INK & TONER
Brother HL-2140 Review
 
Editor's Review
Brother HL-2140 by Erik Lynch 08/22/2010 OVERVIEW: The Brother HL-2140 is a monochrome laser printing device that offers buyers an affordable option for fast, fairly high quality printing. Its interesting design and color scheme makes it more aesthetically pleasing than many of its boxy competition printers, and Brother backs it with their very comprehensive warranty plan, making it a great purchase for the cautious buyer.
Editor's Pros & Cons
PROS: Printing at the advertised print speed of up to 23 pages per minute, the Brother HL-2140 slightly outperforms many of the rivals in this particular print category. Though small, personal laser printers often have a high cost per page when compared to their inkjet counterparts, this Brother comes at a low initial cost.
The device's paper managing capabilities are simple and effective, and consist of a single 250 sheet standard paper tray along with a single sheet bypass slot for special media types. When utilizing the single sheet slot, a straight through paper path allows for all sorts of media including envelopes, transparencies, and card stock.
With a print resolution of up to 2400 x 600 dots per inch, documents and black and white imagery will come out truly looking their best. Included user friendly animated tutorials are included with the unit, and ensure a particularly easy setup and install process, making the printer perfect for the novice technical user.
Driver compatibility includes Windows based systems, along with Macintosh and LINUX. The only emulation included is GDI, which makes the printer less ideal for certain office type emulation setups. First time to print is perfectly acceptable for a unit of the Brother HL-2140's caliber, and runs at 10 seconds or less. This, along with the fairly rapid print speed, ensures that waiting time will be minimal, even when dealing with single page prints which can often take long periods of time to spool up on less versatile inkjet units. CONS: Though the Brother HL-2140 comes at an affordable price, its no fringe approach makes it incapable of multifunctional tasks, such as scanning or copying. It also carries no resident fonts and has no LCD display. The processing speed, though sufficient, is still limited at 181 MHz. Standard memory included with the device is a measly 8 MBs, and there is no memory expansion option of any kind, flash or SDRAM alike.
This unit's maximum monthly duty cycle leaves something to be desired. With a recommended page out of only 250 sheets up to 2,000 sheets, hardcore industrial level printing is out of the question. The unit does, however, offer a 10,000 page true maximum monthly duty, making the occasional overuse possible, and within warranty conditions.
INK/TONER NEEDS:
The consumables of the Brother HL-2140 consist of a 12,000 page capacity drum unit and a 2,600 page toner cartridge. With only 2,600 pages available, a business that requires heavy use of the printer will have to deal with frequent toner swaps and maintenance. For low volume print demands, such as household use, a small yield cartridge should be fitting, though expensive. 
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