Basic laser printer but with built-in ethernet
Written: Jun 28 '07
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Pros: Great text quality, very fast, inexpensive, networking capable!
Cons: Consumes lots of power when printing, manual feeding is cumbersome, feels light and cheap.
The Bottom Line: Perfect for home and small home office use. Easy to use and has several advanced features for power users. Great text and very speedy.
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| alanp's Full Review: Brother HL-2070N Laser Printer |
First of all, I'm pretty surprised that I'm the first one to review this printer on epinions. It seems to be a very popular printer.
I've always wanted a laser printer for printing out text documents, and since our inkjet was dying, my research led me to this. Obviously this printer isn't color like our inkjet, but since we also have a little color photo printer, forgoing color was acceptable. Anyway, back to the review....
So what drew me to this printer? 2 main things:
1) PRICE! Only $90
2) Built-in networking capabilities
But, before going into the features and quality of this printer, let me break down some specs real fast.
- 20ppm text
- 16MB memory
- Supports PCL
- Very small footprint for a laser printer roughly 14"x14" base
- Included starter toner is good for 1500 pages
- Included drum is good for 12000 pages
- Has standby and sleep modes (more on this later)
- Parallel, USB and Ethernet (10/100) connector
- Supports duplexing, but it is manual
- Manual document feeding slot
- Web based management when using Ethernet connection
- 250 sheet paper tray
Networking
First, my pride and joy feature of this printer! The networking capability was a must for me since we have 4 different computers running at home, and one is a Mac. The networking capability lets me connect the printing directly to my router via ethernet cable so any computer on the network can print to it. This is much better than connecting the printer to a computer and then sharing it over the network because the computer that is hosting the printer has to be on all the time!
Also the web management interface, while primitive looking, can do quite a bit. You can of course set the printer to static or dhcp ip address, change the toner save mode, change the sleep timeout time, and much much more. Other features that I, or the common user, would probably never use even include SNMP notifications, e-mail notification, FTP uploading of documents, emulation of HP/Epson printers, and more. Quite an extensive feature set for such a small basic printer. Oh and one last pointer for network configuration, the printer defaults to DHCP so you can find out its ip address either 1) from your router if it displays all connected devices or 2) pressing the Print/Go button 3 times and it will print out all sorts of info about the printer including the current ip address.
If you are using the web interface for network configuration, you will not need to install the included configuration software which allows you to configure the printer via a windows program. And if you aren't using the network interface, there is even less of a reason to install the included software. I have not tried the USB or Parallel connections, but I assume that would be just as easy, if not easier to setup. Overall, it took me only 10 minutes to setup everything and start printing over the network. Windows and Mac setup were equally easy. But just to note, I have done IT for a living in the past so I have prior experience setting up printers on a network.
Power modes
There are actually 3 levels of power usage, Printing, Standby, and Sleep. Printing is when the printing is up and running and printing stuff. This draws A LOT of power, the lights in the room flicker a little bit when the printer warms up in thise mode. It is also a bit on the loud side (for such a small device) when printing, but this is pretty inconsequential, unless you have the printer sitting next to your baby's crib or something! Standy mode is when the printer finishes printing and is waiting for a new job so the fan is on and still makes a bit of noise. This supposedly consumes much less power, but I still get an occasional light flickering even in this mode. Then there's sleep mode. If the printer is left in standby for the configured time, it basically shuts off by itself. The fan turns off and it is silent. It uses very little power in this mode. When receiving a print job while in sleep mode, it takes the printer less than 10 sec to warm up and finish the print, it's still very speedy.
Print Quality, Speed and Paper
Compared to an inkjet, man, this printer is fast! Compared to the laser printers at work (full size HP office printers) this printer holds it's own. I haven't timed it, but the 20ppm advertised can't be too far off. Keep in mind, this is only for text. The quality is sharp, as expected out of a laser printer, for the average user, this is perfect, there is definitely no disappointment here. The paper curls a little when it comes out, but it uncurls almost completely if left on a flat surface afterwards. It's not an issue for me. I haven't printed graphics out with this printer, but like I said, I have a separate dedicated photo printer for stuff like that. I have not tried manual feeding stuff into the printer, but from the looks of it, it might be a bit cumbersome because there is no tray to rest the paper on, you have to hold the paper until the printer starts sucking it in. Conversely, the 250 sheet paper tray is a great touch. For a printer this size, I was very happy that it came with a tray. Some other lasers I saw had an external paper tray/stand, making it look like a typewriter paper feeding mechanism. With the paper tray, you can keep paper out of sight and better out of the reach of dust build up.
Toner and maintenance costs
Obviously I can't comment too much about replacement toner or toner life because I just got the printer not too long ago. What I can say is that I did look up some replacement toner prices and they were pretty reasonable, around $40 or so. This is cheaper than most other laser printers I've seen. HOWEVER, unlike a lot of other laser printers, the drum is sold separately. Luckily, the drum can last up to 12000 pages, so who knows when I'll have to replace that with the amount of printing I do. In any case though, unfortunately, the drum prices a higher, about $90.
Conclusion
Ok, for less than $100, you can't go wrong with this printer. Even if it were a little more, you can't go wrong. The build quality seems a bit light and flimsy, but if you don't move it around and bang it up much, I don't see it posing a problem. It performs more than sufficiently for a home or small home office setup. If you aren't out for color prints and want laser speed and quality, this printer will suit you perfectly, especially if you want built-in networking capabilities.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 90
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
alanp
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Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 0 members
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