Brother HL-2170W - Review

The Brother HL-2170W is a printer that is simply designed well. It maintains a low profile (literally) so that it takes up very little desk space, and it has a sturdy, removable paper tray for easy loading. And that’s just the plastic parts; inside, the engineers over at Brother have managed to cram an impressive number of features into a petite package. For one thing, the HL-2710W boasts a resolution of up to 2,400 x 600dpi. It also has 32MB of RAM,  supports Windows, Linux, and Mac OSes, and is a breeze to set up and install. And perhaps most appealing is that it’s ready for a wired network .

Brother HL-2170W

What sets this printer apart, however, is that it features Wi-Fi. With Wi-Fi capabilities, not only can you add the HL-2170W to your network, you can print wirelessly to it from a Wi-Fi capable device. A number of wireless security protocols are supported, including WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). And the cherry on top of the convenience cake is that you can configure the machine with a number of one-touch technologies including SecureEasySetup, AOSS (AirStation One Touch Secure System), and Wi-Fi Protected Setup-capable routers.

Brother HL-2170W
The HL-2170W isn’t slow by any means, but it’s not setting any speed records, either. It makes up ground on longer jobs, though—a 10-page test document clocked in at 33.5 seconds. The print quality, although technically at a high resolution, isn’t as impressive as the other printers in this roundup. However, text prints are still crisp, gray-scale images are moderately smooth, and blacks are fairly deep.
The HL-2170W doesn’t have the bestquality prints or blazing speed, but because of its ease of use,  impressive networking features, and low price—only $149.99—it’s definitely a printer that will meet your home or small office needs.

Specifications

Print Technology:        B/W Laser Technology
Max. Black Print Speed     23ppm Black
Print Resolution (maximum dpi)     HQ1200 (up to 2400 x 600 dpi)
Standard Paper Capacity (sheets):     250-Sheet Input Capacity
Optional Paper Capacity (sheets):     No
Multi-purpose Tray Capacity:     Single-sheet manual bypass slot
Standard Interface(s):     Wireless 802.11b/g, 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet, USB
Printer Driver Compatibility†     Windows®, Mac OS® & Linux
Emulation(s):     PCL6
Max. Monthly Duty Cycle:     10,000 pages
Recommended Monthly Print Volume:     250 to 2,000 pages
First Time to Print     Less than 10 sec.
Standard Memory (MB)     32MB Memory
Optional Memory (MB):     No
Network-Ready     Yes

Speed (Mono)   : Up to 24 ppm in A4 (25 ppm in Letter)
Resolution     : Up to 1,200 x 1200 dpi effective output
Emulation      : PostScript3, PCL6

Input Capacity and Types : 250-sheet Multi Purpose Tray, 1-sheet Manual Tray
OS Compatibility         : Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/(32/64bit)/2003 Server/ Vista, Various Linux OS including Red Hat 8~9, Fedora Core 1~3 Mandrake 9.2~10.1 and SuSE 8.2~9.2,Mac OS 8.6~9.2/10.1~10.4

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