Canon imageCLASS MF249dw

Allow me to preface this by saying that setting up printers never goes well for me, even as an IT professional (with experience in everything from end-user support development and even some database administration).I originally purchased the Brother HL-L2340DW, arguably the most-purchased, most-reviewed, and highest-rated printer on Amazon. Although network setup went smoothly, nothing else did- it never registered or was recognized by Google Cloud Print or even its own drivers/network configuration software.I was skeptical of this printer, more so than others because of the relatively small number of reviews, a number of which said the installation instructions were unclear or that they had difficulty setting it up.From my perspective, the setup couldn't have been easier.Wireless (WLAN) setup:-I plugged the printer in and used manual WLAN setup to punch in my network details and configure a static address for the printer (a slight oddity here- enabling and assigning a static address does not disable DHCP IP retrieval, but it was inconsequential to the setup as it only took 2 seconds to turn off). From plug-in to successfully pinging the access point (the printer includes a built-in utility for pinging) was less than 5 minutes.Google Cloud Print setup:-As soon as the printer was on the network, every Cloud Print capable device was able to see the printer, and I was able to register it under my account and connect all other devices in less than 10 minutes.Samsung Print Service setup:-Surprisingly, the Samsung print service that comes pre-installed on many Samsung devices did not need any additional configuration to work with this printer.Windows Driver setup:-MAJOR, MAJOR KUDOS TO CANON - the Windows "full driver package" dated February 10 2017 (2/10/2017) on Canon's website included NO BLOAT WHATSOEVER. I struggle to find a printer these days which doesn't try to install 8 different pieces of software for ink ads (that you have to install anyway because the "driver only" packages magically don't work...).-Canon's proprietary UFR II driver does provide lightning-fast print jobs, but you'd be almost equally well serviced by the PCL print driver if you need something with a bit more compatibility.-I have had success with installing the UFR II drivers on the following machines: Windows 7 Professional x64, Windows 10 Home x64, and Windows 10 Enterprise x64.Other thoughts:-For my model, the print and scan quality is fine. It's at least as good as the Brother before it, and easily better than the HP inkjet it replaced.-The LCD interface has good visibility and contrast, and it snappy and responsive. I've heard this is not true of the upgraded touch-screen model, but I can't personally confirm this.-The plastic housing does feel a bit flimsy in some areas, but I don't intend to be hitting the thing with a hammer (well... so long as it works), so I imagine it will be fine.-This printer seems to have no trouble waking from sleep to print. I've had numerous HP and Brother printers struggle with this, but the Canon has been extremely reliable.TL;DR:-Easy WLAN setup for devices of numerous make/model/driver/service-No driver bloat-Fast, quality printing and scanning-NO driver bloat!-Reliable wake from sleep-NO DRIVER BLOAT! NONE!This printer has been a dream to work with. Canon was the underdog between HP and Brother in the printer market, and so I didn't honestly expect much, but this printer has blown me away in initial impressions. If it lasts and Canon doesn't stray too far from what they've done here, they'll have made a lifelong printer customer out of me.

**INTRODUCTION**I was looking for an affordable solution to my printing needs for my home office. I did some research and found the Canon imageCLASS MF244dw laser printer. This printer seemed like it would be a good fit for me and my printing needs so I went ahead and purchased it through Amazon.com and I'm glad I did! This printer is wonderful! I did not need to print in color so the fact that this printer only prints in black and white is perfect for me. I also like the fact that you can get several thousand pages printed on a single toner cartridge (on average). I was finding that with my old HP all-in-one printer that used ink cartridges that I was throwing money away on ink. I would print a few pages here and there and then the cartridges would be dried out which was frustrating as it felt like I was throwing money away. If you are looking for a good economical printer, I would look no further than the Canon imageCLASS MF244dw printer right here. I did not need a fax function so this particular model seemed to be perfect for me.**SET-UP**Set up was relatively easy for me. I currently have a wireless network that I run all my devices off of. I run on the Mac OSX operating system on my MacBook Pro and my Mac Mini. I also use iOS on my mobile devices. Printing via AirPrint from my iPhone 6S Plus and iPad are really easy! I’m thrilled that I can print anywhere in my home wirelessly as it’s really convenient to not be bogged down by cables. I downloaded the drivers from the Canon USA Support site for this printer however I’m not sure that was a necessary thing to do. I believe that this particular printer could have been set up without those drivers because I think they are already built in to OSX. From opening the box to printing my first test document I was up and running in about 20 minutes with no outside help required. This time included the time to take down my old ink jet printer and clean the area I was going to install this new printer. I am not a Windows PC user so I have no experience with set up on that operating system. I turned on the Power Save option to help me save some money on my electric bill but retain the ability to quickly print as needed from either one of my computers or mobile devices.**PRINT QUALITY**Print quality is right up there for me. I was used to using ink jet style printers and coming to this laser printer was a huge step up for me in the quality department especially when printing documents containing a lot of text. Lettering prints sharp and clear even on default printer settings at least on my particular printer.**SCANNING DOCUMENTS**I’ve scanned several documents. After making a quick adjustment to the DPI settings documents seem to scan in really high quality. I currently scan documents in the 150 DPI or 300 DPI settings and I’m really impressed at the quality of the scans using these settings. I like how on my Mac I can easily save documents as a PDF and then either print copies or e-mail those documents as needed.**FINAL THOUGHTS**As I stated earlier the ink jet printer system I had was no longer something I felt good about using, in fact it seemed like a huge waste of my hard earned money. I was tired of always paying what seemed like a lot of money to me to print a handful of documents here and there and then come back and find the ink cartridges either clogged up or dried out when I needed to use them again. The nice thing about this printer is that I’m told the Canon 137 toner cartridges will never dry up like an ink jet cartridge. This is perfect for me and my printing needs. I don’t give a lot of five star ratings in my reviews however the Canon imageCLASS MF244dw laser printer is worthy of this rating in my book.