The Brother HL-3045CN really fits the bill if you are looking to address many areas of printing needs. For example, the printer is not too big that it creates office or desk space issues.
I used it in my office and it just fit perfectly. If I had to choose one word to describe the Brother HL-3045CN printer it would be “fit”. The printer’s output fits my needs well. I print a lot of black-and-white documents and with speeds of 19 ppm this printer is ideal. Its paper tray is also quite expansive compared to others I have reviewed over the years (250-sheet paper tray). The technology inside the machine signals me when I’m out of paper better than most others I’ve tested. I am using it as a personal desktop printer but it’s connected the network and my team can use it for producing 600 x 2400 dpi full colour info-graphics. The printer features a built-in Ethernet interface for connectivity to a network.
Again this printer fits into our workflow as we not only print standard documents but also full colour photos and slide decks that have many elements to it. The quality of these prints are sharp. The printer uses an LED print engine. Brother claims that the HL-3045CN can produce full colour brochures and it can in a small business situation or a local flyer type of situation. I would not say this printer is able to produce high gloss print brochures. But for its price point I would say it fits nicely with most small business users and small workgroup users.
While I tested this machine as a personal printer I can easily see it as a workgroup printer stored somewhere in easy access to the entire team. The dimensions of this printer are: 9.8 by 16.1 by 18.3 inches.
Setup was relatively easy. I did get two IT department workers just to go over the connections and they were fine. Setup was done in less than 30 minutes.
The Brother HL-3045CN includes a one year limited exchange express warranty and machine lifetime toll-free technical support. It costs $279.