While All-in-One printers have become increasingly popular at a time when budgets have been slashed in the 'credit crunch' environment, there's still a huge number of small to medium sized businesses, as well as home consumers, who demand nothing more than a fast and efficient mono printer to handle day-to-day high volume document printing.

Brother has already responded to this market admirably with its highly popular HL-21xx and HL-52xx series which were solid, compact models that produced good quality text at a satisfying rate. The latest HL-5300 series (five models in total) ranges in price from £179 to £279 (plus VAT) and builds on the successful foundations of its predecessors.

The HL-5380DN is near the top of the range (the superior HL-5350DNLT just adds a lower tray) and has the advantage of being network enabled. Unfortunately there's no wireless network option so you'll have to connect via the Ethernet cable, but unusually there's a parallel cable connection which will enable you to link up to older computer systems, as well as a standard USB 2.0 port.

This machine is designed to be unassuming and to sit relatively quietly in the corner and get on with the job. It's a squat, rectangular shape (486 x 500 x 455mm), weighing a comfortable 9.5kg and styled in soothing shades of grey so as to blend in with the rest of the office furniture. The front-loading input tray holds 250 sheets of A4 and you're supplied with the high yield, 8,000-page toner cartridge which slots simply and easily into the front panel.

Once the driver is installed, you can either organise your print commands through the PC or via the pillar-box style LCD screen. In terms of print speed, Brother claims speeds of up to 30ppm and usually most manufacturers' claims are significantly above reality.

Astonishingly, we managed to record 31ppm at the lowest text setting and 24ppm at the highest (1200 x 1200dpi) and the print quality was barely distinguishable. Further savings will be had from the fact that all of this range now has duplex printing as standard so you can literally halve your paper usage, plus Power Save and Toner Save options will reduce energy and print costs.

The supplied installation disk has compatible drivers for Windows Vista, Mac and Linux users, the printer supports SSL encryption for secure printing and you can add watermarks to your documents either with predefined text or with your own messages.

Verdict
Yet another in Brother's efficient succession of mono laser printers that unassumingly gets on with the job of swiftly and effectively producing high quality documents, now with the added bonus of duplex as standard.

Company: Brother

Contact: 0845 6060626

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