Buyers Guide > Laser Printers > What to look for

Lasers - what to look for.

What is a Laser Printer?

Laser Printers are peripherals that use a series of mirrors and lenses to "apply" the text or image onto an internal revolving drum. This application is accomplished by changing the electrical polarity of the drum's surface in the appropriate places. Toner, which is electrically charged with the opposite polarity of the image on the drum, is then applied to the drum and adheres in the designated pattern. Paper heated to a precise temperature is then sent past the drum, which applies the toner to the page.

How to choose a Laser Printer

Your choice of printer depends on: the kind of work you expect to do; what you plan to print; how many users your printer needs to accommodate; how fast you need your printer to be; how much it will cost to keep your printer equipped with toner; the range and cost of accessories; and how much you're willing to pay.

1. Printing Technology
a) When is Laser recommended?
b) When is Colour Laser recommended?
2.Colour capabilities
3.Pantone Colour Matching
4.General considerations
a) Print resolution
b) Toner configuration
c) Print speed
d) Expandability
e) Cost per page
f) Paper handling
g) Memory
h) Ease of use and maintenance
i) Processor speed
j) Printer driver compatibility
k) Network ready
5. Additional things to look for in a network printer
a ) User-friendly bundled management software

1. Printing Technology

Laser Printer is recommended if:

If you have a high volume printing requirement (100 or more pages per week) or frequently produce multiple copies of the same document. Laser printers are still much faster than other printing technologies. The cost per page will also be less for laser toner than you will for other conventional printing methods.
For true business applications and documents where presentation and accuracy is paramount. Laser printers still produce sharper images, and they're less prone to banding and smearing.
The Brother Mono Laser Printer models are: HL-1430, HL-5040, HL-5050, HL-5070N, HL-1850, HL-1870N, HL-7050, HL-7050N

Colour Laser Printer is recommended if:

If you have a high volume printing requirement (100 or more pages per week Black/White) or produce Colour copies of same documents. Colour Laser printers are still much faster than Inkjet printing. The cost per page will also be less for laser toner than you will for inkjet printing methods.
For true business applications and documents where presentation, colour graphics and accuracy is paramount. Colour Laser printers still produce sharper images, and they're less prone to banding and smearing.
The Brother Colour Laser Printer models are: HL2600CN, HL3450CN

2. Colour capabilities
Each Colour Laser Printer has the capabilities to print 16.7 million colours from the 4 toner cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). With optional RIP software the printer can also be used to print colour proofs before going to an image setter.

3. Pantone Colour Matching
Each Pantone colour has a particular pantone number. For example, the Brother logo is Pantone colour number 2728C. When you select a particular Pantone colour number from your software application, this number will be represented in the same way across all products that are Pantone calibrated. For example, a Brother laser printer will print the same level of blue of Pantone number 2728C that a more expensive colour would print. So in theory Pantone calibration ensures that your documents will be printed in the same way across all platforms.
However, each printer manufacturer uses different engine technology for their products. These different technologies determine what the colours look like on a page. So it is possible that a pantone colour printed on one machine can look slightly different to a Pantone number printed on another. This means that you must be careful when using a Pantone calibrated product. For example, if you are designing a colour brochure in a software application such as Adobe Illustrator and your Brother printer is being used to proof the brochure before it is professionally printed, you must be careful that the colours you use in the brochure are not optimised for your Brother printer as this will mean that when you print the document professionally, the colours you see will look slightly different to the pages that you saw when you printed the same file on a Brother printer.

General considerations

a) Print resolution
This is the quality of output of the printed page. Generally a 600 dpi laser printers is recommended for general everyday business applications. The higher the dpi the better text and graphics quality. This is recommended for important documentation.
Brother mono laser printers offer 600dpi up to 2400*dpi class printing resolution with up to 2400 dpi class printing for the colour lasers models: HL-2600CN and HL-3450CN.
* subject to model
b) Toner configuration
Low running costs. In consideration of costs users should also consider the running costs. There are many considerations, which include:
Here the yield is the key factor; a higher price doesn't always mean higher capacity. It's important when reading manufacturers' estimates for toner cartridge life that you check what the percentage coverage of the page that's quoted. Also, check if there is any toner-saving function - this can save money if you're only printing draft copies.
The drum should be separate from the toner cartridge. This prevents the problem of throwing away a still usable drum when the toner is exhausted. Most Brother models have the toner separate to the drum. For the HL-2600CN and HL-3450CN all colour toners (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black) are all separate.
Toner age yields @5% coverage for A4 on Brother long-life toners vary from up to 6000 pages for the HL-1430, up to 6500 for the HL-5040, HL-5050, HL-5070N, HL-1850/ HL-1870N; up to 12,000 pages for the HL-7050. The HL-2600CN's black toner yield @ 5% coverage is up to 12,000 pages with colour being 7,200 pages/colour and HL-3450CN's is up to 14,000 pages for black and up to 8,500 pages for each colour. This ensures the frequency of toner replacement is greatly reduced. Also all printers can print in draft mode.
c) Print speed
This is often measured in "Pages Per Minute" or (PPM) print speed. If you're using a printer in an office environment with multiple users or have a heavy printing requirement a faster print speed is required. Please note printing graphics depends more on the time it takes to produce the first page than how long it takes to provide additional copies of the same page.
Brother offers a range of printers to suit any users need. Ranging from up to 14ppm for models: up to HL-1430, up to 16ppm for models: HL-5040, HL-5050, HL-5070N, up to 18ppm for models: HL-1850/ 1870N; up to 28ppm for the HL-7050/7050N up to 24ppm for Models HL-2600CN/HL-3450CN
d) Expandability
For example, if your printer handles only 250 sheets of paper, you'll waste valuable time reloading paper bins. Look for:

