Brother HL 3040cn Laser Printer: Speed and Connectivity at a Modest Price

Printer manufacturers often highlight the physical design and footprint of the equipment released to the printing market. While aesthetics and space saving features are fine attributes that add value to the investment, this is only good for stand-alone PC and printer configurations as workplaces nowadays require connectivity and just can't rely on printers that would perform haplessly when networked with several other PC and printer peripherals. Not the Brother HL 3040cn LED (Light Emitting Diode) laser printer. The innovative unit peer-to-peer bridges both worlds of aesthetics and sensible network connectivity. When connected via configuration, the printer can be used directly over the network or as a shared printer where printing jobs are first directed towards a central server.

Basically the HL 3040cn comes with a single line LCD window located at the front panel. The data light meanwhile flashes when incoming print data is being routed. The printing process is really easy as the paper tray and its components are retractable from the front of the unit.

It should be mentioned that this laser printer employs the straight paper path technology which reduces drastically incidences of paper jams. But then again, before loading toner cartridges, shake the cartridges slightly to loosen-up any clump toner inside the cartridge; open the panel housing the cartridge and load each of the 4 (CYMK) color toner cartridges on its respective slot. Remember to remove the protective seal on each toner cartridge before loading it to the printer.

First time users of the HL 3040cn LED printer should note that this unit does not connect to the Wi-Fi set-up directly but can be made compatible to the local network. Once the network printer software finds the printer, installation of the driver should proceed without any of the glitches reported for other printer brands. Also bundled with the HL 3040cn software installation is a Status Monitor utility that delivers firmware updates and error messages by default and is used to access the log and troubleshoot printer problems as well.

The HL 3040cn deliver printouts at the fast speed of 17 pages per minute (ppm) for both monochrome and color prints. Output delivered is crisp and razor sharp yielding 1,500 pages for cyan, yellow and magenta, and 2500 pages for the monochrome cartridge at the standard 5% page coverage. All these for a less than $300 price tag. The bundled cost of the four OEM toner cartridges meanwhile is not expensive at a little more than $200. But a user on a shoestring budget can opt for compatible toner refill kits that is retailed for three quarters less than the OEM.