Monochrome - 20 ppm Mono - 2400 x 600 dpi - Printer, Copier, Scanner - MPN: DCP7020
Strengths: rapid warm-up, fast printing, excellent print quality, sort function for collating multiple copies
Weakness: cannot copy light pencil sketches
I bought this printer for business use and have been very pleased with my purchase. I use it as a stand-alone copier sporadically throughout the day and turn it off after each use. It warms up quickly—just flip the switch and it is ready to go in 20 seconds. In comparison to other laser printer/copiers that I looked at in the same price range (or for a slightly higher price), this one prints faster and has much better print quality. It also has a sort function that collates the pages if you are making multiple copies. For me, this printer has only one disappointing feature. At times I need to copy light pencil sketches. Whereas my inkjet printer can copy these sketches using a high contrast/normal (vs fast) print setting, this laser is unable to capture the same image.
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TopStrengths: low price, cheap genuine toner price, fast
Weakness: small copy area (8.5x11), ok print quality
i got this mainly for its copying function. it works great for what i need..which is to occasionally make a few copies..rather than running out to staples every time. it's also fast. the print quality is decent. sometimes some parts of the copy appears a bit blurry. it would also be difficult to copy anything larger than 8.5x11 but that's rare for me.
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TopStrengths: Clear Printouts, Nice features for the money
Weakness: Somewhat loud
I got this laser printer because I couldn't stand to keep buy inkjet cartridges for my older printer. They are too expensive and the black and white quality was nowhere near as good as the brother laser printer. I did some research and saw that the toner for this laser printer was a reasonable price for the output. So far its been the best printer I have owned. The scan quality is pretty good in color and the printing is quick.
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TopStrengths: Cheap copies at appx. 2 cents per copy. Great speed at 20 cpm, and excellent print quality.
Weakness: Scan quality is a little poor, FAX & PDF would be a wonderful function. Plastic casing is weak, and does not scream durability. Can be noisy and warm up is long. LEGAL copies are difficult to make.
This is an excellent printer/copier for the money. At a price point just north of a hundred dollars, and affordable, separate toner and drum replacements, you only replace what you need, saving money down the line.
It works out to about 1.5-2 cents a copy.
The copier is fast, but if you are making just one copy, you'd be better of to wait as any quickness in printing multiple copies is sacraficed to copier warm up.
Legal copies are stated to be a feature, but I can't seem to find a way to copy onto legal size paper. The only way I can make a copy of a legal document is to reduce it on to an standard 8.5x11 page.
The only last thing I dont like is that this really should have a fax function. How costly could this be? A fax card is $5.00
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TopStrengths: Reasonable price. Resolution is good. Low price toner. Light weight.
Weakness: No fax. Little bit slow speed.
For low price laser printer, this is a good buy. For less than $ 200, you'll get a combo (FLATBED)copier/printer/scanner even with feeder. Why spend $ 500 - you can get a color laser for that price. I really recommend this product.
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TopStrengths: Price, performance, good print quality
Weakness: I got a bad unit, poor support
I was very excited about the prospect of a good quality, B/W laser printer with copy and scanning functionality...and at $190, you can't beat the price. It would have been a great deal, but from the moment I unpacked the machine and turned it on, it never printed correctly. From the first print, the paper was heavily streaked with toner on both sides of the paper (weird because it only prints on one side) and it emitted a burning smell. I first followed trouble shooting instructions in the manual, to no avail. Next, I contacted the online retailer where I purchased the item. I received no call back and no response to my email inquiry. Ever. Then I called 'tech support' and got no answer (it was a Saturday). I then emailed them and got a response back to call during business hours. Great. So I called and went through the runaround with a scripted techie who said it must be a toner problem. I expressed doubt, since toner was present on both sides of the paper, but agreed to his solution, which was a new toner cartridge. After not receiving it, I called to check the status. After 45 minutes on the phone (in the middle of the day) it turned out that they had send it to the completely wrong address...in Kansas!!! I live in Virginia. I had made the guy repeat out loud the correct address and he still got it wrong. So they sent me another one. So 7 days later I got it. Put it in and...same problem. Exactly. I called them back and waited another 40 minutes. This time I explained that I had had my printer for 3 weeks and hadn't been able to print one resume (the reason I purchased the unit) and that just wasn't acceptable. They agreed to send me a new unit, but that it would take 10-14 days to arrive. I asked to speak with a manager and was told that there was no manager available but that one would call me back in 30 minutes. After waiting 2 hours, I called back and...yes, waited on hold again. Pretty freaking disgusting. To their credit, they did ship it out via 2-day air, but JEEZ. So, much to my chagrin, the replacement arrived and it was a different, albiet with added Fax capability, model. But worse than that was that it was refurbished. There was absolutely no mention of the fact that it would be refurbished or a different model, and I felt a bit cheated that I had purchased a brand new product and it was replaced by a refurbished item. The whole deal was exhasperating, and even though the new (old) printer works fine now, I am soured on Brother as a company. Not that any other company is much better, but what ever happened to producing a good product and standing behind that product?
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TopStrengths: Compact, crisp copy quality, energy efficient.
Weakness: The software's "Control Panel" not immediately intuitive to this user.
Nice, reasonably priced machine that will allow you to copy more than sheet feed applications. Has the look of a "big" machine, with many of the features at a very reasonable price. The USB or Parallel cable feature is great! A pretty nice machine for the money!
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TopStrengths: Good print quality. Low price. Not huge.
