HL-1050 (Brother HL-1050)

Member Name: Perseus

Product:	Brother HL-1050
Date:	15/01/04 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Print quality poor, Reliability less than 5%, After sales service is poor

This printer proved not to be fit for the job it was intended for.

Some faults with the model:

1) Picture quality was very poor, worse than a HP 5L the much earlier printer which it replaced.

Faults with my printer:

2) Toner did not print nearly the number of pages it claimed to, less than half
3) After the toner ran out the drum developed a fault and all the pages came out with obstrusive black lines and smudges, resolved by a new drum, but each time the toner ran out, a new drum was required
4) Black specks were easily laid on to the paper. Although easy (laborious) to clean it was easy to get dirty. Not all the black marks were dirt though, some were a fault with drum or toner.

The sepearte drum and toner technology may be at fault, but even when it worked the quality was poor with streaks and lines a continual problem as well.

Even in perfect working order, (very rare) the results were only good enough for plain text, no bold print or pictures.

But this was only 20% of the time as black lines wasted more paper than satisfactory print-outs, so it was not even good enough for rough drafts.

Printer does not work on a parallel port with XP. Needs a USB. Communication errors occur too often. Suited for old computers and I will keep it as a spare, mainly because I have lots of drums because they kept going wrong.

Brother replacement toners and general service I would describe as rude and unhelpful.


This printer was listed as a best Buy. It is not. Worst Buy would be my description.

I resorted to it again as an emergency when my HP inkjet broke down during the guarantee period and had to be replaced. Two drums produced completely unsatisfactory results and the third older drum worked with only four black spots on the edge.

I will never buy another Brother printer again ! I will not even take one for free unless the toner is already in it and th
en afterwards I will throw it away. This printer was not cheap either. It has the extra memory as well.

Summary: