Brother HL-5040

Excellent – The majority of people really don't print that much in colour. Using ink-jet printers is a serious waste of money long term if you really only need black and white. Because of this, this printer may have a comparitively high purchase price, but the cost per sheet is way lower than an ink-jet printer. A test in a recent computer magazine rated the cost at around 4cents a page.

The printer is versatile, with USB and Parrallel interfaces, although only the USB cabel was included in the box. The simulated 1200 x 600 dpi graphics print returns some remarkable results, and the text is crisp and clear.

If you're in the market for a new printer, ditch the ink-jet cartridge rip-off, get a quality home/small office laser Quiet

Fast, almost no warm-up time

Inexpensive to operate

Large paper drawer (1 standard ream) Initial purchase price might deter some poeple

No print server (LAN) support standard

Heavy

Good – Used Brother equipment before. Always well built and utterly reliable. If Brother marketed itselvfs better, it would be a serious contender against the likes of HP and Canon. An easy printer to own and use. Very good print results. Highly recommended. Excellent quality build. Excellent print quality results. Great as a home office printer. Very reasonably priced with the manufacturer's rebate. Boots quickly, prints quickly and quietly. Comprehensive software reporting and diagnostics.

Works very well with a 3rd party print server (Netgear) via parallel port. USB also available.

Holds a complete ream of paper.

Attractive design. The only negative would possibly be that it's a tad bulky.