| Brother is renowned for its laser printers and | | | | HL-2170W is its wireless interface. Although the |
| personal printing devices, and made a name for | | | | wireless can be a bit of a pain to set up since |
| itself in the early '90s with its innovative | | | | there is no printed documentation available, you |
| multifunction devices, as well as its creative and | | | | can enjoy the freedom of letting other desktops |
| quirky ads. Brother's single purpose devices have | | | | with wireless cards and laptops to print from a |
| also found a niche in the market, including its | | | | distance after you have successfully set the |
| HL-2170W laser printer. | | | | printer up. The printer also works reasonably well |
| The Brother HL-2170W looks like an appliance that | | | | with Apple computers also and the setup difficulty |
| belongs in your kitchen from afar, but it is actually | | | | can be significantly reduced if you have a router |
| a laser printer with wireless and wired network | | | | that supports SecureEasySetup. |
| interfaces for better flexibility in usage. Going back | | | | There are a few minor annoyances in addition to |
| to the design, its sleek look makes it ideal for | | | | the lack of printed documentation and noise is one |
| small rooms and can conveniently be placed on | | | | of them. If you are in an office environment that |
| any office desk. | | | | isn't very noisy, expect this laser printer to do all |
| As a laser printer, it has the usual advantages: | | | | the noise for you. |
| Low cost per printed page (we're seeing it at | | | | Cons on this printer include some oddities in |
| about 7 to 8 cents a page, versus 25 cents per | | | | network configuration, and a driver that makes |
| page for an inkjet), and it's a pretty fast printer - | | | | duplex printing (printing on both sides of the sheet |
| getting 23 pages per minute on straight text, and | | | | of paper) troublesome. All that said, the price is |
| about 7 pages per minute with graphics. It comes | | | | hard to beat - it's about $120 at list price, and |
| with 32 MB of RAM built in, which explains a good | | | | regularly goes on sale with instant discounts of |
| chunk of the speed. | | | | $40 to $50. Given that wireless connectivity |
| In the paper support category, the options | | | | usually adds $30 to the cost of a printer, this is a |
| available are just enough for businesses to make | | | | bargain indeed. |
| the most out of the Brother HL-2170W. It is | | | | While it's got a mix of benefits, the primary role |
| capable of holding 250 sheets of either letter or | | | | of the HL-2170W is that it's a good plain text |
| legal size and is also capable of printing on | | | | printer with reasonably priced toner cartridges and |
| envelopes and letterheads using the bypass | | | | blazing speed for its size. It's compact, will fit |
| feeder. The toner which is loaded conveniently in | | | | nicely in a dorm room and permits wireless |
| the front to keep yourself clean can print around | | | | access. The price and low cost of ownership are |
| 1,000 pages which is basically up to par with the | | | | its main benefits, with the drawbacks being noise |
| other bigger machines out there. | | | | and graphics printing. |
| One of the fantastic features about the Brother | | | | |