Additional bins and trays, increasing the paper capacity. Brother additional paper supply capabilities as previously mentioned.
Sorting bins for separating print jobs; and other finishing options.
Brother HL-1850/1870N has built in Duplexing unit; HL7050/7050N has as options 2 mailbox, Duplexing unit and a stabilising unit; The HL-2600CN has an optional duplex unit and the HL-3450CN has an optional duplex unit and an A4 size paper tray.
Resizable envelope feeders and support for larger paper sizes.
All Brother printers can handle various laser compatible media (bond paper, transparencies, envelopes) and a variety of sizes of paper.
Network ready. Does it have an option to be networked, so as you can send prints from your computer
Expandable Memory. Can it be upgradeable to more RAM? This will enable the machine to store more information in memory for large print jobs.

e) Cost per page
Cost per page is the overall operating cost to produce that one page including machine purchase price, toner and paper.
f) Paper handling
This is the how many pages the printer can hold - its paper capacity. If you print large sized or many documents at the one time, look for a printer that can hold many sheets of paper. This reduces the time spent refilling paper. Also, ensure that the machine can handle a range of paper sizes, and media.

Brother printers paper capacity using conventional 80gsm office paper are; up to 250 pages for the HL-1430, HL-1440; up to 500 pages for the HL-5040/5050/5070N, HL-1450/1470N, up to 600 pages for the HL-1850/1870N and up to 2100 pages for the HL-2460, HL-7050/7050N; up to 750 pages for the HL-2600N and up to 1250 pages for the HL-3450CN.

g) Memory
Because a page printer stores an entire page before printing, it needs a considerable amount of internal memory. The more memory your printer has, the faster your computer will be freed to process other tasks. At the very least, make sure your printer comes with enough memory to produce an entire page of graphics at its top resolution. Another considerations include the printer's memory expandability
The Brother model standard and optimal memory sizes are as follows: HL-1430-4MB; HL-1440 -2MB (up to 36MB); HL-5040 - 8MB (up to 136MB), HL-5050/ 5070N - 16MB (up to 144MB); HL-1850-16MB (up to 144MB); HL-1870N-32MB (up to 144MB); HL-2460 - 16MB (up to 272MB); HL-7050 - 32MB (up to 288MB); HL-7050N - 64MB (up to 288MB); HL-2600CN - 64MB (Up to 384MB) and HL-3450CN 64MB (up to 384MB).

h) Ease of use and maintenance
Small companies who don't employ system administrators or IT support personnel the ease of maintenance is vital. The main issue here will be how easy it is to change the toner and other consumablesAll Brother printers have easy front-loading toner and drum cartridges. Added to this there is a dedicated 24-7 day a week support through the Brother solutions.brother.com website which offers online technical guidance on printer maintenance and trouble shooting. Additionally, we also have a help desk service to answer all your enquiries which are not in your manual or on our website.

i) Processor speed
A slow processor can cause a backup at the printer and decrease productivity.The processor for the HL-1430is the Fujitsu MB86833 66MHz; HL-5040/5050/5070N is the Fujitsu SparcLite 133MHz; HL-1850/1870N is the Fujitsu MB86834 100MHz; HL-2460 is the Toshiba TMPR4955 200MHz; HL-7050/7050N is the Toshiba TMPR4955 266MHz; HL-2600CN and HL-3450CN processor speed is MIPS TMPR4955 266MHz.

j) Printer driver compatibility
The printer driver can contain features that add significantly to the ease of use and flexibility of the printer and compatibility to existing or latest software and hardware.
Most Brother models are compatible with both Windows® and Mac. Operating system compatibilities for various models are below: HL-5040.5050/5070N: Windows® 95/98(SE) /Me/NT4.0/2000/XP or Mac OS 8.51or higher; HL-1850/1870N: Windows® 95/98(SE) /Me/NT4.0/2000/XP or Mac OS 8.51 or higher; HL-7050/7050N,HL-2460: Windows® 95/98(SE) /Me/NT4.0/2000/XP or Mac OS 8.6 or higher; HL-2600CN/HL-3450CN: PCL driver for Windows 95/98(SE) /Me/NT4.0/2000 and XP, BR-Script 3 (PPD file) for Windows 95/98/ Me, NT4.0/2000 and XP) Mac OS 8.6 or higher.

k) Network ready
If you have more than five people in your company, it's advisable that you don't network a printer by attaching it using a parallel cable to one of the networked computers. Simply because a printing bottleneck is caused by the low data transfer rate between the PC and printer over a parallel cable. It is advised to buy a printer that can attach directly to the network using a network interface card or an external print server. This makes printing faster, but the added advantage is that these printers usually have additional network utilities supplied that make them easier to manage.
All Brother models printers are networkable. Models that have Network as standard are: HL-5070N, HL-1870N, HL-7050N, HL-2600CN and HL-3450CN.

5. Additional things to look for in a network printer
To address the needs of a workgroup, the network laser printer differs from the personal laser in more than just size and speed. The network printer must have a faster processor and a substantial amount of memory so that it can process complex documents quickly and manage a constant queue of print jobs from multiple users. Workgroup printers often have extensive paper handling options, such as duplex printing, sorting, and stapling. A good network printer is also expandable, able to accept extra memory or another input tray as needed.
a) User-friendly bundled management software
Typically, an IT department handles printer configuration and setup. However for everyday printing tasks, each user should be able to control basic functions through easy-to-use software drivers. Tasks such as choosing a paper tray or flushing a job out of the queue. The easier the software is for end users, the less likely you are to encounter time-wasting problems.Brother offers the BRAdmin Professional or Web Based Management for all printers that are user friendly and allow printing tasks to be easily managed in remote areas via the web.