Review: Brother HL-2170W laser printer
Date : 01 14 2008 Category : Technology
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Emil Larsen, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 15 January 2008 at 00:00:00
Laser and wireless technologies combine in this £150 printer
The HL-2170W is a squat mono laser printer and one of the cheapest we've seen with built-in Wifi. As well as 802.11b/g wireless, you get Ethernet and USB ports. The physical setup of the printer couldn't be easier - slot in the combined toner and drum unit and you're done. Getting hooked up to a network is simple too, as long as you don't change your mind about wired or wireless half-way through; the Ethernet port and Wifi can't be active at the same time. The HL-2170W had no problem achieving its advertised 22ppm (pages per minute) in our tests, and the time to print the first page was equally impressive at just 11.5 seconds. It's not as quiet as the HP Laserjet p2015 when idling, due to a fan on its left side making a dim whir, but the noise isn't over the top. In our tests, text quality was very detailed and legible down to our hardest two-point test, but we did notice that the text was a little grey compared to the jet black produced by other lasers. Pages work out at 2.11p per A4 side if you buy regular-sized toners (£35.24), falling to 1.81p per page if you buy the high-capacity (£46.99) version. Bear in mind that the drum must be replaced every 12,000 pages, this adds 0.51p per page. The standard toner costs are low, but the high-capacity toner and drum (£61.10) costs are expensive compared to the slightly dearer Dell 1720dn. All prices are including Vat. The 250-page paper tray is generous, but costs have been cut by Brother, with just four LEDs, instead of an LCD, to diagnose problems. Otherwise this is a good value printer if you intend to print thousands of pages, but perhaps not tens of thousands, per year.
