Brother calls its HL-2280DW a monochrome laser printer with "convenience copying and coloration scanning abilities," although suppliers of the handful of likewise configured models get in touch with the models multifunction printers. (In all this kind of types, the scanner collects shade information but can't print in colour except on the color printer.) No matter what it truly is, it sells for your low price tag of $200 (as of May 24, 2011), which means that a tiny business office might be able to tolerate its above-average toner costs--especially following factoring in its useful additional characteristics.
The HL-2280DW supports USB, ethernet, and wireless connectivity. The easy management panel includes a two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD as well as a handful of labeled buttons. The CD-based installation is nicely documented and progresses really smoothly.
Paper managing includes automatic duplexing (two-sided printing); a somewhat bendy 250-sheet input tray; along with a front manual-feed slot, discreetly hidden behind a shiny logo panel. The 100-sheet input tray lurks in a small, dark hole beneath the scanner unit. The letter/A4-size coloration scanner incorporates a telescoping lid. You are able to scan for your Personal computer or copy together with the common assortment of scaling and layout capabilities. A Duplex button to the front handle panel walks you through two-sided copying by way of LCD prompts.
The HL-2280DW carried out adequately within our assessments. Connected to a Computer, it printed monochrome pages that consisted mostly of text at a subpar fee of 15.6 pages per moment, and a modest, basic photo at a middling four.nine ppm. Mac speeds were about the exact same: fifteen.4 ppm for monochrome text, and an above-average 8.two ppm for four pages of mixed text and graphics in PDF format. Graphics high quality was slightly tough and grainy, but appropriate.
You flip open a front panel to achieve the printer's consumables. The toner and drum components are separable, however you ought to get rid of them with each other, using a take care of that will be less difficult to seek out if it have been a coloration apart from black. A green (thanks) lever releases the toner through the drum. As being the drum lasts a great deal more time than the toner cartridges do, having to drag out the drum each and every time you would like to switch the toner is relatively irritating.
Toner expenses are to the high-priced facet. The HL-2280DW ships with a 700-page starter cartridge of black toner. The standard-size substitute charges $38 and lasts for 1200 pages, which operates out to some substantial 3.2 cents per page. High-yield black toner cartridges expense $55 every and previous for 2600 pages, to get a higher-than-average 2.1 cents per web page. The $81 drum unit, when replaced soon after about 12,000 pages of use, will include lower than a penny to every single with the following twelve,000 pages.
To the other hand, the equally priced, printer-only HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn--though faster--has an even greater cost per page and does not throw in a scanner being a consolation prize. Regardless of whether you think about it an MFP or not, the Brother HL-2280DW is actually a far better offer if its slower print speeds do not bother you.
