Our last review was also for a Brother printer. However, it was for a much more advanced device than the one we’re looking to review today. The object that gets our attention here is a proper entry-level device that should be ideal for businesses that have simplistic needs and requirements.
The Brother HL-L2350DW is a device that has a basic feature set that should suffice for most printing busy home offices or printing-light small offices. Of course, there is always the option of assigning this device to a small workgroup in a larger office as well.
As you can expect from an entry-level device, the HL-L2350DW delivers on two things. It helps keep things economical while successfully serving what it was built for. It is this combination of economy and functionality that will make the Brother HL-L2350DW attractive to entry-level single function device seekers. Here is our review.
Strengths of Brother HL-L2350DW
As we’ve already mentioned, the biggest strength of the Brother HL-L2350DW is its cost. Being an entry-level device, it is very affordable to buy.
In fact, if you shop around enough, you can probably get this device at under $100. This is no mean feat for a device that has the qualities that this one does.
Shopping around is important because the listed price of this device is $135.
You need to look for bargain deals and we recommend the internet for that. You can always try our “lowest price promise” offer as well. The trick is to find the lowest price on the internet and challenge us with it. If our pricing for this device is higher than what you’ve found, we’ll lower it immediately. It’s a win-win for you.
There are lots of printers on the market that are this cheap. So, what makes the Brother HL-L2350DW special? It’s a number of things including output quality, paper handling capacity, print speed, and even automatic duplexing.
A monochrome laser printer isn’t worth a cent if it can’t print text properly. As a matter of fact, most monochrome lasers print text well. This is why the Brother HL-L2350DW stands out. It prints excellent monochrome documents with the text being easily legible even at the lowest of font sizes.
On top of this, this device’s graphics output quality is also decent, something that its competitors can’t really claim with a clear conscience. However, like all monochrome devices, the HL-L2350DW suffers in photo prints. In terms of specifications, the Brother HL-L2350DW is rated to print at a maximum resolution of 2400 x 600 dots per inch (dpi).
Paper handling capacity is also a quality of the HL-L2350DW. For an entry-level device, it has a total paper handling capacity that is higher than most of the competition. This machine can hold up to 250 sheets at one go with a monthly duty cycle range of 250 to 2,000 pages. Along with this, you’ll also get a manual bypass tray with a capacity of one sheet.
Not only will this device be able to handle so many sheets but it will not keep you waiting if you decide to go all out with your printing. The print speed of the HL-L2350DW is in the upper range of the accepted spectrum for this class. It prints at a speed of 30 pages per minute (ppm). Finally, the Brother HL-L2350DW possesses something that you won’t find very common in this market segment – automatic duplexing. Automatic duplexing means printing on both sides of the sheet and results in paper cost savings.
Weaknesses of Brother HL-L2350DW
If the acquisition cost of the Brother HL-L2350DW is something special, its running costs aren’t but that is the norm in the industry. All printers that are cheap to buy aren’t really cheap to run.
The HL-L2350DW has running costs that are slightly on the higher side too.
However, you need to remember that running costs only come into play when you print a large number of sheets on a regular basis.
Therefore, if you actually hit that 2,000 sheets mark on a monthly basis, then you can expect ballooning printing costs to cripple your business. On the other hand, if you don’t print in high volumes then this machine’s running costs shouldn’t trouble.
The running costs, though, will vary. It will depend on what is the source of your cartridges. We won’t talk about refilled cartridges but we will include genuine and generic options. Using genuine or cartridges produced by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) will see you spend just shy of 6 cents (5.96) for every page you print. In contrast, using generic or compatible aftermarket cartridges will see this per-page cost drop to 5.42 cents.
Running costs won’t trouble you if you print a lot. What may trouble some businesses, though, is the absence of the Ethernet connectivity option. There is no Ethernet port, so you can’t really drop this device onto your network with a LAN cable. If you want it on your network, you’ll have to use the wireless connectivity option.
This shouldn’t be a problem unless your business has security concerns. Even then, with the right adjustments, wireless connections can be secured as well. The other connectivity option is USB 2.0. While the connectivity options are limited, mobile compatibility is sound. The device supports mobile platforms such as Mopria, Apple Air Print, Google Cloud Print and the OEM’s own Brother iPrint&Scan.
Key Features of Brother HL-L2350DW
Believe it or not, the Brother HL-L2350DW is fairly compact. You don’t expect this from business class devices but it is true with this one. It measures 183mm high, 360mm deep, and 356mm wide, which makes it flat and squat. Effectively, it can be placed on a desk. You won’t even need a strong desk because this device isn’t as heavy as some. It weighs only about 7.2 Kg and that is when the consumables are installed.
Inside, the Brother HL-L2350DW is powered by a 600 MHz processor and a 64MB RAM. These components combine to give this device its print speed as well as its boot speed. Resultantly, from the point you give the print command, you’ll have to wait about 8.5 seconds to get your document provided the printer is in the ‘Ready’ mode. Furthermore, if the printer is in the ‘Sleep’ mode, you’ll have to wait for a maximum of 17.5 seconds to receive your document.
Even though the Brother HL-L2350DW is an entry-level device, it boasts of a control panel comprising multiple buttons and a 16-character, one-line LCD screen. The buttons in the control panel are ‘Go’, ‘Power’, ‘Wi-Fi’, ‘Back’, ‘OK’, ‘Plus’, and ‘Minus’. The HL-L2350DW comes with the standard 12-month Return-to-Base warranty.
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