Most of our reviews till now have been of all – in – one or multifunction printers. Those types of printers, however, are most suited for heavy users and larger businesses, even though some of them are classed as suitable for SMEs. For many of you, the printers we’ve been reviewing till now may seem a little too top-heavy and, hence, even financially demanding. If you don’t want all the bells and whistles and only need a printer that can perform the absolute basic function admirably, then the Brother HL3150 CDN may just be the best option for you.
The Brother HL3150 CDN is an entry level laser printer that is actually designed for Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) setups. One thing you have to realise with entry level printers is that cost matters to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). When they design these entry level printers, their objective is to reduce the cost of the machine as much as possible so as to make it accessible to consumers who don’t want to spend so much. Therefore, these types of machines rarely have luxury features and almost always exhibit the OEM’s efforts at cost cutting.
However, Brother HL3150 CDN isn’t the absolute basic machine that our explanation above may have you think. It has one very beneficial luxury feature and it manages to save the consumer money as well. Consider.
Strengths of Brother HL3150CDN
You can’t talk about the strengths of an entry level laser class printer without talking about its costing benefits. The Brother HL3150 CDN is an extremely good option if cost is a major factor for you. Regardless of where you look in the retail sector i.e. online or offline, you’ll find this printer to be quite affordable. This affordability comes in the form of the initial cost as well as the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
We won’t talk about the initial cost because that varies from one place to another but we will say that it is typically quite a bit below the $200 mark. With respect to the running cost of this machine, you’ll most probably be paying something in the range of 29 cents per print with genuine cartridges. However, if you choose generic cartridges from Inkjet Wholesale, which offer the same level of quality, you’ll probably get a print for around 21.5 cents or even lower.
At those costs you’ll get considerable print speed too. Within its class, the Brother HL3150 CDN is one of the faster printers in the market. This could be a major boon not to those who need high volume printing, although that is true, but to those who work demanding hours and don’t have a lot of spare time.
This printer will give you prints at a speed of around 12.2 pages per minute (ppm). A large reason for this speed is the LED technology that this machine is based around. LED basically replaces laser in this printer which improves its printing speed as well as its durability and energy efficiency. Now, we come to the luxury feature of auto duplexing. Unlike many of its class competitors, the Brother HL3150 CDN actually comes standard with the auto duplexing feature. This can be a major boon if you plan on doing a lot of double sided printing in the future because you won’t have to turn the pages manually. More importantly, though, convenient two sided printing will help you save even more money in the long run.
Weaknesses of Brother HL3150CDN
When you try to cut corners to make a machine more economical for the consumer, some aspects are bound to suffer. Invariably, with all entry class printers, it is the output quality that suffers. The same is true with the Brother HL3150 CDN which produces poor image and graphic prints. You’re going to see vertical banding and horizontal striations, even though mild, in all your graphics and image prints. So, you better be prepared for that.
Furthermore, if you print some of your photos, you’ll immediately see that the colour palette is light. This will make people in your photos look very sickly. But then again, the Brother HL3150 CDN isn’t meant to print photos so it’s all good especially if you consider that it produces excellent text prints. Another flaw you may find in this printer that will be a result of cost cutting is its display.
While the bigger, grander, and more elaborate printing machines possess high quality and huge touchscreens, this printer only has a 16 character, one line LCD display system. As a result of this limited display field, you’ll have to really slog through the menu, if you want to use it directly.
There’s a minor gripe that people have with this printer that Brother should probably look at fixing. You should be aware of this before you purchase this model. This is the fact that if one of the cartridges is out of toner, then the Brother HL3150 CDN refuses to print. This can be very frustrating especially if you’re in a hurry. Why Brother did this, though, we have no idea.
Key Features of Brother HL3150CDN
Since the Brother HL3150 CDN is meant to be used by SOHO setups, the OEM couldn’t have built it to be huge. It had to make it compact which is managed to do quite accomplishedly. The Brother HL3150 CDN measures 410mm x 465mm x 240mm. While compact and small, it isn’t exactly portable because it weighs a hefty 18.4 kg. Part of the reason for this is that the materials used in the manufacturing of this printer are durable which gives this machine solid build quality.
Consider that this is an entry class printer; its paper capacity is quite good. At any point in time, you can insert a 250 sheet paper cassette into this printer. This is supplemented by a single sheet manual feed tray which you can use for more challenging types of paper such as glossy sheets and even envelopes. There is also a 100 sheet output tray which can be very helpful if you’re printing in bulk.
The memory capacity of 64MB is sufficient for an entry level printer. You shouldn’t expect any issues while setting up this printer since the process is very simple. The Brother HL3150 CDN offers multiple connectivity options such as USB, Ethernet, and even Wi-Fi. Mobile printing is also something you can look forward to when buying the Brother HL3150 CDN.
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