Brother vs HP colour laser - Colour, duplex, scan, sheet feeder, Windows, Mac, Linux

[Hades]

I am looking for a wireless colour printer with duplex printing and scanning. I have shortlisted the following. I have shortlisted them because I need the following features:

Compatibility across Linux, Windows and MacOS (we use all three)
Duplex printing
Colour
Laser to reduce price per page cost
Scanning
Automatic sheet feeder

Does anyone have experience of these or similar printers from the same manufacturers? Does anyone know which is likely to be the cheaper printer to run long term? Thanks.

Brother DCP-9020CDW
HP M283fdw

 

[Hades]

I thought I'd update this thread in case anyone was looking for a similar printer.

I ended up getting the HP M283fdw, mainly because I got a discount on it. I'm very happy with the printer. It is very fast, easy to use, works across all OS, prints duplex (I think it scans duplex too - haven't tried) and will scan to either a network folder or to email (you can set up multiple email addresses and choose which one when sending). As far as printers go it looks OK too. In hindsight I'd forgotten about Brother a little when I bought the HP and even though that particular model was discontinued, the replacement Brother model seems a little cheaper to buy and to run than the HP. So I'm thinking a similar Brother would have been the better choice in terms of pure cost, and if I were to buy again I'd look into Brother more closely, mainly due to the cost of ink.

But the HP ticks every box I wanted and I am happy with it. It's a small business printer rather than a home printer. But the amount of printing we are doing during lockdown made the purchase a little more urgent (everyone working from home and school/college learning from home).

EDIT: As for Linux compatibility, printing and scanning works perfectly. There is a setup application for Windows and MacOS which can be used to check ink levels, set the scanning destination, etc. There isn't one for Linux but there is a web client to set it up instead. So there is actually no need to install an application anyway.

I had got into the habit of turning it off in the evening and turning it on again in the morning to save electricity. But I think it goes through a cleaning cycle when it's turned on (using toner). So I think I'll just leave it turned on.

 

[Hades]

Another update in case anyone is looking for this printer in future. The HP M283fdw doesn't do automatic double sided scanning. It does very fast single sided scanning from the sheet feeder. It really is quick. It also does double sided printing just fine. But when it comes to scanning from the sheet feeder it is only single sided. That's a little annoying as it's one of the features I wanted. However it's not a deal breaker and there are ways around it. I had wanted a simple way for my kids to use the scanning to email function. My daughter does a lot of college work at home and then has to upload it for the teachers to review. So double sided scanning to email was highly desirable.

There are ways around this. Apparently the HP software on Windows and MacOS allows you to merge two scans (scan side one of all pages, then scan side two of all pages and the software stitches it together). She can use that if I install it on her Macbook but it means the email facility is less useful. I also use Linux so that won't work for me, and importantly she often uses her ipad or phone so it won't work for those devices.

So I'm working on another solution. I wrote a Python script last night to merge two PDF's by interleaving the pages. It worked perfectly. So my next step is to setup a small Raspberry Pi which receives emails and then, when it has two of them, runs the Python merge and emails the merged PDF. That way we can still use the email scanning facility. We will just have to scan it to email twice (once each side) and a few seconds later the finished merged scan will be emailed out. It finally gives me a genuine reason to buy and play with a Pi

 

[DireEmblem]

How do you find the cost of replacement toner?

 

[Hades]

How do you find the cost of replacement toner?

I haven't had to replace it yet. I think the Brother would be a lot cheaper to run. HP tend to be expensive.

 

[Sumanji]

Hey @Hades ,

Came across your thread while doing a similar search... I have an old Canon inkjet multi-function that has been circling the drain for many years now.

Looking to replace it with this HP M283fdw - how has it been a few years into its life? Would you still recommend it?

Cheers,

Su

 

[Hades]

Hey @Hades ,

Came across your thread while doing a similar search... I have an old Canon inkjet multi-function that has been circling the drain for many years now.

Looking to replace it with this HP M283fdw - how has it been a few years into its life? Would you still recommend it?

Cheers,

Su

Yes I am still happy with it. It got a hell of a lot of use when my daughter was doing her A Levels and it was great. But a few comments:

1. The toner (ink) is still quite expensive compared to other brands. For this alone I would probably at least look at non HP printers next time. You can use aftermarket toner but get a warning and I've not found aftermarket toner quite as good. However I do continue to use it because it is cheaper. I do a lot less printing now so it is less of an issue.

2. The printer is double sided but the scanner isn't. So if you feed a letter with double sided print into it, it will only scan one side. It's not a big deal when just scanning a single page. But if you want to scan multiple double sided pages then it becomes a problem. To address this I scan the pages twice (first on side one and secondly on side two) and wrote a couple of Python scripts to stich the two sets of scans together in the right order. To be fair most printers of this price range don't seem to do double sided scanning. But I suggest looking around if that is an important function for you.

So overall I am happy and don't regret the purchase.

 

[brendy]

I bought maybe 7 or 8 of the DCP-9020CDW model for management home offices (over the last 5/6 years) and also a couple of its superseding model the DCP-L3550. They are very very cheap to run with compatible cartridges and do not complain like the HP models would. Scanning app etc works perfectly fine and would have no problem using one at home if I didn't already have a cheap and cheerful Epson Workforce inkjet MFP.

 

[Sumanji]

Thanks both for the input, super helpful...

Honestly the only things we print regularly are online shopping return labels and perhaps the odd long document every few months (tax return forms etc.). So I am hoping that a) the toner won't "go bad" or gum up like inkjet cartridges do, and b) I'll only be replacing every couple of years or something?

On the double-sided scanning, that is interesting. Again, I don't scan often but duplex is very handy for long documents. I like your software solve Hades - presumably that works on the PDF outputs? Would you be able to share the python script by any chance please?

The one other thing I am considering is space... I live in a relatively small apartment, and it seems like the footprint of the HP is small vs. the Brother? Right now I have a Canon MX920 which is a beast for an inkjet, so ideally something no bigger than that would be great!

Cheers,

Su

 

[Sumanji]

Follow-up on the duplex scanning issue noted by @Hades above (if anyone apart from me cares ). This can be addressed via the HP software, which I am sure is total bloatware, but at least it gives the option... helpful video below:

HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw Printer : How to scan a 2 sided document

Click on the link to subscribe and get the latest video uploads:https://goo.gl/y4Rcn1Remember to like and share the video if you know of friends that would f...

youtu.be

 

[iMacMart]

Looking for a printer thread and found this so hoping for some advice, I'm looking for a good solid EcoTank printer to try and reduce the massive ink bill I seem to get every other month

Any good/bad advice would be amazing! Thanks