Brother DCP-L2640DW Wireless Compact Monochrome Mu

Brother for dependability and ease of Use
I actually purchased this for my 85 year old father. He does a lot of business even at his age, and wanted a printer and scanner to replace his separate stand alone units. But he’s VERY non-tech savvy. After years of fighting with inkjet All-in-One scams, I bought this until to get him taken care of. First, it’s a Brother Laser printer. It’s going to print for years with the original cartridge, although I did get him a spare. Second, it’s fast, it’s quiet, and it’ll just work.But best of all for him, it comes with a wired connection! I get it, and I know, wireless gives you a lot of options, but it’s also a point failure when networks drop, the printer falls off the network (rare, but happens), or any number of issues that are minor annoyances to the tech friendly, but are nightmares for those who aren’t. And explaining a WLAN setup from 600 miles away is a big no.So something that’s all but plug-and-play in 2024? This thing is the best. Shipped it, sent him the setup video, and he managed it himself and was scanning and printing without problems.

A solid multifunction laser printer
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.

We happily retired our problematic inkjet printer for this. Setup was easy, the LCD interface is cumbersome but you only have to do it once. Seamlessly prints from iPad, Lenovo Android tablet, Linux desktop. It receives print jobs while in sleep mode, very handy and convenient. Scans with SimpleScan on Linux, no additional drivers required. I couldn’t have asked for a better printer/scanner.Not very loud like some reviews say, same as our inkjet. I do notice minor fumes as it’s printing, so you don’t want this right on your desk where you’re sitting all day…like I do.

The printer set up easily as a wireless printer; the print quality is crisp and high quality, and duplexing is a breeze – no paper jams! I am impressed with the speed of printing; I haven’t printed lengthy documents, so I am using the original cartridge. I like the features in the task tray – indicating printer connectivity, toner volume, etc. The printer is typical of it’s size with the document feeder on top, but this is to be expected for home office use. I like the scanner functionality and ease of use. I highly recommend this printer!

purchased this printer to replace an HP color printer that would not let me use brand new HP print cartridges due to them being expired! While this printer only prints in black and white I have never been happier. A large toner cartridge will print 30,000 pages whereas with the HP printer you’d be lucky to get maybe 100 before the cartridge or print head dried up and gave you grief. I solemnly swear I will never purchase another HP printer after having this printer for the last 8 months. It prints when you tell it to, doesn’t make weird noises in the middle of the night as it goes thru “printer maintenance” and is easy to set up. The HP printer always seemed to want to do a “printer maintenance” when you wanted to print something quickly which meant you had to stand there for 4 minutes while it completed its process. In the end I purchased this Brother printer because it had a lot of good reviews and because thus far no one has claimed that the company that makes it takes part in unethical practices such as preventing users from using cartridges that “they” deem wrong. as far as Im concerned if the warranty period on a printer is over then I should be able to use aftermarket or expired cartridges on a printer that I OWN and no company has to right to block me from doing that or forcing me to buy only their products or supplies. So, while this may seem like it was a review bashing HP products, in reality it is just to inform you that Brother (thus far) doesn’t seem to take part in shady business practices like HP does. In the end my HP printer (which still technically “worked”…its met its demise at business end of a 8 lb sledgehammer to ensure no other poor unsuspecting individual had to fall victim to the company’s BS business practices. End of rant