Brother HL-2270DW review

Brother’s new mono laser range aims to cover all the bases. It starts with the HL-2240’s 250-sheet tray and 24ppm claimed speed, then adds a duplexer for the HL-2240D, networking and a speed boost for the HL-2250DN, and wireless to all that for this, the flagship HL-2270DW.

The HL-2270DW claims a 26ppm speed, and our tests weren’t far off that. Processing time for standard prints was consistent at around five seconds and we timed it at 24ppm across a variety of Office files, with more complex PDFs varying between 20ppm and 25ppm. Upping the quality to maximum for our mono quality test pages saw an A4 picture arrive in around six seconds, but with twice the processing time. There’s also a duplex unit, which prints at around 11pm.

All this measures up well against the competition. The Samsung ML-2525 is more in line with the basic Brother HL-2240 in price, and it managed around 22ppm in most tests. Quality-wise, we prefer the Brother: text is solid and sharp, with no grain or mottling. It isn’t perfect with images, however, with detailed shots looking quite poor at 600dpi, although at 1,200dpi things were better.

We also like the fact that the HL-2270DW includes a full 1,200-page toner cartridge, which gives it a 200-page advantage over the Samsung out of the box. The high-capacity cartridge at 2,600 pages also gives the Brother the edge.

Running costs are stiff, with these high-yield cartridges currently set at £70 inc VAT each. But this is early Brother pricing and we expect it to fall at retail. Provided that happens, the HL-2270WD looks extremely good value for a busy home office.