Brother DCPL2540DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Laser Printer, Amazon Dash Replenishment Ready

This Brother DCPL2540DW Monochrome Laser Multi Function Printer / Copier / Scanner has a small footprint, and comes with a 35 page automatic document feeder (ADF), adjustable 250 page capacity paper tray, starter toner cartridge, but not a USB cable (most printers these days don't ship with USB / printer cables anymore). The on-device control interface has a two-line lcd display and a few labeled buttons. The on-device menuing system is at most 3 levels deep only, and is easy to navigate using the MENU, +/UP, -/DOWN, OK, and STOP/EXIT buttons. The device is easy to set up for wireless printing, and if you have a USB / printer cable, for wired printing as well. The included Basic User's Guide is minimalistic but sufficient to get you started in the right direction, and a link to a fuller online user's guide is provided.I have a USB cable so I initially set this device up for wired printing from my Windows 8.1 computer. The device driver that's automatically installed after Windows detected the device is not a full-featured driver, so I installed the MFL-Pro Software Suite from the included CD. Once that software suite has been installed, if you bring up the Devices and Printers view from the Windows Control Panel and right-click on the icon for this printer, you'll see that the context menu that pops up has separate Printing Preferences and Printer Properties menu items. The Properties dialog box gives you options such as what pages of your document to print, and a check box to select or unselect duplex printing. The Preferences dialog box gives you options such as enable Print Preview, and Print Document with a custom settable Watermark (such as the word Confidential, or Draft, etc).After some initial testing of the printing and scanning functionalities (discussed more below), I went back to the MFL-Pro Software Suite mentioned above to set the device up for wireless operations, which required some software to be installed, detection of your network, and providing the appropriate password for your wireless network. The set up process was a breeze and I did not encounter any problem.* PRINTINGThe print speed is as advertised -- about 30 pages per minute (ppm), slower of course if you're printing double-sided. You can set resolution to 300, 600, and 1200 dpi. Both text and graphics outputs are clear and crisp. To save money, if the documents you're printing are not that important, you can enable 'Toner Save' option, and / or print multiple document pages per output page. I've done several 30-50 page print jobs, and have so far not experienced paper jams.You can use different sized paper, including legal and envelopes, by just adjusting the paper guides. Printing on envelopes requires more work that's described in the user's guide, but there is a cool video in the manufacturer's support website that shows you what to do. If you have the MFL-Pro Software Suite mentioned above installed, look for the Brother Utilities desktop icon and click on it, then choose Support -> On-line help and FAQ's. On the manufacturer's "FAQ's and Troubleshooting" web page that this gets you to, look for the Video FAQs in the "Other" category, and you'll see an entry for Printing on Envelopes.One thing I noticed with printing is that once a document is opened, changes to Printing Preferences (say, enabling or disabling printing watermarks) do not take effect until you close and reopen the document, which can come as a surprise to some.* SCANNINGYou can scan by putting your documents through the automatic document feeder or placing them one at a time onto the scanner glass. There is an on-device SCAN button that you can press, but I find it easier to control scanning using the software installed on my Windows computer. Click on the Brother Utilities desktop icon if you have the above-mentioned MFL-Pro Software Suite installed, then select SCAN -> ControlCenter4 (CC4). With the CC4, you can do Image or OCR scans, and save the results in formats such as JPEG, TIFF, Windows Bitmap, PNG, PDF, Searchable PDF, etc. By default, the results will be saved to labeled folders within the Control Center 4 folder under Documents>Pictures, unless you specify a different location.If you have a supported email application such as Microsoft Outlook, you can set things up so that scan results can be automatically attached to an email. Because I only use free web mail services (which are not supported), I wasn't able to test this functionality.Scanning speed is fast. In my testing, I can confirm that saving results into JPEG, PDF, and Searchable PDFs did work without a problem at all (I did not attempt to save the results into the other possible formats).* COPYINGThere are two limited ways you can achieve 2-sided copying if you want to save paper.The first way is to place the document you want to copy one page at a time onto the scanner glass. Before you start copying, press the on-device OPTION button to navigate to the Two-Sided menu option, temporarily enable it, then press the START button. With this method, you will be asked to manually flip the document when the device is ready to fill up the back of an output sheet.The second way is to feed the pages of your document through the automatic document feeder (ADF). Again, before you start copying, press the on-device OPTION button to navigate to the Two-Sided menu option, temporarily enable it, then press the START button. What you'll get is the following: Say you feed two sheets of paper to the ADF, and each sheet contains the word "FRONT" on one side, and "BACK" on the other side. If you stack these input sheets such that the sides with the word "FRONT" are facing UP, both sides of the single output sheet will contain the word "FRONT." So this method makes sense only if you want to save paper by copying single-sided inputs to double-sided outputs.* TONER CARTRIDGEYou can replace the included starter toner cartridge with either the TN630 (max yield approximately 1200 pages) or TN660 (max yield approximately 2600 pages) cartridges. At the time of this review, the TN630 and TN660 are selling in Amazon for about 43 and 68 dollars, respectively.

