Brother HL-2270DW Laser Printer

The Brother HL-2270 laser printer offers a lot of the conveniences of heavier-duty Brother laser printers such as the Brother HL-5370DW, such as wireless networking and built-in duplexing--and it's about a hundred dollars cheaper. Where the 5370DW has a few extra perks such as a 50-sheet bypass tray (where the 2270DW has only a single-sheet bypass tray), the cheaper printer easily competes with its more expensive cousin and is highly recommended.

Inkjet printers, beware--laser printer prices are now firmly in your territory. Case in point: the Brother HL-2270DW laser printer, which is at the high end of Brother's new 2000 line of printers (which itself is at the low end of Brother's laser-printer line). The HL-2270DW retails for only about $150.

Naturally, all things are not equal with inkjet printers. First of all, the HL-2270DW is a monochrome printer, so if you're looking to print photos or colorful graphics, look elsewhere. But if your printing needs are text-only and you're concerned with keeping the price per page low, then this printer might be my first stop.

A quick note about how the 2270DW is different from the rest of the 2000 line. Entry-level units like the 2140 and the 2240 have USB connectivity only. The 2170W and 2270DW both add wireless connectivity, with the latter offering built-in duplex printing as well; both units are about $30 more than the basic models.

For the price, I like the 2270DW a lot, and found it an excellent laser printer. First pages took roughly 15 seconds to come out when the printer was idle for a while, but once it started, it was very fast; at normal quality, it averaged three seconds per page. Switching to duplex printing didn't affect the print times very much, adding only a few seconds to the whole print job. Having a built-in duplexer is a great way to save money on paper; and if you're looking for more money-saving ideas, take advantage of the printer's Toner Save mode, which works like Draft mode and saves toner. Of course you won't want to use that when you're printing something important, but for normal jobs, it's a great way to extend the life of your toner cartridge. The printer can accept both regular and high-capacity toner cartridges--roughly $48 and $65 respectively, offering print yields from 1,200 pages for the regular cartridge to 2,600 pages for the high-capacity cartridge.

Print results and fonts were excellent even at very tiny font sizes. Wireless networking was easy to set up and performed flawlessly. The printer also has a fairly small footprint--about 14.5" x 14.2" x 7.2" and only 15 pounds. The manual feed slot accepts only a single sheet at a time; if you use thicker media (up to 43 lbs bond), paper exits at the rear of the printer.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.