Brother HL-2280DW Review: Basic Laser Printer With Bonus Scanner

Brother calls its HL-2280DW a monochrome laser printer with "convenience copying and coloration scanning abilities," though producers of the handful of likewise configured versions phone the units multifunction printers. (In all these types, the scanner collects coloration information but can not print in coloration other than on a coloration printer.) No matter it's, it sells for the very low price tag of $200 (as of May 24, 2011), which means that a little office may very well be ready to tolerate its above-average toner costs--especially soon after factoring in its valuable added functions.

The HL-2280DW supports USB, ethernet, and wireless connectivity. The straightforward control panel features a two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD plus a handful of labeled buttons. The CD-based installation is nicely documented and progresses extremely efficiently.

Paper handling contains automated duplexing (two-sided printing); a considerably bendy 250-sheet input tray; as well as a entrance manual-feed slot, discreetly concealed powering a shiny brand panel. The 100-sheet input tray lurks inside a little, darkish hole beneath the scanner unit. The letter/A4-size colour scanner has a telescoping lid. It is possible to scan to your Laptop or copy with all the usual assortment of scaling and layout features. A Duplex button about the entrance control panel walks you thru two-sided copying by means of LCD prompts.

The HL-2280DW done adequately within our assessments. Linked to a Computer, it printed monochrome pages that consisted largely of text at a subpar charge of fifteen.6 pages for each minute, plus a little, easy photograph at a middling 4.9 ppm. Mac speeds had been in regards to the same: fifteen.four ppm for monochrome text, and an above-average 8.two ppm for four pages of combined text and graphics in PDF format. Graphics high quality was somewhat rough and grainy, but appropriate.

You flip open up a entrance panel to succeed in the printer's consumables. The toner and drum factors are separable, but you should remove them jointly, employing a manage that might be less difficult to locate if it have been a coloration apart from black. A green (thank you) lever releases the toner from your drum. As being the drum lasts a good deal lengthier than the toner cartridges do, needing to drag out the drum whenever you want to replace the toner is relatively frustrating.

Toner expenses are about the pricey side. The HL-2280DW ships having a 700-page starter cartridge of black toner. The standard-size alternative expenditures $38 and lasts for 1200 pages, which functions out into a substantial 3.two cents per web page. High-yield black toner cartridges expense $55 every and final for 2600 pages, for a higher-than-average 2.one cents per web page. The $81 drum unit, when replaced right after about 12,000 pages of use, will include much less than a penny to every in the up coming twelve,000 pages.

On the other hand, the likewise priced, printer-only HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn--though faster--has a good higher cost per page and isn't going to toss inside a scanner as being a consolation prize. No matter whether you think about it an MFP or not, the Brother HL-2280DW is a far better offer if its slower print speeds never bother you.