have an MFC-L2700DW monochrome printer that was released in 2014, is presently discontinued, and they still support it with firmware updates! Toner is available at low cost as are other consumables like the fuser and imaging drum.
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I have a HL-L2350DW and it was great for the first few years, but more recently I started having issues with it. Regardless of where I print from, it'll print... whenever it feels like it. Sometimes it'll just sit there displaying "receiving data" on the screen. Apparently it's a pretty common problem with these.
Not a fan of Brother. Had some problems with their printers over the years. Had two duplex lasers fail on me completely and a 3rd one eat a drum in under 1000 sheets.
The bottom end HP LaserJet Pro models seem not to have those issues or the usual HP problems which everyone likes to moan about from experience. I've got an M148dw here which is 5 years old and has done about 5000 sheets. Zero issues. You just ignore it when it says its time to replace the toner and it'll print another 500 sheets easy 🤣. Everything works with zero configuration on our Macs.
The bottom end HP LaserJet Pro models seem not to have those issues or the usual HP problems which everyone likes to moan about from experience. I've got an M148dw here which is 5 years old and has done about 5000 sheets. Zero issues. You just ignore it when it says its time to replace the toner and it'll print another 500 sheets easy 🤣. Everything works with zero configuration on our Macs.
I have had nothing but great performance from a Brother HL-L2460dw laser printer. This is the one I use for monochrome or B&W documents, letters, and so on. I used HP Monochrome laser printer for several years, and this one was good too, but it broke down and could not find another one locally, so I purchased the relatively cheap Brother printer a couple of years ago. This little printer is the workhorse in my household, and a "do all" (print, FAX, scan) HP color laser if left for other tasks. In reality the HP color laser printer can be a little problematic at times when it seems that it "loses its memory". I have to reset it, or turn it off and then on for it to be recognized in the WiFi network.
My Brother AIO was purchased as a display model at an office supply big box. MFC-74xx series. That's a 2008 model. Official support ended with Catalina, but still works under Sequoia with those drivers.
HP, and what it stood for as a company, its ethos, how it treated its employees and customers died a very long time ago. Now it's just two letters whose founders would probably refute any association with most of the pieces that remain today.
Not a single cent of my money vote would ever go to a company that thinks and does this. That includes Lexmark, which was the first to try to eliminate third-party supplies by using the DMCA.
www.pcworld.com
robertheaton.com
HP, and what it stood for as a company, its ethos, how it treated its employees and customers died a very long time ago. Now it's just two letters whose founders would probably refute any association with most of the pieces that remain today.
Not a single cent of my money vote would ever go to a company that thinks and does this. That includes Lexmark, which was the first to try to eliminate third-party supplies by using the DMCA.
HP CEO wants to 'make printing a subscription'
In a recent interview, HP CEO Enrique Lores laid out the company's view that people who buy printers are 'investments' that don't pay off if they go third-party.
www.pcworld.com
HP printers try to send data back to HP about your devices and what you print | Robert Heaton
Last week my in-laws politely but firmly asked me to set up their new HP printer. I protested that I’m completely clueless about that sort of thing, despite my tax-return-job-title of “software engineer”. Still remonstrating, I was gently bundled into their study with an instruction pamphlet, a...
robertheaton.com
I, too, have had a Brother MFC-L3780CDW since March 2025 and it has worked very well. My four Apple devices (inc. iPhone and iPad) see it automatically over my home WiFi. The scanner works well also.
I recently got a Brother HL-L2405W, and it works well. No issues so far, a nice, simple working printer. I got it as an inexpensive partial replacement for my old HP Officejet Pro 8100 (old, works fine, cartridges are way too expensive). At $140, it's about the cost of a full cartridge stock-up for the HP.
I ‘d like to thank the O.P. for the question and everyone else for their answers. I’ll be sorting through them looking for a replacement for my 14 y.o. HP laserjet. I love my laserjet but it is a LPR printer that used to work with a software airprint kludge until an update killed the airprint workaround. I’ve spent 3 days trying to get airprint going again but apparently it’s been decided legacy LPR doesn’t’t need to ve supported any longer. If I can find a laser printer w/ ethernet & airprint (and maybe color?) that does not have a manufacturer’s block on the toner cartridge I’ll be jumping on it. Since most replies seem to be for older printers I have a bit of research ahead.
I have a Brother color laser. It's been running solid for a good 5 years, and other than it having bad wifi, it's been solid (connected to ethernet it's been perfect).
I decided to connect my printers via my home's WiFi network by using the printer's code numbers? I don't know much about it but the Brother printer offered a couple of different ways to connect to the network, and one of these included a series numbers I can choose from its menu, then I press a button on the router so that it scans though the network until it finds the printer. It seems to work, so I left it alone as it is not. The HP color laser printer I connected to the network by entering the network's name and password, but I believe that it also has the options I used for the Brother printer.
If that were the only qualifying metric I might not recommend them. Functionality and reliability would come first. In my experience Brother checks all the boxes, especially that one.
jonh wrote in reply 17
"If I can find a laser printer w/ ethernet & airprint (and maybe color?) that does not have a manufacturer’s block on the toner cartridge"
Brother recommends that you set it up with AirPrint. I found this out when I tried to hunt down an ethernet driver for my Brother all-in-one. It DOES have an ethernet port, so I'll guess there's an ethernet driver for it, somewhere (but I couldn't find one in a modestly short search).
There seems to be no "block" on toner. I'm using a 3rd-party cartridge with it right now. It works.
"If I can find a laser printer w/ ethernet & airprint (and maybe color?) that does not have a manufacturer’s block on the toner cartridge"
Brother recommends that you set it up with AirPrint. I found this out when I tried to hunt down an ethernet driver for my Brother all-in-one. It DOES have an ethernet port, so I'll guess there's an ethernet driver for it, somewhere (but I couldn't find one in a modestly short search).
There seems to be no "block" on toner. I'm using a 3rd-party cartridge with it right now. It works.
I realise this is a day late and a dollar short for you, as you have long ago sent the Brothers printer back. Several years ago, I had a jamming issue on my new Brothers Color Laser due to my not removing two small shipping inserts that were on one of the interior components. Once I removed those, printing has been perfect ever since.
Brother support website
This has been the support/download site for as long as I've owned mine.
Consistent, one-stop shop for everything related to the product, for all those years.
Yeah, I'm using 3rd party color toner in mine, too, after I went through the originals. Bought them off Amazon a few years ago. Still haven't used them up.
Would you share the name of the 3rd party color toner you like for your Brother printer?