Seven years ago, I purchased a Brother HL-2170W B&W Laser Printer from a local store for less than $100 on sale as my printing needs were mainly text documents, and the cost of inkjet printing was eating me out of home and office. My primary need was speed and network connectivity.That printer was a workhorse no matter what I threw at it! And finally just last week, the network connectivity stopped working but with USB, still churned out perfect pages in B/W clarity that was amazing. So, with the need to replace it I looked for a B/W Laser printer that had an auto-sheet feeding scan capability as well as the minimum capabilities of the HL-2170W.Thus, I found this printer. I received it this morning, and here are my opinions thus far; I'll update if anything changes -PROS -1. SIZE - You just can't be the compact size of the Brother multi-function machines... they pack one heck of a punch in the small, lightweight footprint that they offer; no competitor can seem to squeeze the same features, capabilities and speed into the same size and weight, making this a clear winner!2. CONNECTIVITY - With both wired and wireless capabilities for network printing, as well as wireless direct, tablet and phone connectivity through the Brother app (which will connect to a host of cloud services for data access), it's can't be beat for connectivity options. And of course, all else failing, there is that USB-2.0 connector on the back that can be utilized if someone has no need for the other options.3. USER-CONSUMABLES - Since Brother splits their toner and fuser assemblies into two units, cost for cartridges is much less expensive to replace than other companies. HP for instance, bundles the toner/fuser together, charging a fortune when you run out of ink even though the fuser assembly has 2-3 times the lifespan of the toner; with Brother, you can replace the toner (rated for 2,600 pages) when needed and only have to replace the fuser when needed (rated for 12,000 pages). In the 7 years that I had the 2170W, I only replaced the fuser once.4. PAPER HANDLING - Big 250-sheet paper tray for auto-feeding - half a ream at a time and completely enclosed, you don't have to constantly run and check for paper capacity; plus, since it is a drawer, it stays dirt, wrinkle, stain and relatively dust free before use.5. FAST - Super fast printing that for the size and price point beats out it's competitors; plus with the duplex feature you can save paper and money while still getting crisp, clean prints.CONS -1. PHYSICAL SCAN FEATURE - Not really a con, but something that was not mentioned and I didn't think about - the scan feature does not have duplex scanning - it is only single-sided so if you have multiple front/back pages to scan, you either (a) have to do it manually and turn them over, or (b) utilize the scan feature for one side, run them through a second time for the back side, then rearrange the pages in an app that will allow manipulation like that.2. SOFTWARE SCAN FEATURE - Brother should be ashamed of the scan application that it encloses with the printer - it is *VERY* basic and POOR; I have utilized scanning applications that are included with scanners before and I have to say that this is about the worst - no true advanced scanning control features such as moire-removal/de-screening, lint/dust removal, sharpening, etc. Brother seems to believe that "advanced" features should be is controlling resolution, color vs. b/w, and file output type... very sad and the only place I slash this to 1 star. If you need more control over scanning I would definitely recommend finding a third-part app that will do will you need.3. NOISE - I generally laugh about people who complain in reviews about the noise of a printer, as if they seem to think a jet engine is firing up in their office! If your printer sounds like that, you better run 'cause parts are going to fly! That being said, I do have to say that this printer has more noise in the rollers than the 2170W, which could be explained by additional complexity of the duplexing option, but overall is still quiet in the grand scheme of things... besides, with the speed of the printer even 100 pages printing means that the noise stops within a few short minutes.---All in all - very highly recommended printer! Most definitely will satisfy SOHO users or small workgroups (up to say 5 people) that need to share a printer and have scan capability.