Brother HL5250 is BEST IN CLASS!

I inherited my first laser printer many years ago, and haven’t looked back. After years of wresting with paper jams and other issues with my HP 5L, I decided to upgrade to a new Samsung ML-1210. Another 5 years and 10k pages later, I’ve upgraded again to my latest printer the Brother HL-5250DN.

When I finally decided to retire the Samsung, I made a quick list of my ‘demands’ for a new printer.

- B&W Laser (no color needed).
- Duplex is a MUST (I print manuals, and double-siding manually is getting old!).
- Paper Trays are a MUST (keeps the dust out and has a lower risk for ‘pickup issues’).
- Speed is a plus (the Samsung is a bit on the slow side).
- Network Connected is a plus (spoiled by my photo printer).
- CHEAP (what can I say?).

On the Hunt

With requirements in hand, I started by hitting the major manufacturers for lasers that I could think of. My three primary targets were HP, Samsung, and Brother. I’ve used their products before and have been extremely pleased.

Samsung and HP were eliminated fairly quickly. Much to my surprise, I couldn’t find a single laser printer with duplex capability! In the case of HP, the laser units were just too expensive for my tastes. Both manufactures make great products, but neither hit the mark for me. Off to Brother I went!

HL-5250DN: Features Galore!

When I reviewed Brother’s site, I found the Holy Grail of printers I had been searching for. The HL-5250DN delivered on every want/need I had on my list, and had plenty more features to boot! The basic feature breakdown for the printer is as follows:

- B/W Laser Printer
- 32MB Memory Standard (expandable to 512MB)
- Standard Paper Capacity of 250 sheets
- Multipurpose Tray Capacity of 50 sheets
- 30 Pages Per Minute (WHOA!)
- Supports up to 1200x1200 dpi
- Includes one TN550 Standard Yield Toner Cartridge (3,500 pages)
- Includes one DR520 Drum Unit (25,000 pages)
- Duplex Printing Ready (not optional, it’s INCLUDED!)
- Network Ready (not optional, it’s INCLUDED!)
- Connections via 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet, Parallel, or Hi-Speed USB 2.0
- Supports Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
- Monthly Duty Cycle (max) of 20,000 pages
- 1 Year Limited Warranty from Brother
- First Time to Print in less than 8.5 seconds (i.e. from sleep to printing)
- Unit Dimensions (WxDxH) are 14.6" x 15.1" x 9.7"
- Unit Weight is 21.6 lbs.

In addition, the following additional features (and supplies) are available

- LT5300 Optional Lower Paper Tray with 250 sheet capacity (you can add up to 2)
- TN550 Toner Cartridge (3,500 pages @ 5%)
- TN580 High Yield Toner Cartridge (7,000 pages @ 5%)
- DR520 Drum Unit (25,000 pages)

In all, those are some pretty impressive options for such an affordable laser printer.

Huh? Was that English?

Let’s be honest here… Many people out there have trouble interpreting all this gibberish, and for good reason. It’s darn confusing at times! So, let’s cover some basics for what you should consider if you’re on the hunt for a new printer (HL-5250DN or not)!

Why does my printer have memory? Why would I expand it?

In this case, the printer includes 32MB of memory on-board. When you print documents, they are sent over to the printer for printing. The memory is used as temporary storage buffer for the document. Most people won’t really care about this, as 32MB is plenty for them. However, if you’re printing large complex documents you may need to expand the memory. This is especially true in a business setting with many clients.

30 Pages Per Minute? Is that fast?

Pages Per Minute (ppm) is a measure of how fast your printer will print documents. In this case, we’re talking 30 ppm, also knows as a page every TWO seconds. That’s pretty fast indeed, especially for an inexpensive printer! If you print documents with MANY pages, you’ll understand the benefit here.

Imagine printing a 300 page document… At 30ppm, you’d expect a completed print in about 10 minutes. Now imagine a printer at 10ppm. Would you rather wait 10 minutes, or 30 minutes to get your printout? Exactly!

1200x1200 DPI? What?

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. This equates to how many dots of ‘toner’ are found in a square inch on a document. Without getting too technical, the higher the number the better. Higher DPI gives you smoother prints and much nicer prints. With that said, most prints at 300 and 600 DPI will make most people happy!

What is Duplex Printing?

Duplex printing is the ability to print on BOTH SIDES of the paper automatically. In some cases, you can manually flip the pages and get the same result… However, having the printer do it for you is even easier! If you print manuals or other long documents, duplex is a wonderful feature!

What is Network Ready?

Network ready simply means you can connect the printer directly to the network. Network printing allows you to share your printer across many PCs directly over the network. If you have multiple computers in your home or office, this is a great feature. Don’t worry though, most printers also support USB, Parallel, and other applicable interfaces.

It’s been 6 months or so… What is your experience so far?

To be honest, I’ve been extremely pleased with this unit so far. I just printed my ‘Print Settings’ pages and looked at the data. See for yourself! In 2708 pages printed, I’ve not had a single paper jam to deal with. The data is accurate too, as I’ve not had to deal with one yet. Not a single issue to date!

- 2708 Pages printed to date
- 1832 Pages printed from Tray 1
- 859 Pages printed from Duplex (i.e. duplexed pages)
- 17 Pages printed from Multipurpose Tray
- 0 Paper Jams

Prints come out clear as can be at 600 DPI (my current ‘default’ setting). The black is black, and the grays are nice and smooth! The paper comes out smooth every time and doesn’t have the noticeable curl some printers tend to produce.

The duplex and network functionality is awesome! Duplexing is as simple as selecting it (within print properties) and clicking PRINT. Networking is easy as well. Just plug it in and run the driver CD. I have 5 separate systems printing in no time (XP, XP, Vista, Linux, and Mac OS 10).

Is there anything else I should know about?

If I had any warnings for those of you looking at this printer, it would be noise and power! The printer specs quote about 53 Db or so while running, which most decibel meters compare to ‘normal conversation’. While this isn’t bad, it’s not great in some situations (imagine trying to talk on the phone while someone is talking in your ear). So while it’s not loud, it can be distracting while printing!

The second warning was power… When the printer comes out of sleep mode, standby consumption jumps from 9W to 80W of power. This is enough to flicker a light bulb, so be warned. The other issue is from standby to running. This increases power consumption to 610W and can guarantee some flickers.

In my case, I get flickers from the lights in both standby and operating modes. To make things even more interesting, I even get a ‘beep’ from my UPS every once and a while when the printer ‘warms up’ to print. I guess the printer is drawing just enough power to make the UPS see a ‘low’ on the line. Either way, they are minor nuisances and don’t really bother me. You get used to it :-).

In Conclusion

In conclusion, I think this product is a top performer in its class. Comparable HP printers were 100’s more, and other vendors (Samsung) couldn’t even compete with the feature set (mainly duplex). The Brother is a top performer and will likely make your short list!