First Look: Brother’s 19ppm Laser Printers

Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com

Brother International Corporation introduced its 19 page per minute HL-1850 and HL-1870N office laser printers, replacement models for the company’s HL-1600 series. The new models retain the line’s standard built-in automatic duplex printing, the 3-color LCD user control panels, and sleek form.

According to Brother, duplex printing is a cost-effective means for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. This may make the process of producing in-house manuals, booklets and multi-page documents simple, and significantly reduce paper consumption and operating costs.

Another distinguishing feature now standard on many Brother printers is the 3-color backlit LCD display. The LCD glows green, amber or red with a text message that indicates ready status, set-up status, or if user intervention is required.

The HL-1850 and HL-1870N each come with 16MB & 32MB memories respectively, up to 3 pages per minute faster print speed, and a 33% increase in monthly duty cycle over their predecessors. They also use Brother’s HQ1200 print technology (2400×600 dpi), which should allow them to produce high quality output at fast print speeds.

The HL-1850 and HL-1870N are designed to be fully compatible with PC and Mac environments. They come with parallel and USB connectivity standard and include the drivers for Windows 98/98Se/95/ME/NT 4.0/2000 and a USB driver for iMac iBook/G3/G4/. Postscript Level 3 compatibility (BR-Script3) is also standard for both PC and Mac platforms, and users now have the option of printing Postscript via USB for both platforms as well.

A number of additional features are also available for Brother’s new office laser printers including:

– 10/100 BaseT Ethernet Print Server (standard on HL-1870N).

– Additional 250-sheet paper capacity.

– IrDA interface for wireless printing.

– 136 Postscript 3 font upgrade package.

Availability and Pricing
The HL-1850 and the HL-1870N will have estimated street prices of $549 and $699 respectively. The products are currently shipping to customers.

Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing addresses the technology needs of small businesses, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees and/or less than $7 million in annual sales.

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