One of the reasons I like blogging (aside from the nano-celebrity) is that I get the opportunity to review cool stuff (hardware, websites, books), sometimes even before said stuff hits the market. As a marketer, I am also a firm believer in blogger outreach programs; by participating, in addition to playing with new products, I also get to learn how other companies handle these programs.
Brother started a blogger outreach program late last year - to have select small businesses folks test out a new line of printers designed just for small and medium size businesses. I was one of the lucky folks who got to participate, and my test model was the HL-4070CDW (why can't we name printer models cool names like cars?). I was very excited about this model because it offers printing via WiFi! Yay - no more cords!
I arrived home from my honeymoon to find this waiting for me (I included the coffee cup for scale). I wasn't expecting something quite so ... big. We have been using a relatively small printer from a competitor - this one's footprint is at least twice the size. So we had to scramble a bit to find an appropriate place for it.
Now I'm a documentation gal. I loves me some good documentation. And Brother delivered! Right in the top of the box was a big friendly manual with lots of illustrations, numbered steps and friendly arrows. So, I read through the steps for unpacking the printer. My fav was the diagram showing TWO people setting it up. So, I recruited Rosemary and we managed to get the thing out of the box without too many tears.
Now, Brother wants to help you protect your investment. So they have a really big section on how to unpack, including info on how to remove all the various bits of plastic and tape that they have stuck in nooks and crannies in your printer that will melt if you use your printer while they are still attached. Some of them are easy to find because they look like this:
Others take a little longer to dig out. All in all, it took me 24 minutes to get the printer from being sealed in the box to being unpacked and ready to turn on.
OK, now to hook up the Wifi. We're a mixed office - we have both Mac and PC users. I decided to try to configure it using my Mac. Again, the documentation was really easy to use. And my favourite part: when I had to do some networking trick that wasn't part of Brother's software config, they STILL included directions on how to do it, including screenshots of what should appear on my Mac. Now that is thinking ahead! I'll bet a lot of folks get frustrated at points like that - where they need to mess with something in their operating system and don't know how and there is no one to ask (because most small businesses don't have dedicated IT guys). Way to go, Brother!
It took me 19 minutes to configure the WIFI interface and get this:
Over the next couple of months, I printed all kinds of docs on this printer, including colourful reports with diagrams and photos. They all looked AMAZING. The Brother HL-4070CDW is relatively quiet (when printing, its about as loud as the passing Skytrain) and pretty fast. I didn't time it to see if it lives up to the 21 ppm, but it is VERY fast. The double-sided printing was easy to configure as was the multiple page-on-a-side functionality.
The HL-4070CDW works perfectly in a mixed environment. As soon as I configured it from my Mac, I was able to install the drivers on all the Windows machines, and they worked almost immediately. The only hitch was that I had to disable personal firewalls for the initial install. After that, all machines printed through the firewall, no problem.
My only beef with the Brother HL-4070CDW occurred when our router went kaput, and I had to install a new network. Instead of being able to control the printer from my machine, I had to reset the printer to "factory default" settings on the printer itself. Then I could configure it for a new network. I'm sure there is a technical reason why this was the case, but it took me three tries before I figured out I had to reset it on the printer. Yes, it did say it in the documentation, but I didn't feel that it was clear; I didn't look for this info in the "initial install" section (where it was) but in the "after you've installed" sections (where it wasn't).
I also was never able to get the BRAdmin Light Utility working - this piece of software seemed to offer some additional control over the printer from your computer. I wasn't actually able to figure out how to install it. But, everything I wanted to control on the printer I could do through the settings when I was printing a document, so I don't know that it was necessary. I also can't really comment on longevity of ink supplies. While I have done a lot of printing, I haven't done enough printing to have to replace the ink cartridges - so I can't really comment on whether or not they last a long time.
All in all, I have really enjoyed my time with the HL-4070CDW - wireless printing is dreamy!! Also, it has a print direct-from-USBdrive function that is surprisingly easy to use. Very helpful when someone is visiting the office and doesn't want to install a driver. Many thanks to Capulet Communications for getting me into Brother's blogger outreach program!
A quick note on blogger outreach programs ...
Oh, why blogger outreach programs? Fundamental truth: we trust people who are like us. A tech journalist isn't like me. But a small business owner (or a mom with a newborn, or candy aficionado - depending on your context) IS like me. And I know that she struggles with some of the same issues I do. So her context and perspective is valuable to me.
I was talking about this with a client of mine, the owner of Careerbags.com, an e-retail store that specializes in selling laptop bags and other accessories to business women. It's all about reducing risk. If I am going to make an investment (whether $150 for a laptop bag or $650 for a printer), I want to reduce the risk that it's going to be a lemon. So the more information I have from people like me, the higher the likelihood that I can reduce my risk in wasting my money. That's why you have blogger outreach programs.