Weakness: When the printer wakes up from "sleep" mode, it may cause your computer to shut down due to heavy current draw, causing a "brownout" condition for items plugged into your UPS or Surge Protector!
When the printer wakes up from "sleep" mode, it may cause your computer to shut down due to heavy current draw, causing a "brownout" condition for all items plugged into an UPS. Our PC is plugged into the battery side of the UPS, the printer is plugged into the passthrough (Surge Protection only).
Our new printer worked fine for several minutes until it "went to sleep". Upon "waking" the printer for another print job our PC shut down. We were told by tech support that they had seen the problem before, and that they reccomended that the printer be on it's own UPS or circuit. We have had various HP and Epson laser printers hooked to several PCs of this same make and model hooked to the same UPS and have had no problems.
The UL sticker on the back says that the unit draws 8.8 amps, a 450 Watt power supply can draw up to 18 amps peak and our decent, average UPS (an APC ES 350) supplies a total output current of 12 amps. Obviously one needs some serious power to run a computer! Except that a PC or Mac power supply doesn't usually draw nearly that much current, unless it's bogged down with a larger than usual number of drives, fans etc. (I.E. a hotrod gamers PC or a video workstation with a nice RAID or the like ...)
I am currently running the same setup at another workstation with an identical PC, an HP Laserjet 2200dn which draws 5 amps, a big old Sony Trinitron monitor (2 amps) a thermal label printer (2.5 amps) and an epson dot-matrix printer (2 amps).
The cpu and printers are plugged into the battery side of the UPS, the monitor is plugged into the pass-through (no battery back-up) side.
While you do the math on the total draw, I'll unplug from the wall and power cycle my laser and dot matrix printer at the same time for a total of 8 amps and will turn on the thermal printer as quickly as possible.
Okay, I've plugged back in. Aside from some beeps, no problems. No reboot of the PC. Pretty good UPS.
Now this was totally unscientific, and more than a bit snarky. The point I am trying to make is: 8.8 amps is a VERY big load for a small office device like this. I suspect that it fires up both the scanner and heats the drum nearly simultaneously, (drawing a LOT of current) to shorten 'wake-up' time.
This is probably not a problem if you are sure you have good current to your systems and don't mind running the printer on it's own circuit as the Brother tech human suggested. However, if you are in the least bit bothered by a printer that draws more amps than my air compressor, I suggest looking elsewhere.
I realize that laser printers take a good bit of power, and I don't think this is necessarily a *bad* product, in fact, this is more a general questioning of the "savings" an all-in-one device provides. If it sucks this much power every time you fire it up, how much are you saving over purchasing discrete components that you can run independently and as needed?
Plus it is just a *RUDE* awakening to have your computer suddenly make that snapping noise and go black while the printer merrily spits out what got into the queue before the untimely shutdown.
In short: pretend it's a circular saw and you won't be surprised.
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TopStrengths: Simply loving it. I'm 100% satisfied with something first time in my life :) It's the very well spent $100 (after rebate and coupon)
Weakness: Heavy and wouldn't fit to my carry on luggage otherwise I'd take it wherever I'd go. Wish there was a fax also.
Everything is perfect. I don't remember how many rolls of paper I bought over the last 1.5 years and the starter cartridge is still going and going.
And I am very sorry that one day when my visa expires, I will have to part from my 7020. I wish it was a little smaller and lighter, so I'd take this one with me. But I'll get another one regardless where I'll be. Very good job Brother.
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TopWeakness: compatibility with older systems (Windows 98 first edition)
I have mine connected by the parallel port. The user documentation and support site have no information on their troubleshooting sections about problems with parallel port co Currently, it acts like it's not connected; except if I disconnect it, it acknowledges it. I'm going to try using a different cable; if that works, I'll revise this review.
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TopStrengths: Fast, Quality copies
Weakness: Electrical draw is huge, and bounces me off of my network whenever I print.
This could have been a terrific machine but the unit just sucks up electricity when it kicks in to copy or print, and then I have to reconnect my network each time. VERY inconvenient. This seems to be a common glitch with this printer, from what I can see of others having problems who have posted to the web.
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TopStrengths: It does it all: print, scan, copy! Nice machine for a great price (inexpensive). Easy to use.
Weakness: none
I was looking for an all-in-one machine for light duty in a small office. This machine is perfect for just that. And you can't beat the price. Similar machines that only copy are 3-4 times the price I paid for this. I am very happy with the quality and speed. All in all, a nice machine for small office work or even an upgrade in a home office.
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TopStrengths: Low cost of unit, low cost of toner, good quality prints
Weakness: Construction looks cheaper compared to previous DCP models
I have had the DCP 1200 for more than 3 years and I got 3 of these DCP 7020 printers for work and our church recently. They are the best value for money and you do not give up any features compared to pricier laser printers. The copying feature has always been great in the DCP models. I do not miss the fax feature as that would clutter the control board with several buttons. This one has a clean and nice interface. The size is compact and fits nicely on an office desk.
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Brother DCP-7020 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 1.74 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #72 all-in-one printer of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a product's...
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Good selection of price/functions/quality
Strengths: Easy setup; quite in sleep; fast warm-up; good print/copy quality.
Weakness: No fax; manual paper feed not easy to use; no LED power on/off indicator
This is what I looking for personal use with good print/copy quality, fast speed, and low price. The main weakness is no fax, which I think might turn away many potential buyers. With scanner already in place, a fax should be very easy to be added.
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