Customer Rating: 
Summary: 3 years strong!
Comment: i bought this unit 3 years ago, replaced the toner once, and it has been very reliable.
i was a social science major in college, so i had to print a lot for all the papers i had to write. and this printer fit the bill perfectly. i highly recommend it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drum is a consumable item, product isn't flawed because you have to replace a drum!,
Comment: This printer is great for its price - c'mon, a personal laser printer, and less than $100? Ignore any reviews saying the product is bad or flawed because the drum had to be replaced. Anyone saying this obviously doesn't know that with lasers, the drum has to be replaced just like the toner does only not as often.
Look up the technical specs on almost any standard laser printer and you'll see the expected toner life (often ranging from 2,000-6,000 pages) AND the expected drum life (usually on the order of 20,000 to 100,000 pages, depending on the printer)...
Yes, a drum is expensive, and it may not make sense, but when the printer itself is so cheap, sometimes the drum is more expensive than getting another REFURBISHED printer. This is basic supply and demand (the price of this printer when first released was likely $150 to $200+, more than a ~$100 drum) and because we live in a mass-production "throw-away" society (it's cheaper to buy a new $50 inkjet printer than pay a tech $75 an hour to repair one).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drum died after 12 months
Comment: I bought this printer because of the initial low price. I must admit for the past year it has printed very well. I never experienced the "gray-background" printing issues of other reviewers. However, my printer just suddenly *died*. A little troubleshooting revealed the problem to be the printer drum. The cost of replacing the drum is almost the price of buying a new printer ($130-150). After reading page after page of negative reviews from other Brother owners, I have decided that the money for a new printer drum would be better invested in a new printer from another company. I won't buy another Brother.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Comment: I've had experience with two of these machines, one at work and another I later purchased for home use. Both started spewing gray streaked pages within a year of purchase. New drum costs as much as the printer. Avoid this printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Garbage product; do not buy
Comment: When I was young, I used to work at a flea market selling cheap electronic equipment. Some new, some rebuilt. The person I worked for had no problem selling items that he knew did not work. He assumed that the person would come back and we would exchange for another one. I was never comfortable with this approach.
I think that person now works for Brother. This printer has a profoundly defective design. Brother must know about it (just read these boards, or others such as at CNET). Mine was defective out of the box. Smudged print output with lines down the page. Fortunately, I purchased it at Staples so I could easily return for a full refund. I will never buy another product from Brother. I used to think that they were a reasonably reliable brand name. Not any more.
My advice: for a low-end high-quality laser B&W printer, get the HP 1012.
Summary: 3 years strong!
Comment: i bought this unit 3 years ago, replaced the toner once, and it has been very reliable.
i was a social science major in college, so i had to print a lot for all the papers i had to write. and this printer fit the bill perfectly. i highly recommend it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drum is a consumable item, product isn't flawed because you have to replace a drum!,
Comment: This printer is great for its price - c'mon, a personal laser printer, and less than $100? Ignore any reviews saying the product is bad or flawed because the drum had to be replaced. Anyone saying this obviously doesn't know that with lasers, the drum has to be replaced just like the toner does only not as often.
Look up the technical specs on almost any standard laser printer and you'll see the expected toner life (often ranging from 2,000-6,000 pages) AND the expected drum life (usually on the order of 20,000 to 100,000 pages, depending on the printer)...
Yes, a drum is expensive, and it may not make sense, but when the printer itself is so cheap, sometimes the drum is more expensive than getting another REFURBISHED printer. This is basic supply and demand (the price of this printer when first released was likely $150 to $200+, more than a ~$100 drum) and because we live in a mass-production "throw-away" society (it's cheaper to buy a new $50 inkjet printer than pay a tech $75 an hour to repair one).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drum died after 12 months
Comment: I bought this printer because of the initial low price. I must admit for the past year it has printed very well. I never experienced the "gray-background" printing issues of other reviewers. However, my printer just suddenly *died*. A little troubleshooting revealed the problem to be the printer drum. The cost of replacing the drum is almost the price of buying a new printer ($130-150). After reading page after page of negative reviews from other Brother owners, I have decided that the money for a new printer drum would be better invested in a new printer from another company. I won't buy another Brother.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Comment: I've had experience with two of these machines, one at work and another I later purchased for home use. Both started spewing gray streaked pages within a year of purchase. New drum costs as much as the printer. Avoid this printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Garbage product; do not buy
Comment: When I was young, I used to work at a flea market selling cheap electronic equipment. Some new, some rebuilt. The person I worked for had no problem selling items that he knew did not work. He assumed that the person would come back and we would exchange for another one. I was never comfortable with this approach.
I think that person now works for Brother. This printer has a profoundly defective design. Brother must know about it (just read these boards, or others such as at CNET). Mine was defective out of the box. Smudged print output with lines down the page. Fortunately, I purchased it at Staples so I could easily return for a full refund. I will never buy another product from Brother. I used to think that they were a reasonably reliable brand name. Not any more.
My advice: for a low-end high-quality laser B&W printer, get the HP 1012.