Four Entry-Level Monochrome Laser Printers, Reviewed

[Guest]

We take entry-level monochrome laser printers from Brother, Dell, HP, and Xerox in an attempt to identify which one is the best option for your home office or small business. We test performance and evaluate features in our quest to crown a winner.

Four Entry-Level Monochrome Laser Printers, Reviewed : Read more

 

[blackmagnum]

Perfect timing for the office upgrade. These laser printers definitely offer better printout/ price ratio compared to ink jets.

 

[phate1337]

Hey, I recommend you try and get your hands on a low end Kyocera desktop printer. as an engineer that has worked on many many brands of printers, scanners and photocopiers, the most reliable by far has to be Kyocera for desktop A4 Mono printers.

 

[cypeq]

For regular desktop printing (that's their goal) any would do, they all well... print, your only guideline should be prints per month, if you want proper durability of device.

 

[Achoo22]

The Dell sometimes goes on sale - I've seen it drop well below $100 in the past, including free shipping. I've used lots of devices from Brother in the past, and their drivers tend to be among the worst in the business in terms of stability and OS support. When Windows 9/Ubuntu Next/Plan9/whatever comes out, don't be shocked if you're without print services for a while. Being able to hold a whole ream of paper at once is pretty awesome, though, and means an awful lot more in practice than shaving a few seconds off of a print job.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Would be nice if you'd posted the toner cartridge sizes and costs, too. Many budget lasers come with cartridges only in the ~700 page range, which is better than an inkjet but still relatively small.

 

[XGrabMyY]

My favorite entry level laser printer is by far the 2270DW by Brother. I can buy 6000 page yield cartridges for about 12.50USD, and they last for that long. It is unreal how much value you get for a 90-120USD printer (I spent about 90 to a 100 for each of my two) and they duplex and have wireless printing - super easy to setup AND Brother even supports Windows 8/8.1 RT. You really can't ask for anything better!

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

As a sysadmin with dozens of Ubuntu systems under control, the choice is easy. HP, because it's the only thing that's decently supported (And use 3rd party cartridges to avoid being ripped off by HP)

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Printing works fine on both my Brother and HP network printers, on Ubuntu and Windows. Never had driver issues with either.

 

[bloody llama]

The article doesn't mention anything about longevity or ease of repair on these printers. I understand that it is somewhat outside the scope of a simple review, but my experience with laser printers has lead me to believe that the brother printers last much longer and are much easier to repair over the long haul. Try letting an office of real estate agents abuse one for a decade and that gets real important.

 

[vaughn2k]

In the Philippines, we have this Brother Printer HL-1110 (http://welcome.brother.com/ph-en/products-services/printers/hl-1110.tab1.html), costs U$67.0 and can print 21ppm.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

No networking and manual duplexing only. I'd give it a miss.

 

[ram1009]

Try Samsung.

 

[Onus]

I've had a Brother 2070N for 7-8 years. Although I'm not sure I've printed more than 2K-3K sheets in all that time, I'm still on the original cartridge. It has been trouble-free otherwise. It sleeps peacefully most of the time, but wakes right up when I or my wife print to it over our LAN.

 

[The original Derfman]

This article is missing the one thing I would like to know in my budget printing needs. Cost over time. Please, next time you do printer reviews... add this.

 

[Sername]

Don't know if you've noticed the Dell and Xerox have identical looking driver graphical interfaces. Most likely both are rebranded Samsungs.

 

[Onus]

HP has made it to my personal "Do Not Buy" list. They have forgotten that they are first and foremost a printer company. In my managed work environment, the HP Universal [Failure] drivers are constantly being stepped on, and must be manually deleted and reloaded each time. I choose not to contend with that sort of driver nonsense on my own time too.

 

[The Black Laser]

I recently purchased a Brother HL-2280DW, which is a wireless multifunction laser printer and I couldn't be happier. Plus, it was like 100 bucks. Total no brainer.

 

[odoketa]

I have the Brother 5250DN, which is basically an older version of this printer, with a wired connection. It's been a solid workhorse for five years now.

 

[gypsydan]

I finding you did not mention. I understand Brother does not allow you to refill their toner cartridges. Do the other mfg's allow cartridge refills? I HAD used Brother for years, but no longer.

 

[Onus]

Although I haven't used it yet, I bought a Rosewill toner for my HL-2070N, and I might have paid $47 for it. For the initial cartridge to have lasted through half a dozen reams seems pretty good to me.

 

[dennisburke]

I just picked up the Dell B1160w for $66 at Amazon. The printers in this review are good for people who do a lot of medium to high end printing, but there are a lot of Monochrome laser printers that come in under $125 that are good for folks who don't do a lot of printing. This article would have been better titled "Medium-Level...".

 

[jeremymcdev]

I have a bunch of Brother 5250dn's at work with several million prints a piece and have never had a single issue. Just occasional maintenance such as replacing a drum every million or so prints.

 

[5teelspy]

I'm always disappointed when brands like Ricoh and Okidata are routinely omitted from these reviews. $ per page would be a welcome data point as well.

 

[Onus]

I agree, Dennis. The entry level I'd say are the sub-$110 or even sub-$100 models. I wonder if they found the cheapest printer HP sells and used that as their price point...
The criteria used to get on this list would be useful information.