Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Multi-Function Laser Printer with Copy and Scan, Duplex, Mobile, Black & White | Includes Refresh Subscription Trial(1), Amazon Dash Replenishment Ready

I have used Brother laser printers for years. I decided on this particular model, mostly because it offered just exactly what my small business and home office needs were. I have no use for a fax machine any more, so this printer and scanner was really all I wanted, and it seemed like a pretty reasonable value. I have tested it several times with various paper media. I print normal text documents, some with graphics, envelopes, and voucher checks regularly. This printer has handled everything really well so far. There was a bit of a learning curve with some odd sized envelopes, but I'm pretty sure my struggle was with the software I was using, not the printer. I did experience a couple of situations where the machine said there was a paper jam when using the front tray to print an envelope, but it was easily resolved. The quality and clarity of the print seems great to me. You can adjust the print density, toner ecology, etc. pretty easily. The machine itself has a heavy duty and durable feel to it, and I'm happy with how it has been working so far for me.WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: I was reading other people's comments about having issues with this. I am going to share what I found worked best for me, and maybe that will be helpful for others. Since I have owned and used several Brother printers in the past, I've learned that getting the machine on my wireless network is easiest by simply using the machine's console push buttons. I know in the literature it says it should be discoverable by going through the steps outlined in the instructions after downloading their software. However, I've never had consistent luck with that process. I still download the software to make sure I have the right drivers and features loaded, but when it comes to getting the printer on my network, I just use the machine's console to find my router and then type in the password. It's a tiny bit tedious typing the password using the console buttons, but I've never had it not work for me. Honestly, seconds after doing that, the wireless printer was discoverable and available to all of my devices. I was able to print from my CPU, laptop, phone, tablet, etc. without any issues. I know that's not the only way of setting up the wireless functionality on these printers, but it's what I've learned causes the least amount of stress and frustration. I hope that's helpful. They provide details on how to accomplish this method in the accompanying literature that comes with the printer.At this point, I have no reason not to give this five stars. If something shoud change down the road, I'll be sure to update this review.

I have this Brother printer sitting next to a printer I normally used, but it always caused me fits, trying to get it to start. Out of frustration, I purchased this Brother printer, and from the first, it fired right up and does so every time. The only time it quit was when I ran it out of paper, so I put more paper in, and didn't have to do the seven most commonly used ballet dances to get it to start again. I just hit the ok button and away it goes. It also holds a half a ream of paper which is a good bit. I love this printer. Oh I forgot! It copies and scans, has an auto feed, does both sides of the page, either in copy mode or printing mode. That's very important.

Replacing an Epson that was a huge disappointment. This printer is AWESOME. The print quality is very good, it's fast and quiet, was very, very easy to set up and it duplexes if you set it to print on both sides of sheet. The price was quite reasonable for how very good this printer turned out to be. Some of the reviews concerned me, especially those that mentioned that it felt "kind of cheap". It does seem like the housing is made of thinner plastic but overall it's got a good solid feel to it, doesn't take up a lot of space and has all the features we needed. We opted out of the toner replacement plan which was one of the complaints one reviewer had but did opt for the 4-year warranty Amazon offered. So far, very, very happy with this printer. Also, I had to contact Brother for help when setting up and they provided excellent customer support.

I wanted a multifunction laser printer because I don't print that frequently, and while inkjet printers are generally less expensive, the total cost increases substantially with the ink you need to buy. I also don’t have a need to print in color or print photos, so this monochrome laser printer was both cost-effective and much better suited for occasional printing (laser toner doesn’t need to be replaced if you haven’t used it in a while). Overall, I think this was a good choice, with some caveats.The things I liked:The total cost of ownership for a laser printer like this is going to be much lower than a less expensive inkjet printer when you factor in the higher cost of the ink.The printer starts up quickly and warms up from its sleep state quickly. Some laser printers I’ve used in the past could take minutes to get back to a state where they’re ready to print.It prints very quickly. It’s probably the fastest printing laser printer I’ve owned, and I’ve had no problems so far with paper jams or the printer pulling multiple pages when printing.It supports full color scanning up to 1200 DPI and the scanner works with both the Brother iPrint&Scan app as well as the standard Windows Scan app (which is what I tend to use).It supports duplex printing which actually works. Over the years I’ve dealt with printers that claimed to support duplex printing, but it would end up being a hassle with frequent paper jams, etc. So far, this printer has handled it well. One thing to note is that duplex printing is the default, so if you want to print only on one side of the page, make sure you adjust the settings.The things to be aware of:If you’ve primarily used inkjet printers, you’ll notice it will be considerably louder. It’s not a particular defect of this printer, it’s just the nature of how they work. Something to be aware of, particularly if you have it sitting near you. That said, when it’s idle, it’s completely quiet.If you’re going to use it as a wireless printer, it’s going to require you to install an app on your phone and go through this entire routine, connecting your phone to the printer to configure the printer so it knows how to connect to your network.It’s likely that your printer will require a firmware update. Whenever you install the software, it will tell you if you need to do this. If so, they make the process more complicated than it needs to be, requiring you to find a “password” printed on a label on the rear of the printer, which they require you to change through a web interface before the update can be installed. This is definitely not a user-friendly experience, particularly for people who are not tech savvy.The things I do not like:None of the following issues are related to the hardware at all or how the printer itself works, or the drivers for the printer. It’s about the iPrint&Scan application and related software.The default installation of their software will inundate you with “special offers” and constant reminders about buying toner cartridges from them. If you pay close attention during the installation process, you can opt-out of some of this, but as we all know, most people just click OK through installers, and you’ll end up getting (very) large popup windows being displayed on your desktop.Installing their software creates a number of completely unnecessary startup and background services, particularly if you use it wirelessly (as most people would). One of those startup apps isn’t even used anymore by their software because its functionality was integrated with their main app, but still, they install it and launch it every time you boot the system.They also install this marketing app called “PowerENGAGE” that is supposed to “engage” with you (in other words, show popups to buy things from them). It’s installed as a background task that runs 4 times a day, and if you try to uninstall it, it will silently try to automatically reinstall itself. This is beyond obnoxious, and Brother needs to remove this completely.Another problem which would probably be invisible to most users, is a defect in their software which will cause the system event logs to be flooded with spurious error messages (at the rate of it reporting an error literally every second that the system is running). The only way to fix/prevent this is to edit the system registry. This is obviously bad and something they really need to fix.All of these software components I’ve mentioned can be disabled/deleted and it will have no negative affect on the actual functionality of the printer itself. It’s really nothing but bloatware which serves no real purpose for the end-user.Final thoughts:Overall, I think it’s a solid multifunction monochrome laser printer, sold for a very reasonable price. If you are comfortable with disabling startup tasks, changing system services and editing the registry, then all of the problems I’ve described above can be mitigated.If you are more of a novice with computers, then configuring the printer may be challenging and the problems I’ve listed above won’t prevent you from using the printer, but it can negatively affect system performance and will definitely annoy you.