New Brother laser printers

Brother today introduced a sub-$1000 color laser printer for small businesses: the new HL-2700CN offers print speeds of up to 31ppm in monochrome and up to 8ppm in color in a 27% smaller footprint than its predecessor. Brother also introduced its new USB-based HL-5100 Series Laser Printers, which replace, offering faster print speeds, more standard memory, standard duplex printing on three of the four models, and optional wireless printing. Prices start $230 for the new printers, which are expected next month.

The HL-2700N utilizes high-yield replacement toner cartridges (10,000 pages for black, 6,600 pages for color). Other features include built-in networking, and a one-year limited on-site warranty. It includes 64MB of standard memory (upgradeable to 576MB), offers a 250-sheet letter size paper tray, and features a variety of emulations, including PCL 6, BR-Script3 (PostScript 3), IBM Proprinter, Epson FX, and HP-GL. It ships standard with a built-in 10/100 BaseT Ethernet print server and a range of network management tools, including an embedded Web-server; it also supports IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) as well as Apple's zero configuration networking technology, "Rendezvous". Expansion options include a duplex unit; increased paper capacity (780 sheets) via a lower paper tray; and file/font storage via a CompactFlash slot. The $900 printer is expected to ship later this month.






21ppm Desktop Laser Printers for home, office





The new HL-5100 Series Laser Printer line replaces the existing HL-5000 Series printers. Each model offers a print speed of up to 21ppm --4 ppm faster than the models they replace. In addition, the units boast a first-page out speed of less than 10 seconds. They also offer improved paper handling, automatic built-in duplex printing (except the entry HL-5140 model). The entry-level HL-5140 now comes standard with 16MB of memory--double its predecessor--and matches the memory configuration of the HL-5150D and HL-5150DLT. The network-ready HL-5170DN comes with 32MB. The memory is expandable up to 144MB on all models except the HL-5170DN (maximum of 160MB).



Along with their faster print speeds, these new printers will also utilize new larger capacity standard and high-yield toner cartridges. The new standard yield toner cartridge (TN-540) offers a page capacity of up to 3,500, and the new the high-yield toner cartridge (TN-570) offers a page capacity of up to 6,700. Brother says that this is a 200-page increase for each of the cartridges. The new DR-510 drum unit is rated at up to 20,000 pages. PCL 6 emulation is standard on all four printers; BR-Script 3 (PostScript 3 emulation), IBM Proprinter and Epson FX emulations is standard for the top three configurations.



The HL-5100 Series includes standard USB 2.0 and Parallel interfaces. An optional external 10/100 BaseT Ethernet print server is available for the HL-5140, HL-5150D, and HL-5150DLT, while the network-ready HL-5170DN comes standard with an internal 10/100 BaseT Ethernet print server. In addition, Brother has an optional 802.11b wireless print server to enable wireless connectivity. The NC-2200w print server will be available in the second quarter of 2004.



The HL-5140, HL-5150D, HL-5150DLT, and HL-5170DN will have estimated street prices of $230, $300, $350 and $450, respectively. They are expected to ship next month.

by MacNN Staff